"Oh," she mused silently before saying,
"You know everyone’s talking about it now."
He turned to her.
"About the Knull’s disappearance."
"There’ve been news and reports of the Calamities being destroyed by someone unknown, and all of a sudden, the Knull Domain doesn’t exist anymore, and no Knull can be found."
"And you’re a Knull, if I remember correctly," she added, and he silently nodded.
"I never planned on reconciling with the Knulls, as I never saw them as family."
"The ones I did plan to reconcile with were the dragons, and I failed."
"Failed?" Asteralaxia asked, her brows creasing slightly before she breathed out a soft, thoughtful sound. "That’s a word I never thought could be associated with you."
Her musing made Ryuk’s heartbeat unconsciously quicken, but it settled quickly enough, and he grew amused.
"What am I to you? Some unfailing god?"
He asked, and she giggled.
"No, not really."
"At first, you were some dumb kid I planned to use to get out of the domain I was trapped in."
"And after you were another dumb kid with a dumb plan to save his world from destruction... and then a kid who might actually pull it off."
"Then finally, a young man who did."
She recalled each stage with a soft smile.
"You were the farthest thing from a god, but... You did seem like one in some ways."
"The only thing I think you will ever fail in, Ryuk, is something you haven’t thought out well enough, or something that simply isn’t worth it to you."
"I believe if it’s truly what you want, like reconciling with the dragons, then you will reconcile with them, no matter what it takes."
She turned fully to him as she said that.
His eyes were filled with doubt as he stared silently at the river.
Doubt in himself.
Doubt in what he was capable of.
"Even if they’re all maybe... dead?" he asked, only for his face to be gently turned toward her as he met her starlit eyes.
"Then I’m sure you’ll find a way to bring them back from the dead."
BADUUMP!
BADUUMP!
The sound of his heartbeat echoed clearly from his chest as a glint crossed his eyes.
Bring them back from the dead?
Ryuk knew he had been doing one thing wrong when he thought of the dragon, and that was hoping they were alive.
But Halowryita had captured them, and they had been labeled dead to the universe.
The logical action after that would have been their true erasure.
There was no reason for dragons to still exist.
No reason for any of them to have survived.
But now that he thought about it...
Even if they had gone extinct, couldn’t he bring them back to life?
He had done it before, like with Eravel, reversing the time of her death and bringing her back.
The repercussions from the Heavens had nearly destroyed him, yes...And that revival had only succeeded because he acted so quickly after she died.
But still...
That art, bringing someone back from death, he had only done it unconsciously.
What if he actually took the time to study it?
What if he truly mastered it?
What if one day he could bring anything or anyone back from death, blurring the line between life and the beyond?
’Did I really fail to reconcile with the dragons? Or... did I simply think them not worthy enough?’
’I told myself that it should be Theth’Vorgath who frees them, since they freed him, yet as much as I try to deny.’
’I know deep in my heart I chose this because of fear.’
’Fear of going through all the trouble of looking for the dragons myself, only for my worst nightmare to come true.’
’But I know, I really want to see her.’
’Even if it’s just once. I want to see what she looks like.
"Thank you," he said to Asteralaxia.
She smiled, withdrawing her hands from his face and hugging her arms around herself.
Silence continued for a while before she turned slightly, watching him stare into the distance.
"You’ve changed so much..." she whispered.
He turned to her.
"Have I? I mean, you’re the one with the purple hair and star eyes."
"That..." She called, pausing as her face grew flustered.
"That wasn’t even my fault. It was the Stellis manual I cultivate," she muttered, watching him stare at her flustered state with amusement.
"You know... in a way, I thought this change of mine would keep you away, or maybe make you not recognize me."
"I even tried dyeing it back to blue, but...that was just dumb."
She sighed.
And truthfully, Aster was very different now.
She used to be that lady with blue hair and blue eyes.
Now she had purple hair and star-filled eyes.
The only reason Ryuk adapted quickly to the change was that he had seen the portraits showing her slow transformation over the years.
Without those, recognizing her might have been difficult.
"Though it doesn’t seem to affect you that much, does it?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"No. Mostly thanks to those portraits of yours..."
It dawned on her instantly.
When she had entered the room, he had been holding one of her portraits.
A thought struck her, and her ears reddened again.
"How long were you awake in my room?" she asked.
"Not very long. Maybe less than three minutes before you walked in."
She visibly exhaled.
"And... how long have I been in your room?" he asked.
The red spread from her neck to her face as she buried her face in her hands.
"T-Two months..." she said, peeking through a small gap between her fingers at his expression.
It was pretty normal, though he now wore that annoyingly amused look... the same look someone gives a flustered child.
"What? I didn’t do anything weird!" she defended.
"Anything... weird?" he echoed, and Aster felt like throwing herself into the river.
"I’m surprised Lord Stella allowed you to keep me in your room," he suddenly said.
She paused, turning to him.
"Do you know her?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"No, I don’t. But if she could find me, she must know me."
"I get pretty destructive when I’m in slumber... but maybe she doesn’t know that."
"I actually do."
A voice echoed right after, and it wasn’t from Ryuk or Aster.