"Your words sound similar to praises," Ryuk noted, slowly rising to his feet.
"It is well deserved," Lord Asgard replied, as all seven watched him walk over to the ball containing those shining golden lights.
"So these are the anomaly lights?" Ryuk asked, his hand gently spinning the ball.
"Yes, they are."
Lord Asgard replied as Ryuk silently swiped the ball.
There were a lot of golden lights, and each of these correlated to the number of anomalies that existed out there.
"And each of those lights you see, Ryuk, constitutes about 70% of the chaos that happens in this universe," Lord Asgard added.
A glint crossed Ryuk’s eyes on the mention of that.
"If you aim to maintain order in the universe, it makes more sense that you would choose to look over each of them." He mused quietly
Though the scale was universal, Ryuk could simulate something much smaller.
He could imagine a jungle where 70% of the beasts were responsible for the chaos within.
If he wanted to maintain order, then naturally, keeping an eye on those 70 was one of the quickest ways to resolve the problem.
"There are a lot," he mused beneath his breath, though it still rang clear within the void.
"Yes." Lord Asgard said, then added.
"That’s why some manage to slip out of radar, only appearing when their anomaly lights get brighter."
"You’re wrong," Ryuk said quietly, resulting in many of the other lords furrowing their eyebrows.
"90% of these lights are out of your radar, all shining the same."
"You don’t really focus on each light, do you? I mean, they’re in the hundreds of millions. You can’t really keep track of that much."
"So the better approach is to wait for their anomaly light to grow and become eye-catching amongst even other anomaly lights."
"Only then do you keep an eye on them or deploy forces.’
"How can something you’re not even watching slip out of your radar?" he mused to himself, though Lord Asgard’s hands raised silently, folding into each other.
"Interesting observation, and you’re actually right."
"There are indeed stages to anomaly lights from E to SSS."
"From which stage do you start to keep watch?" He asked.
"C," Lord Asgard replied, before continuing,
"Those at E and D can only cause so much damage. They’re usually not powerful enough to destroy a world, so they’re ignored."
"But those at the C level upward are watched."
He explained, and Ryuk paused for a while before asking:
"And at which grade do you deploy force to destroy them?"
Lord Asgard smiled.
"What do you see us as, destroyers?" he asked, though Ryuk’s expression remained neutral.
"You can correct me if I’m wrong."
"We don’t really destroy. If we did, we’d just be becoming what we’re trying to avoid," he explained.
"But there are indeed anomalies out there that just can’t be reasoned with, so they’re killed for the sake of peace and order."
"We also don’t have a stage to destroy."
"We have a stage to watch over them, which is C. And then a stage to send someone from the E.A.R. to them, which is A."
"You offer for them to join?" Ryuk asked as the Lord paused.
"That’s actually correct. We offer them to join us. They possess enough power and qualification for that after all, and we help quell their chaos while further boosting the power of the EAR."
"A win-win situation, don’t you think?" he asked.
"Maybe it is. But what if they take one look at your face and don’t like it? What do you do then?" Ryuk asked, raising his head to look directly at Lord Asgard, who remained silent.
"You destro... actually, I take that back. You ’kill them for the sake of peace and order,’ right?" he asked, using the exact term he had spoken earlier.
"Great power comes with great responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is using your power to protect those lesser in power."
"This is the core of the E.A.R."
"If you disagree, you’re trying to avoid responsibility, making yourself a walking time bomb whose single mistake can lead to the erasure of many poor lives, the lives that are your responsibility to protect."
"There’s no more fitting punishment for this than death."
"So yes, they’re killed for the sake of peace and order."
"The hands can kill, so cut them off, huh?" Ryuk asked.
"You’re trying to say we wait until they cause chaos before we kill them off?" he asked.
"That’s the logic, no?"
"It is logical only at your mundane scale," Lord Asgard replied.
"If you’ve seen the billions of lives that are lost simply because we wait for a chaotic being to commit a crime before we step in, you would never vouch for waiting that long."
"And a great example of that is you!" Lord Asgard said, pointing at him.
"How so?"
"After I sent those three, Seer, Finx, and Zayra, to bring you in, and they failed, what happened next?"
"The 6th, 5th, and 4th Calamities were destroyed along with millions of Knulls."
"And following after, you destroyed the 2nd, 3rd, and 1st, along with further millions of knulls, and killed off all the Knull Ancient Elders who kept the peace and order in the Knull race."
"Now an entire race has fallen into extinction, simply because I sent people to bring you in instead of sending people to get rid of you."
"If you had followed them like I wanted, the Knull race would still be alive. Billions of lives would have been preserved, and ultimately, order would have reigned."
"Now, there is nothing but chaos."
He finished, as Ryuk thought quietly, his eyes shifting here and there before they paused, and he smiled.
A deep smile of realization.
"Weren’t you the one who started it all, though?" he asked, as Lord Asgard paused.
"And what exactly are you trying to say by that?"
"You said when I was born, my anomaly light was already greater than most."
"Verily, you must have thought of something to either bring that light under your control or destroy it."
"You allowed for me to be severed into pieces, didn’t you, Lord Asgard?" He asked as gasps of shock reverberated through the hall.
"You were aware of the ploy, but you didn’t react to it, because in a way, it gets rid of what could most likely be a ticking bomb, doesn’t it?"
"HOW DARE YOU!"
"BLASPHEMOUS!