The other lords immediately roared out, but then grew surprised when Ryuk turned to them in quiet confusion.
"Why? Is it that surprising?" he asked, as if startled by their uproars.
"You just accused Lord Asgard of such a grievous—" Lord Valkhar began, but Lord Asgard raised his hand, silencing him.
But Ryuk still picked it up.
"So you still think an infant being sliced to pieces is a grievous crime, huh? And here I thought all of you had gone insane," he mused quietly, turning to Lord Asgard, who replied:
"And why would you think that?"
"Because to me, it’s the quickest way."
"Let Knull get rid of one of their anomalies while he’s still an infant, and only an infant will die instead of billions."
"In essence, you’re certainly giving one life away to save a potential billion, all without personally staining your own hands with blood."
"Who but a fool would say no to such a thing?" he said, resuming his playing with the ball.
"But what you did not consider is the kid’s chance of survival. And now, what you feared came to pass."
"In a way, you are also one of those who destroyed the Knulls."
"Perhaps, if you had stopped that ploy from happening, the boy would never have walked to each of the Calamities, taking back what they stole from him."
"He would never have had to kill the millions of Knulls who turned their blades to him simply because he is their lord’s foe."
"And the Ancient Elders wouldn’t have died trying to take revenge for what he destroyed."
Ryuk spoke, and silence reigned in the void as many of the lords fell into quiet contemplation.
"So if you really were aware of the plot but did nothing to stop it, something I can confidently bet an arm that you did, then all of this can simply be said to be karma finding its way back to you, don’t you think so, Lord Asgard?"
He turned to look into those golden eyes, which stared back at him silently.
That silence was enough of an answer.
He indeed knew about the ploy, and he had refused to step in because, in a way, it helped get rid of one of his headaches.
"You’re right." Lord Asgard confirmed himself.
"Guess I don’t need to sacrifice an arm then," Ryuk mused.
"I am more surprised that you’re not angry at that. Such a discovery, in my records of you, should have been enough to send you on a massacre spree."
"Is it because you cannot summon much strength, so you rein in your anger?" Lord Asgard asked as Ryuk silently returned to his seat.
"Look at me, do I look like I’m reigning down anything?" Ryuk asked, the lords furrowing their eyebrows.
No. He was calm.
Too calm.
Almost like one who had given up on everything.
"You’re right, though. Such a thing would have normally made me furious. But for some reason, I find it hard to muster any anger at all."
"I must be getting old," he muttered to himself with creased brows.
One of the lords snorted.
"That’s ridiculous. You’re barely a century old."
"I’m curious about one thing still," Ryuk said, turning to Lord Asgard.
"And what is that?"
"Your mission. It aligns too well with the mission of the three supreme races."
He continued,
"I’ve heard many times now that the Three Supreme Races, due to their power, have taken it upon themselves to maintain order in this universe."
"And now, here you are, the E.A.R., with the main goal of maintaining order."
"It makes me curious... is the E.A.R. actually the creation of the Three Supreme Races?"
Silence fell.
"You know, if it is, many things would make much more sense."
"And what do you mean by many things?" Lord Asgard asked.
"Like Theth’Vorgath," Ryuk replied.
"You say it’s disastrous to wait for anomalies to destroy before you kill them. But then I think of Theth’Vorgath."
"How many worlds has Theth’Vorgath destroyed?"
"How many lives has he slaughtered to gain the name ’Knull of Carnage’?"
"He probably unleashed more chaos during his time than half the entire anomalies combined, yet somehow... he still lives."
"Somehow, he wasn’t ’killed for the sake of peace and order.’"
"I’ve heard from Knull that Theth’Vorgath is like an amusing ant, a celebrity, so to speak, to the Three Supreme Races."
"So it makes sense why they wouldn’t want you to kill him."
Ryuk explained, disbelief filling the eyes of the lords.
"The same is true for Knull, too. The absolute mastermind."
"He controls Theth’Vorgath like a puppet, ordering him on which worlds to destroy."
"Verily, that is enough for him to be marked as some SSS-level chaotic being, yet he’s also kept alive."
"I learned he is even given god-tools and artifacts from the Hallowryms, meaning he is most likely rubbing shoulders with the Three Supreme Races."
"And mysteriously, he’s still alive and kicking."
If the E.A.R. was founded by the Three Supreme Races, it makes sense that you cannot kill those they favor.
"So... you work for them, don’t you?" he asked, watching the crippling silence.
The lords’ minds right now were swirling in disbelief.
The question was:
How?
How could he have pieced so much together just from the simple questions he asked?
It was insane.
"You’re much smarter than I thought," Lord Asgard said, his expression very serious.
The kid before him was piecing things together too fast. It was becoming alarming.
"Safe to say that’s a yes."
"So what’s all that grand talk of maintaining order and peace if you’ll turn a blind eye based on some people’s orders?" Ryuk asked, as Lord Asgard replied:
"It doesn’t erase the fact that there are still beings out there creating chaos, and we’re still battling against the majority of those forces."
"Are you saying we should ignore all of that just because we can’t deal with Theth’Vorgath and Knull?"
"Ignore billions dying because of a few we can’t control?"
"Besides, we don’t owe this to anyone, do we?"
"All those we protect don’t even know we exist, yet we secretly protect them from evils that could have destroyed them."
"The fact that we can’t control two or three beings doesn’t erase that, does it?"
"Then why speak to me about responsibilities?"