Abyss Draconis

Chapter 944: He Descends (II)

[Why, Ryuk?]

[Why did you do that!?]

The system blinked before Ryuk’s eyes as he floated within this realm.

A realm where everything seemed to move around him at unimaginable speed.

He watched a large celestial body explode, birthing galaxies with countless solar systems and planets.

He watched those planets revolve and revolve before they were extinguished one by one.

The stars faded off, the planets turned to debris, all of it happening within seconds, and the motion continued endlessly.

The only one beyond all this was Ryuk, seemingly at the center of this realm.

But his state was debilitating.

A slash had been carved through him from his right shoulder down to his left thigh, and the wound brimmed with abyssal energy that seemed to devour the remnant energy that remained in his body.

He had been sliced into three parts, and if he had only been flesh, he would have long been dead.

[You could have dodged the attack! You could have done something more than that.]

[Why did you use that art!? What was the purpose?]

The system blinked continuously, and Ryuk was well aware.

In that moment when Knull had attacked, he could have dodged.

He could have fought.

Yet he chose to use that forbidden art, leaving himself fully exposed to Knull’s blow.

“Why?”

Ryuk muttered, his voice drowned by the sounds of destruction and rebirth echoing all around him.

“It felt… like the only way.”

It was like those moments when he used a technique he had never tried before, yet somehow knew it was meant for that situation.

When he had seen the runes forming Knull’s existence, his body had moved instinctively, reaching toward him and activating that technique.

He had no idea what he had done, but his body did.

At that instant, something had told him that the only way to win against Knull was to use that art.

He had believed it would destroy Knull, yet Knull’s attack still reached him, sending him into this realm.

This realm where he could feel his existence fading away with every breath.

There was nothing he could do.

His soul had grown weary.

Too Weary from the endless battles, and Supressed pain.

He had already lost a part of his soul, his draconic form, killed by Knull.

His soul was incomplete to begin with, and now half of what remained was gone.

It had lost its power, leaving him more devastated than ever.

His eyelids grew heavier by the second.

He wanted to…sleep.

[Don’t.]

[Please, don’t.]

The system panel flashed again, but even that was blurry.

It all felt so… distant.

‘I want to… sleep.’

_______

“How!?”

The realization of the horror before him froze Knull in his tracks.

Gaze raised, he watched blood rain down on his figure, thick enough to stain his pitch-black form crimson, as he looked at the being descending upon him.

It was a devil.

A devil of crimson, not taller than seven meters.

Its body hung low, arms dangling around its knees, while the blood beneath its feet magically kept it upright.

“How… how did he escape imprisonment?” Knull muttered in disbelief.

Then it struck him.

The image flickered in his memory:

Ryuk touching his head and forcing a reversal of the runes.

“My Manifestation Runes… He reversed them and allowed Theth’Vorgath to break free!”

The runes carved upon Knull’s being were not ordinary.

They were existence runes, hidden behind the darkness that masked his form.

Punisher Lightning was a power that could erase any soul within reality, and Ryuk had harnessed that lightning through his Abyss Wrath form.

When Punisher Lightning struck Knull’s face, not even his darkness could resist the heavenly wrath.

It had peeled away, revealing the existence runes beneath.

Those runes were what made him Knull, like his own soul, but they also had one more function.

A lock.

They sealed away many things.

And when Knull had faced Theth’Vorgath in the last Knull-Dragon War, he had released all that he had previously sealed to have enough space to imprison Theth’Vorgath.

As long as those runes continued to spin, Theth’Vorgath would remain sealed in eternal slumber.

But Ryuk’s action, touching him and invoking that forbidden art, had reversed the runic laws, allowing Theth’vorgath to break free, and now the Knull of Carnage was before him.

Though crouched upon the ground slowly, the devil’s neck slowly rose, the sound of bones cracking filling the Void louder than even the descent of Punisher lightning.

His face raised, and then it opened its eyes.

They were Crimson red.

The purest of crimson, with a serpentine slit of deepest black at its center.

They burned with flames.

Flames of pitch-black and crimson red, and in the next moment, the Void suddenly turned scarlet, melting into rivers of blood.

“This…”

“Rage.”

It dawned on Knull, who watched those eyes roll, then focused on him.

“Knull…”

The word echoed through the Void, deeper than the darkest growl Knull had ever heard.

And in that instant, Knull made his choice.

Turning, he took a step forward, and a beam of darkness quickly pierced through the Void, leaving a scar across reality itself.

He had chosen to run.

CRACK.

CRACK.

The sound of bones breaking followed as Theth’Vorgath rose fully from his crouch, his claws extending to the sides.

The blood-sea beneath him surged like a storm, and from it rose an object,

A crimson scythe, a thousand meters long, its edge curved like the perfect crescent of a moon.

Theth’Vorgath raised his head, eyes locking on the fleeing light millions of kilometers away.

The sea of blood beneath him tilted backward, reality bending and cracking for thousands of kilometers around and forward even though he had yet to take a step.

Yet, just as his body leaned forward slightly, it suddenly paused.

The world froze with him, his crimson eyes snapping sideways, blazing with wrath,

All he saw was the shattered reality merged with another.

Theth’Vorgath’s massive claws unconsciously reached for his heart, and a growl echoed through the Void.

“Ryuk.”