"I’ll go for it..." Ryuk decided, the invitation card in his hands fading into the void, safely stored away in the shop space.
"I’ll attend her ceremony, but for now, I must get to the Planetary Port first..." he said, as the holographic device Antares had given him returned to his hands.
On it, he could see the beeping notification at the side, which he tapped on, watching the direction where the ship had traveled.
Just a moment later, his hands reached outward, swiping to the side.
A void vortex was instantly opened up, and he stepped into it, fading into thin air.
The Void returned to its eternal silence once more.
The sound of sniffing could be heard through the center control room, coming from a dark Void Panther, whose red nose wriggled.
Void sniffed and sniffed, his actions picked up by those around, and then his nose hit directly behind him.
He winced in pain when he felt the sting in his nose, but his irritated expression quickly faded when he saw who stood before him.
The voices all rang out in unison as he got to a knee, rubbing the panther beneath its jaw, leading to a soft purring sound.
"You’re back," a voice rang out from the side, as a faint cold aura surrounded the air around him.
He raised his head to the sight of her teary yet weary eyes.
But not for long did she stay in doubt, as he rose to her feet, swooping her into his embrace.
"I am, Isha..." he comforted, brushing her snow-white hair gently.
"You stayed back, and you were overly cautious."
"Why?" the voice rang out a while later, coming from none other than Rakshasa.
When he turned to look at them, he could see everyone in the room was just as curious.
"The Pirate Ship..." he began as they listened.
"A powerful entity has hijacked it."
"The alien pirates we fought are all under his command..." he said, drawing furrowed eyebrows, but then Antares asked:
"A powerful entity, you say? Is it something you felt we couldn’t handle?" Antares asked, drawing Ryuk’s knitted eyebrows.
"What do you mean?" he asked, as the barbarian opened his lips to respond, but the voice came faster.
"You said he was a powerful entity, and you seemed cautious of him."
"Was he powerful enough for you to think we couldn’t have dealt with him together, or do you think we would only be a drag if we faced him with you?" Rakshasa was the one who asked this, and Ryuk faintly understood their point.
Rakshasa was at the Apocrypha stage, the same as Antares, and yet he had asked them to leave.
They seemed to wonder why he would make such a request, and how powerful the being he had faced was, for him to require them to leave.
But then, a second thought occurred to him when he tried to reason with Rakshasa’s final words:
"Or do you think we will only be a drag if we face him with you..."
"I do not think any of you are a drag..." he said, highlighting the point.
"Then why did you ask us to leave when you felt the danger? Why didn’t you feel it wiser for us to stay and fight whatever it was together?" she asked.
"After all, it makes sense to me that two Apocrypha Sage beings in any situation would be an added advantage, no?" she finished, watching Ryuk, whose brows were faintly knitted.
Her points made sense.
They were both at the Apocrypha stage, yet he had asked them to leave.
If he had to face a powerful enemy, then having them on his side ought to have been an advantage.
It made no logical sense for him to have asked for them to leave.
’I never thought of them staying as a choice at all when that happened. I... I just wanted them to get as far away from the danger as they could... but that was a dumb choice.’
’Having them stay would have made things better...’
"That was a mistake made from my fear of the unknown. I should have asked you to stay truly."
"I’m sorry..." he admitted, something that made light crisscross in his eyes, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
She took a step forward, and an instant later, she was right before him.
"I do not know of the future, Ryuk..." Rakshasa began, her eyes looking into his, iridescent pink and crimson-blue faintly crisscrossing.
"But you can rest assured that for now, you need not feel like you have to fight alone or carry the burden of everyone’s safety..." she faintly whispered, yet it hit hard enough to leave a loud thump in his chest.
"I..." he said, pausing, as his gaze faintly scanned the room, seeing Antares, who gave a nod, same for Elder Celine.
"I understand..." he said.
"Now, I have to say, you woke up just at the right time..." Elder Celine said, as the color in the room shifted from its previous brightness to a dim light.
They all gathered around the pillar where various footage flashed around, and Elder Celine sent one flying towards Ryuk, who caught it before tapping on it and magnifying it.
The footage shown was what lay before them all:
The outside void—but now he could see they seemed to have arrived in an entirely different space.
For one, the Void—an area of endless dark, with occasionally glittering fragments of colossal bodies—had now been replaced.
The darkness was withdrawn, and its source came from none other than stones the size of skyscrapers, shapeless and hanging all around for as far as Ryuk could see.
But what was breathtaking about them was the faint black halo that faintly warped around each of these rocks.
The bigger the rocks, the bigger the black hole—and from just sighting alone, Ryuk could faintly feel that the laws of reality around these stones faintly bent, seemingly having undergone some changes.
"We... we have to pass through this?" He muttered unconsciously, looking at the tightly packed stones and continuously altering reality.
Elder Celine replied:
"This is the first Crosshold..."