"I guess that’s a good way to put it," Ryuk replied, agreeing with her words.
He could vividly remember when he had touched the barrier; the tattoo had also imitated the same energy oozing from the barrier, and once it became one with it, it enabled him to slip through easily.
Perhaps, Hurricane Energy was an adaptive energy.
If that were true, then things would make more sense.
"I’m guessing you haven’t seen yourself in a mirror?" Old Jack said from the side, stuffing a chunk of meat into his mouth, as he looked at Ryuk, whose hands reached to his face, but then, a beam of golden light emerged from Mrs.Lynia’s eyes, and soon enough, a panel appeared before Ryuk.
In an instant, it shifted into a camera, revealing Ryuk’s reflection—and the changes were more surprising than he expected.
His face had changed significantly.
A soft, V-shaped structure with a smoother jawline than he remembered. His cheekbones were balanced—not sharp, but subtly defined—giving him a look that radiated youth and a quiet, celestial grace.
His eyes were large, a breathtaking shimmer of swirling purple, enough to captivate even him, and he stared for three straight seconds.
His skin was still pale in complexion, but far more flawless and smooth than he remembered. In fact, it was so refined, it almost seemed as if a layer of divinely arranged scales lay just beneath the surface.
At first glance, he could guess this was the effect of possessing the Beyonder Dragon genes, which was a feminine bloodline, but while it gave him more feminine flawlessness, it also didn’t make him resemble a female.
Too elegant to look like a full-grown man, but not so much that he looked like a woman.
Instead, a perfect blend of both features.
"That’s... quite the change," Ryuk mused quietly.
"Now it makes more sense why the oldy couldn’t remember me until I spoke. For a second, I thought he grew too old and lost his memories..." He teased, turning to Old Jack, who coughed helplessly.
"Don’t get me started again, bloody mutt," Ryuk grinned before turning to eat, but his gaze caught Mrs. Lynia’s expression, which, though neutral, was faintly furrowed.
"What’s wrong?" he asked, as she turned to him, blinking innocently. But then, Ryuk’s expression shifted, growing more certain.
"You look disturbed by something," he said.
"I..." Mrs. Lynia said, pausing, but Old Jack voiced out instead.
"We all are disturbed, Ryuk..." he said, earning Ryuk’s attention.
"You’ve been going through a lot recently, you know. Zoning out frequently," he explained.
"But I mentioned that was due to needing to be in my other body, remember?" He said softly, to which he nodded.
"True, but you know, watching someone sleep is only normal at night. If you catch them sleeping in the early morning, sure—they’re probably just tired. But when you see them sleeping for days, sometimes even weeks, it starts to get worrying, especially when you know they don’t need sleep like ordinary humans," he explained.
That truly made some sense, but it also meant they just had to get used to it.
"And you’ve also been unstable, ever since your fight with Zar’kul."
"Falling into slumber for four months straight—and during your slumber, the sky was always changing."
"Seeing you blow up in that hospital was a massive sign of instability, and all we know from Morgaine is that you seemed to activate a technique, and then just fell into slumber."
"That, of course, doesn’t explain much," Old Jack said, to which Ryuk silently hummed.
"As much as we try to make sure being with us feels like home, we’re also being careful not to go too far and ask things you’re not comfortable sharing." Mrs.Lynia said, continuing,
"But week-long slumberings, blowing up with energy now and then, and various phenomena... You don’t come across this every day, much less by a single person."
"It really makes us worry about your health—and by ’us,’ I mean Morgaine too," she said, as silence settled around the table.
Ryuk heaved silently, before he grabbed his knife and resumed eating.
"My bloodline is unstable," he explained.
"That’s reasonably true. When some Knulls were captured for experimentation on Endearth, we discovered that Abyssal Energy is a very unstable energy."
"Any minor misgauge and it blows up from within them," Mrs. Lynia said, but then Ryuk paused.
"Have you both never wondered why, even though I claim to be a Knull, I’m humanoid and white in complexion?" he asked, and watched as they slowly nodded.
"It has crossed my mind once," Old Jack agreed.
But they never asked him, probably due to fear of crossing a boundary.
To them, Ryuk didn’t think he needed to hide who he is—or at least who he was.
"I’m a Knull, in that I have Knullic blood flowing through my veins," he began, watching them nod, attentive.
"But I’m a hybrid. Half-Knull, and Half Jade-Dragon."
"Half Jade Dragon?" Old Jack said, stunned, but Ryuk nodded.
"Also, this body of mine that you see?" he said, watching as they turned silent.
"It’s not real. It’s a mix of nanotech, like you may have already realized, and some real part of me," he explained.
Old Jack’s eyes gleamed in realization.
Of course, he knew Ryuk was robotic ever since he regenerated a tech-enhanced arm after it was severed.
It made Old Jack realize that while Ryuk looked human, there was a great chance he wasn’t.
And he never mentioned it, nor did he know much about it, since the one person he could have asked—Bob, Ryuk’s uncle—was already gone by the time he realized it.
"Apart from my heart, lungs, and brain, everything else you see is nanomachine—gained from an Anunaki model. It’s not real."
"What happened to the other body parts? Did you get in an accident?" Mrs. Lynia asked worriedly.
"It wasn’t an accident."
"My body was torn into seven parts and distributed among my people... in an age I can’t fully remember," he said.
Mrs. Lynia’s hand flew to her mouth to hide her shock, but her wide, stunned eyes gave her away.