Creeping silence that lasted longer than he could keep count of, but soon enough—
A brilliant flash of shimmering purple light bloomed through the space as his eyes opened.
He was currently lying on his back, above him flickering dots of white starlights with bits of illumination.
His mind was blank, but unconsciously he sat up to his butt and looked around.
There was nothing but this endless space of dotted white starlight. But when he looked to his left side, he finally found someone.
A feminine figure, seated on a humongous blue-colored throne seemingly made from blue shards, her eyes looking at him, unperturbed.
At the sight of her, his memories spilled forth, and he finally got a grip on himself and where he was.
This was his soul space.
And the only time he ever came here was when he fell deeply unconscious.
As for the lady, she was his Beyonder Dragon Manifestation.
"Hey," he called to her while rising to his feet.
She remained silent, eyeing him up and down, before reclining back on the throne and uttering—
"You’re awfully pathetic."
The words rang in Ryuk’s ears, his face creasing in displeasure.
It wasn’t from being called pathetic; he was already beyond getting annoyed at ignorant opinions at this stage.
"And you sound awfully similar to those guys," he said, resulting in a flicker of confusion in her eye, though it quickly cleared.
"You mean your previous two bloodline manifestations? Well, maybe they were right..." she rubbed in.
But all Ryuk did was roll his eyes and return to seating.
"Mind letting me know in what way I’m pathetic?" he asked with mild interest.
Of course, she had a reply for him:
"Even after awakening the first Beyonder Sigil, you still struggled pathetically to defeat that Nihil Devil, and you lost the battle."
She reminded him, and Ryuk paused before shrugging.
"I guess one can call that pathetic."
"And what’s even more pathetic was your state after — reduced to nothing but a blood bag, whose blood is to be siphoned in and out at her will."
"And even beyond pathetic, is that you allowed this without the slightest resistance."
"Tell me, for one who holds a bloodline that managed to survive the erasure of an era — isn’t that awfully pathetic?"
She asked, and Ryuk’s bored expression paused for a while, a serious glint flashing in his eyes.
"So, you realized it too..." she said, watching him sit upright.
"You think I’m pathetic for not resisting having my blood sucked?"
"You know, I too agree it’s pathetic."
"And I’ll agree even more that most will find it demeaning to their sense of self as a person," Ryuk said, and a glint flashed in the Manifestation’s eyes, leading her to ask—
"Then why didn’t you fight back?"
"Your strength doubled after that fight, but you allowed yourself to be siphoned of your blood."
"If you felt it was demeaning, then why did you do nothing?"
"Won’t you agree," Ryuk said, "that it is quite unwise to fight against something that benefits you?"
He asked, and a moment later, ordered—
"Activate Echo Library."
Immediately, the space before him rippled, widening, until the entire area he stood on was completely integrated with a new scene.
A simple dark void. But now, floating right above Ryuk, were new objects. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by NoᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt
They were grimoires — a total of three.
One of the grimoires was icy white: his essence of Frost.
Another was void black: his Void Energy essence.
These were normally the only two elements Ryuk had in his Echo Library.
But right now, there was another grimoire, half a grimoire, to be exact, as only half of its size had formed.
The grimoire was similar to the Void grimoire with the same pitch-black color, but it held a clear difference: mixed in with this darkness were dots of purple, shining within like starlight.
"As you already know, Hurricane Energy allows me to copy essence."
"These two essences I have are due to my soul fusion with my two pets, Isha and Void, which also correlated to my Frost and Void grimoires," he explained.
"But look at this third grimoire that is slowly forming. Where do you think I got it from?"
"A grimoire of Abyssal Energy," the Manifestation muttered under her breath.
Ever since she had awakened in Ryuk, she had made it a duty to keep an eye on every one of his actions.
Yet even as she browsed through her memories, she couldn’t find a reason as to how he could be forming an Abyssal Grimoire.
"Don’t tell me..." she said, and Ryuk complied.
"Anytime she sucks my blood, she comes directly in with my neck, where firstly my Huricanne runes are at their maximum effectiveness."
"And what’s even more, her fangs coated in her abyssal energy, pierce into my bloodstream, where the Hurricane Energy runes are integrated all the way down to the cellular level.
"My Hurricane runes don’t just copy her Abyssal Energy in that moment. They also get a taint, which is passed through every part of me, with the aid of my bloodstream."
"And the result of that taint... is the creation of an Abyssal Energy Grimoire," Ryuk explained, leaving her speechless.
"Any outsider like you, or even Odette herself, thinks all that is being done is a simple blood suck."
"But what you all don’t know is that each bite of hers leaves an imprint as deep as a true soul fusion."
"And you might say, "Well, why not just contract a beast with abyssal energy and gain an Abyssal Energy Grimoire instead of subjecting myself to such demeaning treatment?""
"But as you can see—"
"Her Abyssal Energy isn’t normal abyssal energy," he said, pointing at the clear purple starlights that flickered around her, the grimoire.
"I’m not sure what they do yet, but during that fight, I learned very well that her abyssal energy was leagues above normal."
"It was filled with incredible might and soul-crushing, something that I’m sure is unique to her Devilish Race."
"Right now, she might be the last Nihil alive since her race had already been wiped out a thousand years ago, meaning she might just be the last holder of this unique type of abyssal energy in the entire universe."
"This isn’t an energy I can gain from simply contracting a random abyssal beast."
"The grimoire is half-formed, but soon enough, it will be completed, and I will finally be a true holder of this unique energy of hers."
At this point, he deactivated the Echo Library, and all the grimoires disappeared.
"So tell me, don’t you think it unwise to fight against something that benefits you?"
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