A loud hum echoed through the abyss of darkness, followed by clattering sounds like chains clunking together.
If one could see through the abyss, they would witness interlocking chains, spanning over thousands of kilometres with a thickness of around five meters, lacing and weaving around a pit dug deeper and deeper into the depths of the abyss.
But suddenly, something opened.
Blood-red eyes, marked with crimson runes, flared to life—an intense dark aura squirming within them like snakes.
The space before the eyes shattered into thousands of fragments from their mere opening, the heavy chains clattering and teetering on the edge of being ripped to bits.
"THE AURA OF THE... DRACONIS!"
The words echoed through the abyss, piercing through the noise of the meandering chains to ring out clearly through the darkness. Then, as suddenly as it began, everything quieted down. The ginormous eyes slowly closed back.
"The End Times... Is it finally beginning?"
Those were the last words before the eyes shot close completely, the clanking chains slowly coming to a stop before everything was reduced to darkness once again.
It was a world bathed in crimson lightning bolts, raining down from the blood-red clouds, striking apart the ground, and carving abysses with every strike.
The roar of lightning was what filled the entire world, for miles and miles on end, a suffocating aura of intense chaos and destruction running through the lands.
It continued unendingly, as if it had been present since the End of Times, until suddenly, everything came to a chilling stop.
And then, a face appeared in the sky.
One covered in squirming red and black runes, forming a demonic mask.
But what was most eye-catching were the giant, grotesque horns, close to 500 meters in length, sticking out of the figure's head.
Its abyss-like eyes pierced downward, almost as if they could cut through the ground, drilling farther and farther into the depths beneath.
"THIS DISTASTEFUL YET FAMILIAR AURA!"
The figure's thick voice echoed through the lightning-filled world, akin to the roar of titans. The ground beneath him cracked into rubble, unable to bear the power of his words.
"I KNOW IT. IT'S THE AURA OF THE DRACONIS!"
"HE HAS FINALLY AWAKENED!?"
The figure spoke before an abysmal grin lit up on its face, lightning crackling around the dark, rust-covered horns.
An ear-piercing, evil cackle rang out through the world as the crimson lightning bolts increased by thousands of folds.
"THE END OF TIME IS FINALLY BEGINNING!!!"
The surprised voice rang out as the blue-scaled Ryuk called out the question to the dark-scaled Ryuk, as they both currently had their eyes on Ryuk.
There was almost no difference between the Ryuk from before and the Ryuk standing now, except that this time, the ripped-open hole in his chest had closed back.
Now, there was a blue runic tattoo, coming out directly from his left blue eye and radiating outward towards his eyebrows.
The image formed a full circle, tending towards his right eye, but unable to extend past it. Somehow, it looked like an incomplete rune, but the power oozing out from those blue runic lines was enough to send the pulses of the two Ryuks spiraling out of control.
The calm voice rippled through the space like a melody, ringing clearly in the ears of the two Ryuks, whose pulses visibly calmed at the sound of the words.
'He's still the same being...'
Both Ryuks thought as the dark-scaled Ryuk clapped his hands.
"Good job, weakest one. Now that you—"
The word came out, stopping the dark-scaled Ryuk's words dead in their tracks.
"Call me Ryuk!" Ryuk stated once more, his face holding calmness, yet a brewing storm swirled in his eyes as he stared at the dark-scaled Ryuk.
The dark-scaled Ryuk paused, his eyes narrowing, but then a wicked grin flashed across his face as he rose from his throne.
"I call you the weakest one because that's what you are."
"If you want me to change, prove to me you don't deserve it!" he said, and in the next instant, he faded into thin air.
Less than a split second later, Ryuk felt a ghostly dark claw magnifying towards his face, inching closer and closer with every passing moment.
But somehow... something was different.
Even though the dark-scaled Ryuk had sped with such speed and appeared before him almost instantaneously, his moving claws were so slow.
So ridiculously slow that Ryuk could see every inch of the hands magnifying toward him, as they passed through the air.
Even the ripples of their movement seemed incredibly slow to Ryuk, and with a simple will—
Cracks spread out from the friction of the ghostly dark claws.
Shock flashed in the eyes of the dark-scaled Ryuk when he saw his claws hanging just a few inches from Ryuk's face.
No matter how much energy he exerted, the claws never came closer at all.
It was almost as if they were being held by some sort of invisible energy.
The dark-scaled Ryuk growled.
"This... This is Aetheris! I hate that energy!"
The dark-scaled Ryuk snarled as a dark runic circle appeared in his crimson eyes glowing with a bizzare energy that Ryuk instantly identified.
"You might have awakened Aetheris. But it's not invincible!" He said as he slashed forwarding with his claws.
Instantly, the space before Ryuk's face shattered like glass, and the claws surged forward, piercing through—
But before they could move an inch further—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The dark-scaled Ryuk was suddenly sent flying into the side of the wall, crashing into it and carving a long spiderweb of crack across its surface.
A figure now stood where he had once been and it was none other than the blue-scaled Ryuk, who stretched a finger out, trailing the runes on Ryuk's left eye.
"How interesting..." he mused before he took his hand off Ryuk's face and rose upright.
"Yes. That is Aetheris."