Looking at the gargantuan body before him, Ryuk felt himself caught in an unending freeze of shock as his brain suddenly went into a pause, ceasing all thought.
Millions of years seemed to pass in this bizarre state, a stasis induced from witnessing a power beyond anything he had ever imagined or encountered.
And after what felt like an eternity, Ryuk finally snapped out of it.
Taking two steps backward, his eyes flashed in shock as he inhaled deeply.
"The power... I have never felt such power..."
Ryuk mused to himself.
It seemed beyond his level of power which was the Cataclysm Stage, yet as auraless as the Power level of the Origin Stage of Cultivation.
As he slowly walked forward, the pressure worsened the closer he got to the gargantuan body, but his will easily pushed through.
His hands reached out and touched the masked face.
The second his palms met the ice-cold surface, brilliant runic lines appeared all over the frozen physique, rapidly stretching outward.
In moments, they formed a complex pattern that covered the entire frozen form.
Then, the runes began swarming up toward Ryuk's hands, he felt a rising energy—only for it to suddenly halt and retreat back into the frozen physique before dimming completely.
"Huh?" Confusion set in as Ryuk removed his hands from the frozen physique, staring at it with a bizarre light in his eyes.
Curious, he stretched out his hands and touched the body once more.
Just like before, the snowflake-like runes began appearing all over the physique.
But this time, as they attempted to spread toward Ryuk, they dissipated and retreated again.
"What's wrong? It's refusing me?" Ryuk mused to himself with furrowed brows.
The world around him suddenly shattered into pieces.
He felt a surge of energy burst out of his own body, instantly causing the entire space to collapse.
A powerful gasp echoed through the tsunami of icy energy surrounding him as his body suddenly collapsed onto the ground.
Lying on his back, his eyes widened in shock when he realized—
"I... I can't move!?"
It was as if the control of his own body had been hijacked.
And in the next second, the system notifications began flashing chaotically before his eyes.
[System Warning: Irregular Fusion Detected]
[ALERT: Frozen Physique Consciousness Has Refused Integration—Primary Vessel Does Not Meet Requirements for Organic Assimilation. Host Does Not Possess a Full Natural Body Required for the Frozen Physique to Bond!]
A displeased click left Ryuk's lips as he looked at the notification.
It seemed the Frozen Physique had refused to bond because he didn't fulfill the requirement of having a complete, natural body. And that just couldn't help but leave a bit of a bitter taste in Ryuk's mouth.
The notification suddenly began flashing once more, drawing his focus.
[ALERT: Anomaly Detected—Alternative Host Structure Identified!]
[WARNING: Unknown Entities Within Host Body Are Overriding Rejection Parameters!]
[Emergency Notification: Foreign Constructs (Nanite Swarm) Are Assimilating the Frozen Physique at an Exponential Rate.]
[WARNING: Frozen Physique Core Detecting Forced Shutdown—System Override in Progress.]
[ALERT: Frozen Physique Consciousness Disruption—Nanite Dominance Increasing!]
[FINAL WARNING: Host Body Undergoing Structural Collapse. Critical Adaptation Imminent.]
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
A deafening crack reverberated through Ryuk's body.
A sudden, piercing wail tore through his mind as the Frozen Physique's consciousness rebelled.
It was a force of ancient power, a being of pure, unrelenting ice that sought to merge with him—but when it reached for his body, it found nothing but emptiness.
Only the shifting, crawling mass of nanobots that made up his form.
[WARNING: Host Body Structure Does Not Meet Required Parameters.]
A blinding cold surged through him, like a million icy needles piercing deep into his being.
His nerves lit up in agony, sending him into a world of pain he would have never thought imaginable.
Even for someone who had endured as much pain as he had, the pain of collision between these two forces in his body was too much to bear.
The Frozen Physique lashed out, attempting to reject him. The process should have stopped here, with Ryuk being cast aside.
But the nanobots did not allow it.
They swarmed forward, shifting with terrifying precision, gripping the remnants of the Frozen Physique and binding it in place.
In turn, an intense ancient power erupted, lashing back at them.
A brutal force exploded within him, and Ryuk's body convulsed violently.
His vision blurred, then shattered into flashes of blinding white and freezing cold.
His arms bent at unnatural angles before snapping back into place.
His legs locked, refusing to move, yet his body twisted and wrenched itself apart.
"ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!"
A scream ripped out from Ryuk's throat.
It was pure suffering—raw, overwhelming pain!
His nanites started to reform, rebuild, and reshape—but the Frozen Physique refused to surrender. The clash between them tore him apart from the inside out.
[ALERT: Host Is Experiencing Critical System Overload.]
His skin split open, layer after layer, peeling away like ice cracking under unbearable pressure.
The nanites twisted, their metallic sheen turning into an eerie frost-blue, merging and adapting to the invisible force of the Frozen Physique.
His entire body collapsed inward, broken apart by the war between two forces.
He felt everything slipping away—his senses, his thoughts, his awareness.
Cold seeped into his very soul, pulling him into the abyss.
And finally, Ryuk reached his breaking point as his consciousness vanished completely.
The last thing he saw was the system notification flashing before his eyes—
[System Notification: The Frozen Physique Is No Longer In Control!]
[Host's Nanobots Have Successfully Performed an Override of an Ancient Power.]
[True Elemental Evolution Will Now Begin!]
And the last bit of light was lost as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
That was when the true transformation began.
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In and Out_SnowySmoos