[You decided to stay back in the end.]
The system blinked after the conjured vortex by Orrelith finally dispersed, leaving the Void in silence.
Ryuk stared at the space silently for a while before a smile of relief bloomed on his face.
'That was a harder decision than I thought.'
To be honest, he had been deeply conflicted.
The door to the outside world was right before him.
Imprisonment for one month?
He never cared for that as he was more than confident that he could slip away unnoticed and disappear without a trace.
But even though he had every reason to leave, that decision never brought him peace.
A part of him felt that the decision to retreat, although logical, wasn't necessarily the best.
But making an illogical choice, especially for someone like him who believed himself to be a survivor, was incredibly difficult.
"If battle truly is the way to growth, why ever run from it?" he asked the system aloud.
[You're not running, you're retreating for the one whom you are to fight is way above your league.]
"And that will only boost the rate of growth even faster," he answered, as he silently steeled his mind.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP
A slice opened in the Void before him, and Ryuk stepped through, followed by eleven of the strongest members of his Nexus Legion.
Just as he suspected, stepping through the portal brought him back to the abyssal battlefield, right where he'd left.
Exactly 50 meters away, she sat calmly on the ground, one hand resting on her knee, her ever-present grin aimed straight at him.
When Ryuk stepped out, his second hand moved to the side, and the Frost Grimoire immediately materialized in his palm.
Now, his left hand held the Grimoire while his right held the abyssal energy-bound chains.
"I sensed the girl's presence disappear," she said as she slowly stood. Find the newest release on Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
Yet, the simple act of standing unleashed a terrifying aura that rippled outward, enveloping the space in an oppressive grip.
"Don't tell me... she left you behind?"
With every step she took, the entire abyss trembled.
'Huuuu,' A deep exhale left Ryuk's lips.
Fear and Horror. He had never felt so much fear and horror in his life, but in the next moment
"Go," He commanded the Nexus Legion as they charged forward instantly.
He didn't wait for the result as he already knew what fate awaited them.
But those few seconds were all he needed to begin.
Ryuk gripped the abyssal chains tightly, and once more, his body expanded, reaching the hulking seven-meter Knull form.
Opening his wide, monstrous maw, he raised the Frost Grimoire over it—and swallowed it whole.
[What the hell? What are you even doing?]
The system screamed in confusion.
'Trying to use two elements at once,' Ryuk answered, feeling the biting cold that began to ooze from deep within.
[But you haven't reached that stage of using two elements simultaneously yet. The second will always chase away the first.]
'True. But that only happens when both forces are external.'
'I held the Grimoire, and my tattoos channeled Frost. Then I picked up the chains—the Frost vanished, leaving only the abyss.'
'But what if... I swallowed the Frost instead, and held the Chains externally?'
'One touch from within. One from outside.'
'Aren't you interested in what happens next?'
The instant he completed that thought, one of Ryuk's crimson eyes suddenly turned a sharp, icy white.
He could feel the cold flowing outward, freezing everything, including his own heart.
Slowly, the Frost Grimoire was causing a transformation.
The ground beneath him iced over, the temperature plummeting by thousands of degrees.
His eyebrows turned white, frost forming thin cracks across his skin.
The pain was excruciating, but Ryuk found something within it.
Even though he was freezing to death from the inside, and the Frost surged wildly within him...
...his Knull form remained active.
A sign that he still held control over the abyssal energy.
[The Ice Energy is too much for you to control.]
[You'll be frozen to death if this continues!]
The system flashed a red warning, but all he got was an insane smirk.
'Oh, system... what happened to your faith in me?'
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPLLLLEEEE
It was a sound impossible to ignore.
"Huh?" A surprised gasp slipped from the Nihil Woman's lips, who had the Nexus Legions Commanders appear right before her.
In response, she slashed forward once, and with that simple motion—all eleven members of the Nexus Legion, including General Oblivor, were instantly erased.
But it wasn't unexpected.
Even Ryuk who stood at the Exignis stage in his Beyonder Dragon form, had fallen in less than three moves before.
What hope did the others who were a cultivation stages or two lower have?
Still, her attention was forcibly drawn elsewhere—to the mysterious ripple that surged with terrifying pressure.
Her gaze returned to Ryuk.
And under her focused stare, she witnessed something far beyond what she expected.
A bizarre energy surging from a single source, his heart.
His seven-meter Knull form began to grow again under her disbelieving gaze.
until it became a towering, sixty-meter colossus.
His humanoid frame warped into something far more beastly.
Two massive, thirty-meter wings burst from his back, crystallized in ice and dark abyssal runes.
His hands twisted into claws the size of mountains, tearing into the ground for support.
His spine stretched down into a gigantic, frost-covered tail—fifty meters in length—whipping behind like a living weapon.
Into a fusion of Frost Draconic and Demonic monstrosity,
[You… you activated the Frostborne Calamity Dragon Transformation Skill!?] The system panel flashed in shock, as it instantly recognized the skill.
A hurricane of frost burst from Ryuk's beastly maw, which widened further in anticipation.
He clenched his claws, feeling them pulsing with raw elemental power.
"So much power," he whispered to himself, basking in the familiar rush.
"Now...Activate Beyonder Dragon!"