[Host, Demon Army just arrived and getting their energy devoured by Conduit ]
‘I see,’ Ryuk turned his gaze towards the front where an old man stood, his cheek slightly bruised, eyes locked onto him.
“So, your dorsimus muscle is also weak,” Valhale said, standing firmly as he slid slightly, his face turned after withstanding a punch from the young man in front of him.
He had already identified the third weakness in Ryuk’s body.
‘My back muscle?’ Ryuk thought. Though he had requested proper guidance from Valhale, asking him to teach from the beginning despite already knowing 1,236 moves, he hadn’t expected this.
When Valhale told him not to use energy and to fight with physical strength, Ryuk considered using the system but refrained.
He knew that due to his ability, the restrictions placed by the system could always be broken. But was it also true for Drishti?
Taking it as an advantage, he had told her to suppress his strength, but it didn’t work.
Even though he tried to suppress his own ability, giving Drishti authority way, but still his body’s automatic defense didn’t let her ability work on him.
This proved that while he could control the active ability of *Shunya*, he couldn’t do the same for its passive ability, frequently.
“You have too many weaknesses, young man,” Valhale observed, noting the muscle memory, tendon movements, and even the subtle hints of force points.
Overall, the young man in front of him had too many weaknesses.
“I…know,” Ryuk replied, glancing at his hand as he clenched his fist. Though he maintained a composed approach to all situations, only he knew about his weaknesses.
His body swiftly became strong, but due to sleeping for five or more years, the development of muscle memories was incomplete, and tendons were weak when exerted rapid pressure.
These weaknesses were overcome by him in battle by compensating with energy, but it wasn’t permanent and now became a hurdle in his way to breakthrough in the other stage, which was EARLY LEGENDARY Rank.
Though it may appear he handled the previous day’s battle easily, he was just as exhausted as Esme, exhausting all his energy and needing to rest like her, which he did by sleeping previous night.
“And?” Valhale, hearing the young man’s words again, asked, reconfirming if he understood the meaning himself.
“Punch me here,” Ryuk lifted his eyes to meet Valhale’s, pointing at his lower ribs, knowing well that it was the weakest part right now.
But, of course, he wasn’t going to get himself harmed for nothing.
[Host, she is just ten steps away from this place.]
System informed him, making him aware of the arrival of someone whom he knew would be inevitable upon waking up.
After all, there was a reason for him to wake up early in the morning instead of waiting and having a heavenly morning conversation.
“What?” Valhale felt slightly confused, not understanding the reason for him to ask for a punch, which definitely wasn’t something he appreciated.
“Hit me now or I will just ask for Esme’s help again,” Ryuk firmly stated, causing a visible twitch to form on Valhale’s face.
Initially, all this happened because this young man asked him for Thesis, and after being rejected, he mentioned how he would just learn everything from Esme’s illusions.
Additionally, Valhale knew that the girl had sneaked in when he was revising the book’s content.
Overall, now he was stuck helping this young man until only 1236 pages which he could learn from Esme and be done with it.
Unbeknownst to him, Ryuk was just asking for a punch to learn more than those simple pages and even get his hands on that book, with Valhale’s own permission.
“Fine then,” Valhal nodded, his body blurred.
SWISH
Arriving beside Ryuk, whose eyes dashed towards him but were slower to widen the moment a sharp force struck his ribs.
BOOM!
The punch force created a clear shockwave due to both having a dense body constitution, making Ryuk’s eyes visibly tremble before
CRACK!
Another sound clearly showed how his bones fractured due to the direct hit without having a guard, flinging his body towards the metal walls.
THUD
“Ugh…?!” His body uncontrollably collided with the metal walls before falling to the floor in a broken state, visible blood seeping out of his wound, broken bone piercing his lungs.
And all this suffering only for.
“N-no!” Suddenly, the illusion on Esme’s body broke, her eyes becoming teary. Instantly, her body hurled towards the young man in a shocked state, “no…no…H-how…Why?”
Her hand wrapped around the man before feeling dampness, taking it out as her sight fell on her crimson-damp hand, golden pupils trembling before jaws clenched, eyes shooting towards Valhale, whose mouth was agape.
He was damn sure that he had halted just an inch away before punching the young man due to feeling his granddaughter’s presence nearby.
Then how the hell did this mess become of that young man?
“Grandpa, how dare you!?” Esme’s eyes shot red, looking towards her grandfather, with rage building up.
Not on him but on the young man who lied while thinking he did some masterpiece acting.
She knew that her Grandfather’s punch didn’t touch this man but still if he went this far to fool her, then she should play along.
[Host, How you knew that she will still support you even after knowing?]
‘….’ Ryuk remained unmoving, already feeling pain due to wound but it was only way to have his hand on that book and about Esme, he just thought that she will at least guess this much.
Since, isn’t her presence made to lure him into the honey trap?
“E-Esme, it doesn’t matter what you think..” Valhale wanted to continue but his words stuck in mid, seeing that same hatred filled face which reminded him of the time when his son was killed.
At that time, he prioritized the safety of Titanora, and didn’t touch Devereaux Blair.
After all, it was his son’s fault who supported Alisia Devereaux in their battle and got himself killed just because the one he decided to follow was incompetent when it comes to protect her teammates.
“Grandpa, You shouldn’t have hurt him!” Esme cried out, her hand pressing the young man’s wound, taking out her frustration on him who just kept a stoic face.
[Healing…..]
Of course, his wound had already started to heal thanks to the system.
“Wh-what, I…am sorry.” Hearing her words, there wasn’t much for Valhale to react to.
Everything was the same, when this girl asked for his help three years ago to kill Devereaux Blair, he didn’t do it, he not even took revenge for his own son’s death.
At the corner of his heart always remained the guilt of not being any help and now even at this point where he was helpless to the point to not even save the heaven called Titanora he had built.
A whole main army of Devereaux family was here, yet he still kept his rough side but inside, he was getting older now.
“A-are you fine?” Esme felt something tremble in Ryuk’s body, realizing that it was the end of this drama, already feeling guilty to scam her grandfather but
It was satisfying.
She had asked for his help several times when fighting against Devereaux Blair but always met with rejection and even got suppressed from taking any rash actions.
“Y…yeah, it…seems my, cough!” Ryuk brought his hand in front of mouth before coughing.
[ Never thought I would see this day Host]
‘….’ He didn’t pay any heed to system’s words, right now, ego should be placed on the side, his priorities were set on getting that book, stumbling his body he stood with the support of Esme.
“N-no, is it hurt more?” Esme felt pressure on her shoulder, feeling embarrassed for acting like this but love really makes others do shameless things.
“Yes,” Ryuk replied while lifting his eyes to meet with Valhale.
‘sigh’ Old man can’t help but finally give up seeing how that young man was using Esme against him, adding,” Just take whatever you want”
“Pfft”
‘Huh?’ Valhale hearing a laughter turned back to only see Regina standing with a composed expression, before turning back again, he completed his words,” I will hand over the thesis but you need to take mana path for something”
‘?!’
