‘N-no, please, I don’t want to D-die ‘
‘Why my energy is not working’ His mind, in a state of shock, struggled to comprehend why he couldn’t even feel his energy.
It felt as though he were just a normal human, devoid of any mana.
“If my guess is correct, you don’t have the keys to this room,” Ryuk’s cold amber gaze shifted towards the man, whose eyes, now filled with terror and pleading for mercy, had moments before held nothing but disgust for him.
Mercy might be an option, but there were several factors at play right now:
1. Ryuk needed to prove to others that he was not crippled, to avoid being looked down upon and to not have to go through the hassle of killing everyone like this man.
2. There were three criteria for Flagbearers, which needed to be fulfilled before one could join the heir battle.
3. He was angry.
Ryuk’s calm thinking might have kept him ahead, but arising variables had thinned his patience.
First, someone barged into Heindal, then, when he tried to stop them, his own bloodline attempted to kill him, and now, he had been asleep for five whole years.
Right now, the only emotion left for these matters was rage.
STOMP!
SPLASH
A loud sound reverberated in the place as the man’s head burst like a balloon, scattering pieces all over, tainting everything crimson.
Drip
Loosening his hand, which now had trickling blood falling to the floor, Ryuk calmly turned his head towards an old man who had just arrived after hearing the sounds of a one-sided fight.
The old man, looking at the young man standing outside that particular door with his hand drenched in blood, turned his gaze towards the headless body pinned on the door, fallen on its knees.
The man’s mouth frowned at a visible pace, his jaws gritting as he shouted, “Do you know what you just did! ”
ALERT!
[The target is detected to be at Legendary Level.]
[The host is strongly suggested to withdraw…]
The system bombarded his ears with several messages after another but was interrupted before it could utter another word.
‘Mute until I tell you otherwise,’ Ryuk stopped the System, since it was just distracting him instead of any help.
“Lady Alisia will definitely appreciate if I taught her son a lesson,” the old man glared with his amber eyes, which were fading behind the glimmer Ryuk’s eyes held.
The color was maybe the same, but both had a huge difference due to the purity of the bloodline and strength.
SWOOSH
Energy surged out of the old man’s body, his eyes started to burn into orange flames, slowly approaching Ryuk.
The mere intensity at which air fell into haze around his body showed the power the old man possessed.
tap tap
Each footstep left marks etched on the floor, enforced with Ether.
Unlike on Heindal where Ryuk always kept his energy under control to avoid destroying the surroundings, here, this man didn’t seem to care about his surroundings.
The Heindal Continent, under the effect of the Conduit, had lost its Mana density, directly affecting the usual strength its land should have possessed enough to withstand outside forces.
But Ardoros was different.
So was its architecture, infused with Ether, causing everything to become far stronger, able to withstand a whole 1 million tons, proving the density of the land and the strength of Ether.
Yet, Ryuk’s eyes reflected the approaching figure of the old man, glimmering in orange fire, his eyes shining intensely, causing Ryuk’s own to narrow.
‘Shunya.’
SWISH
The old man’s figure disappeared and closed ten meters of distance before Ryuk could blink his eyes, claws aimed at his chest.
‘!?’
The old man’s eyes widened, reflecting everything moving in slow motion, just a meter away from that young man.
His aura entering near Ryuk, was vanishing, enough for him to notice his energy depleting at an enormous rate.
Thud
SWISH
The old man’s battle experience caused him to swiftly retreat within a mere blink of a moment, creating distance, but his speed seemed to fade away in front of the young man’s response.
In mid-air, Ryuk also closed the distance, both of their eyes reflecting each other.
Even those orange flames shrouding the old man’s body seemed to fade away in front of Ryuk’s eye’s glint.
“You must be the Gatekeeper of the top floor.” Calmly gazing at the old man, Ryuk stretched his hand, but before he could touch him.
“Damnit!” Understanding everything, the old man gritted his teeth.
WHOOSH!
Without any delay, he pushed out all his energy like a tsunami out of his body, causing his body to be thrown at a distance due to the backlash before landing at a distance.
THUD
“Haa…Haa…..” The old man’s eyes widened seeing death so close.
His years of battle experience made him aware of enemies’ powers with a mere glance.
Proving why veterans and experienced ones are better than powerful ones.
‘Will you look at this,’ Ryuk was not left untouched.
His anger was replaced by something else, seeing how this old man seemed much better than anyone he had seen so far.
Even the two people he had fought five years ago were not this impressive. A single glance told him the experience this old man had.
And coincidentally, he already knew how to deal with these so-called experienced fellows.
“Why do you hate me, old man?” Ryuk calmed himself, standing straight, gazing at the now gasping old man, whose eyes widened hearing that question.
“…” Looking at the young man in front of him, the old man, without losing his guard, answered, “I don’t have hatred towards you, Young Master.”
But seeing how Ryuk seemed unsatisfied with the answer, he continued, “I am just disappointed in my Lady.”
Ryuk was patient enough to hear at least his story. Somehow, his instinct told him not to kill him yet.
“She destroyed all her life’s hard work just because of someone who left her in life’s most important moment. Forgive me, Young Master, but your presence is a weakness for my Lady.”
‘Should I kill him?’ Now, Ryuk’s mind weighing the pros and cons of killing this man or not.
“But now, it seems this senile man was wrong all along. You are really special.” The man’s eyes relaxed, memories of him convincing his master to abort her child resurfaced once again, prompting him to understand what they would have lost.
Ryuk observed the man in silence, noting how he still kept his guard up, understanding that another push was needed.
“Can you help me become the next head of the Devereaux family, Alfred?” Ryuk stated with a composed face, glancing briefly at the status window, causing the old man’s eyes to widen suddenly upon hearing his name.
Alfred realized how wrong he had been about his master all these years.
The fact that this young man knew about him, only pointed towards his master always mentioning him.
“Forgive me, My Lady.” A surge of emotion shrouded his mind, turning his gaze downward, feeling overwhelmed with guilt and regret.
Determined to help this young man unlike the previous time, he lifted his gaze.
SWISH
Within that moment, Ryuk had closed the distance, causing the old man’s eyes to widen, but everything was already too late.
There is only one curse in this world: EMOTIONS.
Love, Anger, Jealousy, Greed—all are just examples that destroy an individual, numbing one’s mind at the very crucial moment of life.
But the amusing thing was, Ryuk was immune to Curses.
BOOOM!
A punch directly collided with the old man’s solar plexus, hurling him into the huge wall present at that floor, enough to dig his body into it, causing a small crater to form on the wall.
“Kuggh!?— THUD.” The man’s body fell to the floor with eyes widened, feeling every inch of his bones fractured, ribs puncturing his lungs, internal organs utterly messed up.
In an instant, his mind couldn’t comprehend how all of this had happened.
Ryuk approached the fallen body, blood oozing out of several wounds.
Such aftereffects were due to *Shunya*, which upon touch erased all energy inside the old man’s body, directly causing his foundation to destroy, leading internal injuries and weakening.
The rest was done by Ryuk’s 〖EPIC〗 Rank Punch.
“I thought you were an experienced veteran but…” Ryuk observed him for a moment before deciding what to do.
‘System, show me his colors.’
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Showing individual Characteristics
1. White: kind-hearted
2. Green: Compassionate
3. Yellow: Optimistic
4. Red: Ambitious
5. Black: Malevolent
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Observing the old man’s body, a white flame orb floated above his head.
‘….’ Ryuk felt surprised how someone of such a high rank could be kind-hearted, a doubt which could be confirmed at another time.
“Ugghh…..I-i guess, it’s finally the time, Please tell My —” Before Alfred could start telling his emotional story.
SWOOSH
A dark black substance started to fall from Ryuk’s hand, slowly moving towards Alfred before entering his facial orifices—eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
‘System, the moment he tries to betray me, kill him,’ Ryuk was not going to give the usual pain to this man since the base which saved this old man was his kind-hearted nature.
He would get a chance to prove himself, or it would be his last chance.
‘Heal him.’
WHOOSH
The old man’s body started to heal at a rapid rate.
His bones were getting structured, the internal injuries were healing, added with his energy core flooded with Mana.
Ryuk turned to approach the door, while remembering an image he had seen in that room.
Thud
Before Ryuk could take another step, he heard a sound of something colliding with the floor, turning to only see the same old man kowtowed, with his lips bitten.
Alfred was determined not to waste this chance.
Of course, he understood that the black substance entering his body was for healing his body.
Maybe seeing his sincerity towards Lady Alisia melted Ryuk’s heart.
His battle experience made him reach this point since no one tells a lie at the brink of death.
And Ryuk also had taken his words sincerely and healed him, pointing towards the soft and merciful heart his young master had. Gritting his teeth and eyes becoming wet, he stated.
“You are the most kind and merciful person in this world, Young Master!”
