His voice thundered through the golden hall, where a gigantic golden throne stood at its end.
And on it sat none other than the blue-scaled Ryuk who had torn through his heart.
He was no stranger to the sight before him, but even then, Ryuk felt something different.
The area around him was large, almost endless, and the Ryuk before him seemed a bit different from the one he knew.
For one, his gaze, which was normally filled with pure indifference, now held an unnerving amount of disdain toward existence itself.
So much disdain, in fact, that Ryuk felt fear just standing before him.
Before this Ryuk, it was as if he shouldn’t even exist at all.
And the thought—the tactile thought—of killing himself just to disappear from this gaze assaulted him, causing him to take steps backward in shock.
A shiver appeared in Ryuk’s eyes as his left hand grabbed onto his right hand, stopping it in its tracks.
But Ryuk saw what was happening.
’What... what the hell is happening!?’
Ryuk asked in horror as he felt his own left hand slowly take the hilt of the steel with his right hand and then...
Ryuk’s left hand grabbed his throat and began squeezing hard as thick, red veins bulged in his arms.
’I... I am killing myself!!!’
His eyes dilated from shock; his head unable to wrap itself around the idea.
Yet, when he felt the air being cut off from his lungs and the grip tightening in his heart as it slowed its beat, the realization hit him like a cold blade.
And instantly, something changed for Ryuk.
From horror and shock, it began shifting—shifting to anger.
Anger at the realization that his own body had tried to kill itself simply for appearing before an entity. Never in his life had he cowered before anyone to such a level. To kill himself for appearing before someone?
"Fuck off!!!" Ryuk roared in fury, as insane rage flooded into his mind.
Instantly, his right hand stabbed at his left shoulder, and then...
The sound of something being torn apart rang out through the room, as the golden-haired Ryuk calmly watched from his throne.
The sound of something dropping to the ground echoed in the hall, and it was none other than an arm—an arm belonging to Ryuk himself.
Intense chuckles rang out from the blue scaled Ryuk’s lips as he saw droplets of red raining down by Ryuk’s side.
In the place where his right arm ought to be now nothing but an empty stump.
Eventually, he had no choice but to rip out his own arm to avoid killing himself.
The sound of clapping suddenly rang out through the golden hall as Ryuk turned his angered gaze to the one sitting on the throne. He watched as the figure clapped both hands together, a mocking smirk plastered across his face.
"Your inferior self trying to bring an end to you shows its own will. Its will of insignificance before my existence!" the figure said in a condescending tone, as Ryuk clicked his tongue.
"But even when your body wishes to bring an end to you, your true Will refused! That is the Will!"
"Your body might cower. It is natural for the body to fear, young one."
"And when it fears, it cowers, it goes numb. It tries to surrender itself."
"In extreme situations like you have just witnessed, it even tries to eliminate itself—just to avoid this."
The golden-scaled Ryuk spoke, but Ryuk’s eyes flashed in shock as he suddenly found a figure standing just a few inches before him.
And in the next instant—
The floor of the hall shook violently as Ryuk’s two feet collapsed beneath him. An incredible force assaulted him, and immediately, his head smashed into the ground.
From the power alone, his body was pressed flat.
’Not again!’ Ryuk roared in anger, which increased monumentally when he felt a foot slam into his head, carving cracks beneath his skull as blood poured out from his ears.
"Your body will never be who you are as one with the Royal Blood. What will truly determine you is your Will."
"Your will made you believe you were worthy of standing before me. Your will that ripped out your arm when your body cowered in fear!"
"It moves, it acts, even when the body cowers. Even when the body is in horror. Even when the body surrenders. The Will rises."
"One is never truly defeated in body. To defeat the body is never something to be prideful of. Hurt a person’s body, and you have still done nothing to them."
The foot slammed down once more on Ryuk’s head, his entire face now covered completely in crimson—none other than his own blood.
Slowly, the Ryuk on the throne took his foot off Ryuk’s head, before grabbing him by the hair and pulling him up into the air.
His blue eyes stared deep into Ryuk’s almost lifeless ones, and with a grin, he released Ryuk’s hair, causing him to naturally fall to the ground.
Blood splashed out of Ryuk’s lips as his chest caved in completely and instantly from a pucnh to his chest and then,
He was sent into the distance, slamming into various golden pillars in the area, ripping through them before finally smashing into the ground and skidding to a stop.
He coughed out blood once more, as he felt the sound of footsteps approaching him.
Horrific pain—pain he had never felt before in his life—assaulted his head before he barely managed to raise it, finding the Ryuk who was toying with him.
But then he noticed something in his hands.
Ryuk’s own remaining arm.
"If you do damage to a person’s body, it isn’t necessarily a defeat, young one."
"You injure someone and think you have defeated them. That is the belief in this world. But that doesn’t apply to our Royal Race."
"An entity is determined by his own Will. Only when the will is crushed is a person truly defeated."
"The body? Nothing but a vessel that hides its will. Irrelevant, no matter how much it is damaged."