Walking through the Eclipsed Citadel, Ryuk came upon a long line of various races, all arranged in about five rows.
It was clear they had come seeking a meeting with the Fallens, yet all of them were visibly stuck outside, slowly moving forward in line. How long it would take to address them all, Ryuk could only wonder.
Following behind the two Fallen Angels, he drew quite a number of gazes upon himself, along with murmurs from the crowd as they watched him disappear into the large building.
Upon entering, there was an even larger number of Fallen Angels seated behind desks. The two guards accompanying him led Ryuk to one of the Fallen Angels, who scanned him up and down with an indifferent expression.
Ryuk's poker face betrayed no emotion upon seeing the man.
Even though the Fallen Angel stood a head taller than the guards and Ryuk himself, forcing him to raise his head to meet his gaze, Ryuk remained unaffected.
The man's aura was suffocating, but Ryuk had encountered worse and no longer let it show that he was bothered.
It was better to appear indifferent to something than to appear scared of it.
"This way," the Fallen Angel instructed Ryuk as he branched off to the side and walked toward a wall, which soon opened up to reveal an elevator.
Without hesitation, Ryuk entered with him, and the elevator door shut behind them. Unlike the Apex Barracks elevator, which had numbered buttons, this one was blank. The moment they entered, golden light rays scanned both of them before the elevator began its ascent.
Inside, the man made no sound, but Ryuk could feel a curious gaze lingering on him from time to time.
There was something mystifying about the boy to Nomad.
Word had spread early among the Fallens about someone possessing an authority card, a privilege granted only to those highly respected by the Fallen family. The man would never have expected the bearer to be a lowly human, still only at the first plane of cultivation.
Normally, his Fallen aura would have been enough to send such a cultivation base to their knees in fear and reverence, but the boy had been utterly indifferent, even daring to stare directly into his eyes without flinching.
If anything, the boy was an intriguing anomaly.
The sound of the elevator opening resonated, and both stepped out, arriving in a room dominated by a singular, gigantic circle on the ground.
"And what is this?" Ryuk wondered with a furrowed gaze, staring at the technological structure laced with various runes and inscriptions that almost entirely covered the floor.
[Host need not be alarmed. This is a teleporter,] the system informed him.
[A unique gadget capable of tearing open a wormhole in space, transporting individuals from one location to another—most usually the endpoint of the wormhole.]
"Step onto the teleporter," the Fallen Angel said.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Ryuk followed the command, stepping onto the device.
Even though the system had reassured him that it was only a transportation device, Ryuk still felt uneasy.
Who knew where he would end up? It could be a den of C-Grade Mutated Beasts, an endless abyss, or even a prison that might never see light again.
It could be anything.
Still, he placed his faith in the card given to him by Old Jack and stood firmly on the portal.
It would be absurd if the Fallens had brought him all this way just to imprison or kill him.
As soon as Ryuk stood on the teleporter, it lit up with a brilliant green glow, and a few holographic displays appeared before the Fallen Angel. The man quickly tapped the surface of the display before stepping away from the portal.
His silver eyes locked onto Ryuk's strange dual-colored eyes, and immediately a powerful burst of green light engulfed Ryuk completely. As quickly as it came, the light faded—and so did Ryuk, leaving the Fallen Angel to stare at the now-empty portal.
After a moment, the man turned back toward the elevator.
"To allow a lowly human boy into the gaze of one of our mighty Half-Fallens... The Old Rules are no doubt a pity," he muttered before stepping back into the elevator.
The sensation was like being thrown into a powerful ocean wave, turbulent and shaking one's insides up and down. Fortunately, the feeling soon subsided, and Ryuk found himself in a long hall bathed in glowing, ethereal twilight.
Immediately, his knees buckled as he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach.
Right now, he felt like vomiting everything he had eaten, but he suppressed the urge as much as he could until the sensation eventually passed. Rising to his feet, feeling slightly better, he began to survey the area where he had arrived.
He was the only one present in the hall, it seemed, and there wasn't much within it to note. Just a long, lonely-looking corridor with its ceiling embedded with various crystals that emitted a calm aura throughout the room.
Looking behind him, Ryuk saw only cold darkness with no discernible end. Refraining from walking back, he turned to face forward and began his journey.
It didn't last long, as he soon arrived at a glittering silver door.
Without hesitation, his hand reached for the knob...
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In and Out_SnowySmoos.