Would he always make no differentiatition between his enemies, giving no qualms about them and taking them for who they really were?
Ryuk could say he would always be like that, as not being so would be contrary to his own self.
So now, he had no other reason not to agree.
"Then I agree to become your intern..." he replied to MadWhite, who nodded his head before his hands stretched to the side. Then, he exerted force on the empty space as Ryuk witnessed the space shattering into pieces like glass, soon breaking apart and revealing a darkened void on the other side.
"Come. I want to show you something first..." the man said as he placed his hands on Ryuk's shoulder, and the next instant, they both disappeared into the darkness of the void. The space began repairing itself, soon completely closing up and leaving the top of the skyscraper empty of life.
The world to Ryuk was entirely pitch black. There was no light at all, and it was like the second he kept staying within this patch of darkness, the more he began forgetting who he was, as if his memories were slowly being erased.
The only comfort within this abyss was the hand on his shoulder, confirming the presence of someone he could still faintly remember. But then, the sound of glass shattering awoke him as he felt visible light and soon stepped into it.
"Huuuuu..." A loud exhale left Ryuk as he crouched to the floor, breathing raggedly.
The sensation—it was definitely not like a teleporter.
"Is that your first time in a Void?" MadWhite's curious voice rang out before he chuckled, looking at the Xeras, who seemed to have gone through hell and barely survived.
"I really might need to do a lot of things..."
The weakness lasted only for a few seconds, and Ryuk pressed it down, regaining himself.
Looking around him, it was a rocky, mountainous place, with broken-down rocks and half-destroyed mountains whose edges sometimes bore the scars of blades. In some places, remnants of elements that were inherently destructive could be seen, judging by how gravity seemed to have gone faulty in the area.
"This here is a Lost Battle Plain. One of the places where the war between Endearths and Interdimensional beings was waged," MadWhite began his story as he stepped forward, resuming his walk into the distance, and Ryuk rapidly followed after him.
"These Interdimensional beings were said to be on the level of the Knulls themselves, their threat level equal to them. But thankfully, they were only three, so dealing with them wasn't that difficult at least."
"One of the things we couldn't answer about them is where they came from..." he completed, as Ryuk's eyebrows furrowed before he asked,
"But Interdimensional beings can only come into Endearth through the Interdimensional Gates, right?"
"Yes, you're right. We couldn't find what gate they came in from. Something that is very abnormal, as once a gate opens on Endearth, it sends a wave across the vicinity, and that is picked up by our Gate Sensing technological artifact," MadWhite replied as they both disappeared quickly through the mountainous plains.
"But this event has piqued my curiosity for many years now, and while others have paid it no more mind—since they have successfully defeated the Interdimensional beings—they find it no use to keep looking for the gate where these guys came from."
"But I have, because I have noticed something that most don't know about those three Interdimensional beings..." MadWhite said with a grin that drew Ryuk's attention.
"Those three 'aliens' are actually young. Very young!" he said, causing Ryuk to raise an eyebrow.
Initially, MadWhite had just said those three aliens were on the threat level of the Knulls, and now he was claiming they were young.
"You don't seem to believe me, do you?"
"After I got my hands on a severed body part of one of them, I found out the age of the bone from a friend of mine. And with surprise, he exclaimed that the bones were barely 25 years old."
"That is, the creatures that required almost half of Endearth's most powerful cultivators just to defeat were actually just 25-year-old kids. Hehe."
"When I told the board about this, they thought I was mad or mocking them. Some took offense. But why wouldn't they? Their pride couldn't accept that Endearth required half of its most powerful force to take down three kids," he said with a cold harrumph.
"But even then, that didn't stop me from continuing my research on these guys. And after three years, I finally cracked how they got in..."
"The truth was, they never came in through a gate. They came in through a wormhole. One opened by an ancient ritual that involved each of their blood—or so my researcher says," MadWhite said as he came to a pause, right before a wide rocky platform that was unnervingly smooth, as if a mountain had been precisely slashed smoothly by a sword.
The top of the mountain was covered in dust, but with an arm wave from MadWhite, the dust was sent scattering away. What was revealed to Xeras were runic lines.
They trailed the entire top of the mountain—weird, bizarre runic lines which he had never seen or had any idea about. But it was clear this wasn't something that could be from Endearth, as even the faint aura radiating from these lines was alien to Ryuk himself.
"This is the 'Gate' through which those guys came from. But of course, as you can see, it's not a gate, and so we can't enter it."
"If it was actually a gate, it would have been ranked as a Lord Level One. But this thing seemed like a one-time use, and therefore was ignored as just a weird phenomenon."
"But I've found a way to open this thing up, with this..." MadWhite said, bringing out a vial that contained a weird mixture of red, blue, and green liquid.
"This will open the forever-closed gate. And do you know what I need you to do?" he said, turning an amused glance toward Ryuk, who couldn't help but have his face turn pale.
"You can't be serious."
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In and Out_SnowySmoos