A massive detonation ravaged the Knullic domain.

With Ryuk self-destructing right before the massive hands touched him, Knull's body flinched back but couldn't escape the force.

The energy smashed straight through the arm, releasing enough power to blow apart the two remaining fingers.

It then contoured rapidly up to the figure in the sky, devouring the entire arm whole.

When everything quelled, Ryuk was no more, and so was the gigantic arm that had reached for him.

"He… he blew himself up?" Knull said out loud in shock.

But then it remembered that smirk on Ryuk's face as he detonated himself.

Those weren't the smirk of someone who planned on dragging another into hell, nor the smirk of someone who had chosen to die.

They were filled with mockery.

His singular eye watched as his right arm was reduced to nothing, and a vein tore out upon Knull's face.

He had managed to hurt him.

Him… Knull!?

"INVENI EUM!"

FIND HIM!

The thick growl didn't just echo through the Knullic domain; it amplified across the entire Conqueror domain, heavy with anger.

"INVENI EUM, QUI RYUK KNULL VOCATUR!"

FIND HIM, THE ONE CALLED RYUK KNULL!

"INVENI EUM ET REDUCE, MORTUUM VEL VIVUM!"

FIND HIM AND BRING HIM BACK, DEAD OR ALIVE!

_____________

On an island where not a single soul could be found within a hundred-mile distance, there was an unending range of mountains.

Some were half-destroyed, some whole.

A world of nothing but stones and thick hailstorms.

Yet in one of these mountains was a crack.

Looking further in, one would find beings in blue techno armor, all standing in a circular formation.

Their blue, flaming eyes remained fixed on one thing: a glass tube that stood in the center of the lineup.

Within this tube was blood, stale, still blood, and all of a sudden that blood began to move.

The tube rolled and rolled on the ground, shaking apart until cracks spidered across its surface.

It shattered into pieces.

The blood rolled up into the sky, quickly expanding before congealing, first forming a maw that widened rapidly.

What followed was a deep, haunting laughter, rippling with intense mockery.

"HEHEHEHEEH! IDIOTS!"

The maw was followed by the rest of the body, and soon enough, a figure sat on the ground, surrounded by the armored beings.

"Ahhhhh."

A deep exhale, one filled with satisfaction, left Ryuk's lips as his closed eye flittered open, sending forth a weak ray of light through the room.

He turned his head up, finding his Nexus Legion all around him.

[So, this was why you left the blood behind.]

[You really were planning to just go die in that realm.]

The system panel flashed as a smirk appeared on Ryuk's face.

The truth was, while he had headed for the Knulls immediately, he had paused during his journey after finding this desolate place.

An idea had occurred to him.

He would leave a vial of his blood within a test tube and have his Nexus Legion secretly watch over it.

Even if he were forced to death within the Knull Domain, with this much blood well protected, he would be able to bring himself back to life.

Truly, the plan had worked splendidly.

Here he was once more, still kicking.

"That bastard," Ryuk snickered coyly as he remembered the one who had called himself Knull.

That entity was powerful, far, far more powerful than him.

He had stopped time itself!

How could his already exhausted self face such a being?

In the end, he had done what he could: taunt him to come closer, just to explode close to him.

While such an explosion could never be enough to take down such a being, it would at least wipe off that supremacy expression of his.

And truly, it had done so, as Ryuk could hear the roar of rage to search for him before his consciousness dispersed.

[So you detonated yourself just to troll him?] The system asked, as he snickered.

"Sounds ridiculous, but...It was oddly satisfying."

[You can't keep detonating yourself.]The system panel blinked before him.

[If you detonate, you need energy to take yourself back to normal.]

[The last time you detonated, you had that Angelic being's essence and you absorbed it to bring yourself back.]

[But now, what do you have to absorb?]

[You're currently weaker than even an eternity-stage expert!]

Ryuk leaned forward to look at himself.

While he indeed occupied a physical body, he was weak, terribly weak.

His ability to regenerate from a single cell was not supreme. He would still need an energy source close by to return to his true state.

But he wasn't worried at all.

"I so have an energy source," he muttered to himself.

In the next moment, three objects appeared in the air: a bone, an orb of blood, and a headless muscular torso.

Each of these objects rippled with an amount of energy far greater than the Angelic essence Ryuk had used the last time.

"I got them, three of my original body parts all at once," Ryuk said with the biggest smile on his face.

This was exactly why he had run away without shame.

He'd recovered three of his body parts.

If he had remained defiant and fought Knull, he would have lost, already exhausted, and Knull would have taken those three items away from him, in one way or another.

But now he had them.

After this, there were just three more he needed to fetch.

"Before I fight Knull, I will hunt them down, those three remaining Knull Calamities."

"They weren't in the Knull Domain; most likely, they were out, invading some planet."

"I will find them and rip out what they stole."

"And when I'm fully complete, I'll then face Knull and force out the truth from him,"

In the next moment, a white rift appeared, and his Nexus Legions disappeared into it.

When it left Ryuk alone, his hands lifted and opened another rift.

Inside it, a garden of red roses and blue lilies could be seen.

He stepped inside completely, fading away from the world.

For now, he had chosen to retreat.

But the next time he stepped out, he would drag a bigger hell down upon this realm.