Abyss Draconis

He had figured something out.

A secret about improving his cultivation speed—and that was to activate his element before cultivating.

When Ryuk had wanted to begin comprehending the Frost runes, he had simply opened up his domain first, placing his Frost energy into use before beginning his cultivation process.

And he had noticed how significantly his cultivation had grown.

While his Intelligence held the major reason for that, he knew very well that if he had not activated the domain, it would have been harder to sink into that stage of comprehension in the first place.

While cultivating his Void energy now, he noticed an equal peculiarity.

And that was: when he activated his Void energy while also absorbing Void energy into him, it somehow bolstered the ability of the Void energy to integrate into him.

But that wasn't all.

Ryuk had noticed all of the nodes in his body were each like his Void core, responsible for drawing in Mana into him.

And while they drew in Void energy, they also tried to stabilize it, to make sure it didn't become too much for his body to handle.

But then, he figured he had access to this stabilization through the rune lines that he had drawn on the previous Void nodes.

And when he had concentrated on those runes, he figured it was like a tap—One that can be used to increase or decrease the flow of Void energy into him.

The realization hit, and Ryuk had decided to try it out, pushing the runes to their peak.

The absorption force was enough to blow forth a backhole, as all the Void energy poured into him.

The result?

A 100x increase in his absorption speed.

But the side effect?

His body was breaking down from the intense amount of energy that was entering him.

His body was struggling to adapt to the scale of energy, and it began disintegrating.

But then, Ryuk had figured—if it was his body that couldn't handle the influx of energy...

Then why not activate a stronger body?

That was what led him to activate the strongest part of his body—His Knull Transformation.

And now, in his transformation, he was able to stop his body from simply disintegrating from too much energy.

But what he couldn't stop was the mutation that occasionally rippled off of him, forming weird deformations all over.

But they were unbalanced, fanning out as soon as they came

The system was trying to convince him to stop, due to its inability to overseer what was going on anymore. But Ryuk wasn't going to stop.

Not until he reached the maximum amount of power his Knull body could take.

[Congratulations, Sternum Node has been completed!]

And it had barely been ten minutes after he received the notification when his Knull body also began disintegrating, his red scales spilling off into ashes. But then—

"Activate Draconic Overlord!"

He ordered in an instant as his body rapidly expanded into a hulking, 50-meter-tall titan, covered in glimmering blue scales, his Draconic blood overriding that of his Knull transformation once more.

The absorption speed shot through the roof as the notification flashed:

[Congratulations, Lung Node has now been completed!]

Ryuk's body squirmed from the power as his teeth ground together, space beneath him stretching before shattering into pieces. And once more, he felt it again—

The feeling disintegrating into nothing, as his blue Draconic scales began getting turned into ashes.

But he bit down harder as he forced out:

"Activate Frost-Borne Calamity Dragon!"

He ordered, as his pitch-black eyes gained cataracts of silvery white within them, and an incredible wave of ice froze up to Ryuk's chest, his form rapidly expanding as it tried to become something even more.

Yet—

"ARRGGGGHHH!!!"

A groan of pain left his lips as his transformation was forcefully halted, its energy getting sucked off into inverse.

The absorption speed now reached up to a deafening 200x increase, and the notifications began glitching dangerously.

[Congratulations on forming the Cervical Node.]

With e each node being completed, Node slits was appearing out of Ryuk's skin. It became another vortex that absorbed the incoming energy, further increasing the amount of energy going into him.

The next object was the back of his skull, which soon split open, as another node erupted within them.

[Congratulations on forming the Occipital Node!]

[The Survival Rate of the Host has dropped down to 5%.]

[If you don't stop now, you're as good as gone!]

The system notification flashed, and Ryuk gave one last push, tuning his control of every form and node to the max.

His Frost-Borne transformation was instantly broken through—completely—quickly followed by the Draconic Overlord, and then his Knull transformation folded.

[Congratulations on forming the last Node: The Eye Node!]

The system notification flashed, as a slit opened up right on Ryuk's forehead, his eyes straining into red and black—and in the next instant:

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

A shocking explosion of Void energy as the backhole around him collapsed, sending a wave of power that blasted apart the huge masses present in the void.

And then, a figure slowly floated down onto the platform, landing on it, amidst the cracks that enveloped.

On his body, various eyes twisted in and out of his neck, chest, and legs, making him resemble an eldritch creature from hell.

But unfortunately, he was far too gone to notice the change.

________-

Silence.

An endless silence.

A creeping Void that he felt enveloping his mind, crowding over his thoughts. Yet before they swallowed him up completely, his eyes flickered open—to a new sight.

The sight of a throne hall.

A familiar throne hall, where seated were two figures, upright on the thrones as they sighted Ryuk leaning against the world in front of them, head slightly dropping.

"And look who's back here once more…"

The voice of the crimson-scaled dragon rang out as Ryuk slowly raised up his head, looking at both of the Ryuk.

"Long time…" he called out, his voice unusually thick within him, as the red-scaled Ryuk grinned before he pointed.

"Look at yourself, Ryuk. What do you notice?" he said.

But then, Ryuk chuckled.

"I noticed you finally called me by my name. Ryuk."

He said, as the crimson-scaled dragon's eyes twitched.

But then Ryuk turned his head, and realized the horror his soul-form had become.

"You went too far."