Abyss Draconis

"The first choice I had was to remain headstrong and tell myself I am the hero. To train hard, to work hard like you said—but I knew fate would never change."

"In the end, I would only be destroyed by Zar'kul—something the young, hot-blooded me would have been absolutely fine with."

"Dying to someone truly powerful."

"But then, I realized my stubbornness wouldn't just be the death of me—it would drag along the entirety of Endearth."

"The young, the old, the innocents, all dead due to my stubbornness..."

"Or I could accept that I was never meant to be the hero."

"To accept my fate as a nobody—and instead focus everything I had... on you."

"You, who held a chance, even if slight."

"In the end, I choose to cast aside my pride as a prodigy and step down for you." He said, but Ryuk only scoffed.

"Tch, fate, fate, fate. The same word is uttered by losers all year round."

"All I hear are excuses for incompetence. A reason not to try harder!" he said, pressing harder into Old Jack's chest.

But it was as though the old man could no longer hear his words, muttering distantly to himself.

"You said I shied away from difficulty? Hahaha." He laughed mockingly.

"What part of my life wasn't hard after that divination?"

"I had just begun to settle. To build a life with the one I loved. I was close to becoming a father."

"But for you, no...For Endearth... I left all of that behind."

"In the vision, I understood that the pain of love was what spurred your growth the most."

"I figured you worked in some specific way under the effect of love."

"Almost like a curse itself."

"And I understood—the only love I could control was if you loved my own daughter, and not someone else."

"And for that... I poisoned my lover," he said.

Ryuk's eyes widened in stunned disbelief, instinctively taking a step back from him.

"You... you did what!?"

"I poisoned the Half-Fallen One."

"A drug that delayed her ability to give birth."

"Morgiane was supposed to be born 31 years ago."

"But I delayed it with a drug—to make sure that when she came into the world, she'd be your age. To be able to control that factor of love."

"Or you might say... to be able to break your heart. Hahaha!"

"But I left my lover alone, with no answers to where I was. I poisoned her, and throughout the 18 years of my daughter's life, I never showed up."

"She never had a father."

"And I stood coldly by, watching silently as all of my pieces fell into place."

"All of it... was part of the chessboard too."

"All of this was to make sure you would grow into the man fate required. To ensure Zar'kul was defeated and the world saved..."

"And you think I shy away from difficulty? Tell me—what difficulty do you know of that is greater than turning your own family into pawns, just to save the world?"

"Give me one, Bloody Mutt..." he demanded, voice hoarse with conviction, as Ryuk looked on, stunned.

"You... you're a Monster!" Ryuk whispered, watching Old Jack amid the blood spilling from his mouth.

Only now could he truly begin piecing it all together—and the only conclusion he had was that this man was a monster.

If he truly was in love with the Half-Fallen One, and as she had stated, he had been missing for 50 years, then it all aligned.

But then, if fifty years had passed since Old Jack disappeared, and somehow, thirty years later, still during Old Jack's disappearance, she gave birth to Morgiane.

Just who was Morgiane's father? Did the Half-Fallen One get remarried?

Ryuk had never seen Morgiane mention that before.

He had always assumed her father was probably dead.

But when he woke up and saw had tilted to him so tenderly back then… It was love.

And that meant… Old Jack was the Half-Fallen's partner.

If she gave birth to Morgiane after not seeing Old Jack for nearly fifty years, then it must mean her pregnancy had somehow been delayed by over three decades.

And this was done by Old Jack to ensure Morgaine would be roughly the same age as he was, keeping that factor of love under his control.

In the end, Old Jack had turned his own family into pawns on a chessboard to create the Ryuk standing here today.

He had left his position as a genius and the lover of the Queen of the Fallens just to become a core seller in a place like Grade-E.

All just to make sure his vision came to pass to create the Ryuk who would defeat Zar'kul.

It was madness. Pure madness.

All for a single vision that could have easily gone wrong with any factor misplacing.

To sacrifice being a good lover, a good father, and a race's prodigy.

If one could just train hard and achieve the same goal, then why would any sane man choose this path?

Why would he turn his life upside down—just to ensure the vision came true, if he could have just trained hard for it?

"You know, there used to be something I never believed in, Ryuk."

"Karma," he said suddenly, drawing Ryuk's full attention.

"What goes around comes around. And now, I see it's true."

"I sacrificed everything to defeat Zar'kul. I sacrificed everything to save Endearth from destruction."

"And now, I will be sacrificed too—by the hands of the monster I bred."

"But it's fine."

"This should be punishment enough..."

"For forcing so many people into my ploy, without ever asking for their thoughts or permission."

"This... this must be Karma."

"A pity I never saw it coming like this."

"Maybe then... I would have done things differently..." he said, as more blood spilled from his mouth and his eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head.

[He'll die in 10 seconds…]

The system notification flashed before Ryuk's gaze as he watched Old Jack's breathing slow, and his breath slowly halting within him.

A single question raged through him.

"To Make Old Jack Live, or to Just Let Him Die..."