The Lesser One's Offspring

*Swish!*

Just like when he had chosen Tokugawa the last time, Ryu's entire figure disappeared. The depressing walls were gone, and now, he was in the same arena he was used to. The sun shone brightly, its rays were warm and made Ryu feel pleasant. The air was fresh, and Ryu could even slightly hear the sound of the air current. As Ryu had expected, Tokugawa's corpse wasn't there.

Ryu didn't pay attention to the arena anymore and looked in front of him.

There, 50 meters away, stood an exceptionally tall man. Unlike Tokugawa, his skin was just like a human, light, and he didn't have horns protruding out of his head. His height easily reached 2 meters, but his body was incredibly thin, which shocked Ryu. Considering the All-Seeing's strength rating of 2, he had expected him to be an extremely muscular man, but that wasn't the case.

What bothered Ryu the most, however, was the fact that the man was entirely naked. Although Tokugawa was naked as well, at least he didn't have his genitals, as they seemed to have disappeared. This man, however, still had his genitals out in the open.

[Three]

Ryu's face contorted a bit, but then he focused and stared straight into the man's eyes, and he was incredibly surprised by what he had seen. The man's eyes were wide open- no, they were so wide open that Ryu didn't think it was possible. Additionally, his eyes were staring at Ryu, bloodshot. There were even blood tears falling from them. However, what surprised Ryu the most was what he had seen in that man's eyes; terror, anxiety, and hopelessness. They weren't the eyes of a fighter, no, but instead, they seemed like the eyes of a man who had seen things that no human should ever see.

'What the hell is this?' Ryu felt a bit uncomfortable when he looked into that man's eyes. His hands shook unconsciously the more he stared at that man. That man didn't look like a fighter, not at all. Instead, he looked like a defenseless human that didn't even want to interact with Ryu.

[Two]

'No,' Ryu quickly reigned in his emotions and steeled his mind. 'This is a death match, I can't be wavered by stuff like this. Besides, he might be doing this to trick me.'

Ryu curled his hands into a fist, and his eyes slowly turned cold. Even if this person truly didn't want to fight, Ryu would still have to kill him. Otherwise, he won't be able to leave this match, and even if he did, Ryu didn't think that the system would allow him to leave the place until he finished all 3 matches.

Slowly, Ryu's eyes turned colder and colder, until they were completely empty, as if he was a machine now. He had emitted a faint, but ice-cold killing intent that could make someone shiver.

[One]

Ryu's gritted his teeth and opened his right hand. This man had a lower body control level compared to Tokugawa, so Ryu didn't know how efficiently this man could move. He planned to use his fireball the moment the fight started, and he planned to charge it to its full. That way, this man, with his durability rating of 1.2, should be instantly killed. Ryu didn't want to instantly kill this man, but there was such a loud ringing noise in Ryu's mind that it even caused him to be dizzy. His instincts were all screaming, screaming way, way louder than they had ever before. He didn't feel the excitement he usually felt for fighting, he didn't feel the need to learn right now, but rather, all he felt was the need to instantly kill this person for something horrible happened.

Suddenly, Ryu saw the man's mouth move. No sound came from it, but Ryu could roughly read the man's lips to know what he was saying;

"Run..."

That was what the man wanted to say, and Ryu felt quite startled by this. Still, he didn't waver one bit, and his eyes were still glued to the man. He saw the man move his mouth again;

"Run... away..." The man mouthed, as the tears of blood dropped at a faster rate than normal. Still, Ryu was motionless like a mountain, his right hand still open.

[BEGIN!]

The instant the window signaled the start of the battle, Ryu immediately muttered "Fireball.", and a ball of flames appeared in front of the right hand. He hadn't lifted his hand towards the man yet and only planned to do so at the last moment. The fire was so hot that it burned anything that was near it, including Ryu's clothes. It had even started to lightly burn Ryu's skin, causing a disgusting stench of burned flesh. Still, Ryu ignored the pain even though it was incredibly painful.

However, Ryu's mind was startled for a moment, and his eyes widened as heard a blood-curdling shout from the man;

"RUN... AWAY!"

The man shouted with all of his might, his voice incredibly hoarse, and broken. His expression was that of a man who was absolutely terrified, not the type to kill Ryu.

Ryu gritted his teeth even harder and focused his mind on the fireball.

Suddenly, Ryu saw the window appear in front of him, and he felt his mind panic.

[The All-Seeing (Naruhito) had unconsciously used the magical ability <Summoning: The Lesser One's Offspring "?????": Level ??>]

Ryu heard and felt his heartbeat quickening and beads of sweat started appearing on his forehead. 'Already?' Ryu thought as he read the window, his eyes wide open.

Ryu cursed in his mind but still didn't stop charging his fireball. He had truly just hoped that whatever this 'Naruhito' guy was summoning... wasn't something that could instantly kill him.

'Two seconds...' Ryu counted the time he had been charging the fireball, and he felt the mana in his mind rapidly declining.

Suddenly, Ryu saw that just above Naruhito, gaps... in space, appeared. As if space itself was torn asunder, and showed an endless void.

Something... No, Ryu wasn't even sure if it was 'something' perse, but that was the best he could think of. Somethings... had begun to slowly appear from within those gaps.

Ryu's eyes widened as he saw those "things" come out. They weren't "things" in a normal sense, and he couldn't even describe them properly. It was as if language was unable to explain what these were.

'3 seconds...!' Ryu managed to calm his mind a bit, but it was barely helpful. Although charging the fireball was a bit painful for his mind, that wasn't what caused Ryu's mind to have such a sudden pain. It was as if there was a knife being planted into his brain the moment he caught a glimpse of those approaching things.

In those entire 3 seconds, Naruhito was constantly screaming in terror, shouting for Ryu to run away. But Ryu had nowhere to run, for the arena was a colosseum with walls so high that it reached hundreds of meters in height.

As the 'things' began to show themselves more, Ryu's eyes shook, and his mind rumbled. He only caught a glimpse, a mere fraction of what these things were, but now that he could 'see' them more clearly, he felt an approaching sense of doom.

[The Skill <Danger Sense> had been activated]

Suddenly, Ryu's danger sense activated, and an image appeared in Ryu's mind.

It was him still charging his fireball, his face full of panic and fear. That 'Ineffable' thing wasn't in view, as if the danger sense had purposely omitted it. Then, the image in Ryu's mind suddenly turned black, as if that vision was all there was for Ryu to see.

As the vision disappeared, Ryu felt like his mind was about to explode. Instinctively, he lifted his hand towards Naruhito, his eyes shaking violently. He didn't know what the thing- if it could even be called a thing- was, but just glancing at a portion of its approaching form caused Ryu's mind to feel fear, fear that was constantly rising.

'4... seconds...!'

Then, as the things started to crawl out of the gaps in space, a sudden new gap in space appeared tens of meters above Naruhito. This gap was astronomically large as if what was approaching was a mountain.

Ryu's mind suddenly stopped, as the 'thing' from that huge gap slowly started to 'appear'. Ryu only 'saw' a portion of the thing approaching from that massive gap, and suddenly, uncontrollable fear took over his body. He didn't know what was happening, he didn't know why he was afraid. Even if he died, he would still be brought back to the resting room, and yet, just seeing an infinitesimally small portion of that 'thing' had caused Ryu's entire body to shrivel uncontrollably.

"5... seconds..." Ryu blurted out instinctively, and like a bullet, Ryu's fireball shot out towards Naruhito- even though it was mostly because Ryu had lost control of his mind.

"NO!" Naruhito shouted with all of his might, his eyes shaking violently. However, he wasn't shaking at the fast-approaching fireball, but rather at Ryu for not running away.

And yet, the moment the fireball shot out, Ryu's mind turned blank as he 'saw' more of that enormous figure. The moment he did, he felt like time had slowed down to a crawl.

That... 'thing'... couldn't be described. It was a contradiction of all things, both that existed, and didn't exist, or at least, that was what Ryu's mind suddenly thought. That was what Ryu thought would do best to explain at least a portion of this monstrosity. That 'thing' didn't exist, it had no matter, and yet it was right there.

Ineffable, Indescribable, utterly horrible. Ryu tried to avert his eyes away, but he couldn't. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't do anything about it. It was as if his eyes simply refused to listen to him.

Ryu tried his best to comprehend what this thing was, but he simply couldn't. It was something out of everything Ryu knew. It wasn't of Earth, nor of the great outer space, but something beyond that. Its properties defied reality and its laws as if they didn't exist to this being. It had ineffable properties, didn't obey the world's natural laws, and instead was tied to completely different laws that were not of the world Ryu knew. Ryu could see in the corner of his eyes the world around him crumbling. The clouds were somehow turning elastic, contradicting the physics of the world. The space was being contorted. The marble floor tiles were floating and disappearing out of existence, and the sky began to turn into a completely ineffable color, something that never existed, nor would it ever exist.

All things shook; the marble ground, the air, the sky, the colors, everything was shaking in front of this terrifying, unknowable, all-powerful being. It was as if everything had a mind, despite being inanimate, and all of them were experiencing the same thing as Ryu.

[You are in the presence of "?????". Higher Being's knowledge is flooding and corrupting your mind.]

[You have been inflicted with <Lower One's Presence: level 2>. Your mind and soul are killing themselves to evade "?????", your entire body quakes with fear <Absolute Fear: level 2>, your existence is slowly erasing itself just so that it would run away from "?????", and your sanity is dying <Absolute Insanity: level 2>]

The system appeared in front of Ryu, yet it hadn't caught Ryu's attention. It was as if the system didn't even exist.

This thing was... simply too horrifying for Ryu. His entire body was shaking violently, and tears of blood began to drip from his eyes, as his brain, body, and mind began to kill themselves just so that they can escape this horrifying presence.

All of this suffering had happened in less than a second. Blood began to leak from all of Ryu's facial orifices, and his eyes were turning bloodshot as the tears of blood had begun to drip more and more. Then, suddenly, all of Ryu's senses with the exception of sight had disappeared.

[Your four senses have disappeared, and your sense of sight is being protected by "?????" In order to witness it.]

As Ryu was dying in the mere presence of this contradiction of a being, his fireball hadn't been approaching Naruhito. However, it was shaking very slightly, and its flames were violently contorting, becoming dimmer and brighter at the same time. It was moving towards Naruhito at a disgusting speed, many times faster than Ryu's speed. In less than a second, it had managed to cross a 40-meter distance and was about to make contact with Naruhito.

Naruhito, while crying over Ryu's misfortune and loudly shouting, finally noticed the approaching fireball. His eyes widened in fear- but not of the fireball, but of the thing he was spawning. He glanced at the gaps in space and noticed that the 'thing' hadn't fully appeared in reality yet. Naruhito's eyes glinted, as a sudden light began to fill them.

'This...' Naruhito thought, as many thoughts flooded his mind, '...Is my chance!'

Naruhito turned his attention toward the fast-approaching fireball, and instead of running away to dodge it, he did the unthinkable;

He did run, yes, but not away from the fireball, but towards it! He didn't seem to be afraid of the fireball, but rather, he seemed like he was excited by it, as happiness flooded his eyes. He wasn't afraid of death, no way. Naruhito had long since stopped fearing death altogether the first time he had seen this 'thing'. This thing swallowed death itself, and all concepts of the world did not apply to it- hell, Naruhito wasn't sure if an idea could even be applied to this 'thing' that rejected all ideas. This thing did not exist, did not have a body, did not have a soul, did not have a mind, and lacked an idea entirely, for no idea could properly describe it, for nothing could form the idea of this 'thing'.

And yet, this thing could move, could act and think like it had a mind, and it clearly existed, but Naruhito knew this was merely how this being was; they were incomprehensible existences to humanity, lacking all things that humanity thought were necessary, and yet still 'existed' like they were nothing. They were, in simple terms, a contradiction. The nemesis of existence, and all things that exist or will ever exist.

As Naruhito ran toward the fireball, the 'thing', or its limbs, suddenly accelerated, getting out of the gaps in space at an alarming rate. Naruhito felt his mind panic at the sight of this. Instantly, he willed himself to move at his upper limit, and unbeknownst to him, adrenaline began to flood his entire body. He bend his body forward and pointed his head at Ryu's fireball.

One of the thing's 'limbs' had suddenly struck at the fireball, its speed far higher than both the fireball and Naruhito.

"HAHAHAHA!" Naruhito suddenly laughed, and the fear in his eyes disappeared, instead being filled with hope, "Too late, you bastard!"

The moment he had said this, Ryu's fireball was only a few centimeters away from Naruhito. Naruhito smiled happily, his eyes shining brightly, and tears were falling from his eyes. Except, they weren't tears of blood, but normal tears.

'At last... I'm going to see you again, Mio...'

Then, in the next moment, Ryu's fireball made contact with Naruhito's head, and-

*KA-BOOM!*

-violently exploded. A beautiful, yet frightening bright light appeared, and a weak shockwave soon followed after.

The 'thing', its limb, had suddenly stopped mid-air. Naruhito's entire figure was covered in a cloud of smoke, and the ground had a crater that was 1 meter in radius.

*Splash*

There was a splashing sound in that cloud of dust, and shortly after, the smoke slowly dissipated, and there, in the middle of that crater... was Naruhito's body, laying on the ground, everything from the neck upward had ceased to exist, blown to pieces by the powerful explosion. His durability stood no chance against a fully charged fireball.

In the next moment, Ryu, who had his arms erased from existence by the being's presence, had his mind and soul die right after Naruhito had died. His sanity dipped so low that his own body, soul, and mind were killing themselves just to flee from this terrifying eldritch presence. The rest of his body began to slowly disappear, turning into particles. His body swayed in the air, and he fell to the ground as his legs disappeared, landing face-first into the ground, his eyes still wide open in shock and terror.

Then, the 'thing' suddenly "disappeared". The clouds regained their normal shape, the sky returned to its normal color, and the gaps in space disappeared, taking the 'thing' away with it.

[Congratulations on defeating the All-Seeing (Naruhito)! Your level has risen from 2 to 3! You have gained 200 points!]

However, Ryu did not react, for his mind had already died, and his brain already killed itself by sending out signals to end itself.

A few moments passed, before a sudden green hue covered Ryu's body, as a new window had appeared.

[Detected that the host (Ryu) had been inflicted with a Lower One's presence.

Restoring the host's sanity...

Restoring the mind...

Restoring the soul...

Restoring the body...

Removing all memories affiliated with the Lower One's Offspring "?????" in order to retain the host's sanity.

Returning to the resting room...]

And like that, Ryu's figure suddenly disappeared. All the remained in the arena was the body of Naruhito, his head already gone. However, after a few moments of utter silence, something incredible happened.

In the puddle of blood that Naruhito was laying on, something began to form near his head.

*Pop!*

In just a few moments, a pair of... eyeballs had appeared from Naruhito's blood.