Campione: Strongest# 443: Ryuunosuke’s Advance, The Great Deep One!

Ryuunosuke Uryuu never considered himself a genius. He was simply an artist, and his medium was death.

His mentor among the Dead Apostles, the Fourteenth Ancestor, Valery Vandelstam—a man known as the Financial Demon King—was adamant that he was a prodigy, a talent rarely seen.

Honestly, was mastering the basic abilities of a Dead Apostle in two months truly that impressive? He hadn't found it difficult at all. Compared to the gruesome training he’d endured in his youth, it was almost laughably easy. He could now peel the flesh from bone, one sliver at a time, without letting his subject die.

“Banzai! Banzai!”

In a dark, grimy alley in Mifune City, Ryuunosuke gazed upon the still-living skeleton before him and cheered, laughing with the uninhibited joy of a child.

After several minutes of celebration, he meticulously arranged the severed pieces of flesh on the ground, forming them into a summoning circle.

“The great death artist, Ryuunosuke Uryuu, now begins the first Elder God summoning ritual!” he announced to the empty alley, clasping his hands in a theatrical salute and reciting the lines he’d crafted himself.

“Valery said the other rituals failed because they lacked mana. Now that I have it, this should be a guaranteed success.”

Ryuunosuke scratched his head, then placed his hands on the bloody circle and channeled his newfound power into it. The crimson-stained design began to thrum with a sickly energy. The ground beneath it rippled like water, and a massive, webbed hand clawed its way out.

Ryuunosuke’s eyes widened in delight as a figure emerged. It was an amphibian creature with the head of a fish-like frog and a powerful, gray-green body that rippled with muscle like a Terminator. Its limbs ended in webbed claws, and its skin was covered in slimy scales.

A Deep One, a creature torn from the pages of Cthulhu mythology, now stood in the alley.

“Mortal, was it you who summoned the Great Deep One?” a deep, guttural voice rumbled through the narrow space.

“So cool!!” Ryuunosuke clenched his fists and screamed at the sky.

“Hmm? Mortal, you—”

Before the Deep One could react, its body was sliced into eight pieces and scattered across the alley floor. Green blood slowly stained the ground.

“Sorry, sorry! My lord, I am so, so sorry!” Ryuunosuke knelt before the creature’s severed fish head, wiping away tears as a fresh wave of sobs wracked his body. “I just wanted to study your body structure! I really didn't mean to kill you!”

The Deep One’s glassy eyes stared at Ryuunosuke in abject horror. The way the human had gleefully dissected it, arranging its remains into various ‘artistic creations,’ terrified even a battle-hardened denizen of the deep.

Are all the humans on this planet monsters?

As its life faded, the Deep One roared, its voice hoarse and desperate. “...Mortal, Lord Cthulhu will not forgive you!!!”

“You’re not dead yet? Fantastic!” Ryuunosuke’s eyes lit up, his lips curving into a predatory grin as he raised the short knife in his hand.

—————

After finishing his work on the Deep One's remains and cleaning the scene, Ryuunosuke casually walked out of the alley, his hands tucked in his pockets. Standing at the entrance, he smiled at the bustling crowd on the street. “This human-repelling barrier really is useful.”

“That Deep One fellow kept screaming about a ‘Lord Cthulhu.’ Does that mean there are even cooler demons above him?”

Ryuunosuke wandered the streets of Mifune City, rubbing his chin with excitement.

“If that’s the case, I’ll need to find a much better sacrifice.” He scratched his head in frustration.

Just then, a conversation caught his ear. A few dozen meters away, Mikiya Kokutou was speaking to a classic Japanese beauty dressed in a white kimono.

“I’m Mikiya Kokutou. Uh, this is our second time meeting. I didn’t realize you went to this school. Could we be friends?”

“No.”

Ryuunosuke’s eyes widened as he stared at the young man.

Ordinary. He was utterly, painfully ordinary. Black hair, black eyes, a plain black suit. Even his glasses had more presence. Yet, to Ryuunosuke, Mikiya was exceptionally dazzling, almost blinding his Dead Apostle eyes.

It was precisely because of his ordinariness.

Ryuunosuke adored ordinary people. The more mundane they were, the more he cherished them. Only the ordinary, when shattered, produced the most exquisite expressions of despair.

And this youth… he was the very definition of ‘ordinary.’

“Cool! He’s the perfect subject!” Ryuunosuke clenched his fists and roared internally with excitement.

To kill him, to watch his despair, his terror, his anger, his resentment… Ryuunosuke imagined the youth’s final moments and shuddered with anticipation.

His feet padded silently on the pavement, leaving a series of afterimages without stirring the air. In an instant, Ryuunosuke appeared behind the young man and placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

“Hey, kid, interested in making another new friend? I’m Ryuunosuke Uryuu, a performance artist!”

“Huh?” Mikiya started, turning to face Ryuunosuke. He was surprised by the man’s overwhelmingly happy expression. But Mikiya, whose gentle personality had earned him the nickname ‘Mr. Nice Guy,’ could never bring himself to refuse a friendly overture from a stranger.

“Hello, I’m Mikiya Kokutou, a student at Kansan High School,” he said softly.

“Oh, a high school student! Can I just call you Mikiya?”

Mikiya offered a wry smile and nodded at Ryuunosuke’s overly familiar tone.

“By the way, Mikiya, I just moved here. Could you show me around?” Ryuunosuke asked, scratching his head with a look of distress.

“Um…”

Mikiya hesitated. He was supposed to be buying groceries for dinner. But seeing the man’s troubled expression, he couldn't find it in himself to refuse.

“Alright, Mr. Uryuu. But I only have an hour.”

“That’s plenty of time!” Ryuunosuke boomed with laughter. He threw an arm around Mikiya’s shoulder, and as if they were lifelong friends, they strode off into the city.