The ground was still shaking from the impact of the battle, and the air dripped blackness.
Lithia quickly turned, searching for Kim's shadow... but she didn't expect to see him standing directly behind her, his black dagger plunged deep into her body.
She felt the dagger consuming her... it wasn't just piercing her flesh, it was pulling her very existence.
Her limbs began to vanish... as if she were being erased from the world.
She screamed:
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
Kim looked at her without mercy, without hesitation, without any trace of the human who was once kind:
"You bragged to me... and you were arrogant too. And in the end? You will fall... while I remain standing."
He leaned closer and whispered near her ear, in a voice that made her bones tremble:
"Perish... so you may know your true rank before me.
You are... nothing.
Absolutely nothing, you wretch."
The words were like knives, but they were no worse than the feeling gnawing at her soul... she felt herself being dragged into an endless black void.
One last moment... one last question...
Is this the death of the weak?
But death didn't even grant her the time to ask.
And she vanished.
No trace of her remained... except the void.
Black Silence After the Storm
Kim's rage did not vanish with her departure.
He remained standing in his place, staring at the point of her disappearance... as if a faint light from her was still bothering him.
The air passed around him, carrying the echo of her screams...
And one voice managed to pierce the noise.
"Kim...
Kim...
Kim..."
It was Amun's voice, faint, hesitant... as if he feared coming too close to Kim's mind while he was in this state.
Kim slowly raised his head.
He replied in a low, tired voice... but something else was boiling inside:
"I was... calm during the fight."
But Amun knew the truth.
He knew Kim had never heard him inside that vortex.
Something else was moving. Something dark... approaching madness the fiercer the fight became.
Amun said with suppressed fear:
"Yes... I didn't speak so as not to distract you."
Kim closed his eyes...
And with a simple gesture, he brought down his domain completely.
The world contracted around them, the shadows faded, and the kingdom began to regain its true form...
But it was no longer the same.
The cracked walls... the scorched earth... the shredded buildings...
Everything bore witness that the one battle Kim fought...
Was capable of erasing an entire kingdom.
He stood amidst the ruin, and the air was still...
As if the place itself whispered:
This... is not human.