The air at the Jaeren estate tasted of ozone and iron. Koma stood amidst the ruins of a dynasty, watching smoke cord into the sun. The silence following the clash was more deafening than the explosions.
Even before the dust settled, Koma turned his cold, calculating gaze toward Kova.
"Kova," Koma said, his voice raspy but absolute. "I only wanted to kill Jaeren. His children have no quarrel with me."
"What about Jaeger", Kova said
"He is a loose thread. I want you to handle him later, but right now send the rest of the children to the Null Haven. Especially the girl with the pink flame."
Kova shifted, looking at the huddled figures trembling in the shadow of their fallen world. "Are you certain? It's easier to bury a bloodline than to cage one. Let me finish it. This rubble would make a fine tomb."
"It's not mercy, Kova. It's resource management," Koma replied, his eyes flaring. "A dead enemy is a memory, but a broken enemy is a tool. We have enough memories, but not enough labor for what's coming. Now let's leave."
Kova moved like a blurred shadow. With mechanical precision, he snatched the siblings Jester, Joker, Jala, Jin, and Juno, ignoring their screams. He initiated the transfer, casting them into the cold darkness of the Null Haven.
As Kova returned, Jaeren was laying defeated. He was a mountain of a man reduced to a heap of broken pride. Koma signaled Kaola, their telepathic anchor waiting.
Kaola. Link me to the children. All but Jaeger.
A sharp mental click echoed in his skull.Done, brother", Kaola's voice whispered.
"Hear me," Koma's voice sliced through the minds of the children, now miles away. He didn't shout. He didn't have to. "Your father chose treason, and it led to this crater. You are now the property of the Koma Speedhardt.
Choose to follow the Speedhardt line, or follow your father into the dirt. There is no third option. Kaola, unlink me."
Koma's posture finally sagged. His Yen leaked from his pores in a thin violet mist as the adrenaline faded. "Kova. Grab the body. Open the portal. I want to be back in the mountain before the moon rises."
Kova didn't lean down. Instead, a thick, slimy void tentacle erupted from his shadow, coiling around Jaeren's neck with a wet, rhythmic pulse. It began to hoist the massive corpse like a piece of meat.
Koma's eyes widened slightly. He took a small, involuntary step back, his skin crawling. "Must you use such foul methods? That tail is beneath us, brother. Use your hands."
Kova scoffed, the sound sharp and cynical as the tentacle retreated into the dark. He reached down and heaved the heavy body onto his shoulder with a grunt of physical effort. He adjusted the weight, the armor of the dead man grinding against his own.
"Do you really think they'll submit after seeing their father like this?" Kova asked, his voice strained by the load. "They saw him die." "Fear is the only parent they have left," Koma said.
He began to limp toward the jagged, tooth like maw of the void portal, his knees shaking.
The air distorted. In the broad daylight, Jaeger's White Flames were invisible. They were a mere shimmer in the heat. He lunged with a frantic, desperate rage.
Koma felt the shift in the air long before the strike landed. He didn't move. He didn't raise a hand to defend himself. He simply stood there, watching the shimmer approach with a look of bored expectation. Jaeger's fist punched straight through Koma's midsection, the concentrated heat cauterizing a hole through his flesh before blood could spill.
Koma stopped at the threshold of the portal. He looked down at the gap in his body, seeing the sunlight passing through his own ribs.
"You found it," Koma whispered, his voice dangerously low. "The one moment I decided to let you think you had a chance."
Jaeger tried to pull his hand back, but the heat had fused the air between them. "Why won't you fall? I put a hole in your heart! You should be screaming in agony!"
Koma leaned in until their foreheads almost touched, his eyes cold and hollow. A low, wheezing chuckle began in the back of his throat, growing into a sharp, jagged laugh that rattled the empty space in his chest.
"My heart? What heart, Jaeger? This body doesn't hold a heart. You strike at a body that is hollow."
Kova stepped forward to intervene, but Koma waved a bloody hand. "No. Let him look. Let him see what a god looks like when he bleeds. He needs to understand the gap between us, even when I am broken."
Koma shoved himself off Jaeger's fist, the hole in his stomach hissing as he stepped back. "You hit the mark, and yet, I am still standing. Does that terrify you? You've reached the summit of your potential, only to find me waiting there, bored."
Jaeger fell back into the dirt, his invisible flames flickering out. Koma turned his back on him, walking into the infinite blackness of the portal without a second glance. He had already moved on to the next thought.