Kim did not laugh after that.
His previous laughter had been a boundary.
And beyond a boundary… there is only silence.
Nir was still standing behind him,
his eyes wide,
as if the words that had been spoken were not finished,
but still striking him, one after another.
Biath did not move.
He was looking at Kim
not as a friend,
not as a leader,
but as something he did not know whether to approach…
or flee from.
The air changed.
Not a wind,
but a sense that the place was no longer alone.
Kim felt it first.
The thing that had been born inside him from chaos
stirred.
It did not speak.
It did not scream.
It pressed.
As if a strange idea
was trying to remember itself.
Kim closed his eyes,
and for the first time in a long while…
he entered inward.
The inward was not darkness.
Nor was it light.
It was a space without definition.
Kim stood there,
with his full body,
but without wounds,
without black veins,
without pain.
And in front of him…
there was no being.
No monster.
It was a reflection.
A copy of him,
but with empty eyes,
an open chest,
and no heart.
The reflection spoke in a voice that was not a voice:
"Do you ask who created me?"
Kim did not answer.
The reflection said:
"No one created me.
I am a result.
Like you."
Kim stepped forward.
"I am the pain that could not be endured.
I am the question left unanswered.
I am the thing that happens when life, darkness, and nothingness…
are forced to coexist."
Kim gritted his teeth.
"And will you devour me?"
The reflection laughed,
a laugh without a mouth.
"No.
I am you. But when you stop lying to yourself."
Kim opened his eyes.
He returned.
To the outside.
At the same moment,
the air split a few meters away.
It was not a gate.
Nor a crack.
It was a presence imposed.
Nir fell to his knees.
Biath stepped back instinctively.
And the throne appeared.
Not made of matter,
but of permanence.
A being sat upon it,
not fully visible,
but enough to make you feel that looking at it
was a wrong decision.
Azrael,
Ruler of Stillness.
"As expected,"
Kim said in a lethally calm voice.
"You did not run."
Kim did not turn immediately.
He said without concern:
"I told you… this is not yours."
Azrael looked at Nir.
Then at Biath.
Then back at Kim.
"Are these the source of the disruption?"
The moment he spoke,
something invisible moved
toward Nir.
Not an attack.
But slow erasure.
Biath shouted,
but his voice did not reach.
Nir felt his body
losing its definition.
And at that moment…
Kim moved.
He did not use chaos.
He did not use darkness.
He did not use time.
He placed his hand
on the void in front of Nir,
and said in a low voice…
but the universe heard it:
"I told you…
do not mess with those I love."
The erasure stopped.
For the first time,
stillness retreated.
Azrael stared.
"So… this is your choice."
Kim raised his head.
His left eye did not move,
but the black veins
trembled.
"No,"
he said coldly.
"This is a warning."
Silence.
Then he added:
"And now…
return to your throne."
The chair cracked.
It did not shatter.
But it lost its legitimacy.
Azrael vanished
without another word.
But…
in distant places,
six thrones
felt the tremor.
And while Nir caught his breath
and Biath looked at Kim in silent terror…
Kim said in a terrifyingly calm voice:
"Now…
they will all come."