Kim was waiting
for a tear in the sky,
a pressure in the void,
any sign of another ruler entering.
But nothing happened.
He said quietly, "Hiding doesn't make you smarter."
The reply came…
from inside Nir's mind.
— "And appearing doesn't make you stronger."
Nir gasped and fell to his knees.
Kim turned immediately.
"Get out of his mind."
A calm, deep laugh,
as if it came from a bottomless well.
— "I don't enter minds."
— "I live in the void between them."
Nir's features shifted.
Not possession.
But… confusion.
The voice said: "I am Eres.
Ruler of the Mental Realm of Silence."
The air stiffened.
All sounds vanished.
Even heartbeats felt distant.
Biath tried to move…
he couldn't.
Kim said, "You're the one who approached the Planet of Silence."
— "Of course."
— "It's the perfect place for me."
Eres finally appeared.
Not fully embodied.
Half features,
half transparent void.
Only one eye…
staring directly at Kim.
"I don't care about your strength,"
Eres said.
"Nor your threat.
Nor even the chaos you carry."
He stepped forward…
but the ground did not move.
"I care about only one thing."
He looked at Nir.
"Connections."
Nir trembled.
Eres said: "All your power, Kim…
is built on shared pain."
He paused.
"And I can sever it."
In a moment—
Nir forgot Kim's voice.
Forgot his face.
Forgot his name.
Nir said, empty, "Who are you…?"
Something stirred in Kim's chest.
Not anger.
But silent panic.
Kim said slowly, "Restore it."
Eres laughed.
"I didn't take it.
I only stopped the bridge."
He stepped closer.
"Join us.
The Council of Rulers.
Let me keep those you love…
without pain,
without fear,
without loss."
Kim remained silent.
Then he said a single sentence:
"You are worse than them."
Eres froze.
"Because you don't want to kill me."
Kim continued:
"You want to leave me alive…
alone."
Kim raised his hand.
He did not unleash energy.
He did not shout.
He only spoke a name.
A name that is not spoken.
The Mental Realm of Silence trembled.
Eres screamed for the first time,
"Stop—!"
But Kim continued:
"I never learned to cling to connections.
I learned how to turn them…
into a weapon."
Kim's voice returned to Nir's mind
like a stabbing light.
Eres collapsed backward.
Kim said, his tone dark and final:
"Your return is not a defeat.
It is an insult."
Then he whispered: "Do not touch those I love again."
Eres vanished.
The voice returned.
The air returned.
The pain returned.
Nir lifted his head slowly.
"Kim…?"
Kim didn't answer immediately.
He was staring at the sky.
Finally, he said, "Two."
Far away…
in seven different worlds,
the thrones moved.
One of them…
smiled.
Because the one coming
will not offer a deal.
The one coming
will start the war.