Kim felt no victory.
He left Orion alive…
but that eased nothing.
The anger did not fade.
It only changed shape.
It became silent.
Kim moved.
Not through space,
nor through time,
but through consequence.
The next trace was clear…
light…
suffocating.
Hope.
The world was brighter than it should be.
A white sky.
A sun that never sets.
Cities so clean they provoke disgust.
People smiling.
Not because they were happy…
but because they could not stop.
Everything here forced you to continue.
Kim stood in the middle of a vast square.
He did not look around.
He said calmly, "Come out."
The ruler appeared.
A human form…
white clothes…
eyes filled with pity.
He spoke in a warm voice:
"I feel your pain, Kim.
Hope can—"
Kim raised his head.
His features were empty.
No hatred.
No tears.
He said, "Be quiet."
The ruler laughed softly.
"I do not fight.
I keep people standing."
He extended his hand,
and a wave of light surged.
Happy memories.
Warm moments.
Images of Nir… smiling.
Kim stopped.
For one single second.
Then…
he drew the dagger.
Breaths of nothingness.
The light around him faded.
Not suddenly…
but as if the world held its breath.
The First Strike – Denial of Hope
A stab.
The ruler did not scream.
But the entire world trembled.
Smiles vanished.
People sat on the ground.
Not crying.
Not screaming.
Just…
no longer seeing a reason to stand.
The ruler said in shock,
"What have you done…?"
Kim replied,
"I showed them the truth without you."
The Second Strike – Betrayal of the Future
Kim stepped forward.
The sky began to crack.
The ruler said,
"Without me… they will kill themselves… they will collapse…"
Kim said,
"Did Nir collapse?
Or were you the one who decided he didn't deserve to go on?"
The dagger spun through the air.
The Third Strike – Slaughter of Meaning
He did not stab the body.
He stabbed the idea.
Hope itself screamed.
Not a sound…
but a collective sensation.
Every human in the world felt the weight of the question:
Why do I live?
And found no imposed answer.
The ruler fell to his knees.
His eyes empty.
He said,
"I… was protecting them…"
Kim approached.
And whispered in his ear,
"And I will end them."
Then…
he ended it.
The world did not explode.
It did not collapse.
It simply stopped.
Light turned into white ash.
The sky faded.
And the planet went dark slowly…
like a candle that had lied for too long.
Kim emerged from the void.
The anger in his chest did not calm.
But something had changed.
He no longer searched for screams.
He began searching for eternal silence.
And he said to himself,
"Now I know how they came to know the color black—
perhaps they learned it from my life."
Then he moved toward the next trace.