The Unfathomable Power of Krelious.
Nielan staggered backward, his golden eyes wide with shock. His breath came in ragged gasps as if the very universe had been ripped from his lungs.
"What… what just happened?!"
His voice trembled, barely audible over the deafening silence that followed.
Beside him, Zion stood frozen, his face pale. His lips parted, but no sound came out at first. When he finally spoke, his whisper was filled with disbelief.
"He… destroyed them. In one strike."
Tavis, the usually unshakable warrior, now trembled like a leaf in a storm. His hands clenched into fists, his knuckles white with fear.
"This… this is impossible!"
Then came the laughter—dark, amused, echoing through the void like the rumble of distant thunder. Krelious stood before them, his eyes gleaming with an otherworldly light. His lips curled into a smirk, as if this entire battle had been nothing more than a game to him.
"You think the Abyssal King was sealed because I couldn't kill him?" His voice was smooth, almost mocking. "No. I allowed it. I could have erased him eras ago."
Nielan's disbelief turned into denial. His mind refused to accept what his eyes had just witnessed.
"No… you must have cast an illusion!"
But Akermos, ever the voice of reason, shook his head slowly. His expression was grim, his voice hollow.
"It's real. All of it."
Krelious tilted his head, his amusement growing.
"Did you truly believe the Abyssal King could kill me?"
Nielan's voice was empty, drained of all hope.
"I knew you'd win… but not like this."
Amiss, the quiet observer, stood with her mouth slightly open. Her mind raced, trying to make sense of the impossible.
"I knew he was powerful… but this?"
Lenon, the usually composed strategist, found her voice shaking. Her whisper, though soft, carried the weight of regret.
"At this point… I'm starting to believe what Amiss said. Krelious… isn't easy to kill."
The words hung in the air, a confession of fear.
Deriss, her fingers clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, growled through gritted teeth.
"What do we do now? Our trump card was roasted like a damned chicken."
A collective shudder ran through the group. The Abyssal King—their last hope, their final weapon—had been reduced to nothing in the blink of an eye.
But Nielan refused to surrender. His golden eyes burned with defiance as he stepped forward, his voice sharp and unyielding.
"I am not finished, Krelious." He raised his hand, summoning his second gambit. "Here is my second trump card. I give to you… one zillion Chaos. Release them—NOW!"
The command shook the heavens. Reality itself tore open, and from the abyss beyond, an endless flood of writhing, screaming Chaos poured into the universe—a legion of nightmares given form.
Yet Krelious didn't even blink.
The moment the last of the Chaos emerged, he raised a single hand.
And then—
Annihilation.
A wave of absolute destruction rippled outward, erasing every last one of them from existence. The rulers watched, their faces frozen in horror, as the infinite army was unmade in less than a heartbeat.
Nielan's composure shattered.
"HOW?!" he roared, his voice raw with fury. "Damn everything you've done until now—it's simply too much! HOW?!"
Krelious only laughed—a rich, amused sound, as if this were all some grand joke.
Tavis, his patience snapping, snarled.
"Shut up, Krelious! Stop it with the fucking laugh—it's getting annoying!"
The room went deathly still.
Krelious's amusement faded. His gaze locked onto Tavis like a predator sighting prey.
"I see you still lack manners." His voice was deceptively soft. "Allow me to help you with that."
Before anyone could react—
BOOM.
A fist collided with Tavis's face with the force of a collapsing star. The impact sent him hurtling through dimensions, crashing through planets like glass, until he finally landed—hard—on a mutated world at the edge of existence. The planet split in half from the force of his landing.
Then, with a mere thought, Krelious pulled him back, dragging him through the void and depositing him at the meeting once more.
The message was clear.
No one spoke.
The rulers sat in stunned silence, the weight of Krelious's power pressing down on them like a collapsing sky.
Krelious sighed, shaking his head.
"To be honest… many of you here don't deserve to be called rulers."
His voice was calm, but the words cut deep.
"Our race is meant to be absolute. We are supposed to be the most powerful, the wisest, the most dominant and feared beings in existence. But we are not. Because we let fear into our souls. We let it eat us away."
His gaze darkened.
"One of us even got himself killed by a lower life form."
A beat.
"How disgraceful."
Nealon exploded.
"HOW COULD YOU SAY YOTON'S LIFE AND DEATH WAS A DISGRACE, KRELIOUS?! HE WAS A MEMBER OF OUR FACTION!"
Akermos quickly interjected, his voice strained.
"Nealon, restrain yourself! Do not speak to your High Head in such a manner—he has his reasons!"
But Nealon was beyond reason.
"I DON'T CARE IF THERE'S A REASON OR NOT!"
Krelious watched the brewing storm with detached amusement.
Then—
He moved.
A single gesture, and the Ruler's Palm descended upon them all, an invisible force locking every ruler in place.
To Be Continued.