The frigid air crackled with tension as Koll's eyes widened, staring into the abyss of Revant's palm. Time stretched like pulled taffy—a heartbeat that felt like an eternity.
Then Koll smiled.
It was a razor-thin expression, devoid of warmth, carved from pure malice.
"You think I'm some common prey to be devoured?"
His form flickered, becoming translucent as smoke, and Revant's hand passed through empty air. Koll rematerialized ten meters away, his pale fingers dancing through complex gestures.
"That was just the appetizer."
The ice beneath their feet began to crack and splinter, not from force, but as if reality itself were fracturing. Dark veins spread across the frozen surface like a spider's web, and from each crack emerged not swords this time, but chains—obsidian links that writhed with their own malevolent life.
Revant's expression didn't change, but his stance shifted almost imperceptibly. The mouth in his palm snapped shut with an audible click.