The dining hall was a wreck of shattered marble, broken glass, and silence thick enough to choke on. Irwin lay slumped amid the debris, groaning faintly, his monstrous frame deflating as the effects of TEMP Z burned out.
Isaac stood over him for a moment, calm and unbothered, brushing the dust from his sleeve as if nothing had happened. His eyes swept across the destruction, past the gaping servants and trembling relatives, before finally landing on his father.
For a heartbeat, no one dared to move.
Then Isaac exhaled softly. "Well," he murmured, half to himself, "that was disappointing."
He turned to leave… and then paused.
Without warning, his form began to blur. The surface of his boots rippled as though the ground beneath him had turned to water. Gasps erupted from every corner of the room as his body started to sink into the marble floor, inch by inch, until he vanished entirely, leaving only faint ripples of distorted light where he'd stood.
