The air was as heavy as if lead blocks had been stacked upon it.The sky above the Realm of Death had already torn into hideous cracks, jagged lines like the deranged smile-marks of some lunatic painter.
Ethan stared forward.That familiar figure was twisting, reshaping, becoming something grotesque.
It was Karl.Or, more accurately: it had once been Karl.
His flesh was being devoured inch by inch by a black vortex.Bones and soul alike were ground up as if shoved into a blender.His eyes no longer held light—only the void, grinning with that nauseating emptiness.
"Eee–thaan…" The voice was a broken phonograph skipping, rising and falling with cold mockery. "Still struggling? How… laughable."
Ethan's chest rose and fell violently.He remembered the jokes Karl used to tell—back when they were still in the Bureau, drinking cheap coffee in the middle of the night.Karl once slapped the table and said: "When I die, don't cry. Just use me as a tool, okay?"Ethan never thought the line would turn into such a sick prophecy.
Now the void spoke through Karl's throat, like a clown imitating human speech:"He once wished to be your key. And now, wish fulfilled. Isn't it touching? Friendship? Sacrifice? Just another absurd transaction."
Ethan's grip on the Eye of Death tightened, veins bulging."Shut up! Karl isn't you!"
Karl's reply was a smile—rigid, mask-like, splitting his face like cracked porcelain."Why deny it? Look at me, Ethan. I'm the perfect Karl now—no hesitation, no fear… only eternity."
Black fumes spilled from his body, spreading like ink splashed across the world, staining air and earth with a rancid stench.The survivors staggered back in panic. Irene collapsed, whispering, "There's… nothing we can do anymore."
Ethan knew: if he raised his blade now, he'd be killing Karl's last remnant.If he didn't, this "vessel of the void" would consume the entire realm.
It was absurd.The choice had no right side.It was like an actor being asked on stage: "Do you want to die smiling, or die crying?"The audience always applauds. They never care about the actor's pain.
"Ethan!" Karl's voice suddenly roared, shrill with mockery."Didn't you always brag about human choice? Then choose!—Kill your friend, or be killed by your friend!"
Ethan's throat tightened. Then he laughed.Dry, weary, a laugh steeped in black humor."So that's it. Our friendship script had only two pages for an ending."
They clashed.The Eye of Death slammed against the vessel of void, their powers colliding like the worst section of a distorted symphony.Black fire and black mist tore at space itself, cracks spreading like mouths splitting open in the earth.
Each strike felt like Ethan was hitting Karl's soul.And every block, Karl's eyes flashed with a moment of pain—the old Karl screaming for help, immediately drowned under void's shadow.
"Ethan…" A brief flicker of clarity.Karl's lips trembled into a grotesque grin. "Don't… hesitate. I was always a joke anyway. Just… finish the act."
The next instant, the void consumed his face entirely."Enough of this stupid emotion-play. The curtain falls."
Ethan shut his eyes. When they opened again, the Eye of Death blazed to its peak.He roared, charged forward—black fire pierced Karl's chest.
Pop.A sound no louder than a champagne cork.Black liquid sprayed; the void screamed; Karl's body only shivered quietly.
And in the last sliver of space, that mask-like face managed to form a human smile."Thank you… at least you didn't leave me sitting in the comedy audience."
Then he shattered into fragments, dissolving into void.
Silence.Everyone froze in the ruins. Only the void's laughter lingered:
"Marvelous, marvelous. What a desperate resistance. Humanity always thinks it chooses—when in truth, it's just actors following a script. Applaud, audience, applaud!"
From the cracks in the sky, it sounded as if countless hands were clapping.Cold, absurd, like cheering for the last bad joke of mankind.
Ethan stood amid the wreckage, lips curling into a grin nearly insane."Karl, you were right. We're all jokes… except I'm not done with the script yet."