SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 398: The Fall of the Thal’zar [XII]

Kaedor spoke first.

"Has your curiosity finally been satisfied?" he asked. "After all these days. After standing beside that thing day after day." His fingers curled slowly, claws scraping faintly against his palm. "You vanished, then returned and turned my family into targets. You attacked the Thal’zar. All of it, for curiosity."

He stepped closer, eyes fixed on Icarus.

"I want a single answer," Kaedor said. "Was it worth it? Is your curiosity satisfied now?"

Icarus did not answer. He remained still, gaze locked on Kaedor, fury visible in the tension of his jaw rather than in words. For several seconds he simply watched him, then his eyes shifted, drifting away from Kaedor and settling on the Void Creature instead.

The days after the experiment surfaced in his thoughts. After intelligence took root. Long hours spent speaking with something that should not have been able to respond. Questions asked in turns. Icarus had demanded knowledge of the void, of existence beyond structure, of endings that did not conclude. In return, the creature had asked its own questions about this world, about intent, about why beings clung so desperately to something so fragile.

From the beginning, Icarus had known the odds.

His survival had never been likely.

Even so, he had spoken. He had answered. He had taken knowledge that did not belong here and offered it to something whose nature was destruction itself. Void creatures did not seek balance or control. They sought collapse. Knowing that had not stopped him.

It had only made the choice clearer.

Kaedor watched him, waiting, anger compressed rather than unleashed.

Whatever answer Kaedor wanted, whatever justification he was searching for, no longer had the power to change anything.

Icarus finally spoke.

His eyes remained on the Void Creature as he did, voice calm, almost reflective.

"Yes," he said. "I am more than satisfied."

The words were not meant for Kaedor.

"My curiosity has been answered," Icarus continued, still looking at the creature. "Completely."

Only then did he turn his head slightly, just enough to acknowledge Kaedor’s presence.

"Are you sure you don’t want to know what I learned before we die?"

Disgust crossed Kaedor’s expression at once.

"Enough," he said sharply. "Be silent, Icarus." His voice hardened further as he added, "My family lives. That was the condition."

A faint smile touched Icarus’s lips, thin and cold.

"Yes, yes," he replied. "Then it’s time to work for that."

The Void Creature spoke as well, its voice rough and uneven, carrying a weight that did not belong to sound alone.

"I will assist."

Kaedor and Icarus did not move.

Neither of them could see what the creature was doing, yet the change was unmistakable. The air around them thickened, pressure building without heat or wind. The space itself felt altered, as if something unseen was being pulled into alignment.

Everything went still.

Kaedor became aware of nothing but his own breathing, and the steady beat of his heart inside his chest. The space around him felt tight, compressed, as if the chamber were holding its breath along with him.

Then it came.

KRSHHH.

The sound tore through the air, harsh and grating, like stone being split apart from the inside.

KRSHHH.

Again. Closer. Louder.

A rift simply opened.

One moment there was empty space. The next, a vertical aperture stood where nothing had been, its edges unstable, its interior dark and depthless, like a passage that should not exist in that space.

KRSHHH.

The sound followed, sharp and wrong, echoing through the chamber.

Another rift opened.

Then another.

They did not emerge from walls or ceilings. Some formed in midair, suspended without support. Others appeared just above the stone floor, hovering as if gravity did not apply to them. They arrived without pattern, without sequence, each one asserting its presence with quiet inevitability.

KRSHHH.

KRSHHH.

The noise repeated as more portals manifested, filling the space between the pillars and statues. The room did not collapse. It did not resist.

Then the sound came from beyond.

From the tunnels.

From deep below.

From above the chamber itself.

Kaedor understood immediately.

These rifts were not confined to this place. They were opening throughout the castle, spreading through the underground passages and foundations alike.

The dimensional chaos was no longer centered in one room.

It was everywhere.

Kaedor snapped.

The realization hit him all at once. The Void Creature had no right to do this. No right to tear open space across Thal’zar territory, no right to drag his lands deeper into chaos. Everything he had planned, every calculation he had made, was being pulled out of his hands.

His claws burst from his fingers.

In a single motion he crossed the distance, slamming the Void Creature into the stone floor and pinning it there with brutal force. The impact cracked the surface beneath them. Kaedor leaned down, claws poised at its throat, ready to finish it where it lay.

"Undo the rifts," he growled.

The Void Creature did not react.

It did not resist. It did not answer.

Icarus’s voice cut in immediately, cold and perfectly clear.

"Kaedor," he said. "This is not a warning."

Kaedor froze, muscles locked tight, breath heavy through clenched teeth.

"If you do not step away from the Void Creature in the next two seconds," Icarus continued, "your family dies."

Kaedor turned his head slightly, eyes burning.

"I will let them rot in the beds you left them in," Icarus went on, tone flat, precise. "They will feel their organs fail one by one. I will not let them die. I will keep them alive while they suffer."

The words landed with surgical cruelty.

Kaedor’s claws trembled.

For a heartbeat longer, it looked as if he might ignore it.

Then, slowly, against every instinct screaming inside him, he withdrew.

He stepped back from the Void Creature, fists clenched so tightly blood seeped between his fingers. His jaw locked, rage swallowed rather than released.

Obedience tasted worse than death.

But his family was still breathing. That was enough.

The wall where the sealed door stood detonated.

Stone shattered outward in a violent surge, forcing all three inside to shield themselves as fragments tore through the chamber. Dust and broken rock filled the air, the shockwave rippling across the floor.

Through the collapse, a figure emerged.

Valttair stepped through the breach, sword already in hand. The blade burned with radiant light, its glow cutting through the dust as his presence crushed the space around him. His expression was stripped bare of restraint, fury sharpened into focus.

His eyes locked onto Kaedor. "What have you done, Kaedor?"

Kaedor turned, anger flaring alongside something darker. Guilt. Frustration. Helplessness.

"I protected my family," he snapped back.

He moved to strike.

Roots erupted from the ground in an instant. Thick, living coils surged upward, wrapping around Kaedor’s limbs and dragging his momentum aside. Elenara stood firm, eyes hard as she redirected him away from Valttair, forcing the clash onto herself instead.

Valttair did not spare them another glance.

He advanced past the struggle, boots crunching over debris, gaze fixed on the remaining two. Icarus. The Void Creature.

The chaos had already spread. From the rifts beyond the chamber, distorted shapes poured through, clashing with the soldiers who had made it this far. Steel rang. Shouts echoed. The tunnels and the castle above bled into the same collapsing space.

Valttair stopped within striking distance.

His sword lifted slightly.

"You die here."