Chapter — The God Who Flicked
Karma passed Torin without looking at him.
Then Raiyo.
Then Yamiya Miekō.
His eyes settled on Nyxus.
Nyxus still held the honeybun behind his back.
Karma smiled faintly.
"You can keep it."
Nyxus narrowed his eyes. "I was going to."
A laugh came from somewhere behind Karma.
One of the Chaotic Faction officers had appeared on the Battlefield without Torin noticing.
The man wore the insignia of a Lieutenant Colonel. Red Binary markings had been carved directly into his armor, each one distorted by Chaotic Energy until the symbols seemed unable to decide what language they belonged to.
The Lieutenant Colonel looked Nyxus up and down.
"This is Access Denied?"
Nyxus looked behind himself.
Then back at the officer.
"Probably."
The Lieutenant Colonel laughed.
Kaosu muttered, "He's going to regret that."
Halden, still struggling to breathe, looked toward him. "Which one?"
Kaosu didn't answer.
The Lieutenant Colonel stepped forward.
His Chaotic Energy unfolded into six jagged limbs behind him.
"Lieutenant Colonel Daiken Marr. Third Chaotic Regiment."
Nyxus nodded politely.
"Nyxus."
Daiken stared at him.
"I know."
"Oh."
Daiken's smile vanished.
He attacked.
Six chaotic limbs struck from different directions, each carrying a separate calamity sequence.
One aimed for Nyxus's throat.
Another for his spine.
Two attacked the ground beneath him.
The last pair split into branching vectors designed to punish whatever direction he dodged.
Nyxus didn't dodge.
White text filled his vision.
REQUEST:DAIKEN_STRIKE_ARRAY -> INTERACT WITH NYXUS
TARGET: VALIDOUTCOME: MULTIPLESTATUS: AUTHORIZED
Nyxus lifted one finger.
"Access Denied."
STATUS: DENIED
LOGICAL VALIDITY:FALSE
All six attacks continued.
None could reach him.
One passed through empty air beside his throat.
Another struck ground that Nyxus was no longer logically permitted to occupy as a valid target.
The remaining four contradicted one another and collapsed into static.
Daiken's face changed.
"What?"
Nyxus walked toward him.
Daiken attacked again.
Denied.
He generated a containment field.
Denied.
He attempted to create distance.
Nyxus looked at the field.
"No."
The distance collapsed.
Daiken stumbled backward.
Nyxus punched him once in the stomach.
Nothing cosmological happened.
Nothing exploded.
Daiken simply folded around the fist and hit the ground.
Nyxus looked down.
"That was easier than Kaosu."
Kaosu shouted from behind him, "Obviously."
Raiyo looked toward the unconscious officer.
"That man outranked most Corps commanders."
Nyxus shrugged.
"He should train more."
Voss stared at him.
Halden slowly looked toward Torin.
Torin smiled.
Halden raised one hand. "Don't."
Nyxus looked over.
"Thanks."
Halden shouted, "I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING."
Karma laughed.
Not at Daiken.
At Nyxus.
"Interesting."
Nyxus turned.
Karma rose from his throne.
The entire Karmic Battlefield seemed to tighten around him.
Karma looked at the unconscious Lieutenant Colonel, then back at Nyxus.
"Show me the real one."
Nyxus's smile faded.
"What?"
"Access Denied."
Karma held out one hand.
"The version you were saving."
For once, Nyxus didn't joke.
He looked toward Torin.
Then Kaosu.
Then Yamiya.
Then the Corps survivors scattered along the horizon.
White code flooded his vision.
Not one request.
Thousands.
Karma's presence had permissions buried beneath permissions.
Reality recognized him.
Space recognized him.
The Battlefield recognized him.
Even causality seemed reluctant to object.
Nyxus clenched his hand.
His aura erupted.
Silver-white code tore upward around him in violent streams.
The ground beneath his feet began losing access to his weight.
Nyxus floated.
Then rose.
Higher.
Higher.
Until he hung above the Battlefield with one hand stretched toward Karma.
The code changed.
ACCESS DENIED
MODIFIER DETECTED:OVERCLOCK
CURRENT OUTPUT:100%
110%
170%
241%
303%
Voss looked up.
His expression changed.
"Three hundred and three..."
Torin stared. "That's possible?"
Voss didn't answer.
Nyxus's voice carried across the Battlefield.
"Access Denied."
The world went silent.
TARGET:KARMA
REQUEST:KARMA -> INTERACT WITH LOCAL CONTINUUM
STATUS:DENIED
LOGICAL VALIDITY:FALSE
For one instant—
Karma disappeared from every authorized relationship around him.
The Battlefield stopped recognizing his ownership.
Space stopped correcting toward him.
Reality lost permission to accommodate him.
Even the throne behind him dissolved.
Halden whispered, "He did it."
Kaosu didn't celebrate.
He knew his father better.
Karma looked at the code surrounding him.
Then smiled.
"Better."
He raised one hand.
Nyxus's eyes widened.
Karma curled his middle finger against his thumb.
Kaosu's face changed.
"Nyxus—"
Flick.
No reality-assisted correction.
No Karmic repositioning.
No metaphysical substitution.
For the first time in millennia, Karma physically flicked something himself.
The sound split the Karmic Battlefield.
Nyxus's denial bent.
Then shattered.
The force continued.
The local universe broke first.
Behind it, the surrounding multiversal structure opened down the center like glass struck by an invisible hammer.
Stars vanished behind a white fracture stretching farther than sight.
Entire universal membranes shook apart along the path of the flick.
Nyxus was thrown from the sky.
He struck the ground once.
Bounced.
Then didn't move.
Torin shouted, "NYXUS!"
Yamiya ran toward him.
Kaosu stared at the fracture cutting through the multiverse.
Even Raiyo had stopped breathing.
Karma looked at his finger.
"Rusty."
Voss stared at him.
"That was a flick."
Karma heard him.
He smiled.
"Yes."
Voss looked toward the multiversal fracture.
Karma's amusement deepened.
"You seem confused."
He lifted the same hand.
"The gestures you've witnessed before were not mine."
Sorrow's surviving records flashed through Voss's mind.
The officers who vanished.
The weapons that disappeared.
The reality distortions surrounding Karma's smallest movements.
Karma continued.
"Reality usually performs them for me."
Kaosu's expression hardened.
Karma flexed his fingers.
"The difference matters."
Behind him, space slowly repaired the fracture.
Not because the damage was small.
Because something else was forcing the surrounding structures not to finish dying.