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The storm began inside the Fortress of Solitude.
Lightning and shadow and flame.
Igris didn't waste a heartbeat, he moved a blur of black and violet tearing through the air. His boots shattered the ice beneath him, his demon king longsword sweeping up in a perfect arc that ripped a streak of lightning toward Zod.
The general barely managed to raise his arms before the blast hit. Electricity crawled across his skin, searing through the Kryptonian as he was flung backward into a crystalline spire. The structure cracked, shards falling around him like glass rain. Zod hissed, the pain searing through every nerve.
He launched forward, sonic booms echoing in his wake. His fist caught Igris square in the chest, the impact sending the knight sliding back across the frost but not falling. Not even bending. Igris dug his heels in, the ground cracking beneath the pressure, before his sword came alive again.
One swing a storm of lightning.
Another a thunderclap.
The air screamed each time the blade carved through it. Zod darted between the strikes, his speed almost matching the knight's, but every parry sent tremors through his bones. When Igris's blade missed, it didn't matter; the aftershock of his swings exploded against the walls, carving molten scars into the Fortress.
Zod tried to rise above the storm. He shot into the air, eyes glowing crimson, and unleashed twin beams of heat vision. The beams struck Igris head-on, lighting the chamber in red fire but the knight raised his sword and the world split.
Shadow and Lightning bent around him.
Zod's eyes widened, disbelief flickering through his rage. "Impossible… this strength..."
Igris didn't respond. He lifted his left hand, and through Telekinesis he pulled Zod toward him, aiming to behead him with one strike in perfect slice.
Zod blasted through that attack, his punches caving in phantom chest, his heat vision tearing through shadow but Igris wouldn't go down. He rose again, reforming like smoke.
A strike came from behind. Igris had disappeared from sight, his movements faster than thought. The next instant, his sword pierced through the haze, cutting through Zod's guard and slamming into his ribs. The impact sent lightning coursing through the Kryptonian's body, and he roare, the sound raw and primal.
He countered with a backhand that sent Igris crashing through a crystalline wall. Shards rained down. Zod spat blood onto the frost, smirking through the pain. "You hit hard, wraith."
From within the dust, violet light flared.
Igris emerged, walking slowly cracking his neck, his aura burning brighter. He didn't bother with words. He simply charged again.
Zod met him halfway. The collision was apocalyptic. Shockwaves rippled outward, blowing out walls, sending chunks of ice and crystal flying into the storm outside. Every impact between them was thunderous.
Zod punched, Igris blocked sparks flew, ice shattered. Igris slashed, Zod dodged lightning carved across his cheek. They moved like war itself had taken shape one forged of steel and shadow, the other of fury and Kryptonian might.
For a moment, Zod thought he was winning. His strength surged. His heat vision burned hotter, his blows heavier. He forced Igris back, their clash tearing through the Fortress's core chamber. He smirked, breath ragged but eyes wild. "You can't win, you damned shade! I am Zod! My whole purpose in life is to conquer!"
The knight stopped retreating.
In one motion, Igris plunged his sword into the ice at his feet. The blade sank deep and then the world erupted.
From the fissure, a surge of lightning exploded upward, swallowing the chamber in white light. It speared through the walls, through Zod, through the air itself. The fortress trembled.
When the light dimmed, Zod was on one knee, smoke rising from his body, skin glowing faintly from absorbed radiation. His breath came in labored rasps, his vision swimming.
And through the haze, Igris walked forward. Step after heavy step. Sword dragging behind him, its edge carving glowing scars in the ground.
Zod forced a smile through bloodied teeth. "Still standing… impressive. But I..."
He never finished.
Igris moved faster than thought. A flash of violet. A streak of light.
His blade struck Zod's chest, cutting through skin, through pride. The Kryptonian gasped the sound sharp and small in the vast chamber. Lightning danced through his body as Igris twisted the blade, the shadows flaring around them in a silent roar.
Zod's eyes met the knight's burning helm no face, no mercy, only the reflection of his own defeat.
Smoke rose from the wound as Igris pulled the sword free and stepped back. Zod staggered, clutching his chest, his breathing broken.
He tried one last sneer, but his strength failed. "Y-you think this… ends with me…"
Igris didn't answer. He simply raised his blade again the gesture clean, final.
Zod fell to one knee, the ground beneath him spiderwebbing from the weight of his collapse. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, hissing as it met the cold. His breath came ragged, forced, the air trembling with each attempt to rise.
He tried one last act of defiance flickering weakly in his eyes. "This…is not the... end.."
The Bloodred knight's shadow stretched across the dying general. His blade in hand, the sword came down.
Zod's body slumped forward, breath gone, but not yet still. The impact cracked the ice beneath him. Igris intentionally missing. For a long moment, there was only the sound of his fading breath.
"Damn it all…" he whispered hoarsely, voice shaking. "I can't believe… I'm done at the hands of a cursed wraith…" His head lifted, red eyes dimming, unfocused. "Me… General Zod…" He coughed again, a harsh sound that tore at what was left of his pride. "Now I've put my whole duty… on that damned clone…"
The ceiling above them cracked before the last word could fully leave his mouth.
With a thunderous roar, Kamish the Shadow Dragon descended breaking through from above. The impact shook the entire place. The dragon's claw came down without precision or malice simply the careless might of something too large, too powerful to notice what it crushed beneath it.
Zod's world went dark in an instant, erased beneath the dragon's talon.
Kamish blinked once, then twice lifting his claw slightly to peer down beneath him. His glowing violet eyes flickered in mild confusion. The dragon turned his massive head toward Igris, who stood perfectly still a few paces away, cloak rippling in the frigid wind.
For a long, silent beat, the two simply looked at each other. Kamish's snout tilted slightly, an almost sheepish rumble leaving his throat.
Igris tilted his helmeted head just a fraction, his stance relaxed an expressionless stare that somehow managed to convey pure, wordless disbelief. If he said it out loud, it would've been something along the lines of, Seriously?
The dragon rumbled again, low and apologetic, his great wings rustling.
Igris exhaled softly, a sound almost human, he stepped forward, kneeling briefly to pick up what remained of the once-feared general.
Without ceremony, Igris secured the remains, then leapt onto Kamish's back in one smooth, powerful motion. The dragon's wings spread wide, blotting out the dim sun that hung low over the Arctic horizon.
Snow and ice exploded outward as Kamish launched into the sky, his colossal wings beating the frozen air into thunder. Igris sat wordless upon his back, cloak streaming behind him, sword in hand, the gleam of battle still alive in the rune-etched steel.
Below them, the Fortress of Solitude lay scarred and silent. Above, the clouds parted as the dragon ascended, disappearing into the bruised heavens two shadows, knight and dragon, returning to their king.
****
As the thunder of Kamish's wings faded into the distance, then from within the broken heart of the Fortress, light flickered. A pulse of blue-white energy shimmered against the wall soft at first, then steady until the familiar projection of Jor-El appeared once more.
He was a ghost made of memory and light, his expression somber, gaze fixed upon the ruin before him, the Fortress, the vision of hope almost scarred by the folly of another Kryptonian's pride.
Jor-El's hologram looked down at the place where Zod's body had once lain, where now only a scorch mark and a fragment of shattered armor and blood remained. His expression did not change, yet something weary crossed his features, an echo of pity… and inevitability.
"I warned you, old friend," he said softly, his voice carrying through the empty halls like a whisper from the past. "You believed you could conquer every world… bend it to your will. But there are worlds, Zod, that fight back."
He stepped forward, the holographic projection flickering slightly, light refracting through the shards of the crystalline walls.
"You saw this planet as weak...soft, unworthy of Krypton's shadow." His eyes drifted upward, following the faint trace in the sky left by Kamish's ascent.
There was a faint tremor in his holographic form as though the Fortress itself responded to his melancholy.
"You should have listened," Jor-El murmured, almost to himself. "Pride blinds even the greatest of soldiers."
The light around him began to fade, his form dissolving back into the fractured air. But before the projection vanished completely, his head turned one last time toward the open sky where the dragon and the knight had gone.
"This world will not kneel easily," he said, voice fading into static. "Kal, you just need to make sure to stop H'El."
Then he was gone, leaving only the cold wind and the slow, rhythmic drip of melting ice in the silence of the fortress.
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want