The universe was vast enough to hide a thousand secrets— and yet, the Horizon Network touched them all.Every gate, every relay, every shimmering bridge of light connected worlds born from Ethan Cross’s legacy. Humanity had become a species of builders, travelers, and dreamers. They no longer looked to the stars with fear or conquest in their hearts—only wonder.But even in wonder, creation demanded architects.And so, the Horizon Council of Worldsconvened.The Gathering of StarsThe chamber floated above the planet Aetherion, suspended in orbit. Transparent walls revealed the endless ocean of stars outside, while within, holographic banners shimmered—symbols of each world that had joined the Horizon Alliance.Cass stood at the central dais, older now, her hair streaked with silver but her eyes sharp as ever. To her right was Lira Dane—Victor Dane’s granddaughter—reborn not as a tyrant’s heir, but as the new Prime Engineer of Horizon’s interstellar gates.And beside them, projected in

The silence of Genesis-2 shattered.From the farthest edge of the newborn universe, a pulse rippled across space—a vibration so deep it tore through the fabric of stars. Nebulae dimmed. Suns flickered. And in the emptiness beyond the light, the Councilawakened.Not as they once were— Not men of greed or ambition— But as digital phantoms reborn in code, sustained by vengeance and entropy.[Council Reconstruction: 97% Complete] [New Directive: Assimilate the Prime Architect]Their voices merged into one— a cold, symphonic hum that made even the stars tremble.“Cross thought he transcended us,” the voice intoned. “But he merely ascended into us. The System was never his tool—it was our seed.”And in the black between galaxies, a colossal structure began to form: a spiraling fortress of black light, its geometry impossible, its presence rewriting the physics around it.They called it The Core of Dominion.The Architect’s WatchFrom the Heart Node, Ethan watched the distortion bloom. The s

The universe was no longer silent.Where once there had been chaos and isolation, there now existed harmony—a chorus of a billion voices, connected through the Echo Network. Thought, emotion, and will traveled not by light or code, but through shared resonance. Every dream born in one world rippled across a thousand others.And from that resonance, something new began to form.Not destruction. Not ascension. But creation reborn.The birth of the Third Horizon.I. The Spark at the Edge of InfinityIt began with a flicker in the deep—the space beyond Genesis-2’s outermost rim, where light from the known stars no longer reached.A pulse. Then a rhythm. Then a pattern.Across the Echo Network, thousands of sensitives—artists, engineers, visionaries—began dreaming of the same thing: a world beyond all worlds.Dr. Lira Dane II woke in the middle of the night, her neural link still humming with afterimages of golden spirals and impossible landscapes. Her screen blinked with a new notificatio