"You're lying," Kael said.The presence didn't respond. The Unified felt his suspicion ripple through their merged consciousness."Think about it," Kael continued. "A creator appears at the perfect moment. Tells us our struggle has meaning. Promises that being ourselves is enough. It's too convenient. Too clean.""What are you suggesting?" Ten asked."That this thing is another collapsed reality. Another trick. Another way to make us lower our guard."The presence remained silent. The collapsed realities pressed harder against the Unified's defense. Reality cracked deeper."Prove you're real," Sari demanded. "Show us something only the creator would know.""I could show you anything," the presence said. "You'd have no way to verify it. No frame of reference. Proof is meaningless when you can't test the proof.""Then we ignore you," Helena said. "We fight. We survive or die on our own terms without your games.""Wait." Weave's threads lit up. "I'm seeing something. The collapsed realit

The one percent hit the collapsed realities like a storm of knives.Not organized. Not coordinated. Not unified. Just billions of individual consciousnesses attacking in billions of different ways. A farmer from Aethervale struck with memories of crops and soil. An elder from Starhollow attacked with a lifetime of choices made and regretted. A child from Dracolys fought with pure stubborn refusal to disappear.The collapsed realities couldn't defend against it."What are they doing?" the corruption screamed. "They're not synchronized. They're not following patterns. They're just—""Chaos," Weave said, watching the threads spiral into beautiful disorder. "They're fighting as chaos. As the thing you eliminated when you forced everyone into unity. You can't predict them because they're not following any plan. Can't counter them because each one attacks differently. Can't absorb them because they refuse to merge."One of the seventeen collapsed realities shattered. Its unified consciousne