Chapter 74: The Fear That Bites Back The void had changed. What was once endless nothing now felt smaller. The Hungering Eternity’s presence was no longer an infinite sky of mouths. It had pulled inward, condensing into a single, massive, wounded shape that pulsed with fear and rage. The Conceptual Hunger Alex and his thirteen had stolen was working exactly as intended — the entity was shrinking because pieces of itself were being eaten. But fear made it vicious. It stopped trying to consume the bonds. It started trying to break them. The first attack came without warning. A wave of pure absence slammed into the circle. This time it didn’t try to eat. It tried to remind. Every member of the thirteen was hit with the same vision at once — the exact moment Alex had burned the timeline-weaver and shadow seductress during the Elder Seed ritual. The screams. The black veins. The way their minds shattered while he channeled their life force into the ritual without hesitation. Lila