I took a long look back through the viewport glass, keeping my left arm braced against the reinforced console frame. Down there, drifting in the quiet dark, was that massive iron homeland we had just carved out from the carcass of the Void Devourer. It looked so peaceful from this distance, just a vast expanse of dark rock and glowing titanium veins where the refugees were finally setting up their shelters. My chest felt incredibly tight, to be completely honest. If I didn't find a way to smash that golden citadel's intergalactic beacon right now, every single one of those people down there would be rounded up, re-indexed, and thrown straight into the system ledger as hihigh-tierlave inventory.Kaelen, the spatial gate coordinates are stabilizing, Elara said, her boots making a sharp, metallic sound as she leaned over the navigation seat. Her hand was resting on my shoulder, her fingers tightening slightly through my torn jacket. I can see the outline of the golden citadel through the

I am going to take you all down with me, the Grand Justiciar shrieked, his voice losing every single bit of its refined, administrative calm. His hands were shaking so hard the little black iron sphere almost slipped from his grip before he could even prime it. If this sector refuses to return to the database index, then I will personally detonate my own soul to ensure the intergalactic beacon stays online long enough to summon the external fleet. You are nothing but an error code, Kaelen, and an error code doesn't get to keep a home.Don't do something that stupid, Vane, I said, though honestly, I couldn't remember if his name was Vane or if Vane was the other guy from the plaza below. Everything was starting to blur together a bit at this point. My bare heel was bleeding onto the gold floor, and the air felt incredibly heavy. Just drop the sphere, and we can talk about the rations or whatever else you guys have stored in the back rooms.There is no talking to a savage, he screamed.

We ran straight through the opening threshold, our boots slamming hard against the polished floor plates. The sheer pressure inside this place was incredible, to be honest. It felt like walking through deep water. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and burning copper, and the noise was almost too much to handle. We were inside the central transmission core. Right in the middle of the massive room, a giant beacon tower was shooting a blinding beam of golden light straight up through the open roof, drilling directly into the neighboring multiverse servers.Kaelen, we are almost out of time, Elara shouted, her voice barely carrying over the deafening mechanical roar of the tower. She had a tight grip on my elbow, her grey eyes darting around the massive chamber. The console lines are completely flooded with gold data.I see them, I said, shaking the numbness out of my left arm. I took a few hobbling steps toward the main terminal housing, my bare heel leaving a

The humming inside my skull was getting worse by the second, to be honest. I stood right there at the base of the main tower, my bare left heel slipping slightly on a patch of wet, leaked coolant fluid that smelled like burnt hair. Right in front of my face was the crystalline router. It was a massive, pulsing block of solid white quartz, easily the size of a standard cargo transport box, and it was vibrating so hard the air around the casing was literally distorting. Every single tick of that internal clock felt like a physical punch to my ribs. If I didn't break this connection in the next two seconds, the entire sector we just freed would be crawling with those high tier manager fleets before the refugees below could even find their boots.Kaelen, you need to hit it now, Elara yelled, her voice sounding incredibly tight as she leaned against a cracked pillar fragment to stay upright. She was holding her matte black blade with both hands, but the purple logic light along

The wind was suddenly entirely too loud. It wasn't a normal draft or a storm, to be honest. It was this violent, screaming suction that started whistling through the cracks in the gold walls, tearing away loose wires and chunks of insulation. I could feel the air thinning out rapidly, making my chest tighten up in a way that felt entirely uncomfortable. I reached out and caught Elara by the leather strap of her ruined armor, just trying to keep my feet under me as the whole room tilted another ten degrees.Boss, the telemetry is completely ruined, Miri’s voice burst through the communicator speaker in my pocket, her signal shaking violently. The destruction of the primary router has completely destabilized the local dimensional anchors. The entire golden citadel is falling right into the True Zero Void. That is the hard trash folder, Kaelen. It is the place where deleted code goes to die permanently. If we cross that perimeter line, there is no system backup available to restore our f