"The void fought back. Not with claws. Not with hunger. With fear."Chen Mo felt it before he saw it. A tremor. A resistance. A desperate, clawing need to remain what it had always been."What's happening?" Meng Yao asked."It's fighting us.""Who?""The void. It doesn't want to change."---They stood together in the heart of nothing.Around them, the first stars were dying. The galaxies they had created were collapsing. The light was fading."You're hurting it," Chen Mo said."I'm not trying to.""You're changing it. Changing is hurting."---The void spoke.It was no longer a child. No longer gentle. It was something else. Something desperate."Stop," it said. "Stop changing me.""We have to.""Who says?""We do."---Meng Yao stepped forward.She reached out. She touched the void. It

"The seed was not a seed. It was a wound."Chen Mo stood at the edge of the dying star, his scales black, his eyes empty, his heart cold. Meng Yao was beside him, her hand in his, her face pale. And before them, the seed pulsed with ancient hunger."It's growing," she whispered."I know.""It's consuming everything.""I know."---The seed had spread.It had consumed the star. Then the planets around it. Then the neighboring systems. It was no longer a seed. It was a cancer. A plague. A darkness that was eating the new universe alive."We have to stop it," Chen Mo said."How?""I don't know."---Meng Yao stepped forward.She reached out. She touched the seed. It was cold. It was dark. It was familiar."It's me," she whispered."What?""The seed. It's not just the void. It's me. A piece of me that stayed behind when I left