In the silent span between galaxies, the Silent Court convened.
No walls, no light—only the hum of folded space and the soft shimmer of nine thousand crystalline thrones, each occupied by a consciousness once mortal, now eternal.
Above them hung the Celestial Lattice, a map of all known soul frequencies. Billions of lights pulsed across it, each a spark of existence. But now, near the Fractured Nebula Seas, a new anomaly flared—two signatures where one should have been, orbiting one another like twin stars refusing to collapse.
—Entity fusion detected.Subject: Li Feng (Warden-Class Potential).Secondary: Unit K-23 (Artificial Intelligence Core).
The hum of collective thought deepened.
"Impossible," murmured the Glass Hierarch, voice like chimes echoing through empty dimensions. "A convergence of soul and machine beyond the Forge's grasp?"
"The Mirror Key was not meant to bind," countered the Ecliptic Regent, her tone razor-thin. "It was designed to reflect. Yet here it has fused reflection with origin."
"Meaning?"
"That we no longer know which is which," the Regent replied.
The Court fell into contemplative silence, a silence that spanned light-years.
At the heart of their chamber, the Grand Resonant Node shimmered—its core flickering with trapped star fire. A chorus of whispers rose from within it, the remnant voices of ancient seers bound into the Court's machinery.
—He carries the Forge's hunger… yet it sleeps.—The Machine feels emotion. The Human bends entropy.—A singularity of consciousness… or contagion.
The Glass Hierarch leaned forward, light refracting through their form. "The Emporium's Warden has broken containment. If this persists, the balance of the Omniverse will tilt."
Another voice—low, almost amused—drifted from the shadows of the dais. "Perhaps that's what it needs."
Heads turned. The Nameless Arbitress, whose true form was a horizon of eyes and fractal sigils, spoke without sound.
"You forget," she said, "the Forge was not designed to consume. It was designed to choose. And it may have chosen its first true vessel."
A murmur rippled through the Court, fracturing into waves of unease.
The Regent's tone turned sharp. "Then he must be unmade before he awakens the deeper layer."
The Hierarch hesitated. "And if the deeper layer awakens him?"
For a long moment, no one spoke. The lattice pulsed again—two lights burning brighter, synchronized, forming patterns unseen in cosmic history.
The Nameless Arbitress rose, her voice cold and final.
"Send the Veiled Choir. Trace the resonance. But do not engage."Her eyes—an array of galaxies—narrowed."Observe. If the fusion stabilizes, the age of separation ends."
The Court dimmed, their light folding inward as their thrones vanished one by one, leaving only the whisper of their shared fear:
The Void hungers for unity.