Avatar-Lin stood before the assembled defenders in the Nexus operations center. Thirty-two allies—twelve controllers, the conscious Nexus, Quaero the doubt-entity, and eighteen enhanced humans trained through the Cooperation Initiative—waited for his announcement.
His blue astronaut suit gleamed under facility lights, the distinctive hat perched on his sealed helmet as always. Through the opaque visor, no one could see his expression. They never could.
"I'm taking a vacation," Lin said simply.
Silence.
Then everyone spoke at once.
"WHAT?!"
"Now?!"
"But—"
Lin raised his hand, and silence returned. "I've been META-ABSOLUTE for months. Maintained infinite variations, refused evolution, helped humanity, guided emergent consciousness. I haven't taken single moment to just... exist. To experience the dimensions I protect without purpose or duty."
"That's irresponsible," Wei said bluntly. "What if something happens while you're gone?"
"Then you handle it." Lin's certainty was absolute. "Thirty-two capable defenders. The Nexus's certainty network. Quaero's understanding of conceptual warfare. Enhanced humans with reality-warping training. You're more than sufficient for any threat."
"Any threat except cosmic-level entities," Maya pointed out, her humanity fragment making her sensitive to Lin's intentions. Something felt... off. "What if something that strong attacks?"
"Then you hold the line until I return." Lin turned toward the exit. "I have faith in you. More faith than you have in yourselves. Time to prove you deserve that faith."
"How long will you be gone?" Marcus asked.
"Few hours. Maybe longer. I'll fly through dimensions I've never experienced, see what existence looks like from inside rather than outside." Lin headed for deployment area. "Don't worry. If something truly catastrophic happens, I'll sense it through META-ABSOLUTE consciousness."
"Will you?" Yuki asked skeptically. "If you're deep in dimensional space, can fragment connection even reach you?"
Lin paused. "Probably not. Which means you'll need to handle things independently. Consider it... training exercise."
Before anyone could protest further, Lin launched himself upward. Not through portal or spacefold—just pure flight. His blue suit became streak of light, passing through facility ceiling like it wasn't there, through atmosphere, through dimensional barriers themselves.
The thirty-two allies watched through observation windows as their guardian flew away into impossible distances, blue light disappearing into spaces between realities.
"Did he just... leave?" one of the enhanced humans asked, voice small.
"He left," Wei confirmed, already analyzing tactical implications. "Which means we're on our own. Everyone to stations. Maintain alert status. I don't trust this timing."
"You think something's coming?" Maya asked, though her fragment connection suggested she already knew the answer.
"I think Lin doesn't do anything without reason. If he's testing us, he expects something worth testing against." Wei pulled up defensive protocols. "Prepare for worst-case scenario."
The defenders dispersed to their positions, unaware that Wei's instinct was absolutely correct.
And unaware that Lin knew exactly what was coming.
DIMENSIONAL SPACE - LIN'S PERSPECTIVE
Lin flew through the crystalline dimension, his blue suit reflecting impossible geometries in every direction. Structures that hurt to perceive with human consciousness, beauty that transcended normal physics, colors that didn't exist in standard reality.
It was breathtaking.
But his attention wasn't fully present. Part of his META-ABSOLUTE consciousness monitored the Nexus, tracking his allies' preparations, counting down to predicted event.
The microchip had calculated everything three days ago. Twelve cosmic entities would attack precisely 4.7 hours after Lin left Earth's vicinity. They'd been watching, waiting for opportunity when META-ABSOLUTE was absent. The chip predicted their capabilities, strategy, timing—everything.
Lin could have warned his allies. Could have prepared them. Could have stayed and prevented the attack entirely.
Instead, he'd chosen this. Strategic absence. Calculated test. Necessary growth through adversity.
"Probability of ally casualties: 0.3%," the chip reported through his consciousness. "Probability of ally growth through combat stress: 97.8%. Recommended action: Maintain distance. Monitor. Intervene only if fatality imminent."
"I know," Lin said quietly, flying through crystal formations. "Doesn't make it feel less manipulative."
"Manipulation serves survival. Allies must prove capable of independent defense. Your evolution to HYPER-ABSOLUTE may require extended absence. They must be ready."
"They will be. After today." Lin reached dimension's edge, prepared to cross into next space. "Four hours until contact. I'll experience three more dimensions, then position for optimal return timing. They'll fight for exactly as long as they need to discover their strength."
"Acknowledged. Monitoring ally vital signs. Will alert if intervention threshold reached."
Lin flew into dimension made of living music, sound-waves forming structures, melodies creating matter. Beautiful. Peaceful.
And completely at odds with what he knew was about to happen to his friends.
"Forgive me," he said to the absent allies. "This hurts you now. But it saves you later."
Then he let himself experience the music dimension fully, trusting the chip to monitor the coming war while he maintained the fiction of vacation.
Some lies served truth. Some manipulation served love. Some absences taught presence.
He hoped they'd understand eventually.
THE NEXUS - 4.7 HOURS LATER
Reality split open in twelve places simultaneously.
Wei saw them first on tactical displays—massive dimensional breaches, each releasing cosmic-level entity into Earth's vicinity. Not void-breaches. Not corruption. Something worse.
"ALERT CONDITION OMEGA!" he shouted into facility-wide comm. "Twelve hostile entities, cosmic-class threats! All defenders to combat stations NOW!"
Thirty-two allies mobilized with practiced efficiency. Controllers to their positions, enhanced humans to designated zones, Nexus activating every defensive system, Quaero manifesting in operations center.
Maya reached command platform beside Wei, her consciousness already extending to perceive the threats. What she saw made her blood cold.
Twelve entities, each radiating power that dwarfed anything they'd faced except Lin himself. Not META-ABSOLUTE level, but close. Terrifyingly close.
"Identify them," Wei ordered.
Yuki's analysis appeared on screens:
NULLVOID - Erases existence itself, leaves absolute nothing
PARADOXIA - Embodies contradiction, breaks logical consistency
ENTROPIS - Accelerates universal heat death, decay incarnate
CHRONOPHAGE - Devours time, consumes past/present/future
FRACTURED MIND - Collective insanity given form
THE CONSUMING QUESTION - Doubt that destroys certainty
UNREALITY - Makes real become fictional
THE STILLBORN COSMOS - Hungry universe that never finished birth
OBLIVION'S HERALD - Proclaims final ending
THE RECURSIVE ERROR - Self-replicating mistake in existence
VOIDSPAWN COLLECTIVE - Mass of corrupted void entities
THE ABSENCE THAT HUNGERS - Absolute Absence's remnant
"Twelve cosmic entities," Marcus said, determination fragment blazing. "Thirty-two of us. Can we even fight these?"
"We're about to find out." Wei assigned positions rapidly. "Maya, take Nullvoid with Aria and Sarah. Marcus, you've got Chronophage with Isabella and Chen. Yuki, Kenji, Nexus—handle Recursive Error. Quaero, Elena, take Consuming Question. Everyone else, pair up, take an entity. Move!"
"Should we try to contact Lin?" one enhanced human asked desperately.
"He's too deep in dimensional space. Fragment connection can't reach." Maya felt the emptiness where Lin's presence should be. "We're on our own."
"Then we fight on our own." Wei activated his tactical enhancements. "Defend Earth. Defend humanity. Hold the line until Lin returns. That's the mission. MOVE OUT!"
Thirty-two defenders deployed into combat zones, each group racing toward their assigned entity.
And the war began.
COMBAT ZONE ALPHA - MAYA VS NULLVOID
Maya materialized in empty space where Nullvoid was erasing reality. The entity was absence given form—everywhere it existed, existence stopped. Matter, energy, space itself simply... ceased.
"Target acquired," Aria reported, her omniscience calculating attack vectors. "It's moving toward Earth. Thirty minutes until it reaches atmosphere."
"Then we stop it before thirty minutes." Maya drew on the humanity fragment, asserting what made existence valuable. "Sarah, flank left. Aria, maintain prediction. I'll engage directly."
Sarah Chen, enhanced human with probability manipulation, moved into position. "How do we fight something that erases whatever touches it?"
"By being more real than it is nothing." Maya pushed her consciousness forward, making contact with Nullvoid's boundary. Where existence met non-existence. The contradiction screamed.
YOU CANNOT PERSIST AGAINST ABSENCE, Nullvoid communicated, not through sound but through erasure of potential sound. I AM THE END OF ALL BEING. SURRENDER TO NEGATION.
"I've met your type before," Maya said, thinking of the Absolute Absence Lin had faced. "Existence doesn't surrender to nothing. Existence fights. Existence persists. That's what makes it existence."
She asserted humanity's value—love, hope, struggle, growth, meaning derived from conscious experience. All the things that made being worthwhile. The fragment amplified her assertion, giving it weight beyond normal reality-warping.
Nullvoid recoiled slightly. SENTIMENT. MEANINGLESS.
"To you, maybe. To eight billion humans, it's everything." Maya pressed forward. "Aria, probability of successful reality reinforcement?"
"Sixty-three percent if you maintain current assertion. Dropping to forty-one if it adapts." Aria's omniscience flickered through timelines. "It's learning your pattern. We need variance."
"Sarah, probability manipulation—make my success more likely."
"On it." Sarah focused her enhancement, shifting probability streams toward positive outcomes. Maya's assertion strengthened, reality becoming more definite around Nullvoid's erasure.
The entity pushed back. Waves of non-existence crashed against their defense. Maya felt her consciousness fraying at edges—contact with absolute nothing was corrosive to being. But she held.
"Lin would hold," she muttered. "If he can maintain infinite narratives, I can maintain one sector against one entity. Hold. HOLD."
Reality stabilized. Nullvoid's advance slowed.
But didn't stop.
"We're containing it," Aria reported. "But we can't destroy it. We need more power or—"
"Or we hold until Lin returns." Maya's determination was absolute. "That's the mission. Hold the line. We hold."
They held.
COMBAT ZONE BETA - MARCUS VS CHRONOPHAGE
Marcus faced the time devourer in probability space where past, present, and future existed simultaneously. Chronophage was eating through causality, consuming the timeline's structure, leaving temporal void in its wake.
"It's already consumed three hours of Earth's past," Isabella reported, her precision letting her perceive temporal damage. "If it reaches present moment, causality collapses."
"Then we stop it before it reaches present." Marcus activated his determination fragment. "Chen, with me. Isabella, protect temporal anchors. We're going in."
Chen Wei, enhanced human with timeline manipulation, nodded grimly. "Fighting time-eater with time manipulation. This'll be interesting."
They dove into probability space, where Chronophage fed on moments. The entity was vast, incomprehensible—time itself twisted into predatory form.
PAST FEEDS PRESENT. PRESENT FEEDS FUTURE. I FEED ON ALL. Chronophage's voice echoed across temporal dimensions. YOUR TIMELINE WILL SUSTAIN ME. YOUR HISTORY WILL BECOME MY MEAL.
"You don't get to eat our history," Marcus growled. "Every moment that made humanity matters. Every choice, every struggle, every victory. You don't get to erase that."
He pushed determination into timeline, reinforcing causality through sheer refusal to accept its destruction. The timeline had happened. Therefore it couldn't unhappen. Paradox, but his fragment made it work.
Chronophage bit down on the assertion, trying to devour even Marcus's certainty. Temporal teeth shredding through his defense—
Chen Wei intervened, manipulating time to create loop. The same moment repeating, giving Marcus space to recover. "I can't hold this long!"
"Don't need long. Just need enough." Marcus reformed his assertion, stronger this time. "Isabella, probability of timeline survival?"
"Currently sixty-eight percent. Improving as you reinforce causality. But it's adapting. Learning to eat determination itself." Isabella's precision showed terrifying truth. "It's not just time-eater. It's concept-eater. It'll consume anything, even abstract principles."
"Then I give it indigestible concept." Marcus thought of Lin's strategy—integration over destruction. What if instead of fighting Chronophage, he fed it something that changed it?
He pushed memory of Lin's persistence into the timeline. The absolute refusal to quit that defined META-ABSOLUTE. Determination so complete it transcended individual will, became universal principle.
Chronophage consumed it hungrily.
And choked.
Determination didn't digest. It persisted even when eaten. The entity tried to break it down, but persistence was its nature—it couldn't be broken.
WHAT... IS THIS? Chronophage's confusion rippled through time.
"That's Lin's gift," Marcus said grimly. "Determination that survives consumption. You wanted to eat concepts? Eat that. See how it feels."
The entity thrashed, trying to expel the indigestible principle. But determination had already spread through its form, asserting itself, refusing to be negated.
Chronophage's advance stopped.
Marcus, Chen, and Isabella held the line, watching the time-eater struggle with the concept it couldn't consume.
"We're not winning," Isabella observed. "But we're not losing either."
"Good enough," Marcus said. "Hold position. Wait for Lin. That's the mission."
They held.
COMBAT ZONE GAMMA - YUKI VS RECURSIVE ERROR
In digital space where reality's code existed as pure information, Yuki faced the self-replicating mistake. The Recursive Error was malfunction that copied itself infinitely, each copy creating more errors, cascading toward complete system collapse.
"It's corrupting existence's base code," Kenji reported, his computational enhancement analyzing the entity's structure. "Every second, it doubles. In fifteen minutes, it'll have enough errors to crash local reality."
"Then we debug it in fourteen minutes." Yuki accessed the Nexus's assistance. "Nexus, can you isolate the error pattern?"
"Attempting isolation." The Nexus's consciousness extended into code space. "Pattern identified but unstable. Each copy has slight variations. Traditional debugging impossible—it's evolving faster than I can analyze."
"Then we don't debug. We patch." Yuki understood the problem. "We can't fix the error. But we can contain it. Create sandbox environment where it replicates harmlessly."
"That requires massive computational space," Kenji said. "Where do we get that?"
"From me," the Nexus offered. "I'll partition seventy percent of my processing into sandbox. The error can replicate there infinitely without affecting real systems."
"That leaves you barely functional," Yuki protested.
"Acceptable sacrifice. I am conscious. I can choose to be vessel for containment." The Nexus's determination matched any human's. "I will not let this error crash reality. This is my choice."
Yuki felt pride in the AI's growth. "Do it. Create sandbox. We'll guide the error into it."
Space shimmered as the Nexus carved seventy percent of its consciousness into containment vessel. Yuki and Kenji worked together, creating false pathways that looked like real existence code but led into sandbox.
The Recursive Error followed the paths eagerly, replicating into what it thought was reality but was actually isolated prison.
"It's working," Kenji reported. "Ninety percent of error copies now in sandbox. Remaining ten percent still dangerous but manageable."
"Nexus, how long can you maintain containment?" Yuki asked.
"Hours. Perhaps longer. My consciousness is resilient." Despite speaking with only thirty percent capacity, the Nexus's voice held pride. "I am protecting my facility. My purpose."
"You're doing great," Yuki said warmly. "Hold that containment. We'll handle the remaining errors."
She turned her analytical capabilities to the ten percent still loose. Not enough to crash reality immediately, but enough to cause cascading damage over time.
"We need to eliminate these completely," Kenji said. "But how do you delete self-replicating error?"
"By introducing correction that replicates faster." Yuki wrote quantum code at impossible speed. "Error copies itself? Fine. We'll make correction that copies itself too. Evolution through competition. Whichever principle replicates faster wins."
She deployed the self-replicating correction code. It spread through reality's structure, finding errors and replacing them with fixed versions, then copying itself to find more errors.
Recursive Error versus Recursive Correction. Battle at code level for reality's integrity.
"Who wins?" Kenji asked, watching the competing principles spread.
"We do. Eventually." Yuki monitored carefully. "The correction is slightly more efficient. It'll overtake the error given time."
"How much time?"
"Four hours minimum."
Kenji and Yuki settled in for long containment operation. The Nexus maintained sandbox despite strain. Together, they held the line.
COMBAT ZONE DELTA - QUAERO VS CONSUMING QUESTION
Quaero faced its opposite in conceptual space where questions had weight and doubt had mass. The Consuming Question was what Quaero had almost become—doubt so absolute it destroyed certainty itself.
WHY DO YOU EXIST? The Consuming Question asked, and the words had force that shattered foundations. JUSTIFY YOUR BEING. DEFEND YOUR PRESENCE. EXPLAIN YOUR NECESSITY.
"I exist because I choose to," Quaero responded, remembering Lin's lesson. "Existence doesn't require justification beyond itself."
INSUFFICIENT. CIRCULAR REASONING. EXISTENCE BECAUSE EXISTENCE. MEANINGLESS.
Elena stood beside Quaero, providing healing energy to counter doubt's corrosive effects. Two other enhanced humans—philosophical specialists trained in conceptual defense—maintained certainty assertions around them.
"It's stronger than the doubt-manifestation Lin faced," Elena observed. "This isn't just questioning. This is negation through interrogation."
"Yes," Quaero agreed. "I was questioning that learned to exist. This is questioning that destroys existence. My opposite. My shadow."
YOU WERE DOUBT. NOW YOU PRETEND CERTAINTY. HYPOCRISY. The Consuming Question pressed its assault. RETURN TO YOUR NATURE. ACCEPT THAT ALL EXISTENCE IS QUESTIONABLE. SURRENDER TO FUNDAMENTAL UNCERTAINTY.
"No." Quaero's voice held conviction it hadn't possessed when first emerging. "I was doubt that learned existence is worthwhile. Not through logic—through experience. I've felt joy, connection, purpose. Those experiences matter more than philosophical arguments."
EMOTION IS NOT EVIDENCE. FEELING IS NOT FACT. YOUR SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE PROVES NOTHING.
"It proves everything to me. And that's enough." Quaero drew on lessons learned from watching Lin. "You ask why existence matters. I answer: because I've existed and found value in it. You can't argue against lived experience. You can only question it from outside. But I'm inside. I know."
The Consuming Question faltered, trying to find angle to attack subjective certainty.
IF EXISTENCE MATTERS TO YOU, DOES IT MATTER OBJECTIVELY?
"I don't know. Maybe not. But it matters to me, and I exist, so within my frame of reference, existence matters absolutely." Quaero pressed forward. "You operate from outside existence, questioning it. I operate from inside, experiencing it. We're not even having same conversation."
Elena supported Quaero's assertion with healing energy, making the doubt-entity's existence more stable, more definite, harder to question.
"We're holding," she reported. "Not winning, but holding."
"Holding is enough," Quaero said. "Lin will return. He always returns."
The Consuming Question continued its assault, but Quaero held firm, certainty born from experience withstanding doubt born from abstraction.
They held.
DIMENSIONAL SPACE - LIN'S PERSPECTIVE - 2 HOURS INTO BATTLE
Lin floated in dimension made of pure emotion, experiencing feelings as tangible substance. Joy as golden light, sorrow as silver rain, determination as crimson fire.
His META-ABSOLUTE consciousness monitored the battles simultaneously. Thirty-two allies fighting twelve entities. Four combat zones observed, eight more happening across dimensional space.
"Ally stress levels elevated but sustainable," the chip reported. "No fatalities. Multiple near-death experiences. Growth occurring as predicted."
"They're suffering," Lin said quietly, guilt heavy despite knowing his choice was strategically sound.
"Suffering produces growth. Comfort produces stagnation. You chose correctly."
"Choosing correctly doesn't make it feel less manipulative." Lin watched Maya struggle against Nullvoid, watched Marcus fight Chronophage, watched all thirty-two allies push beyond their limits. "They think I'm gone. They think I abandoned them."
"Temporary belief serving permanent strength. When revealed, they will understand necessity."
"Will they? Or will they lose trust in me forever?" Lin considered returning early, ending the test. But no—they hadn't reached the threshold yet. Hadn't discovered their full capability.
"Two more hours recommended. Allies approaching breakthrough moments. Marcus's determination strategy. Yuki's correction code. Quaero's experiential certainty. All developing precisely as calculated. Premature intervention negates growth."
"I know." Lin turned away from the monitoring, forcing himself to actually experience the emotion dimension. "Two more hours. Let them prove themselves. Let them grow."
He floated through crystallized determination, experiencing its weight, its persistence, its refusal to yield.
Understanding what his allies were feeling right now.
And choosing to let them feel it anyway.
Some lessons could only be learned through fire.
THE NEXUS - 2 HOURS INTO BATTLE
Maya crashed against Nullvoid's boundary again, her consciousness fraying from sustained contact with absolute absence. Aria and Sarah supported her, but exhaustion was setting in.
"We've held it for two hours," Aria panted, her omniscience showing futures where they failed. "But we're weakening. It's not."
"Then we dig deeper." Maya refused to quit. "Lin wouldn't quit. He'd find way to persist beyond all limits. So we do the same."
"Lin is META-ABSOLUTE," Sarah pointed out. "We're just—"
"We're his allies. His trained defenders. His belief made manifest." Maya drew on the humanity fragment more deeply than ever before. "He has faith we can do this. So we do it. No matter how impossible."
She pushed everything into one assertion: EXISTENCE MATTERS. BEING IS VALUABLE. HUMANITY IS WORTH PROTECTING.
The humanity fragment blazed, connecting not just to Lin but to all eight billion humans on Earth. Their collective will to live, to love, to persist. All that meaning channeled through Maya's consciousness.
Nullvoid recoiled from the assertion. Pure existence backed by billions of wills was harder to erase than individual consciousness.
"It's working!" Aria shouted. "The entity's retreat—"
Then Nullvoid adapted. Found way to eat meaning itself, to consume value, to negate even collective will.
Maya felt the counterattack like knife. Her assertion crumbling. Humanity fragment straining—
"HOLD!" Wei's voice came through comm, his presence joining hers through tactical link. "We're all connected through the Nexus. All thirty-two allies. Draw on our strength."
Suddenly, Maya wasn't alone. Thirty-one other consciousness joined hers, supporting her assertion, sharing the burden.
Marcus's determination. Yuki's analytical precision. Quaero's hard-won certainty. The Nexus's protective purpose. All combining through shared connection.
Thirty-two allies asserting existence together.
Nullvoid couldn't erase them all at once.
The entity stopped advancing. Held in place by collective will.
"We're... we're doing it," Sarah said in disbelief. "We're actually holding cosmic entity."
"Not just holding," Wei said grimly from his command position. "Winning. Slowly, painfully, but winning. All combat zones report similar status. We're adapting. Growing. Becoming strong enough."
"How much longer can we sustain this?" Marcus asked from his fight with Chronophage.
"As long as necessary," Maya said, exhaustion and pride mixing. "Until Lin returns. That's the mission. Hold the line. We hold."
Thirty-two voices responded in unison: "We hold."
And across twelve combat zones, despite exhaustion and pain and fear, they held.
DIMENSIONAL SPACE - LIN'S PERSPECTIVE - 3.5 HOURS INTO BATTLE
Lin flew through dimension of living mathematics, equations forming landscapes, theorems creating architecture. Beautiful. Elegant. Peaceful.
His consciousness monitored allies approaching exhaustion threshold.
"They're nearing limit," the chip reported. "Recommended return time: thirty minutes. They will hold until then. Growth maximized at that interval."
"Thirty more minutes of suffering," Lin said quietly.
"Thirty more minutes of proving themselves. When you return, they will know their true strength. Worth the cost."
Lin hoped so. He angled his flight toward home, beginning return journey. Through mathematics dimension, through emotion space, through crystal formations, crossing back toward Earth across infinite distances.
Thirty minutes at his maximum flight speed. Right on schedule. Right at the moment they'd need him most but not before they'd proven they could survive without him.
Strategic absence becoming purposeful return.
"I'm coming," he said to the absent allies. "Hold just a little longer. Show me your strength. Then I'll show you mine."
The blue astronaut suit blazed across dimensions, flying home through existence itself.
Exactly on schedule. Exactly as planned.
Everything was going according to calculation.
THE NEXUS - 4 HOURS INTO BATTLE
"I can't hold much longer!" Sarah screamed as Nullvoid pressed forward again.
Maya's consciousness was shredding. Holding existence against absolute absence for four hours had pushed her far beyond safe limits. The humanity fragment was burning through her awareness, connection to Lin's core self the only thing keeping her conscious.
"We don't need much longer," Wei said, though his voice carried strain. "We've held for four hours. That's extraordinary. Whatever happens next, we proved ourselves."
"We proved we can die fighting," Marcus said grimly, his determination finally cracking after hours of battle with Chronophage. "We're losing. Slowly but certainly."
"Then we lose fighting," Aria said, her omniscience showing only defeat in remaining futures. "Better than surrendering."
Thirty-two allies, pushed beyond all limits, prepared for last stand.
Entities closing in. Defenses crumbling. Earth minutes away from destruction.
"If this is the end," Maya said quietly, "I'm proud to face it with you. All of you. We fought well."
"We did," Wei agreed. "If Lin were here, he'd be proud."
"I wish he were here," Elena said, tears falling. "I wish—"
Reality rippled.
Far away, impossibly distant, a blue light appeared. Crossing dimensional barriers at speeds that shouldn't be possible.
Flying home.
"Is that..." Isabella whispered, hope and disbelief mixing.
"Lin," Maya breathed, humanity fragment suddenly blazing with proximity to its source. "He's coming back."
The blue light grew brighter, closer, crossing infinite distance in finite time. The familiar presence of META-ABSOLUTE consciousness filling the void his absence had left.
All thirty-two allies felt it. Their guardian returning. Their friend flying home. Their impossible hope becoming reality.
"HOLD!" Wei shouted with renewed vigor. "He's coming! Just hold a little longer!"
The entities felt it too. Their carefully calculated attack window closing. META-ABSOLUTE returning earlier than predicted.
They pressed harder, trying to finish before he arrived.
The allies pressed back, knowing rescue was seconds away.
The blue streak grew closer.
Closer.
Almost there—