The moment came without warning.
Across the outer boundary of the constellation, something shifted.
Not the slow, calculated movement the Predator had shown while feeding through the anomaly field. Not the distant probing patterns that had become almost routine since the creature began circling their territory.
This time the motion was sudden.
Violent.
Decisive.
Far beyond the luminous web of the constellation's lattice, the vast shape of the Predator surged forward through the anomaly field like a collapsing tidal wave of darkness.
Ancient debris fields scattered before it.
Fragments of long-dead stars shattered under its gravitational wake.
Entire streams of drifting anomaly energy were pulled inward as its immense mass tore through the surrounding currents.
Inside the Convergence World, the first warning arrived as a ripple of tension across Ethan's perception.
A fraction of a second later—
The alarms ignited.
They did not scream.
They whispered.
