A month passed.
Lucien stood within the Obsidian Tower and watched the void ahead of him. Distant light had begun to resolve into structure. A star burned at the edge of perception, with the faint outlines of orbiting bodies forming around it.
A solar system.
The Obsidian Tower was nearing inhabited geometry again.
Lucien did not rush. Instead, he turned his awareness inward.
The new world within his Divine Energy Core no longer resembled the place he had taken from the void.
What had once been a harsh land of jagged mountains and exposed mineral veins had transformed into something vast and alive.
Valleys breathed with mist. Rivers traced luminous paths through emerald plains. Forests spread in layered canopies, their roots threading deep into the planet's memory.
The change had been swift.
The Alloykin corpses were gone.
