The Rusty Glider cut through the violet haze of the nebular cluster, trails of ionized dust curling behind it like ghostly ribbons. Radiation storms flickered in the distance, scattering static across the sensors.
Li Feng leaned forward, watching the readings dance. The signal from before—distorted, whispering—had grown stronger.
"Forge resonance confirmed…""Warden detected…"
He exhaled, fingers drumming the console. "Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time."
The radar pulsed once. Then again.A massive energy signature bloomed ahead, far beyond any ship reading.
[Warning: Dimensional Distortion Detected] [Source: Unknown Entity – Class: NULL]
Li Feng's grip tightened. "So that's what the Archivist was talking about."
Outside, the nebula began to warp. The purple clouds stretched like melting glass, drawn toward a single point of darkness. Reality itself seemed to bend inward, light smearing into spirals.
And then—it appeared.
A shape coalesced from the distortion: a vast, translucent mass threaded with static, neither matter nor energy. Within it, faces flickered—human, alien, machine—blending and dissolving as though it fed on memory itself.
The ship's systems screamed warnings in overlapping tones.
[ALERT: Cognitive Field Intrusion Detected] [Countermeasure: Activate Neural Firewall? Y/N]
"Do it!"
A pulse of blue light shot through the cockpit, dulling the whispering voices clawing at the edge of his mind. The Entity loomed closer, its presence bending gravity.
For a heartbeat, Li Feng felt something touch his consciousness—a cold awareness, infinitely ancient.
Warden... the Emporium must remain silent...
He gritted his teeth. "Yeah? Not my style."
He slammed the controls forward. The Glider's engines flared, dodging a tendril of shadow that sliced through the void, leaving a trail of warped space behind.
"Archivist, if you're listening," he muttered, "a little help would be great right now."
The neural interface flickered—and the Void Forge symbol blazed to life.
[Emergency Protocol: Combat Fabrication Online] [Blueprint Access Granted – Photon Lance (Tier 1 Prototype)]
A grin tugged at his lips. "Now we're talking."
He routed all available power to the Forge. The ship shook as panels reconfigured, energy converging into the forward weapon mount. A glowing spear of condensed light formed at the bow, humming with volatile energy.
The Entity shrieked, its voice a chorus of dissonance.
Li Feng fired.
A beam of pure white-blue plasma lanced through the void, slicing through the Entity's core. For a moment, it faltered—its form fracturing into ripples of corrupted data. Then it exploded outward in a silent implosion, scattering motes of light across the nebula.
The sensors went dead. The void fell still.
Li Feng slumped back, chest heaving. "Did I… kill it?"
Then a final line of text appeared across his HUD.
[Null Fragment Acquired] [Emporium Stability: 92% → 101%] [Anomaly: Over-Synchronization Detected]
He frowned. "That's… not supposed to happen."
The lights in the cockpit dimmed. For an instant, he saw the marketplace of the Emporium flash in his mind—its aisles trembling, shelves shifting as if something unseen had awakened within it.
Then came a voice, calm and cold:
"Warden. The Null is dead. But something inside the Forge has changed."
The Archivist's tone carried an edge of concern.
Li Feng stared out into the quiet void, the stars still shimmering from the battle's aftershock.
He flexed his fingers, feeling faint static crawl across his skin. "Guess I'm changing too."
The Glider drifted onward, carrying him deeper into the unknown—its engines now whispering with a faint, otherworldly hum.
Far behind him, the nebula pulsed once more—like something vast exhaling in the dark.