"Interesting…"
The word drifted through the void, heavy with cold amusement and something far darker beneath it. This was no projection, no fragment, no disposable scout cast into the lower worlds to test the waters.
This was the true body. The source. A colossal, Cthulhu-like existence whose soul stretched across dimensions, whose awareness spanned countless worlds, and whose will had just encountered something wholly unexpected, something painful. A loss.
One of its detached soul fragments had been destroyed, not consumed, not sealed, not suppressed, but shattered outright, erased with a finality that left no residue to reclaim.
Its vast crimson eyes narrowed by the slightest degree, yet that minute change carried enough weight to warp the surrounding void.
For the first time in countless cycles, something resembling caution seeped into its ancient, unfathomable mind.
