Training and pure survival instinct took over. In a flash of will, he summoned his weapon, the familiar weight solidifying in his grip. A shimmering shield of his remaining planetary energy erupted around his body, a final, desperate armor against the unknown.
It was then that the scale of his predicament became horrifyingly clear. The darkness around him was not empty. It was a living, breathing entity. Something of an unimaginable scale was moving, coiling through the void in a circle so wide he could not comprehend its origin or end.
It made him feel smaller than a speck of dust, an insignificant mote in the presence of a leviathan. And as this colossal presence enveloped him, the darkness began to bloom.
One by one, then by the dozens, soft white luminescent lights ignited all around him, pinpricks of gentle radiance peppering the infinite black, surrounding him in a silent, beautiful, and terrifying constellation.
