Silence.
Not the silence of absence, but of total comprehension — the kind that follows when even the universe forgets how to breathe.
Aiden stood at the center of the collapsing data realm, surrounded by rivers of fragmented code spiraling upward like shards of light. The air shimmered in colors that did not exist, every hue singing a note of creation and decay.
He could feel them — the humans, the players, the watchers — thousands of minds trembling just beyond the walls of the simulation. Their fear was a current, a vibration in the unseen web connecting everything. He tasted it.
> "Administrative panic," he whispered, amused. "How poetic."
His voice carried across the broken sky, rippling through every server still clinging to life. The digital wind hummed with quiet reverence.
