The silence after the battle was a heavy one. They had won. Lord Malakor had run away like a cosmic bully who had just had his lunch money stolen. The invisible, time-traveling robots were all in tiny, permanently exploded pieces. But the victory felt a little… hollow. Malakor's final, parting gift, the "Shadow Seed" he had planted on the Reality Loom, was a nagging worry, a little black mark on their perfect victory.
But they had a much bigger, much shinier, and much more important thing to worry about now. They had the Loom itself.
With the battle over, the "Odyssey" moved in close to the colossal, ring-shaped structure. It was still spinning slowly, the thousands of shimmering, multi-colored threads in its center weaving and unweaving in a beautiful, silent, and deeply complex dance. It was the universe's biggest and most complicated knitting project.
"Okay," Ryan said, taking a deep breath. "Time to see what this thing can actually do."
