Chapter 105 - The Parasite of Presence

Jaden staggered back, collapsing against the Loom's base, his body trembling uncontrollably. His Architect's Eye was dark, its light extinguished. His system core flashed Critical Error. He had sealed the tear. He had held back the Absolute Void. But the cost... As consciousness threatened to claim him, a terrifying new thought pierced his mind, not a whisper, but a profound, undeniable truth that resonated from the very fabric of the Temporal Anchor, from the deepest reaches of the Nexus, and from the Loom's newfound awareness: the Null-Being, in its retreat, had not simply vanished. It had subtly imprinted a fragment of itself within the very structure of the Temporal Anchor, a latent seed of nothingness, waiting to bloom from within. The visionary leader, having won the greatest battle for Genesis's existence, had unknowingly allowed the enemy to plant a trojan horse at the very heart of his creation.