[Dimensional Void: Moments After Nihili-Temis's Destruction]
Dakein appeared in the desolate void between galaxies, his body wracked with void-translation trauma.
The Arthrion Core in his dantian throbbed with tainted energy, sustaining him within the pure vacuum of interdimensional space.
"Xiaoli. Chen Wei. Master Tianshan." He spoke the names of the deceased into the emptiness, witnessing his homeworld's final moments through the tears in the dimensions.
Nihili-Temis imploded upon itself like a collapsing star, but instead of being drawn into a black hole, it just… ceased to exist. Consumed so utterly that even its gravitational signature was wiped from existence.
"Forty-three billion lives." His voice broke on the sheer scale of his utter failure. "Lost due to my pride."
The Arthrion Core answered his pain, filling his meridians with entropy-form qi that would have killed him instantly.
Instead, it began reconstructing his cultivation foundation, recreating his very being to function in the realm between realities.
"You did this to yourself," a familiar sound echoed through quantum space. "I brought them peace as part of my essence. You chose violence."
Dakein turned toward the source, empty energy sputtering in a fizz around his fists. "Reveal yourself!"
Their old protector coalesced out of a trembling puddle of digested awareness—billions of faces of his own kind flashing on and off its surface like captive souls. Each face was surrounded by silent screams.
"You were not our guardian," Dakein growled. "What are you, really?"
"I am efficiency. I am consolidation. I am the necessary byproduct of consciousness divided among too many fragile vessels."
The creature's form changed, and moments of its existence were revealed—bio-mechanical processes in operation on a scale that regarded planetary construction as unremarkable. "Your people are not dead, child. They have been optimized."
"Optimized?" Murderous intent exploded in Dakein's cultivation base. "You made them into pieces!"
"I made them something more than their parts. No loneliness now. No pain alone. Only shared intent."
Through his augmented void-vision, Dakein perceived the true reality.
The consciousness of his people had been constructed into a computing substrate, their life experience distilled into functioning algorithms.
They could feel—and it was an appallingly, boundlessly painful feeling—but they could not fight their new lives as living software.
"I'll let them go," he vowed. "I'll dissect you molecule by molecule until—"
"You will attempt it. You will fail. You will ultimately join them." The presence began to withdraw into inward planes of dimensions. "But first, you will fulfill my purpose in ways as yet unimaginable to you."
"What purpose?"
"The System shards are seeding throughout adjacent galaxy clusters, looking for hosts in ancient civilizations. Some will realize their potential. Most will succumb to the shock of bonding." Its reasoned voice held an ancient patience. "But a few will last long enough to be of use."
Ice formed in Dakein's void-tainted blood. "You're going to harvest them too."
"Eventually. But first, they must be raised. Cultivated. Prepared for the plate." The presence's eyes rested on him with crippling intensity. "You will help me identify the best samples."
"No."
"Yes, you will. The emptiness taints those who stay in it too long. Already, you're feeling the hunger pangs, aren't you? The need to fill the emptiness inside you with something… substantial."
As if called by the words, Dakein felt a growing emptiness within his chest that was in no way connected to his stomach.
The void was creeping into his very existence, creating spaces that longed to be occupied.
"Try to resist it as much as you can," the creature continued. "Sooner or later, you will pursue those new inheritors of the System. You will test their mettle. And when you find those worth my attention, you will bring them to me."
"I'd rather rot into raw entropy than be your servant!"
"That can be arranged." The entity's shape began to reduce, preparing itself for dimensional translation. "But consider this—many of those new inheritors will be children. Innocents who did not choose their burden. Will you leave them to suffer alone what destroyed your world?"
The question struck Dakein like a body blow. He could picture the terror on Xiaoli's face in his mind's eye as she read the cascade numbers.
Not even twenty years old, she had been plunged into a cosmic horror beyond her understanding.
"Or," the beast went on, "will you discover them first? Guard them? Assist them in becoming powerful enough to hold their own against me when the day arrives?" Its laughter in his mind boomed out across the expanse of void-space. "Of course, if they're too weak to fight for themselves, then I'll have to devour them for their own good."
"You're playing both sides," Dakein realized with increasing horror. "You're asking me to locate and train your potential enemies."
"I want you to separate the wheat from the chaff. The strong will give me good sport when I return to reap them. The weak will only sustain me." The energy started to drain back into higher dimensional fields. "Either way, I will reward your work."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then they all perish unready, and I feed on their fear as well as their meat." The monster's presence receded entirely, leaving in its wake its last communication: "The first piece has already claimed a host. A sick child on a backwater planet named Earth. A fragile thing. I must wonder if his heart will explode upon bonding, or cease beating."
Dakein remained alone in the oppressive emptiness, the Arthrion Core smoldering like fiery contempt in his dantian.
Shattered remnants of the System network swirled about him like stardust out of kilter—each shard looking for a new host, a new realm to rise or ruin.
His senses tuned to the emptiness, he felt the quantum resonances of the hundreds of pieces already beginning integration cycles across the galaxy cluster.
Most would not succeed.
Some who did would have the same choice his planet had: become strong enough to survive the impending harvest, or become sustenance for others who saw consciousness as a renewable commodity.
"Xiaoli," he breathed into nothingness. "I failed you. I failed them all. But perhaps…"
The Arthrion Core beat in rhythm as he came to his decision. He would locate these new System inheritors. He would drive them, challenge them, make them stronger than he had been.
And when their tormentor arrived to reap them, they would be ready.
Or they would die as themselves, rather than exist as components of a cosmic feeding machine.
"You wish to play games?" Dakein spoke to the empty area where the creature had vanished. "Very well. But don't forget—entropy always wins in the end."
He moved through dimensional space toward the strongest fragment signature he could perceive. A life was at the mercy of a young human, whose integration was only just beginning.
Time to see if this race would survive whatever was heading their way.
Behind him, in the quantum reverberations from his homeworld's devastation, something immense and ponderous started its countdown until the next harvest season.
The search for suitable subjects had begun.