In the dark void, Lynn stepped out through the gash in Arishem's chest.
The Celestial body, stripped of its World Forge, was collapsing inward before his eyes.
The golden conduits, each a thousand miles wide, lost their power. Their luster faded, and they shriveled into gray-brown veins of rock.
Muffled cracks sounded from within the metal body, tens of thousands of kilometers tall, as its internal structures broke apart. Chaotic gravitational fields tore at the wreckage, scattering it like space debris along the edge of the orbit.
Lynn stopped in the void.
He pushed up his glasses, then gently curled the fingers of his right hand.
The five stones on his Infinite Miracle Bracer glimmered, smoothing away the turbulent currents of gravity around him.
A faint, broken psychic pulse pierced the cold vacuum and struck Lynn's mental barrier.
It was no longer the lofty voice of judgment. It sounded more like a dying candle in the wind, forcing out a plea for mercy.
"Human... stop..."
The pulse stuttered, threaded with the static of logic tearing at its foundations.
"You took the Primordial Fire... took the Forging Core... my primary functions have fallen below the singularity threshold..."
"Spare my remaining logic units... I swear on my authority as Celestial Judge... I will end the judgment to erase this planet... the Celestials will never set foot in the Solar System again..."
There was no air in the vacuum, but Lynn's scornful laugh struck Arishem's core neural node directly through psychic force.
"Spare you?"
Lynn took a few steps through the void and came face-to-face with Arishem's enormous head.
Five of the six red compound eyes that had once blazed like stars were completely dark. Only the one in the center still flickered faintly.
"For a grand cosmic judge, you sure know how