Blank Era

Three years after the Conversion was completed, the Ember Era faced a crisis.

Three civilizations simultaneously created definitions of "eternity." The mechanical civilization believed eternity was the precision of infinite cycles, the psionic civilization believed it was transcendence through unchanging stillness, and the data civilization believed it was the coexistence of all possible states.

None of the three definitions was wrong. But when they existed within the same starfield, time began to tear apart.

By the time Harmonic Leaptone arrived, the starfield had become a pot of "time stew." Past, present, and future existed at once—on one civilization's homeworld, birth, prosperity, and destruction were unfolding simultaneously.

"Hold them steady!" Harmonic Leaptone unfurled Thirty-Three Harmonics, forcibly drawing the frequencies of the three definitions closer together.

Myriad Faces split into three thousand mirrored forms, observing the conflict nodes from three thousand angles. "No. Their logical foundations differ—cycles, stillness, coexistence—they are not even within the same coordinate system."

Harmonic Leaptone gritted her teeth. Her harmonic frequency had already been raised to its limit. She could coordinate thirty-three different definitions, but three utterly incompatible kinds of "eternity"? She could not do it.

The news spread throughout the Ember Era. Three hundred seventy million civilizations watched the crisis at once.

Primordial Source stood in the distance, the thirty-seven billion stars on his cloak dim and lightless. "The obsessions of the Zero Era said they had seen this before. Before the Conversion, source definitions monopolized core definitions, so multiple civilizations would never define the same concept at once. But now civilizations can freely create definitions—conflict is inevitable."

Harmonic Leaptone withdrew her harmonics and shook her head wearily. "I can't stabilize them. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Myriad Faces asked.

"Unless there is a set of rules for arbitrating definition conflicts. When two civilizations create mutually contradictory definitions, the