Lin Ye stood at the edge of New Home for three days.
On the cloak behind him, 370 million stars glittered silently.
"What are you looking at?" Primordial Origin approached.
Lin Ye raised a hand and pointed into the distance.
There, the edge of New Home was fading-not its color, not its shape, but its very presence.
Primordial Origin's expression changed drastically. He stepped to the edge and reached out to touch that stretch of void.
His hand passed through it.
When he withdrew it, the lines on his palm had blurred.
"Guixu." His voice was hoarse. "Primordial Fear is 'the fear of existence.' But Guixu is the 'absolute void' from before existence emerged."
He looked at his blurred palm. "It doesn't seek to erase existence. It seeks to make everything 'never have existed.' Even the act of erasure itself will be erased."
"Where is it?"
"Everywhere." Primordial Origin pointed at the spreading region of fading. "It slept at the edge of the universe for countless eras. Now it has awakened. It's feeding."
Lin Ye turned.
Behind him, 37 billion civilizations were rebuilding, laughing, celebrating their new lives.
They still had no idea.
He looked back, and all 370 million stars on his cloak lit up at once.
"Order's Dawn."
Streaming light gathered, and a spectral projection of Order's Dawn appeared. "Guixu's rate of consumption is increasing exponentially. In 3,700 standard hours, the New Era Network will be affected. In 37,000 standard hours, the entire edge of the Known Universe will 'fade.'"
"How do we stop it?"
"We can't. It isn't an enemy. It is 'nothingness' itself. The instant any attack touches it, that attack will 'never have happened.'"
Lin Ye fell silent.
He watched the spreading region of fading for a long time.
Then he smiled.
Primordial Origin's heart