The Rift had not healed.
Lin Ye stood in the Void, his multicolored eyes fixed on the violently contracting fissure. It was not healing-it was giving birth. The black vortex that had once covered half a galaxy now resembled a womb stretched to its limit, pushing something colossal into reality on this side.
Thirty million stars sounded warnings within him.
"Tuner!" Harmonic Leaping Note's voice exploded across the Resonance Network. "There's an undefinable presence deep inside the Rift-something more primal than Negation, the source that negates all negation!"
A hand reached out of the Rift.
It had no skin, no texture, and was formed of pure "negation." Merely seeing it left blank spaces in the definition systems of hundreds of civilizations. Its five fingers spread. Every definition thread across several galaxies snapped at once. The Prismglass Civilization's color defense net looked as though invisible scissors had cut through it, severing the connections between its 69,997 colors. Vast swaths of Myriad Faces and Forms' mirror shards lost their luster. Thousands of breaks appeared in Harmonic Leaping Note's Resonance Network.
Lin Ye did not move. Thirty million stars circulated steadily within him. There was no fear in his multicolored eyes, only an utterly calm gaze.
A face emerged from the Rift, covering half a galaxy. It had no features, only a blank "face." Yet every civilization that saw it heard the same words within its core definition system:
"Ember Era. You have angered me."
This was not a threat, but a declaration. Every word it spoke would become reality.
Harmonic Leaping Note recovered from the shock. "Tuner! The definition systems of thirty-seven civilizations on the perimeter have completely collapsed-they've been negated, as though they were never defined!"
Lin Ye spoke, his voice spreading to every civilization through the Resonance Network. "Pull back