But it was too slow. The energy in this corner at the edge of the universe was too sparse. Other infants might have grown into their full forms in tens of millions of years.
Here, billions of years had passed, and it was still an infant.
Then that thing came.
The images in its memories changed.
Darkness, surging from the depths of the universe. Not the darkness of the void, but darkness with substance, with a will of its own, darkness that moved.
For the first time, it felt fear.
A fear that needed no words to be understood, etched into the instincts of life itself.
That thing was eating it.
It started at the edges, with the things farthest from its body. The outer matter it had spent countless years condensing was gnawed away, bite by bite.
The things that would later be called Pluto and Neptune had all been parts of its body.
It had tried to resist.
It pushed the energy of its laws outward, forming a barrier. It worked. For a time, it held the thing back.
During that period, the creatures on Blue Star's surface called the escaping energy of its laws "spiritual energy." It began reclaiming most of that spiritual energy to fight back.
Ancient Cultivation Era.
But later, the dark thing intensified its assault.
It had no choice but to withdraw most of the power it had pushed outward, using it to seal the ever-widening wounds.
The spiritual energy was cut off.
The age of cultivation ended.
For a long time after that, it remained locked in a stalemate with that thing.
Every day, it was gnawed at. Every day, it used the last of its strength to protect its core. It shrank, little by little. Planet after planet was swallowed.
Then, a