The void around me grew thinner, cleaner, as if something essential was being stripped away. Entire currents of deathmist were torn free from the core layer and dragged into me, vanishing into the Dawn Core without resistance.
At first, the Star only trembled.
It was still a dead thing then. A massive, silent body suspended in nothingness. Like a moon that had long since lost its light. Cold. Scarred. Empty.
Then it began to change.
Cracks appeared across its surface, not physical fractures, but faults in its state of being. Through them, black smoke leaked out, thick and heavy, rolling like storm clouds trapped under a shell. The deathmist pouring into it no longer vanished quietly. It fed something.
The Star flared with presence.
