**Chapter 51: The Ancient Enemy**
**Day 1,231.**
**Location: The Galactic Void – Coordinates [Redacted].**
**Current Status: Digestive Processes.**
**Mood: Insatiable.**
Space is not empty.
To the primitive eye, the void between stars is a vacuum, a barren expanse of nothingness. But to those who have ascended beyond the need for lungs or light, space is a medium. It is a soup of dark matter, background radiation, and gravity waves.
And for the **Star Devourers**, it is a buffet.
In the dead space between the Perseus and Sagittarius arms, a fleet of ships hung in the dark. These weren't the sleek, silver vessels of the Galactic Council, nor the jagged, industrial warships of the Rim Coalition. These ships were organic, grown from bone and shadow, pulsing with a sickly violet light.
They were Zorgon vessels. But here, in the presence of their gods, the feared Zorgon Empire looked like a collection of nervous children.
High Exarch Zor'kull stood on the bridge of his flagship, *The Flesh-Render*. Zor'kull had conquered twelve star systems. He had burned atmospheres and enslaved billions. He was a monster in his own right.
But right now, his knees—all four of them—were shaking.
He looked out the viewport.
There was no star in front of them. There *had* been, a few hours ago. A yellow dwarf, similar to the one Earth circled. Now, there was only a swirling drain of accretion disk, spiraling into a mouth that defied geometry.
The entity didn't have a ship. It *was* the event.
It was a colossal mass of shifting, impossible angles, a biological singularity the size of Jupiter. It didn't reflect light; it ate it. Tentacles of absolute darkness, thick as continents, reached out to scoop up the remnants of the shattered planets that had once orbited the star.
**"REPORT,"** a voice echoed.
It didn't come from the comms. It vibrated in the fluid of Zor'kull's brain stem. It was a sound like grinding teeth and dying suns.
Zor'kull fell to the floor, prostrating himself.
"Great One," he chittered, his mandibles clicking in terror. "The Vanguard... the Vanguard has fallen. Warlord Drakon is missing. The Station 9 offensive was a failure."
The entity shifted. A massive eye, burning with the blue light of Cherenkov radiation, opened in the darkness. It focused on the tiny Zorgon ship.
**"FAILURE,"** the voice mused. **"WE DO NOT TOLERATE FAILURE, LITTLE MEAT. WE SENT YOU TO HARVEST. YOU RETURN WITH EMPTY HANDS."**
"It... it was not our fault!" Zor'kull pleaded. "It is the Anomaly! The species from Sector ZZ-9. The Humans."
The entity paused. The accretion disk swirling into its maw slowed.
**"HUMANS. THE DUST-MITES. THEY ARE BENEATH NOTICE."**
"Not this one," Zor'kull stammered. He scrambled to his console, bringing up a holographic recording. It was the footage from the Station 9 auction house.
The hologram flickered to life. It showed the gold-robed figure—Shigu. It showed him catching a Warlord's axe with his bare hand. It showed the casual, bored expression of a being who had forgotten what effort felt like.
"His power..." Zor'kull whispered. "Our scanners cannot quantify it. It grows. Every cycle, it compounds. He broke Drakon not with technique, but with... math."
The Star Devourer leaned closer, its gravitational field causing the Zorgon ship's hull to groan. It tasted the data. It analyzed the mana signature recorded in the hologram.
For eons, the Star Devourers had traveled the cosmos, eating stars to delay the heat death of the universe. They were entropy made manifest. They hungered because energy was finite. Every star they ate was one less light in the dark.
But this...
The entity sensed the signature of the Human. It felt the recursive loop of his power. It wasn't finite. It was a fountain. A perpetual motion machine of mana.
**"INFINITE,"** the entity whispered. The concept sent a shiver through the void, shattering a nearby asteroid moon.
For the first time in a billion years, the Star Devourer felt something other than hunger. It felt *gluttony*.
**"HE IS NOT AN ENEMY,"** the entity rumbled, its voice turning into a purr that liquified the brains of half the Zorgon bridge crew. **"HE IS A FEAST."**
**"SUMMON THE CHORUS. WAKE THE OTHERS. WE DO NOT DINE ON PLANETS TONIGHT. WE DINE ON A GOD."**
***
**Day 1,231 (Morning).**
**Location: Mars – The Crimson Citadel (Player Hub).**
**Current Status: Administrative Headache.**
**Mood: Annoyed.**
"I specifically said *no* spawn camping," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.
I was sitting on a throne made of black obsidian—which was actually just a rock I'd reshaped because standing was tedious—at the peak of Olympus Mons. Below me, the newly terraformed Mars was bustling with chaos.
Ren stood beside me, scrolling through a holographic tablet that was flashing red with notifications.
"The Guild 'Xx_Sephiroth_Fanclub_xX' has set up a perimeter around the Resurrection Shrine in Sector 4," Ren reported dryly. "They're charging players 500 Gold to walk out of the graveyard. If they don't pay, they get Fireballed back into the respawn timer."
"Capitalism," I muttered. "It survives even in a magical apocalypse. Send a System Enforcer."
"Already did. They tried to bribe the Enforcer."
"And?"
"The Enforcer—which is a Level 300 Iron Golem, mind you—threw their Guild Leader into orbit. The problem is resolved."
I nodded. "Good. How is the progression?"
"Terrifying," Ren admitted. "The global level average has jumped from 45 to 82 in twenty-four hours. Mars provides too much XP. The ambient mana here is dense. They're inhaling it. We have players unlocking Tier-4 magic already. Someone figured out how to cast **[Meteor Swarm]**."
"Who?"
"A twelve-year-old from South Korea."
"Of course."
I stood up, walking to the edge of the caldera. Below, the red jungles teemed with flashing lights—spells, sword skills, and the explosions of industry. It was working. Humanity was hardening. They were no longer the fragile creatures I had shielded; they were becoming a swarm of locusts, devouring content and growing stronger.
But it wasn't fast enough.
I looked up at the sky. The artificial atmosphere I had created was holding, but beyond it, the stars felt... wrong.
My **[God's Eye]** passive perception was pinging. It wasn't a blip. It was a constant, low-frequency hum of danger. It felt like standing on a beach and watching the tide recede rapidly before a tsunami.
"Zero," I spoke to the air.
**[Yes, Architect?]**
"What is the status of the Galactic Network?"
**[Critical Failure, Architect. 84% of nodes are offline. The Galactic Council's subnet has gone silent. The Trade Exchange is frozen. We are receiving a repeating distress signal from Prime Core.]**
"Prime Core," Ren said, his face paling. "That's the capital. The seat of the Council. If that falls..."
"If that falls, the galaxy has no government," I finished. "No police. No organized defense. Just chaos."
I checked my internal clock.
**Growth Status: Active.**
**Power Multiplier: 1.1x applied.**
**Current Capacity: [Error: Integer Overflow].**
"Ren," I said. "You're in charge of the daycare."
Ren blinked. "Daycare?"
"Mars. Keep them leveling. Keep them fighting. If they try to kill each other, ban them to the moon mines."
"Where are you going?"
I opened my inventory. I pulled out a mask—a simple, white porcelain mask with a single golden eye painted on the front. The symbol of the Order of Truth.
"I have a meeting with management," I said.
I didn't teleport. Teleportation was instant, but it lacked *presence*. Instead, I bent space. I grabbed the fabric of coordinates between Mars and the Galactic Core and folded them until they touched.
A portal of swirling gold opened in front of me.
"And Ren?"
"Yeah, Boss?"
"If the sky turns black, tell Damon to tank the sun."
I stepped through.
***
**Location: Prime Core – The High Senate Chamber.**
**Current Status: Absolute Bedlam.**
The capital of the Galactic Council was a marvel of engineering. A Dyson Swarm built around a white dwarf star, consisting of millions of floating platforms connected by hard-light bridges. It was the bureaucratic heart of a hundred thousand civilizations.
Right now, it was on fire.
I stepped out of the portal directly onto the floor of the High Senate.
Usually, this room was filled with dignified silence and floating pods containing representatives of the great races. Now, it was a riot. Senators were screaming. Papers (and digital tablets) were flying. A gelatinous diplomat from the nebula sector was vibrating so hard he had turned into foam.
"Order! ORDER!" The High Chancellor—a tall, avian alien with magnificent plumage—was screeching from the central podium, banging a gavel that emitted sonic pulses.
Nobody was listening.
"The hyper-lanes are collapsed!"
"My home world isn't answering!"
"They ate the Centauri garrison! They ate the whole system!"
I stood in the center of the chamber. My presence was masked, my power suppressed to a mere whisper, so nobody noticed the human in the white mask standing amidst the panic.
I listened.
"We must flee!" a reptilian senator shouted. "To the Outer Rim! We can hide in the dark nebulae!"
"Cowardice!" a cybernetic general roared. "We fight! Mobilize the Grand Fleet!"
"The Grand Fleet is gone!" another voice wailed. "Vexx reported contact three hours ago. Then... silence."
The High Chancellor slumped on his podium. "It is the end," he croaked, his voice amplified across the chamber. "The Prophecy of the Hungry Stars. The Silence has come to reclaim the noise of life."
The room fell into a despairing hush. The acceptance of death hung heavy in the air.
I decided to introduce myself.
I took a step forward. My boot heel clicked on the polished floor.
**[Skill: Aura of the Sovereign.]**
**[Output: 1%.]**
The air in the chamber instantly became heavy. Gravity seemed to shift, centering on me. Every senator, general, and diplomat froze, their instincts screaming that a predator had just entered the room.
"You're loud," I said.
My voice wasn't shouted, but it cut through the silence like a diamond drill.
The High Chancellor looked down, his beady eyes widening. "Who... who enters the Senate unbidden? Security!"
"Security is busy crying in the hallway," I said, walking up the steps toward the central podium. "And you aren't doing much better."
I reached the podium. The avian Chancellor towered over me, but he shrank back as I approached.
"You are the Human," he whispered, recognizing the mask from the reports. "The Anomaly. Shigu."
"That's me," I said. "I heard you had a pest control problem."
"Pest control?" The Chancellor squawked indignantly. "This is the Apocalypse! The Star Devourers act as the universe's immune system! They wipe the slate clean! There is no fighting them. They consume energy itself!"
"They consume energy?" I asked.
"Yes! Magic, fusion, kinetic—it all feeds them! To fight them is to make them stronger!"
I smiled under my mask.
"Sounds like my kind of party."
Suddenly, the lights in the Senate Chamber died. The hum of the artificial gravity generator ceased. The floating pods drifted aimlessly.
The viewports—huge walls of transparent aluminum overlooking the star system—went dark.
Not because the lights went out. But because the stars did.
A shadow fell over Prime Core.
It was immense. It blocked out the nebulae, the distant galaxies, everything. It was a physical wall of darkness pressing against the station's shields.
**"WE SMELL IT,"** a voice boomed.
The station shook. Not from an impact, but from the sheer bass of the voice.
**"THE SOURCE. THE ANOMALY. THE SNACK."**
A giant, spectral face pressed against the station's shield. It was the size of a continent. It had too many eyes and a mouth that dripped with the plasma of digested suns.
The senators screamed. Some fainted. The High Chancellor effectively molted on the spot, losing half his feathers in terror.
"It is here!" he shrieked. "The Herald of the End!"
I looked up at the giant face.
**[Boss Detected.]**
**[Name: The Herald of Entropy.]**
**[Level: ??? (Cosmic Scale).]**
**[HP: 500,000,000,000 / 500,000,000,000.]**
**[Passive: Mana Absorption (100%).]**
"Mana absorption," I noted. "Nasty."
The Herald's eyes locked onto me through the shield. It ignored the thousands of other life forms. It only saw the golden reactor beating in my chest.
**"LITTLE GOD,"** the Herald rumbled. **"COME OUT. SURRENDER YOUR ESSENCE. WE WILL MAKE YOUR DEATH... EFFICIENT."**
I turned to the High Chancellor.
"Is this the biggest one?" I asked.
The Chancellor stared at me like I was insane. "The biggest? This is a Herald! A scout! If this is here, the Chorus is behind it! We are doomed!"
"A scout," I mused. "Disappointing."
I turned back to the window.
"Zero," I said. "Override the station's PA system."
**[Done, Architect.]**
I tapped my mask. My voice echoed through the entire Dyson Swarm, reaching every terrified soul in the capital.
"Attention, citizens of the Galaxy," I said calm. "This is Earth Support. Your ticket has been escalated."
I bent my knees.
"Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times."
I launched myself.
I smashed through the reinforced glass of the Senate viewport. The vacuum rushed in, sucking out loose papers and a few unlucky toupees, but the emergency fields snapped into place behind me.
I flew out into the void, a tiny speck of white and gold against the backdrop of the massive cosmic horror.
The Herald laughed. It was a sound that cracked the hulls of nearby cruisers.
**"YOU COME TO ME?"** the Herald mocked. **"I AM THE VOID. I AM THE END OF MAGIC. STRIKE ME, AND I SHALL FEAST ON YOUR EFFORT."**
It opened its mouth. A vortex of anti-magic swirled inside. Any spell cast into it would be dissolved and converted into health for the beast. Any energy beam would only make it bigger.
It was the perfect counter to a mage.
But I wasn't just a mage.
I floated in front of the beast. I checked my stats.
**Day 1,231.**
**Power: [Infinite].**
"You eat energy," I called out, my voice carried by mana telepathy. "You think hunger is your weapon. You think you can swallow the ocean."
I raised my right hand. I didn't form a fist. I extended one finger.
"The problem with infinite hunger, my ugly friend..."
I focused. I didn't cast a spell. I didn't utilize a skill. I simply opened the floodgates.
Usually, I spent 99.99% of my mental processing power *suppressing* my mana. I held it back to keep from vaporizing the floor I walked on. I kept the dam closed.
Now, I broke the dam.
"...is that eventually, you get full."
**[Limit Breaker: OFF.]**
**[Output: 100%.]**
I fired.
A beam of raw, condensed golden power erupted from my fingertip. It wasn't an attack designed to damage. It was pure, unadulterated *sustenance*. It was mana in its rawest form, a firehose of cosmic energy.
It hit the Herald's open mouth.
The Herald's eyes widened in delight. **"YES! FEED M—"**
The voice stopped.
The beam didn't stop.
The Herald sucked it in. It gorged itself. Its health bar flashed. It grew larger, its form swelling with power.
**"MORE!"** it roared. **"I CAN TAKE IT ALL!"**
"Can you?" I asked.
I doubled the output.
The beam turned from gold to blinding white. The space around us began to crack, unable to handle the energy density.
The Herald began to glow. Not with its own light, but from the inside out. It was filling up like a balloon attached to a fire hydrant.
**"WAIT,"** the Herald gurgled. **"TOO MUCH. TOO FAST."**
"I'm just getting started," I said. "Open wide."
I tripled the output.
The Herald panicked. It tried to close its mouth. It tried to sever the connection. But the flow was too strong. The gravity of my own power held it in place. I was force-feeding a black hole.
**"STOP!"** the entity screamed, its physical form beginning to tear. **"I AM FULL! I YIELD!"**
"No take-backs," I whispered.
**[Passive: Compounding Interest.]**
The beam intensified one last time. It became a solid pillar of light that spanned the solar system.
The Herald of Entropy didn't explode. Exploding implies debris.
It *overdosed*.
Its cellular structure, adapted to crave energy for eons, suddenly had infinite fuel. Its metabolism accelerated to the point where time detached from its biology. It aged a trillion years in a microsecond.
It turned white, then transparent.
And then, it simply... popped.
It vanished into a cloud of harmless, drifting mana particles. The massive cosmic horror, the Eater of Suns, had been fed to death.
**[System Notification]**
**[Enemy Defeated: The Herald of Entropy.]**
**[XP Gained: Error.]**
**[Loot: Essence of the Void (Consumable).]**
Silence returned to Prime Core. Real silence this time.
I floated in the void, the golden aura slowly retracting back into my body. I felt... slightly winded. Like I had jogged up a flight of stairs.
"Huh," I muttered, adjusting my mask. "That actually burned a calorie."
I turned back to the Senate station. The hole I had punched in the window was packed with faces—thousands of aliens pressing against the glass, staring at the small human floating in space.
I tapped my comms again.
"Pest control complete," I announced. "Now, about that leadership vacuum..."
Suddenly, the void rippled.
Not near me. Far away. Beyond the Council systems.
A sound echoed in my mind. It wasn't the Herald. It was deeper. Older.
**"INTERESTING."**
I froze.
The voice felt like cold water running down my spine. It was the first time in three years I had felt a genuine chill.
**"WE TASTED THAT,"** the voice—the **Star Devourer King**—whispered across the light-years. **"YOU BROKE THE HERALD WITH GLUTTONY. A POETIC IRONY."**
The stars in the distance seemed to wink out, one by one, forming a path. A path leading straight to me.
**"STAY THERE, LITTLE ANOMALY. DO NOT MOVE. WE ARE COMING. AND WE ARE BRINGING THE WHOLE TABLE."**
The connection cut.
I floated there for a moment, staring into the dark.
The Herald was just the appetizer. The main course was still on its way.
I smiled. A genuine, feral grin beneath the porcelain mask.
"Finally," I said to the emptiness. "A challenge."
I turned and flew back toward the shattered window of the Galactic Senate. I had a government to reorganize, a fleet to mobilize, and a war to plan.
The game had just changed genres. We weren't playing an RPG anymore.
We were playing Tower Defense.
**Chapter 51 Ends.**