**Chapter 52: Signs of Doom**
**Day 1,231 (Late Afternoon).**
**Location: The High Senate Podium – Prime Core.**
**Current Status: Raid Leader.**
**Mood: Calculated.**
The silence that followed the death of the Herald was heavy. It was the kind of silence usually reserved for libraries, funerals, or the moments immediately after someone drops a tray of expensive glassware in a crowded restaurant.
I stood on the central podium of the Galactic Senate. The glass behind me was shattered, emergency force fields humming a low, nervous C-sharp to keep the atmosphere inside. Thousands of alien representatives—bipeds, quadrupeds, amorphous blobs of sentient gas—stared at me.
They weren't looking at me with admiration. They were looking at me the way a gazelle looks at a lion that has just eaten a crocodile: with a profound confusion about where they fit on the food chain.
"So," I said, breaking the quiet. My voice was amplified by the station's PA system, which Zero had hijacked. "The appetizer is finished. But unless my translation software is glitching, the Big One said he's bringing the 'whole table.'"
The High Chancellor, who was currently clutching a podium railing with his talons to stop his knees from buckling, let out a strangled squawk.
"You... you provoked it," the avian alien whispered, his plumage ruffled in terror. "The Star Devourer King. It sleeps in the dark between galaxies. It has not woken since the Precursor Era. And you... you taunted it."
"Aggro management," I corrected him. "I didn't taunt it. I pulled threat. If I hadn't, it would have eaten this station while you were debating subsection 4, paragraph B of the evacuation protocol."
I tapped the console in front of me.
"Zero, map update."
**[Affirmative, Architect.]**
A massive hologram flickered to life in the center of the chamber. It displayed the local galactic arm. The Prime Core was in the center, a bright cluster of light.
"Show me the Silence," I ordered.
The map zoomed out.
Usually, a star map is a sea of dots. But at the edge of the display, the dots were vanishing. It wasn't random. It was a wave. A creeping, solid line of darkness was moving from the intergalactic void toward us.
Every second, another star winked out.
"Rate of approach?" I asked.
**[Calculated speed: Faster-Than-Light drift. The entity is folding space as it moves. Estimated time to arrival at Prime Core: 3 Hours.]**
"Three hours," I repeated.
Panic erupted in the chamber.
"We must flee!" a gelatinous senator screamed, vibrating so hard he was frothing. "Abandon the Core! Scatter to the Rim!"
"There is nowhere to run!" a cybernetic general roared back. "If they eat the Core, the hyper-lanes collapse! We are trapped in the cage with them!"
I ignored them. I was running my own calculations.
My power grew by ten percent every day. Compounded. By Day 1,231, my mana capacity was a number so large that scientific notation had given up and gone home. I was a walking Big Bang.
"I can kill it," I murmured to myself.
I looked at my hand.
If I unleashed 100% of my output—no, even 5%—in a direct kinetic strike, I could vaporize the Star Devourer King. I could punch a hole through the enemy fleet that would extend to the edge of the universe.
"Zero," I whispered. "Run simulation **[Scenario: One Punch]**."
**[Processing...]**
**[Simulation complete.]**
**[Displaying results on private HUD.]**
A window popped up in my vision. It showed a wireframe model of me punching the incoming cosmic horror.
* **Impact:** Successful. Enemy vaporized.
* **Collateral Damage:** The shockwave from the strike travels at relativistic speeds.
* **Effect:** The Prime Core Dyson Swarm is shattered by the sonic boom. The nearby three solar systems are stripped of their atmospheres. The recoil of the punch pushes Earth out of its orbit and sends it spiraling into the sun.
* **Casualties:** 99.9% of all sapient life in the sector. Including Ren. Including Damon. Including the pizza place I liked in New York.
**[Result: Victory (Pyrrhic). You win, but you are the only one left to celebrate.]**
I closed the window.
"Right," I sighed. "Too strong. The classic Superman dilemma. I'm trying to swat a fly on a glass table with a sledgehammer."
I couldn't fight them directly. Not with full power. My attacks were too wide, too catastrophic. If I engaged the Star Devourer King in a brawl, the sheer gravitational distortion of our collision would liquidize the galaxy we were trying to save.
I needed a scalpel. But I didn't have a scalpel. I had a nuclear arsenal.
"Wait," I thought. "I don't have a scalpel. But I have an army of them."
I looked at the hologram again. I looked at the terrified aliens. I thought about the players on Mars, grinding XP, hungry for loot.
I didn't need to be the weapon. I needed to be the battery.
"Zero," I said, my voice hardening. "Change of plans. We aren't doing a Boss Rush. We're playing Tower Defense."
***
**The War Room**
**Location: Prime Core – Strategic Command.**
**Time: T-Minus 2 Hours.**
I kicked the doors open.
"Everyone, sit down and shut up," I announced.
The Strategic Command room was filled with the highest-ranking military minds of the Galactic Council. There was General Thrax (a four-armed reptilian), Admiral Cygnus (a sentient AI in a floating chrome sphere), and High Warlord Grunt (who was exactly what his name implied).
They looked at me. Then they looked at the white mask with the golden eye. They sat down.
"Here is the situation," I said, walking to the main table. I swept a pile of tactical maps onto the floor. "The enemy is coming. They are immune to standard physics. They eat energy weapons. If you shoot a laser at them, they say 'thank you' and get bigger."
"Then we are defenseless," General Thrax hissed. "Our fleets rely on plasma and fusion. Kinetic weaponry is obsolete."
"Obsolete to you," I said. "Not to my people."
I pulled up a display of Mars.
"I have two million 'Immortals' currently training on the Red Planet," I lied. (Well, they respawned, so it was technically true). "They use a power source you don't understand. Mana. It doesn't feed the Devourers; it poisons them. We saw that with the Herald. I force-fed it until it popped."
"Two million?" Admiral Cygnus whirred. "Against a swarm that numbers in the billions? The mathematics are unfavorable. Even if your 'Immortals' are powerful, they cannot cover the entire defensive grid."
"That's where you come in," I said.
I placed my hand on the table.
**[Skill: System Integration.]**
Golden lines of code shot from my fingers, racing across the table and infecting the command console. The alien screens flickered. The complex, incomprehensible alien script was overwritten.
It was replaced by a sleek, blue User Interface.
**[System Update: Galactic Defense Grid v1.0.]**
**[Patch Applied by Admin Shigu.]**
"What... what is this?" Thrax asked, staring at the floating text above his head. **[Level 50 General]**.
"I just gamified your fleet," I explained. "I'm linking your ships to the Order of Truth's network. You are no longer flying destroyers. You are flying support towers."
I pointed to the hologram.
"Here is the plan. We are going to build a funnel."
I drew a line in the air with my finger. The hologram mimicked it, drawing a corridor of light leading from the edge of the system straight to the Dyson Swarm.
"Zero, deploy the **[Void Anchors]**."
**[Deploying.]**
On the screen, massive gravity-generators—stolen from the Zorgon wreckage and upgraded with my mana—began to warp into position. They formed two parallel walls of gravity in deep space.
"We force them into this lane," I said. "The 'Kill Box.' If they try to go around, the gravity shears will tear them apart. They have to come down the middle."
"And what waits for them in the middle?" Grunt asked.
"The grind," I smiled.
"I'm opening a Warp Gate from Mars directly to the Kill Box. My players will act as the interceptors. Your fleet will stay back and provide shielding and buffs."
"Buffs?" Thrax asked, confused.
"Positive reinforcement," I waved my hand. "Shields. Speed boosts. Don't shoot the enemy. Shoot my guys."
The room went silent.
"You want us... to shoot your soldiers?"
"Yes. With energy beams. My players absorb mana. If you shoot them with low-yield plasma, it won't kill them. It will charge their ultimate abilities."
I looked at the confused faces of the galaxy's greatest strategists. They were trying to apply Sun Tzu to a situation that required World of Warcraft logic.
"Look," I sighed. "Just keep the blue bars full. If the green bars drop, panic. Understand?"
They nodded slowly.
"Good. Now, get me a line to Mars. I need to rally the murder-hobos."
***
**The Rally**
**Location: Mars – The Crimson Citadel.**
**Time: T-Minus 90 Minutes.**
The projection of my masked face appeared in the sky above Mars, blotting out the sun.
Two million players looked up. They were covered in gore, carrying loot bags, and arguing about drop rates.
"Greetings, Beta Testers," my voice boomed across the planet.
The chatter stopped.
"You have done well. The local ecosystem has been sufficiently terrorized. But the tutorial is over."
I paused for dramatic effect.
"A new event has started. **[The Infinite Swarm]**."
A collective gasp went through the crowd. Then, excited murmurs.
"The enemy is approaching the Galactic Core. They are high-level. They drop Mythic loot. And they are made of XP."
I saw Damon in the crowd. He was sharpening his sword on a rock. He looked up, grinning.
"However," I added. "There is a catch. If the Galactic Core falls, the server shuts down. Permanently. No respawns. No backups. Game Over."
The mood shifted. The stakes were real.
"I am opening the gates. I need Tanks to hold the line. I need DPS to melt the swarm. I need Healers to keep the idiots alive. This isn't a raid. This is a war."
I raised my hand, and a massive portal tore open in the sky above the Crimson Citadel. Through it, the cold vacuum of space and the terrified lights of the Galactic Fleet were visible.
"First guild to kill a Star Devourer gets a custom Guild Hall on the Moon," I offered.
"FOR THE LOOT!" someone screamed.
"LEEROY!"
Thousands of ships—player-owned frigates, modified shuttles, and even people just flying with high-level flight spells—surged toward the portal.
It was the most disorganized, chaotic, beautiful army the universe had ever seen.
***
**The Arrival**
**Location: Space – The Kill Box (Sector Zero).**
**Time: T-Minus 10 Minutes.**
I hovered in space, sitting cross-legged in the vacuum, directly in front of the Galactic Senate station. Behind me lay the fragile civilization I was protecting. In front of me, the void.
To my left and right, the Galactic Fleet had formed up. Thousands of silver warships, now glowing with a faint golden aura from my system patch.
Ahead of me, the "Kill Box" was filling up with players.
The **Iron Serpent** guild had formed a shield wall with their heavy cruisers.
The **Lunar Magocracy** was floating behind them, charging spells that made the space around them boil.
Damon was standing on the hull of his ship, literally surfing it through the void.
**"Boss,"** Ren's voice came through my earpiece. He was back on the *Indomitable Spirit*. **"Readings are spiking. They're here."**
I looked forward.
The stars didn't just go out. The darkness *moved*.
It flowed like ink in water. The Silence arrived.
First, the scouts. **[Void-Spawn]**. Creatures the size of houses, shaped like squids made of obsidian and hate. Millions of them. They poured into the gravity funnel like a river of black sludge.
Then, the elites. **[Star-Stalkers]**. Massive, serpentine horrors that wove through the swarm.
And far behind them, a presence that made my own bones vibrate. The King. It was still light-years away, but its hunger was a physical weight pressing on my chest.
**"WE SEE THE TRAP,"** the voice of the King whispered across the cosmos. **"A WALL OF ANTS. YOU THINK THIS WILL STOP THE TIDE?"**
I tapped my mask.
"It's not a wall," I whispered back. "It's a grinder."
I activated the **[Global Command Aura]**.
"Players," I spoke to every human in the fleet. "Welcome to the endgame. Phase One: Aggro."
I pointed my finger.
"Pull."
***
**The Battle of the Core**
**Time: Event Start.**
Hell didn't break loose. Hell was unleashed with optimized stats.
"FIRE!" Damon roared.
The Iron Serpent fleet unleashed a barrage of railgun fire. Thousands of tungsten slugs, accelerated to a fraction of light speed, slammed into the incoming wave of Void-Spawn.
The impact was silent in the vacuum, but the visual was blinding. Blue splashes of void-blood erupted as the front line of the monsters shattered.
**[System Notification: Combat Started.]**
**[XP Gained: 450.]**
**[XP Gained: 450.]**
**[XP Gained: 450.]**
The notification scroll was so fast it was a blur.
The monsters shrieked—a psychic sound—and surged forward. They crashed into the players' shield wall.
"Hold!" Vance screamed over the comms. "Rotate defensive cooldowns! Don't let them break the line!"
The Void-Spawn clawed at the shields, their mandibles tearing at the energy barriers.
"Mages! Now!" Elena commanded.
From the backline, a sun exploded.
Not a real sun, but a combined spell from five hundred high-level mages. **[Supernova Flare]**.
A wave of fire swept over the enemies trapped against the shields. The Void-Spawn burned. They didn't just die; they disintegrated, their essence flowing into the players as mana.
"It's working!" Ren shouted. "The funnel is holding!"
But the swarm was endless. For every million that died, ten million took their place. They were climbing over the corpses of their kin, pressing the attack.
And then, the heavy hitters arrived.
A **Star-Stalker**—a serpent ten kilometers long—broke through the gravity wall. It ignored the players and lunged straight for a Galactic Council cruiser.
"Incoming!" Thrax yelled. "Evasive manuev—"
Too late. The Stalker wrapped around the cruiser and squeezed. The ship crumpled like a tin can.
**[Casualties Detected.]**
"Shigu!" Ren yelled. "That thing is too big for the players! It's a Raid Boss!"
I watched from my position. I wanted to move. I wanted to fly over there and flick that snake into the next dimension.
But I couldn't.
If I moved, the **[Aura of the Sovereign]**—the passive buff I was broadcasting to the entire fleet—would waver. Right now, I was acting as a wifi router for infinite mana. I was feeding the players' spells. If I engaged in combat, I'd have to divert power to offense. The shields would drop. The players would die.
"I can't move," I gritted out. "They have to handle it."
"They can't tank that!"
"They have to learn!"
On the battlefield, Damon saw the Stalker. He saw the cruiser explode.
"Hey! Calamari!" Damon shouted, amplifying his voice with a skill.
He launched himself off his ship. He didn't fly; he used **[Charge]** in mid-air, targeting the giant snake.
He slammed into the Stalker's side. Compared to the monster, he was a speck of dust. But he was a speck of dust with the density of a collapsed star.
**[Skill: Shield Bash (Mythic).]**
The impact rippled through the monster's flesh. The massive serpent shuddered, its momentum arrested. It turned its eyeless head toward Damon.
"That's right," Damon grinned, raising his shield. "Look at me."
The Stalker opened its maw and unleashed a beam of void energy.
Damon didn't dodge. **[Ultimate: Indestructible Will.]**
His armor turned gold. He took the beam full in the face.
He slid backward through space, his boots carving furrows in the vacuum (metaphorically). His health bar plummeted.
100%... 50%... 10%...
"Heals on Damon!" Elena screamed. "Cross-heal! Now!"
A beam of green light from the alien fleet hit Damon. It was the "friendly fire" I had ordered. The aliens were shooting him with restorative plasma.
Damon's health rocketed back to 100%.
He laughed. "Is that all you got? My grandmother hits harder!"
He swung his sword. **[Void Cutter]**.
A slash of energy severed the Stalker's head. The massive beast went limp.
The players cheered.
"Focus!" I projected my voice. "That was one. There are thousands."
I looked past the battle line. The darkness was getting thicker. The stars behind the enemy fleet were gone completely now.
And then, I felt it.
A gaze.
Not the mindless hunger of the swarm. A focused, intelligent, ancient malice.
The Star Devourer King had arrived at the edge of the system.
It didn't enter the funnel. It stopped just outside my gravity trap.
**"CLEVER,"** the voice rumbled. **"YOU BUILD A DAM. BUT DAMS BREAK."**
The darkness shifted. It didn't attack the players. It didn't attack the fleet.
It attacked the sun.
A tendril of shadow shot out from the main body of the darkness, bypassing the battle entirely, arcing over the defensive line, and latching onto the star of the Prime Core system.
The white dwarf star dimmed.
"Warning!" Zero shrieked. "Solar output dropping! 90%... 80%..."
The light in the system began to fade. The temperature dropped instantly.
"It's eating the sun!" the Chancellor screamed. "We will freeze!"
"Shigu!" Ren yelled. "The players—their solar-powered gear is failing! The environmental systems are shutting down!"
I stood up from my meditative pose.
The enemy had checkmated my defense. If I stayed here buffing the fleet, the sun would die, and everyone would freeze. If I went to save the sun, the fleet would lose my buff and be overrun by the swarm.
A choice.
Save the army, or save the light.
I looked at the dimming sun. I looked at the brave, stupid, glorious players fighting in the dark.
"Ren," I said calm.
"Boss?"
"Tell Damon to hold the line. Tell him if he lets a single bug past him, I'm deleting his account."
"What are you going to do?"
I bent my knees. The platform beneath me vaporized just from the tension in my muscles.
"The sun is going out," I said.
I looked at my chest. The reactor of infinite compounding power hummed.
**[Power Output: Uncapping.]**
"So," I smiled. "I'm going to replace it."
I launched myself.
I didn't fly toward the enemy. I flew toward the center of the defensive formation, directly above the Dyson Swarm.
I stopped. I spread my arms.
**[Skill: Nova Form.]**
I didn't attack. I simply... shone.
I released the mana I had been hoarding. Not as a beam, but as an omnidirectional explosion of light and heat.
Golden radiance erupted from my body. It was brighter than the white dwarf. It flooded the system, banishing the shadows, melting the ice on the ship hulls, and blinding the Void-Spawn.
I became the star.
My mana washed over the players. It didn't just light their way; it supercharged them. Their mana bars didn't just refill; they overflowed. Their cooldowns vanished.
**[System Alert: Global Buff Applied.]**
**[Buff: The Light of Shigu.]**
**[Effect: Infinite Mana. +500% Damage. Immortality (Temporary).]**
"Go," I commanded, my voice coming from everywhere at once, vibrating in the light itself.
"Push them back into the dark."
The players roared. Glowing with golden fire, they surged forward. They didn't just hold the line anymore. They advanced.
But as I poured my power out to sustain the system, I saw the Star Devourer King shift its attention.
The massive shadow turned away from the draining sun. It looked at me. The new, tastier sun.
**"DELICIOUS,"** it whispered.
The King began to move. It entered the Kill Box.
I couldn't move. I was the light source. If I dodged, the system went dark.
I was the bait.
"Come and get it," I challenged.
**Chapter 52 Ends.**