**Chapter 53: Shigu's Preparation**
**Day 1,231 (Evening).**
**Location: The Center of the Prime Core System (Formerly the Sun).**
**Current Status: I am a Lightbulb.**
**Mood: Illuminated.**
There are downsides to becoming a celestial body.
First, it is loud. Not the kind of loud you hear with your ears—space is a vacuum, after all—but the kind of loud you feel in your atoms. Fusion is a messy business. I was currently outputting enough energy to roast a marshmallow from three light-years away, and the vibration of my own mana was rattling my teeth.
Second, it is boring.
I hung suspended in the void, arms outstretched, acting as the galaxy's most overpowered Wi-Fi router. My golden aura washed over the system, pushing back the encroaching darkness of the Silence and fueling the millions of players fighting below.
"Zero," I projected my thoughts, bypassing the need for vocal cords. "Status report. And if you tell me another star system just got eaten, lie to me."
**[Status: Holding, Architect,]** Zero's voice replied, crisp and calm in my mind. **[Your output has stabilized the local thermodynamic equilibrium. The players are currently enjoying the 'Infinite Mana' buff. DPS has increased by 600%. However, there is a complication.]**
"Let me guess," I looked—without turning my head—at the massive, writhing shadow approaching the 'Kill Box'. " The dinner guest is getting impatient."
The Star Devourer King was no longer a distant threat. It was here.
It didn't look like a snake or a squid. It looked like a tear in the canvas of reality. It was a silhouette of negative space, so black that my light didn't illuminate it; it just fell into it and died. It was roughly the size of Jupiter, but its *presence* felt heavier. It distorted the light of distant galaxies, lensing them around its bulk.
It was ignoring the players. It was ignoring the fleet. It was looking at me.
**"BRIGHT,"** the voice rumbled in my skull. It felt like sandpaper on the brain. **"YOU TASTE OF... OLD MATH. RECURSIVE LOOPS. INFINITY."**
"I've been told I have a rich flavor profile," I replied, projecting my thoughts outward. "Usually bitter, with notes of sarcasm."
The King shifted. A limb of darkness—or perhaps a tongue—lashed out from its main body. It struck the edge of my golden aura.
*Fizz.*
The darkness burned away, but my light dimmed for a fraction of a second.
**[Warning: Mana Drain Detected.]**
**[Source: Star Devourer King.]**
**[Rate: 5% of Total Output per second.]**
"It's drinking the light," I muttered.
This was the problem. I was a battery. The King was a drain. Even with my compounding growth, if I stood here and let it chug away at my aura, eventually, I'd run dry. Or worse, it would get strong enough to digest me whole.
I couldn't move. If I stopped being the sun, the players would freeze, their buffs would vanish, and the swarm would overrun them.
I needed a cage.
I couldn't fight it in the open. The splash damage alone would wipe out the civilization I was trying to save. I needed to lock this thing in a room with me, a room with reinforced walls where physics didn't apply, so I could properly beat it to death without worrying about the furniture.
"Ren," I called out on the command channel.
"Still here, Boss," Ren sounded breathless. "We're coordinating the fleet fire. It's a mess down here. The Void-Spawn are adapting to the railguns."
"Listen to me. I'm initiating **Protocol: Tesseract**."
There was a pause on the line.
"Tesseract?" Ren asked. "You mean the theoretical containment field you sketched on a napkin during the Lunar New Year party?"
"That's the one."
"Boss, that requires four anchor points of absolute conceptual stability! You need to pin reality down at the corners of the system! You can't do that while you're the sun!"
"I can't," I agreed. "But I know people who can."
I looked down at the chaotic swirl of battle in the Kill Box. Millions of ships, spells, and explosions.
"I need volunteers," I said. "I need the strongest, most stubborn, most game-addicted lunatics we have. I need four Pillars."
***
**The Quest**
**Location: The Frontline.**
**Time: T-Minus 0 Minutes.**
Damon was having the time of his life.
He was currently standing on the hull of a crumbling frigate, swinging a sword the size of a minivan. His armor was dented, scorching, and covered in void-ichor.
"Get some!" he roared, cleaving a Void-Spawn in half. "Is that all you got? I haven't even popped my 2-hour cooldowns yet!"
Suddenly, the world turned gold.
A window appeared in front of his face, overriding his combat HUD. It wasn't a normal system window. It was bordered in platinum dragons.
**[MYTHIC QUEST ALERT: THE PILLARS OF CREATION.]**
**[Quest Giver: Admin Shigu.]**
**[Objective:]** The Architect is preparing a Cage for the God of Hunger. He requires four Anchors to stabilize the barrier.
**[Role Assigned:]** The Anchor of Strength.
**[Task:]** Reach Coordinate Alpha-One (The Northern Apex). Plant your banner. Hold the position for 5 minutes.
**[Warning:]** The enemy will try to stop you. If you move, the barrier fails. If you die, the galaxy dies.
**[Reward:]** A custom title. And bragging rights.
Damon grinned. His teeth were white against the grime on his face.
"Bragging rights?" he laughed. "Say less."
He tapped his comms. "Iron Vipers! Wedge formation! We're punching through to the North!"
***
Across the battlefield, similar windows were popping up.
Elena, high mistress of the Lunar Magocracy, paused in the middle of casting a **[Chain Lightning]** storm. She read the prompt.
**[Role Assigned:]** The Anchor of Wisdom.
**[Task:]** Reach Coordinate Beta-Two (The Southern Nadir). Establish a mana-conduit.
"Coordinate Beta-Two is inside a nebula of poisonous gas," she noted, her eyes narrowing. She adjusted her silk robe. "Perfect. Mages! Teleport sequence! We are moving the ley-lines!"
On the bridge of the Galactic Council Flagship, General Thrax stared at the blue box hovering before his reptilian eyes.
**[Role Assigned:]** The Anchor of Order.
**[Task:]** Reach Coordinate Gamma-Three (The Western Flank). Maintain fleet cohesion.
"The Human God commands us," Thrax hissed, his four arms twitching. He looked at his crew. "Full power to forward deflectors! Ramming speed toward the West sector!"
And finally, in the shadows of a cloaked corvette drifting through the debris field...
**[Role Assigned:]** The Anchor of Chaos.
**[Player:]** Viper (Top Ranked Assassin).
**[Task:]** Reach Coordinate Delta-Four (The Eastern Void). Survive.
Viper, a player who spoke maybe three words a year, simply nodded and vanished into stealth.
***
**The Weave**
**Location: The Center.**
I watched them move.
It was like watching a symphony of violence. Four streaks of light breaking away from the main chaotic brawl, heading toward the four corners of the Kill Box.
The Star Devourer King noticed it too.
**"YOU MOVE YOUR PAWNS,"** the King rumbled. It stopped drinking my light for a moment, sensing the shift in the board state. **"YOU THINK GEOMETRY WILL SAVE YOU? I EAT GEOMETRY."**
"You talk too much," I said.
The King roared. It didn't like being insulted.
The darkness surged. It ignored the fleet now. It condensed into a spear of absolute void, aimed directly at my chest.
I couldn't dodge.
I took a deep breath—metaphorically, since I didn't need air. I focused my mana inward.
**[Skill: Divine Aegis.]**
I didn't block the spear. I *caught* it.
The impact was cataclysmic. A shockwave rippled out from me, shaking the entire solar system. The force of the blow would have cracked a planet in half. I felt my ribs groan under the pressure.
**[Health: 98%.]**
**[Health: 95%.]**
The darkness was corrosive. It was trying to unmake me.
"Hold..." I gritted out.
I needed time. The players needed time.
"Zero," I strained. "Update on the Anchors."
**[Anchor Strength is in position. Anchor Wisdom is in position. Anchor Order is engaging heavy resistance. Anchor Chaos has arrived.]**
I looked to the West. General Thrax's flagship was burning. A swarm of Star-Stalkers had wrapped around it.
"Thrax!" I shouted across the mental link. "Get to the spot!"
"We are trying!" Thrax's voice came back, filled with static and explosions. "The engines are failing! We cannot push the hull any further!"
I frowned. If one anchor failed, the barrier would collapse before it even formed.
"Use the gravity wells!" I commanded. "Slingshot the ship!"
"That is suicide!"
"It's only suicide if you die!" I yelled. logic.
Thrax roared something in his native tongue that sounded like a prayer to a war god. The silver flagship turned, aiming directly for one of the artificial gravity generators I had placed earlier. The ship accelerated, its frame screeching. It whipped around the gravity well, gaining immense velocity, and smashed through the wall of monsters like a bullet.
It drifted, engines dead, right onto the coordinate marker.
**[All Anchors in Position.]**
"Now!" I whispered.
I dropped the **[Nova Form]**.
The blinding golden light vanished instantly.
For a microsecond, the system went pitch black. The players gasped. The Star Devourer King shrieked in triumph, thinking I had run out of power.
**"EMPTY,"** it hissed. **"NOW YOU DIE."**
"Not empty," I said from the dark. "Focused."
I raised both hands. I grabbed the "threads" of reality that connected the four players.
**[Ultimate Skill: Conceptual Weave – The Birdcage.]**
I pulled.
From the four corners of the battlefield, four beams of light shot up.
Red from Damon (Strength).
Blue from Elena (Wisdom).
Green from Thrax (Order).
Purple from Viper (Chaos).
The beams intersected at me.
I became the knot.
"You said you eat geometry?" I asked the King. The darkness was rushing toward me, jaws wide open.
I clapped my hands together.
The beams expanded. They didn't form a wall. They formed a *cube*. A perfect, glowing hypercube that encapsulated me and the Star Devourer King, isolating us from the rest of the system.
The sounds of the battle outside vanished. The stars vanished. The fleet vanished.
Inside the cube, there was only white, grid-lined space. It was a pocket dimension. A zone where the laws of physics were entirely determined by the admin.
Me.
The Star Devourer King slammed into the wall of the cube.
*BOOM.*
It didn't break. The wall didn't even ripple. The King recoiled, confused. It lashed out again, trying to eat the mana of the wall. But the mana was cycling too fast, fed by the infinite loop of my power and anchored by the belief of the players outside.
**"WHAT IS THIS?"** the King bellowed. Its voice echoed in the enclosed space, deafeningly loud. **"WHERE ARE THE STARS? WHERE IS THE FOOD?"**
I floated in the center of the cube. I adjusted my mask.
"This," I said, "is a private lobby."
I cracked my knuckles. The sound echoed like gunshots.
Outside, the battle was raging. But in here? In here, it was just the two of us.
"No collateral damage," I explained, drifting closer to the massive entity. "No civilians. No delicate ecosystems to worry about."
My aura flared again. But this time, it wasn't the gentle, nurturing light of a sun. It was jagged. aggressive. Violent.
**[Limit Breaker: 50% Output.]**
The white grid of the room turned gold. The floor—which was just raw math—began to crack under the pressure of my presence.
"You wanted to eat a God," I said.
I wound up a punch. My fist glowed with enough condensed kinetic energy to shatter a moon.
"Table's open."
**"ARROGANCE!"** The Star Devourer King shrieked. It expanded, turning into a tidal wave of mouths and teeth, rushing to swallow me whole. **"I AM ENTROPY! I AM THE END!"**
I didn't dodge.
I punched.
**Chapter 53 Ends.**
***
**Chapter 54 Preview: The Duel in the Box**
Inside the Birdcage, time flows differently. While minutes pass for the players outside, Shigu and the King engage in a battle that defies logic. But the King has a secret—it isn't just a beast; it is a hive mind of every star it has ever eaten. As Shigu fights, he realizes he isn't fighting a monster. He is fighting the ghosts of a billion dead worlds. And they are very, very loud.