The attack did not build.
It did not posture.
It did not warn.
The Predator simply moved.
One moment it hovered at the perimeter, mass rippling in silent calculation.
The next—
It vanished.
Space buckled inward along the vector of the Fourth Light.
"Direct insertion—!" Kaelith's voice cut sharply through the Axis.
Too late.
The Predator reappeared inside the outer lattice, bypassing standard perimeter distortion. It had learned the rhythm of their defensive oscillations during the Oversight Fragment's scan.
It exploited the fractional lag.
A spear of condensed adaptive matter slammed straight toward the newborn node.
The Fourth Light screamed.
Not in sound.
In frequency.
Its young structure flickered violently as the Predator's mass wrapped partially around it, feeding, compressing, isolating.
Lysarra reacted first.
Golden flame surged outward in a protective cocoon, wrapping the Fourth Light in layered warmth.
