"STAR!"
Father moved.
Nobody saw him leave.
One moment he stood beside Mother.
The next, he had already crossed the endless darkness, racing toward the pink-haired girl as the gigantic black hand descended behind her.
The hand wasn't simply large.
It was wrong.
Its shape shifted every second. Fingers multiplied and vanished. Eyes appeared inside the flesh and immediately rotted away. Entire faces formed in its skin before melting back into darkness.
And through it all, the thing smiled.
Not with a mouth.
With intention.
The forgotten daughter looked up, terror flooding her eyes.
"Dad!"
The hand closed.
Father reached her first.
His arms wrapped around her.
And the hand struck.
The impact exploded across existence.
Mother screamed.
Sun vanished.
Spark cursed.
Shadow threw himself forward.
The Listener instinctively shielded the little girl.
Reality shattered around them like glass.
Entire timelines burst.
Fragments of dead worlds flashed and disappeared.
