Even when the Creator vanished, something in the darkness watched. The ancient doors of the Tribunal groaned as the Old One, veins of gold burning beneath obsidian skin, took slow steps back toward the inner sanctum. The chamber held its breath. Not a sound dared rise until a voice broke the stillness. "Great one… before you return to silence… tell us the truth. You said the one we tried to destroy wasn't ready yet. But if he has awakened… what waits beyond him?"
The Old One stopped. His gaze burned into the trembling council. "The Five you sent… were not born here. They were drawn here — from beyond the veil." Another voice, smaller, forced itself to speak. "Where?"
"The black hole," he said. "The outer wound of the universe. Where time fractures. Where light screams. Where memory dies. They were soldiers, yes… but not of any kingdom you know. They were the fingers… of a hand that is still closing."
His tone deepened, and the walls seemed to bend toward his voice. "When the god you call MRD vanished from the cosmos, he left behind silence. Not absence… silence. And in that silence, something ancient was born. The Dark Force. Not demons. Not aliens. Hunger. A force that does not rule — it consumes. Not with fire… with forgetting. And it grows stronger every time he remembers who he is."
One of the elders whispered, "Then why… did he forget himself?"
The Old One turned sharply. "Because his memory is not a story. It is a weapon. If he remembered too soon, the wall between him and the void would shatter. He placed that wall himself — to protect this world. To delay his awakening. But now… you've chipped the wall. And the shadows are watching."
His voice became colder. "You thought those five were your blade. They were bait. They came not to conquer, but to provoke. And now you've shown them he still breathes. So they will come. Not five. Not a hundred. Not with armies. With reality itself bending behind them."
He stepped into the glowing circle of runes — his prison and his refuge. "Do not call me again. Not until the stars themselves begin to weep. You thought awakening him would give you time. You were wrong. You've awakened the reason time exists. And when he remembers… there won't be anything left to control. Because the god you fear… created the gods you worship. And he did not return to fight. He returned… to finish what he started."
The chamber sealed with a boom, darkness swallowing the Witness again. No one moved. Only a whisper remained. "Then the Five were not the enemy."
"No," another voice said in the dark. "They were the invitation."
And in the deep of space… the dark began to move.