The Pulse from the Wound
Less than 24 hours after the fall of Mournvale, a new wave of system anomalies triggered emergency protocols across the Eternum Network.
The warning wasn't from space.
Not from time.
Not even from collapsed timelines.
It was from before the first branch of reality ever split...
> WARNING: UNKNOWN EVENT DETECTED
LOCATION: TIMELINE NULL-PHI-0
DESIGNATION: ORIGIN SCAR
Temporal Depth: Pre-Existential
Threat Level: Absolute
Zairoth's face was grim as he stared at the cascading data.
"This is where it all began… where the first wound in reality occurred. This is where the Nullborn first tasted creation."
Liam's jaw tightened.
"Then it's where we make our stand."
---
A Journey to the Beginning of Time
Traveling to Timeline Null-Phi-0 was impossible by conventional means. Even the Bihari and the Greys had never dared approach it.
But Liam, now carrying the Eternal Godspark, and flanked by the Chains of Eternum, could open the path.
Inside the Valorpoint's sealed core chamber, Trinity and Kaidon formed a double helix of celestial energy, their chains spinning in opposite orbits.
> Genesis Anchor Linked.
Eternum Chains Stabilized.
Spacetime Layering Disengaged.
Liam stepped between the orbits, his spark flaring.
> PROJECT VORTEX INITIATED: ENTERING THE ORIGIN SCAR
The world bent.
Then unraveled.
And they were no longer in any reality that could be mapped.
---
The World That Shouldn't Be
Timeline Null-Phi-0 was not a world.
It was a gash, stitched with dying stars and memory debris.
Floating islands of half-formed matter orbited a voidstorm at the center—a storm that howled with the screams of unspoken truths.
Within that storm pulsed a monumental structure—a temple made of erased timelines, each brick a forgotten civilization.
Elena murmured through comms.
"…That's not architecture. That's failure. Built into a throne."
Reed Maddox, his voice quiet with awe, added, "It's feeding. The Nullborn King is… dreaming here. This is where he first opened his eyes."
And from within the temple—the King stirred.
---
The Voice from the Void
A presence slithered into their minds. Not sound—the absence of it.
> "You seek to defy me in my sleep…?"
"Even here, before your first heartbeat?"
Liam stepped forward, defiant.
"You exist because someone gave up. I'm here to prove they shouldn't have."
The voice smiled… without a mouth.
> "You burn brightly… Titan of the Flame. Let's see if you burn where nothing exists."
Suddenly, the storm exploded outward.
Entities unlike anything before surged forward—Nullborn Echoes, shaped from concepts Earth had never even birthed.
---
The Battle in the Unwritten Realm
The team broke into formation.
Dante unleashed a shockwave of compressed light, carving a path through Unspoken Horrors.
Elena and Shiro fought side-by-side, their blades glowing with time-anchored aether.
Trinity summoned the Chain of Remembering, holding the battlefield in place against reality's collapse.
Kaidon spun the Chain of Becoming, locking future echoes into combat forms.
And Liam?
He leapt into the center of the scar, striking the temple itself with the Eternal Spark.
The entire battlefield froze.
And then a single crack formed in the storm.
A deep, terrible crack in the veil of existence.
From within…
A hand began to rise.
The Nullborn King.
Still incomplete. Still forming.
But already towering. Already ancient.
He did not roar. He did not threaten.
He simply whispered:
"You're too early. But so very loud."
And then he pointed… toward Earth.
> NULL SIGNAL SPLINTER DETECTED
LOCATION: EARTH-PRIME – VATICAN VAULT COMPLEX
STATUS: DIMENSIONAL CORE LEAKING
Liam's heart dropped.
"He's not fighting us here… he's bypassing us. He's already attacking our home."
---
Retreat and a Burning Promise
The team regrouped.
Chains spun in reverse. The Valorpoint folded through the scar's collapsing layers.
The Origin Scar pulsed one last time behind them.
A reminder. A warning.
Back on Prime Earth, the skies turned gray, and churches across the globe reported the same nightmare.
A voice whispering a single phrase:
> "All flames fade."
---