Chapter 22

Episode 22

“Kareem, reinforce Blackman’s tether!” Shift shouted into his comms, his voice ringing through the interference. “I’m going in close!” ​“Malik, wait! What are you doing?!” Kareem’s voice cracked over the comms, buried under a mountain of white noise. “The energy density inside that lens will disintegrate your physical form!” ​“Not if Echo takes the hit,” Malik replied, setting his jaw. He didn't wait for a counterargument. He ignited his thrusters, driving himself straight into the heart of the crystalline structure. ​The moment he crossed the lens's event horizon, the void lashed out. Pure, raw unmaking energy flooded his system. It felt like dying in slow motion—every atom in his body attempting to unbind, every memory trying to unravel. ​“NOW, MALIK!” Echo roared inside his mind. ​Instead of repelling the force with his shield, Shift threw his arms wide and opened the bond. ​The obsidian armor surrounding Malik flared into a deep, celestial purple. Tendrils of unmaking energy crashed into his chest, but rather than erasing him, they were sucked violently into Echo’s core. The symbiote shuddered, expanding to double its size. Its dark surface cracked open, revealing glowing veins of brilliant, blinding blue light as it strained to digest the ultimate absence of matter. ​“It is... heavy...” Echo gasped, its mental voice distorting, blending with the hollow echoes of the ancient forge. “It wants to consume... but I am a container built by its own hand. I CAN HOLD IT!” ​Malik screamed as the raw power coursed through his nerve endings. He forced his legs forward, step by agonizing step through the non-space, until his heavy, glowing gauntlet slammed directly onto the surface of the central crystal. ​The connection was instantaneous. ​Malik’s consciousness was violently yanked into the core's network. Visions flashed before his eyes at lightspeed: ancient, colossal beings shaping galaxies, discarding broken dimensions like trash, and forging the Void as a cosmic eraser to sweep away their failed experiments. But among those memories, he found the trapped consciousnesses of the Station Theta-X crew—suspended like flies in amber, their life forces being siphoned to keep the lens focused. ​“I’ve got you,” Malik thought, projecting his willpower into the network. ​Using Echo as a massive conductive bridge, Malik rerouted the absorbed unmaking energy away from the crew's containment matrices and jammed it back into the lens's internal power conduit. ​“Echo, purge it ALL!” ​Echo unleashed a deafening psychic howl that reverberated across the Kepler-186 system. A blinding shockwave of converted energy exploded outward from Malik's palms. ​The crystalline lens fractured. Hairline cracks spider-webbed across its surface before it shattered into millions of sparkling, harmless shards. The bleeding tear of null-space collapsed in on itself with a muffled thump, instantly snuffing out the consuming maw. ​As the anomaly dissolved, the starlight of Kepler-186 rushed back in to fill the space. Floating in the quiet void where the darkness had just been were dozens of emergency survival pods—the Theta-X crew, freed from the crystal and safely sealed before the core shattered. ​Back on the transport ship, the telemetry screens flashed green. ​“The anomaly is gone!” Kareem yelled, slapping his console in disbelief. “Life signs! Dozens of them! The station crew... they're alive in escape pods!” ​“Where’s Malik?!” Aqua demanded, leaning over the console. ​Out in the open space, Shift drifted silently among the floating crystal dust. The celestial purple glow was gone, replaced by his sleek, obsidian armor. His breathing was heavy, rattling in his chest, but steady. Echo pulsed within him—exhausted, but noticeably deeper, stronger, and fundamentally changed by the energy it had reclaimed. ​“I’m here,” Shift’s voice came through the comms, quiet but victorious. “Send the recovery shuttles for the pods. We’re bringing everyone home.” ​Blackman let out a slow breath, his gravitic field powering down. “Good work, kid.” ​Venom Boy slumped against the bulkhead with a dramatic sigh. “Thank God. Next time we fight something that eats reality, I’m taking a sick day.” ​Malik looked out at the distant, red sun of Kepler-186 as the transport ship maneuvered toward him. They had saved the crew and stopped the unmaking, but as he ran a hand over his chest, he could feel the new, complex glyphs now etched into Echo’s inner lining. The forge was real, and whoever built it was still out there. ​The fight wasn't over—it had only just expanded.