In the deepest chambers of reality's first foundation, where the original laws of existence had been carved into crystalline matrices older than galaxies, the Core Worlds made their final stand. These were not planets in any conventional sense—they were conceptual spaces, the fundamental anchors upon which all other reality depended. If they fell, the war-mind's perfect unity would mean nothing, for there would be no universe left to defend.
The transformation had been swift and terrible. Where once billions of distinct voices had sung the symphony of consciousness, now only the war-mind's singular harmony resonated through the void. But even as the collective celebrated its tactical victories against The Dark, cracks began to appear in its perfect facade—cracks that revealed the true horror of what they had become.
The Academy of Final Lessons
