### Chapter 202: An Old Debt
Nox stood between the two silent beings, a quiet, immovable object in the face of a conceptual storm. He looked at Lyra, the young pilot who was now trembling with the sheer, raw power of the void he had gifted her. Then he looked at the Collector.
"This one isn't on the list, is it?" Nox asked, his voice calm. "This world. It's not part of the Arena. It's just a quiet little story you found. And you decided to write its ending because you were bored."
[ALL STORIES END,] the Collector projected, regaining its composure. [I AM SIMPLY THE AUTHOR OF THE FINAL CHAPTER.]
"You're a plagiarist," Nox said. "You steal endings. You're a Story-Thief. A lesser echo of a much greater power."
He could feel it now. This Collector was not the same entity he had known. It was a fragment, a copy, one of many, perhaps. A lesser being playing at being a god.
