Chapter 60: The Hunger of the Void
Inside the Styx-7 star, Carson McCain felt a sudden, sickening drop in his resonance. The Spirit-Blade (the 34th Strand) began to flicker like a dying candle. The emerald-violet light of the corona was being replaced by a creeping, oily darkness that didn't feel like the Void-Poison; it felt like absolute nothingness.
"Sir! The Imperial flagship has deployed a 'Negative-Frequency' field!" Aura's spirit-voice screamed, her form beginning to pixelate and dissolve. "It's not attacking your Qi, it's attacking the possibility of Qi! At the current rate of decay, the star's stability will fail in less than four minutes!"
Carson stood up from the silent throne, but his legs felt like lead. The Sovereign's Shadow-Walk—the projection he had sent to New Seattle—was instantly severed. He felt his consciousness being slammed back into his physical body at the center of the star. The connection to Hobs, Maya, and the millions of free souls was gone. He was alone in a box of darkness.
"Grandfather!" Carson roared, looking toward the Ghost of the First Sovereign. But even the Ghost was fading, its ancient data-stream being erased by the Entropic Calculus of the Black-Box.
"The price of Godhood, Carson..." the Ghost's voice whispered, barely audible. "In a world of nothing, even a King is just a shadow. You must find the 35th Strand—The Unwritten Law. It is the only thing that exists outside of calculation."
Carson gripped the Primordial Hilt, but the hilt was cold and dead. He realized then that he had been relying too much on the "Flow" of the star and the Library. To beat the Black-Box, he couldn't use the energy of the universe; he had to use the energy of his own Defiance.