Darkness. Complete. Absolute.
Rama floated in nothing. No body. No sensation. Just consciousness existing in void. Death felt like this: weightless, timeless, empty. He'd died before. Three seconds during the SS-tier boss fight. System had intervened then. Brought him back at one percent health.
Would it intervene again?
The notification hung in his awareness like a sentence waiting for verdict.
[OBSERVER DECISION: PENDING...]
Observer. Always Observer. Watching Timeline 48. Testing Coalition-complete. Measuring worthiness. Determining graduation possibility. Everything depending on whether Observer deemed attempt forty-eight worthy of continuation. Whether Rama's transformation mattered. Whether coordinator becoming fighter justified intervention.
