???: "Fool."

Just before the Hound's claws were about to reach me—I heard a voice.

A voice—not my own.Not the System's message.
Not the growling of the Paradox Hound.

No. This was something far more ancient, far more powerful than any of them.

A voice beyond existence.
Beyond the System.
Beyond the Paradox Hound.
Beyond anything I had ever encountered since my time as a singularity.

A power I could neither comprehend nor even begin to imagine.

And then—everything changed.

The abyss, once devoid of stars, planets, and celestial bodies, wiped clean by the Hound's attacks, was suddenly alive again.

Glowing, burning stars.
Revolving planets.
Asteroids drifting in silent, endless orbits.

I had no eyes, yet I could feel it—the entire cosmic landscape had shifted.

And before I could even comprehend what had happened, I was already too close to a celestial mass—absorbing it, pulling it into my core.

Everything had changed.

The System's gaze was gone.
The Paradox Hound had vanished.
The relentless pursuit that had threatened my very existence was… stopped.

But whatever entity had done this—I did not know.

Yet there was no time to dwell on it.

I had already suffered too many hits from the Paradox Hound, and more pressing than that was the thing that had lodged itself deep within my event horizon.

The fragment of the Nova Reaper.

It had been dragged into my singularity… yet it refused to be crushed. It would not disintegrate or assimilate into me.

This was not pain.

No—this was something far worse.

Fear.

My core trembled—fluctuating, unstable. The pressure from within was mounting, a presence that refused to dissolve, resisting my very being.

Something was wrong.

I could feel my structure warping, my singularity quivering on the edge of collapse. If I did not act now, I would lose control completely. I had very little time to stabilize myself. And that time had already been cut short by the Hound's relentless attacks.

I could not wait for any outside help.

So, I tried to break it.
Tried to dissolve it into my being.

But—

The fragment remained inside me.
It did not break under my pull.
It did not dissolve into my being.

It rejected me.

I pulled harder—but it was not something to be consumed.

Then, I understood.

I could not devour this power.
It was not just energy or mass. It was authority. A force tied to something far greater than any reality.

If I tried to take it in, it would unmake me before I could unmake it.

No matter how hard I tried, every attempt led to a dead end.

But then, I had an idea—a bizarre one at that.

And for that idea to work—I needed power.

More power.

Much more.

My event horizon was diminished, fractured beyond repair, and the core inside me was disintegrating. If I wanted to survive—if I wanted to rebuild what had been lost—I needed something vast. Something colossal.

And I found it.

A star.

Not a small one. Not the remnants of a broken celestial body.

A colossal, living star, burning with enough mass to reignite my existence.

I reached for it, expanding my gravity, pulling—

And the moment I did, I realized my mistake.

I was too small.

Instead of dragging it toward me, I felt the opposite—I was being pulled in.

The star's gravity fought back, releasing waves of violent energy that burned through my pull.

I strained, trying to contain it, trying to stabilize my own pull—

But I was losing.

Instead of consuming the star, I felt myself unraveling further, my singularity distorting even more under the sheer force pressing against me.

This wasn't like before.
This was something I was not yet ready to take.

But I had no other choice.

P.S. Author's Note:

Hey everyone! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the pacing of the story.

Do you feel like things are moving too fast, or should I slow it down—focusing more on details and a deeper dive into the MC’s struggles?

Your insights will be greatly appreciated in shaping the story’s flow, ensuring it remains both engaging and immersive. Let me know what you think in the comments! 

Looking forward to your responses! See you in the next chapter.