Kaito's hand touched the Core of Hunger.
There was no explosion.
No immediate destruction.
Instead—
Silence absolute.
Time stalled mid-motion. Ocean waves froze like sculpted glass. Falling eclipse fragments hung suspended in the air. Even Silver Eyes could not move.
Inside the stillness, Kaito stood alone before the sphere of condensed void.
Vael'Tharion's external mass dissolved, leaving only this nucleus—this origin point of all shadow.
"You are derivative," the Core spoke directly into him. "You exist because I fractured."
Kaito felt memories flood his mind—visions of primordial darkness before stars were born. The Core had not been evil.
It had been solitary.
In its loneliness, it expanded.
Expansion created instability.
Instability created fragments.
Fragments became Lords.
"You devour to fill absence," Kaito realized quietly.
"Yes."
The admission shook him more than hostility would have.
The Core's pull intensified, trying to collapse him into itself—not violently, but inevitably.
"You cannot refine infinity," it whispered.
Kaito tightened his control.
"Maybe not."
His balanced rings began rotating faster.
"But I can define it."
And time resumed.