In the distant star system, the foreign Hunger convulsed violently against Kaito and the Watcher's combined pressure.
Unlike Vael'Tharion, this distortion had no divided fragments.
No history of containment.
It was pure expansion instinct.
The dying red star collapsed inward as the distortion fed.
Kaito projected a refining spiral outward—but without Silver Eyes' full equilibrium lattice, the structure wavered.
The Watcher reinforced one quadrant with geometric force, but its energy output caused cascading tremors across the luminous grid behind it.
Sustained intervention unsustainable, it transmitted.
The distortion lashed outward like a tidal wave of warped space.
Kaito intercepted the surge directly, absorbing part of its raw expansion to prevent collapse.
Pain ripped through him.
The divided halves of Earth's Origin shuddered in response across impossible distance.
Back home, the twin Boundary Stars flared violently.
Silver Eyes cried out as equilibrium threads snapped in three locations simultaneously.
The Hunger was not just resisting.
It was adapting.