The assisting Watcher extended its perception grid toward the source.
It returned fragmented.
Data architecture incompatible.
That statement unsettled even Kaito.
The Watchers had mapped collapse across billions of systems.
Nothing had ever been "incompatible."
The signal repeated.
Not louder.
Closer.
In orbit, faint geometric distortions appeared — but unlike the Watchers' crystalline forms, these were curved.
Organic symmetry.
Mathematics without edges.
Kaito felt no hostility.
Only depth.
Silver Eyes turned toward him slowly.
"This is what existed before observers."
The Watcher hesitated.
A rare thing.
Hypothesis: proto-architect civilization.
Kaito's pulse steadied.
"You mean something that solved this before we did?"
Silence.
Then—
Affirmative probability rising.