Valeria fell forward as the resistance pushing against her vanished. The entity dissolved into a cloud of harmless, glittering dust that drifted toward the invisible floor.
Alvian landed lightly beside Valeria, spinning his spear. "Connection terminated. Good work, Shield."
"Don't compliment me yet," Valeria wheezed, pushing herself up from the floor with a groan. She pointed a trembling, gauntleted finger toward the ceiling. "Look at the battery."
Alvian looked up. The Dark Matter Star, previously a stable sphere of absolute blackness, was beginning to violently expand. Without the Avatar to continuously drain and vent its energy, the cosmic engine was overloading. Swirls of angry purple and sickly yellow light cracked across its surface.
A massive red prompt materialized across Alvian's vision, so bright it burned his retinas.
[System Alert: Critical Mass Detected.]
[Event: Supernova Imminent.]
[Time until Sector Erasure: 30 Seconds.]
