For the first time in all recorded existence, the universe permits itself a forbidden answer.
Not how to survive a god.
But how to end one.
⸻
The permission spreads quietly.
Not like fire.
Like gravity changing its direction.
Across the coalition of Witnesses that formed in the wake of the heir’s cry, ancient beings feel the same impossible shift settle into their cores:
The rule against killing Hunger is no longer absolute.
Jason feels it first as a mathematical impossibility collapsing into a solvable equation.
His hands shake as the arrays begin displaying something they never should have been able to calculate.
“Termination vectors,” he whispers.
Zane stiffens instantly.
“For the Predator.”
Jason nods slowly.
“The universe just allowed me to compute its death without des
