The stars were wrong.
Alex stood on the ridge overlooking the facility, staring at the night sky. The constellations he'd known since childhood were twisted. Unrecognizable. The stars themselves seemed to pulse with an alien rhythm.
"It's been happening for three days," Sebastian said, appearing beside him. "The astronomers are calling it a celestial anomaly. But we know better."
Alex nodded slowly. "The Creator is reshaping reality."
"Or someone else is." Sebastian's voice was grim. "Someone who's been waiting for the Creator to weaken."
Alex turned to face him. "Who?"
Sebastian was silent for a long moment. Then he said, "I've been studying the ancient texts. The ones that predate the Origin. There's a name that appears again and again. A being that existed before the Creator."
Al
