The security feed on the glass console was crisp, 4K resolution, and utterly terrifying.
I leaned heavily against the railing of the Red-Queen’s core, my father gripping my shoulder to keep me upright. My physical body felt hollow, drained by the massive energy transfer required to lock the planetary shield in place. But my mind was hyper-lucid, tethered to the Citadel’s internal sensors.
I was watching the man I loved stand alone against a god of deletion.
The Null-Commander didn't move like the foot soldiers. It didn't glide. It took heavy, deliberate steps. Its body wasn't fluid; it was a shifting nightmare of jagged, obsidian geometry that seemed to absorb the ambient light of the lobby. In its right hand, it held a blade a six-foot-long sword of pure, unadulterated void. Wherever t
