The jump to the Obsidian Sector was heavy with a different kind of tension. In his former life as a "Protagonist," Kaelen had seen this place as a dark-fantasy cliché—a realm of jagged spires, lava pits, and a "Dark Overlord" who waited at the end of a linear path. But as The Memory of Water exited hyperspace, the reality was far more terrifying.
The Obsidian Sector was no longer a realm of fire and stone. It had become a Non-Place.
The stars around the sector were being muffled, as if a great shroud of black ink had been draped over the sky. The Shards within the sector were not being destroyed by the Glitch; they were being Subsumed. They looked like gray, featureless spheres, their colors and cultures drained away, leaving only a smooth, obsidian surface.
"It’s a philosophical collap
