The unified Marcus entity moved through the spaces between dimensions at speeds that defied conventional understanding. With twelve perspectives coordinating perfectly, with knowledge drawn from all the different factions, the entity was able to navigate the collapsed barrier structure in ways that none of the individual versions could have managed alone.
What the unified consciousness discovered was both more complex and more terrifying than any of them had anticipated.
The Architects were not themselves. They were not even a species in any conventional sense. They were more like... tools. Servants of something far greater. Beings that had been given just enough autonomy to carry out their purposes, but not enough freedom to question those purposes fundamentally.
And their purpose was
