Commander Lyra Voss stood at the edge of the city wall, her eyes fixed on the impossible sky above.
The stars were gone. Not hidden by clouds or smoke—simply gone. In their place was a void, a darkness so complete that it seemed to swallow light itself. The moon had vanished. The sun had set and never risen again. The world was drowning in an endless night.
"The Creator," she whispered. "It's really doing it. It's creating a new universe."
Commander Thorne stood beside her, his face pale and drawn. He was an old soldier now, his body worn by decades of service, but his eyes were still sharp. "What do we do, Commander? How do we fight the end of existence?"
Lyra's jaw tightened. She was young, barely twenty-five, but she carried the weight of her lineage on her shoulders. Great-granddau
