Prologue：The Spark of the Darkest Moment

Prologue：The Spark of the Darkest Moment

In a drawer within some engineer's quarters lay a document of unknown origin, chronicling a time before the long epoch known as the "Final Extinction," when the Nine Star Rings still turned to their ancient rhythm.

In the First Star Ring, within the Geometric City of Order, a crystal palace floated at the heart of a mechanical city-state. Here, in the "Watchers' Council Hall," a meeting that would decide the fate of the cosmos was underway. The council comprised representatives from the most ancient civilizations of the Nine Star Rings—those closest to the universe's primordial mysteries. Their forms varied wildly: some appeared as streams of flowing light, others as mechanical constructs, and still others as insectoid beings. Yet all attention was fixed upon the massive holographic sand table at the hall's center, wrought of pure energy and displaying the dynamic interplay of the Nine Star Rings.

On the sand table, the light points representing the outermost Ninth and Eighth Star Rings were dimming and winking out at a visible pace, as if stained by invisible ink. An indescribable aura of "void" seeped from those regions, creeping slowly but relentlessly toward the inner rings.
"According to the latest observational data," a voice rasped like grinding metal, emanating from a spherical entity composed of countless interlocking precision gears, "Universes 27, 26, and 25 of the Ninth Star Ring have gone completely silent. Diagnosis: 'energy depletion.' The Corecrash Cosmos and Phantom Cosmos of the Eighth Star Ring have also entered irreversible decay. The march of entropy exceeds even our most pessimistic projections."

From across the chamber, a delegate wreathed in soft, radiant light—their form graceful as a white bird—spoke with a strange, melodic cadence: "Should we consider activating the early contingency protocols of the 'Spark Plan'? Reliable intelligence confirms that the vanguard of this 'void'—those entities the outer rings call 'Silent Walkers'—has breached the Seventh Star Ring's perimeter barrier. Their objective appears to be the consumption of every universe pulsing with 'vital energy,' accelerating the arrival of the 'Great Extinction.'"

"Intervention?" The gear-sphere emitted a shrill whir. "The birth and death of universes follows its own ordained pattern. Entropy's increase is an irreversible ultimate law. Our duty as the Watchers' Council is to record and bear witness, not to play the fool tilting at windmills. Any attempt to alter the universe's ultimate fate will prove futile and may unleash even more unpredictable catastrophes."

"But what of the Dragonkin of the Fifth Star Ring—those 'Guardians of the Flame of Life'?" the radiant delegate countered. "Did they not once attempt to rekindle long-extinguished ancient universes, creating miracles of 'renewal'? Are we to sit idly by as every Star Ring, every universe, crumbles to cold dust?"

"The Dragonkin's efforts were admirable, but what came of them?" A voice deep as the abyss rumbled from the hall's shadows, where sat a massive figure nearly one with the darkness itself. "Their 'reversal' only drew the Silent Walkers' attention. Now war rages from the Seventh Star Ring to the Fifth. The Dragonkin's worlds burn. Their light fades."

Meanwhile, countless light-years away at the edge of the Fifth Star Ring, a once-vibrant planet was being consumed by war. The sky was torn asunder, the earth wailed in agony. Countless species of varied intelligence fought desperately against the tide-like "Silent Walkers"—entities radiating the chill aura of death itself.

Laser fire and energy cannons wove patterns of destruction, their explosions blazing like the universe's most desperate fireworks, briefly illuminating the faces of warriors—grimy with blood and dust, yet still burning with unyielding resolve.

Warriors from the Second Star Ring's Prism Cosmos—the "Spectral Beings"—had condensed their bodies of pure radiant light into unbreakable "Luminous Blades," slashing again and again through the Silent Walkers' formless shadows. Yet as their brilliance dimmed from energy depletion, they were enveloped by darkness in their final moments, extinguished without even a cry of anguish, leaving only deeper void behind.

Further out, "Flame Entities" from the Third Star Ring's Starflame Cosmos burned like walking miniature stars, using their very essence as fuel to unleash apocalyptic firestorms, attempting to hold the Silent Walkers' vanguard beyond the galactic defense line. One elderly Flame Elder, overwhelmed in battle, resolutely detonated his flame core, transforming into a colossal fire-lotus spanning multiple star systems, instantly purifying countless shadows. Yet when those flames died, the resulting void felt only colder and more desolate.

The "Hive Children" from the Second Star Ring's Swarm Cosmos poured forth fearlessly like a black tide from massive bio-ships. Beetle-formed heavy troopers tore apart all who dared approach with pincers gleaming metallic light. Moth-like shadow assassins darted through darkness, striking at the Silent Walkers' elusive energy cores with venomous stingers. Spider-formed female warriors wove defensive webs. Yet before the Silent Walkers' "Extinction Field"—which could annihilate all life and information—their vaunted collective consciousness network began to falter. Countless warriors, severed from command in an instant, were swallowed by darkness.

"Hold the line! For the Verdant Sea! For the young ones crying in our nests!" roared a bear-clan warrior from the Fifth Star Ring's Forestsea Cosmos. He wore battle armor woven from ancient vines and massive bones, now tattered beyond recognition. His bear-like frame was covered in gruesome wounds, yet he still gripped a massive war-axe carved from an entire block of stellar ironwood, its natural radiance undimmed. With tremendous force, he shattered a Silent Walker—a creature like a twisted shadow—into scattered fragments of dark energy. But more shadows surged from all directions with greater ferocity, like invisible, frigid tides that instantly engulfed his totem-marked form radiating primal power. Only a roar filled with defiance and protective devotion remained, echoing long in the silent void.

"Star Ring Coalition Fleet... Seventh Squadron... Annihilated..." The final transmission from a "Wind Spirit" pilot from the Fifth Star Ring's Windsong Cosmos crackled through communications—his elegant form of flowing air now thin and unstable. His last cry, carried by wind-song and weeping, was replaced by harsh static signaling complete communication breakdown.

Cities crumbled to ruins under silent erosion. Countless lives perished in despair. The war spread mercilessly—from the Fifth Star Ring to the Fourth, then to the Third. Those once-glorious universes fell like dominoes in succession.

Finally, when the Second Star Ring's last defense line was torn apart, that terrifying shadow representing "Extinction" extended its frigid tendrils toward the core of the Nine Star Rings—the First Star Ring and its "Nexus of All Realms," the Lattice Cosmos.

The Lattice Cosmos now blazed with endless war. The remaining species from every corner of the Nine Star Rings, still possessed of the will to resist, rallied under the Dragonkin's final emperor for a hopeless last stand. Massive starship wreckage floated like tombstones in the void, their energy shields flickering uncertainly like candles in the wind.

In this apocalyptic battle consuming everything, one figure shone with particular brilliance.

Emma—the perfect prototype of the Dragonkin's "Soul Armor"—moved with athletic grace and elegance. Her wheat-colored synthetic skin glowed pure blue under energy overload. Each thrust of her dragon-spine lance was accompanied by the wails and dissolution of Silent Walkers. Like an untiring bolt of blue lightning, she stood firm before the young Dragonkin princess, Ling.

"Emma..." Ling clutched tightly at Emma's hem, her deep crimson dragon-eyes filled with fear, but even more with infinite trust in her guardian.

"Don't be afraid, Ling. I will protect you." Emma's voice was firm yet gentle, even as her energy core operated at overload and fine cracks spread across her frame.

The battle grew ever more brutal. The Dragonkin's final elders successively burned their life essence, transforming into brilliant stellar explosions to buy the coalition moments of respite. But the Silent Walkers seemed infinite in number—they embodied the universe's deepest despair, devouring all light and hope.

"It's hopeless... The Lattice Cosmos's source is failing!" cried an alien leader whose form was translucent as crystal, his body gradually dimming.

"Ling!" The Dragonkin's last emperor—an old dragon covered in wounds with broken horns—used his final strength to hurl a pendant glowing with soft blue radiance toward her. "This is the 'Tear of the First Dragon'! Take it... Survive! Go seek... The new spark!"

The old dragon roared as he charged the densest enemy formation and detonated himself.

 "Father!" Ling's heart-rending cry pierced the chaos.

"Quickly! Take Her Highness into the 'Ark Laboratory'!" Emma scooped up Ling and rushed toward a massive spherical structure like a mobile fortress behind the coalition lines. This was the final "Ark" carrying hope, built by the Dragonkin in alliance with all the Lattice Cosmos's pinnacle technologies.

However, the Silent Walkers had long perceived their intentions. Countless shadows pursued like a sky full of black ravens.

"Emma, put me down! Let's fight together!" Ling struggled.
"No. My mission is to protect you." Emma's gaze was extraordinarily gentle as she placed Ling in the hibernation pod prepared within the Ark Laboratory, then fastened the "Tear of the First Dragon" pendant around her neck.

"Remember, Ling," Emma gazed deeply at the girl gradually closing her eyes within the hibernation pod. "No matter which universe or era you drift to... Live with pride."

She spun around to face the surging Silent Walkers, her energy core burning with unprecedented intensity.

"In the name of the Dragon Knight's Covenant—" Emma's form blurred in blinding blue light, "—I burn my Soul Armor to forge an eternal bulwark!"

She transformed into a massive blue light-shield, protecting the entire Ark Laboratory behind her, forcibly withstanding all destructive attacks.

Just as the light-shield was about to shatter, within the Ark Laboratory, the power of the "Tear of the First Dragon" seemed to awaken, resonating with some ancient Dragonkin device at the laboratory's core. An indescribable massive spacetime distortion suddenly erupted!

Emma's final vision was of the Ark Laboratory—along with sleeping Ling within—being completely swallowed by a suddenly torn rift flashing with rainbow light, vanishing without trace in an instant.

With the Ark Laboratory's disappearance, some auxiliary pods containing precious documents and artifacts—part of the Dragonkin's final evacuation—were also caught in this massive spacetime distortion, scattered like stellar fragments into the rift's unknowable depths.

Emma's form, having completed her final act of protection, finally dissolved into countless dancing blue motes of light in that boundless darkness symbolizing "Extinction," gradually fading away.

The Lattice Cosmos's last resistance thus ended.

Yet that Ark Laboratory carrying the Dragonkin's final hope—and Princess Ling sleeping within— now traveled through twisted spacetime toward an unknown coordinate: an ancient Lattice Cosmos from before the "Extinction," flowing backward through time's river.

The universe's destiny seemed, in this moment, to quietly deviate from its predetermined course.