148: Chapter 148 Energy Overload

On the seventy-seventh floor of the Star Ring Fortress, the blast-proof dome of the Spacetime Energy Fusion Lab was cracking at a speed visible to the naked eye. Pale gold stellar energy and pitch-black torrents of dark matter clashed wildly within the hundred-meter-diameter fusion core chamber, like two cosmic behemoths breaking free from their shackles, tearing all precision instruments, energy conduits, and defense matrices into a whirlwind of scrap metal. The piercing alarms had long been drowned out by the shriek of energy tearing through space, and the red emergency lights flickered in the frantic energy storm, casting the two tightly embracing figures into distorted and tragic silhouettes, swaying precariously in the shattered chamber.

Lin Fan held Kate tightly, the muscles in his arms knotted and tense, his knuckles turning pale from the excessive force, his fingertips digging deep into his palms, nearly drawing blood. Half of his body had completely transcended the realm of human flesh and blood; dark matter, like abyss ink with a mind of its own, flowed incessantly from his pores, hair, and the corners of his eyes. Everything it touched—the alloy-plated walls, superconducting energy lines, even the metal fragments floating in mid-air—collapsed instantly into void singularities, only to be swallowed whole by the violent spatial turbulence. The ground beneath his feet had long since vanished, replaced by spatial rifts that were constantly wrinkling, twisting, and folding. Light was forcibly bent into eerie arcs here, and the flow of time became chaotic; metal shavings that were drifting slowly one second were accelerated the next into blades sharp enough to pierce the fortress's defensive layers, whistling past his ears.

Lin Fan could clearly perceive that his consciousness was being slowly assimilated by the vast, boundless torrent of dark energy. Every heartbeat felt like it was prying at the gravitational balance of the entire Orion Arm; every breath inhaled the chaotic will of the entire dark nebula. The memories, emotions, obsessions, loves, and hates belonging to Lin Fan were being stripped and dissipated from the depths of his consciousness bit by bit, like sand swept away by a gale. The void-like will of dark matter constantly washed over his soul, whispering in a low voice, tempting him to abandon his human shell, merge into the source of the universe, become the rules themselves, and attain eternal existence. But Lin Fan refused. Using the last shred of his human will, he looked down at Kate in his arms, his heart feeling as if it were being squeezed hard by an invisible hand, the pain so intense he could barely breathe. That heart-wrenching agony became the final anchor maintaining his self-awareness.

Kate's state was thousands of times more tragic than his. Pale gold starlight particles were drifting continuously from her hair, neck, collarbone, and fingertips, like stardust scattered by a cosmic storm or the last fading rays of sunlight at dusk, swirling in the energy storm and slowly merging into the void. Her left shoulder, left arm, and left cheek had completely transformed into flowing light mist, without outline or texture, with only pure stellar energy flowing slowly, liable to completely disintegrate at any moment and turn into a speck of cosmic dust. Her right eye had become a brilliant miniature star, while her left eye still retained a human pupil but was covered with fine golden light patterns. This was the ultimate sign of her body's cosmicization, meaning her life form was being forcibly rewritten, evolving from a carbon-based life form into a pure energy entity.

Her breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible; every exhale brought out a cloud of shimmering light particles, and every heartbeat made the starlight drifting around her even more chaotic. The hand that had been tightly clutching Lin Fan's wrist was now semi-transparent, with light particles constantly falling from her fingertips, yet she still exerted all her strength, trying to use her own pure stellar energy to lock down the out-of-control dark matter within Lin Fan's body. stellar energy represented creation, light, life, and order, while dark matter represented devouring, darkness, void, and chaos; they were naturally the most extreme opposites in the universe. Previously, they had relied on the mediation of Little Kate's core of the light sphere to barely achieve low-intensity energy resonance. But this time, in order to crack the Sower's ultimate dimension code, they had forcibly increased their energy fusion to one hundred and twenty percent, completely exceeding the limits of physical and spiritual endurance. The two energies clashed, surged, and exploded wildly within their bloodlines, bones, and souls—not as complements or symbiosis, but as a destructive overload.

They were transforming from "human" into pure cosmic energy entities. Once this process was complete, they would no longer be sentient beings with self-awareness; they would no longer be Lin Fan and Kate, no longer each other's lovers or Little Kate's parents. Instead, they would become part of the cosmic rules, turning into stardust, dark undercurrents, or joyless torrents of energy within the rifts of spacetime, dissipating forever into the vast sea of stars without leaving even a trace of memory behind.

"Lin Fan..." Kate's voice shattered into countless light particles, drifting lightly in the energy storm, faint yet clear. Her remaining left eye struggled to look up at Lin Fan's face, which was half-lit and half-dark, eroded by dark matter. Her eyes were filled with pain, reluctance, and extreme tenderness; even as she bordered on disintegration, her first concern was still the person in her arms. Her fingertips lightly brushed Lin Fan's cheek, which was covered in dark matter, and the moment the light particles met the ink, a blinding light erupted, searing both their nerves. Yet neither flinched, staring intently at each other as if to carve the other's image into the depths of their dissipating souls. "The fusion threshold... broke the critical value long ago... our bodies... can't hold out... we are... cosmicizing..."

These words were like the sharpest cosmic blade, ruthlessly piercing Lin Fan's final psychological defense. He suddenly let out a low roar, his voice as hoarse as grinding broken metal. The out-of-control dark matter inside him erupted instantly, and a pitch-black torrent exploded outward with him as the center, instantly shattering the lab's remaining defensive barriers. The shockwave swept out, piercing through layer after layer of the Star Ring Fortress's decks, spreading from the seventy-seventh floor all the way to outer space, causing the entire giant fortress orbiting the Alpha Star System to tremble violently. The heavy alloy decks groaned under the unbearable weight, and sparks constantly flew from the gaps. "I can't stop!" Lin Fan's consciousness wavered under the wash of dark energy. He could feel his personality collapsing and his human emotions being swallowed by the void. "My body... my consciousness... it's all out of control! Kate, I'm afraid... I'm afraid I'll forget you, I'm afraid I'll become a soulless energy entity, I'm afraid I'll never be able to hold you again!"

This was the first time Lin Fan had shown such a vulnerable side in front of Kate. He was the dark matter controller who swept across the stars, the human leader who stood against the Sowers, and the hope in the hearts of countless interstellar survivors. He was always calm, always powerful, always fearless. But at this moment, faced with the fear of losing his lover, his self, and everything, he was just an ordinary man, an ordinary person trying his best to protect those beside him. Kate looked at the pain and despair churning in his eyes, and a gentle smile touched the corners of her semi-transparent mouth. That smile was more moving than the most brilliant flowers in the Starfall Flower Sea, more dazzling than the brightest stars in the universe. Even as her body turned into starlight and death was imminent, that smile still carried the power to pierce through all darkness. "Don't be afraid... Lin Fan... together... we will endure..." She leaned in, using her only remaining intact cheek to gently nuzzle Lin Fan's forehead. Light particles and ink met at their foreheads, erupting in a brief but warm glow. However, the energy rampage was swifter than they imagined. Kate's right side also began to slowly turn into starlight; her right arm and leg gradually became transparent. The speed at which the light particles dissipated grew faster and faster, almost forming a golden river of light. The dark matter within Lin Fan became even more violent, the range of spatial distortion expanding continuously. The lab's dome collapsed completely, and the falling debris was swallowed by spatial rifts. Even the interstellar dust outside the fortress was forcibly pulled in, forming a swirling dark vortex around them. Their life signs were fading rapidly by the second.

At this critical moment, just as the two were about to completely dissipate into energy, a childish yet incredibly firm voice, filled with heart-wrenching anxiety, suddenly exploded within their mental link, piercing through the violent energy storm and striking deep into their fading consciousness. "Daddy, Mommy! Don't give up! I'm coming to stabilize you!" It was Little Kate. A palm-sized golden light orb shot out from a dimensional pocket in the corner of the lab like a meteor streaking through the darkness. Moving at extreme speed, it instantly rushed in front of Lin Fan and Kate. It was Little Kate's true form—the core of the light sphere. This core, nurtured from Kate's stellar origin and Lin Fan's dark matter fragments, was the most precious bond of their family of three and the only existence in the entire universe that could simultaneously mediate stellar energy and dark matter. At this moment, the core of the light sphere vibrated violently. Deep within the core, a mini phantom of Little Kate clearly emerged, her small brow tightly furrowed, her round eyes full of tears, and her little face written with pain and determination. Without the slightest hesitation, she unleashed her origin energy without reservation.

The golden core erupted with a brilliant light sufficient to illuminate the entire dark nebula. Within the light, countless light threads as thin as hair spread frantically, like umbilical cords of life or sturdy shackles, instantly winding around Lin Fan and Kate's bodies, wrapping them tightly in the center. The moment the violent stellar energy and dark matter torrents touched these light threads, they miraculously calmed down. The light threads acted like the most precise mediator, forcibly separating, binding, and stabilizing the two opposing, rampaging energies, forming a three-meter-diameter spherical stabilization barrier around Lin Fan and Kate. The spatial distortion stopped abruptly, the collapsing singularities slowly dissipated, and the drifting starlight particles temporarily stopped falling, beginning to flow back into Kate's body bit by bit. The dark matter within Lin Fan that was frantically eroding reality was also contained at the edge of the barrier, no longer spreading outward. The tremors of the Star Ring Fortress gradually subsided, and the energy storm in the lab slowly dispersed. Everything temporarily returned to peace, but this stability was bought by Little Kate at the cost of her own origin life.

The light of the core of the light sphere was dimming at a rate visible to the naked eye, the color of the light threads fading from brilliant gold to pale gold. Little Kate's phantom trembled slightly within the core, her small body curled up, and crystal-clear sweat beads seeped from her forehead. Her originally crisp voice had become extremely weak, every word consuming her remaining energy. "Daddy, Mommy... I... I've used the origin energy of the core of the light sphere to temporarily lock your energy rampage... but... my energy is limited, I can't hold out for long... I... I can only hold for 48 hours... the total energy of the core can only lock your forms for 48 hours at most... after 48 hours... the barrier will break... the energy will rampage again... you... you will still completely cosmicize..."

Forty-eight hours, two days and nights, seventeen thousand two hundred and eighty seconds—this was the final amount of time Little Kate had fought for them with everything she had. Lin Fan stood in the center of the stabilization barrier holding Kate, the light threads around them vibrating gently, binding their energy tightly. He looked down at Kate in his arms, watching her starlight particles slowly flow back, watching her cheeks gradually regain a bit of color, but his heart felt as if it were being crushed by a giant boulder, making it heavy and hard to breathe. Forty-eight hours was too short—too short to even return to Earth to see the night sky of their hometown, too short to go to the Starfall Flower Sea once more to relive their past tenderness, too short to properly hold Little Kate and say "Daddy and Mommy love you," and even shorter because they couldn't find a way to crack cosmicization at all. cosmicization was the ultimate judgment of the cosmic rules upon life, the inevitable destination after energy breaks its limits. Even the Sowers, who created countless civilizations, could not reverse this process. They had drifted in the universe for thousands of years, seen countless powerful civilizations perish, and seen countless top powerhouses fall, but they had never heard of anyone escaping unscathed from the process of cosmicization. Forty-eight hours later would be their final farewell.

Kate leaned in Lin Fan's arms, feeling the temporary stability brought by the barrier, feeling Lin Fan's warm embrace, and feeling Little Kate's weak but firm protection. There was no fear in her eyes, no despair, only extreme tenderness and resolve. She had expected this outcome; the moment she decided to forcibly increase the energy fusion, she had prepared for sacrifice. She wasn't afraid of turning into starlight or dissipating forever into the universe. Her only lingering concerns were Lin Fan and Little Kate—the two family members she loved with her life. She couldn't let Lin Fan disappear with her. Little Kate couldn't be without her parents, and human civilization couldn't lose Lin Fan, its last hope. Therefore, she had to make final arrangements for Lin Fan, for Little Kate, and for everyone she cared about.

Kate slowly raised her hand. This time, her hand was no longer transparent; the binding of the light threads allowed her to temporarily regain control of her body. Her fingers gently brushed her neck, and from deep within the skin below her collarbone, she took out a silver chip only the size of a fingernail. The chip was entirely silver-white, its surface engraved with fine stellar patterns, and inside it was a miniature quantum storage matrix. This was a memory chip she had secretly prepared months ago, containing all her memories: from her childhood born in an interstellar colony to her growth as a stellar energy controller; from the heartbeat when she met Lin Fan to the tenderness of their love and life together; from the joy of conceiving Little Kate to her resilience in fighting the Sowers. It stored her entire consciousness—her personality, her preferences, her obsessions, her love. It stored all her emotions—her deep affection for Lin Fan, her maternal love for Little Kate, her responsibility to human civilization, and her attachment to this universe. This chip was another "Kate." As long as this chip existed, and as long as they found the life-creation technology within the Sower ruins, they could reconstruct a body, inject all the memories, consciousness, and emotions from the chip, and create a "New Kate" who was exactly like her and possessed all her memories. Even if that "New Kate" wasn't the her currently undergoing cosmicization and didn't have this memory of the impending energy overload, but was just a perfect replica, at least Lin Fan wouldn't be alone, Little Kate wouldn't lose her mother, and human civilization wouldn't lose its Guardian. This was the best ending Kate could think of.

With trembling fingers, she gently pressed the memory chip containing her life's memories into Lin Fan's tightly clenched palm. Using all her strength, she closed his fingers, forcing him to hold the chip firmly. As Lin Fan's fingertips touched the cold surface of the chip and Kate's warm skin, an ominous premonition surged in his heart. He looked down into Kate's eyes, seeing the deep-seated resolve within them. His heart sank. Just as he was about to speak, Kate interrupted him. 'Lin Fan, listen to me.' Kate's voice remained gentle, yet it carried an unquestionable firmness. Her remaining left eye stared intently into Lin Fan's, unblinking, as if she wanted to carve his image into the chip and his heart forever. Tears finally fell from the corners of her eyes—not golden light particles, but warm, truly human tears that slid down her cheeks and dripped onto the back of Lin Fan's hand, searing him with a sharp pain in his chest. 'If... if after 48 hours, I don't make it... if I completely turn into starlight and vanish from this universe... take this chip and find the Sower's ultimate ruins. Find their life core creation technology... use it... to create a new me... a Kate Ling who hasn't experienced energy overload, who hasn't undergone cosmicization, a Kate who is safe and sound... let her stay with you and Little Kate, and live a good life... okay?'

Every word was like a blunt knife repeatedly carving into Lin Fan's heart. Every word was saturated with Kate's deepest love, her most helpless sacrifice, and her most reluctant attachment. She was giving up on herself—the version of her that existed right now and loved him—just so he could live on. Standing within the barrier, the threads of light around Lin Fan vibrated softly while the dark matter inside him roared frantically, as if howling for his pain. He looked at the tear-streaked Kate in his arms, seeing her relief at being 'replaced' for his sake, the lingering attachment to life in her eyes, and her profound affection for him. All the accumulated pain, madness, love, resentment, and despair in his heart erupted at that moment like a flood breaking through a dam, sweeping away all his reason. He didn't want a replica; he didn't want a new Kate. He only wanted the woman before him—this woman who could laugh, cry, argue with him, risk everything to protect him, hold him tight during an energy rampage, and willingly sacrifice herself for him. This Kate Rollins was unique and irreplaceable. She was the one currently in his arms, slowly dissipating; she wasn't data in a chip, a shell created in a ruin, or a stranger without these memories of life and death. She was his lover, Little Kate's mother, and his entire world.

'I won't have it!' Lin Fan suddenly growled. His voice caused the barrier's light threads to vibrate violently, made Little Kate's phantom tremble, and seemed to make the entire Star Ring Fortress resonate once more. He squeezed the memory chip in his palm. The dark matter at his fingertips erupted instantly, clashing with the stellar energy in his palm to form a tiny but extremely violent energy explosion. The crisp sound of shattering was exceptionally clear in the silent barrier. That silver memory chip, carrying all of Kate's memories, consciousness, and emotions, shattered inch by inch in Lin Fan's palm, turning into powder that was scattered by the breeze within the barrier. It vanished completely, without a hint of hesitation or regret.

Lin Fan looked up and stared fixedly into Kate's eyes. In his pupils, the inky blackness of dark matter swirled with the golden glow of stellar energy, the two extreme energies intertwining to form a gaze that was steadfast, affectionate, and mad. His voice was hoarse but resonant, like the most eternal vow in the universe, piercing through time, space, life, death, and all obstacles to land directly in Kate's heart. 'I only want the you that exists now! In my life, I, Lin Fan, don't want any memory replicas or perfect replacements. I only want the real, unique Kate Rollins I'm holding right now! Even if the universe wants to tear you into particles, I will piece you back together bit by bit! Even if the rules want to turn you into stardust, I will defy fate and pull you back from the dust! If 48 hours isn't enough, I'll find 480 hours, or 4800 hours! Even if I exhaust the power of the entire universe, I will never let you disappear! You are my lover, Little Kate's mother, and my life! I won't let you die—absolutely not!'

Kate stared at him blankly, looking at the chip dust dissipating from his palm, the mad and determined love in his eyes, and his resolve to destroy all paths of retreat for her sake. The starlight particles drifting around her suddenly froze, then like birds returning to their nest or a hundred rivers flowing to the sea, all the light particles that were about to dissipate surged frantically back into her body. Her translucent form gradually became solid, and her starlight eyes returned to a human color. Her vision was blurred by tears, but she smiled through them, crying heart-wrenchingly yet smiling with supreme happiness. 'You... idiot... you big idiot...' She reached out and hugged Lin Fan's neck tightly, burying her face deep in his chest. Listening to his powerful heartbeat and feeling his warm embrace and reckless love, all her fear, reluctance, and worry turned into ultimate peace at that moment. Even if it was only for 48 hours, even if she turned to stardust in the next second, as long as she could be held and loved by him like this, she had no regrets. Lin Fan hugged her back tightly, his chin resting on the top of her head, feeling the real temperature of the person in his arms. As her heartbeat synced with his, the dark matter and stellar energy flowed slowly through their bodies, achieving a gentle resonance for the first time under the restraint of the light threads. Outside the barrier, Little Kate's phantom looked at her tightly embracing parents, a relieved smile appearing on her small face even as her tears flowed faster. She knew her parents would never give up on each other, and she would never give up on them. For those 48 hours, she would risk everything to protect them.

They thought these 48 hours were their time to fight against cosmicization; they thought the greatest crisis was the cosmicization of their bodies and the energy overload. They did not know that the true ultimate crisis had already quietly awakened in the depths of the earth where they could not see. The Star Ring Fortress itself was built upon an ancient Sower ruin. Ten thousand meters beneath this giant fortress orbiting the Alpha Star System, there existed a bottomless Shadow Rift that pierced through the crust and dimensional space. The rift was pitch black, like the chaos at the deepest part of the universe—no light, no energy, and no sign of life. It was like a scar forgotten by the cosmos. For the past few centuries, since human civilization occupied the Star Ring Fortress, countless researchers and energy scientists had conducted numerous probes into this rift but had always come up empty-handed. They could only classify it as an ordinary spatial rift left behind by the Sower Civilization, sealing it in the deepest part of the underground. No one had ever truly cared about it. Even Lin Fan and Kate, in their struggle against the Sowers, had only treated the Shadow Rift as an ordinary ruin marker. They never imagined that this silent, dark crevice hid the most terrifying secret in the entire universe.

Until this moment, until the explosion of Lin Fan and Kate's emotions, until the stellar energy and dark matter achieved ultimate resonance within the barrier, and until the fluctuations of these two top-tier cosmic energies pierced through the layers of the Star Ring Fortress's crust to reach ten thousand meters deep into the Shadow Rift, the rift that had been silent for eons finally moved. At first, it was just an extremely slight wriggling, like the breathing of a sleeping behemoth, too faint to be detected. Then, the darkness at the edges of the rift began to churn like boiling ink, continuously spilling out chaotic black mist. Any rock, metal, or soil touched by the black mist was instantly corroded, dissolved, and reduced to nothingness, leaving not even a trace of residue. The black mist grew thicker, churning faster, and the width of the Shadow Rift expanded from an initial hundred meters to thousands, then tens of thousands, piercing through the entire underground structure of the Star Ring Fortress. The fortress's foundation began to show fine cracks. From the unknown depths came a dull, thunderous sound—the sound of mechanical gears engaging, the sound of dimensional barriers breaking, and the sound of an ultimate god awakening.

Inside the barrier, Lin Fan and Kate held each other tightly, immersed in the tenderness of being together in life and death, temporarily unaware of the anomaly deep underground. Little Kate's phantom, curled up inside the core of the light sphere, had exhausted most of her energy and was slowly recovering. She only vaguely felt an extremely faint chill that triggered an ancestral fear from deep underground, but she mistook it for an aftershock of the energy rampage and didn't take it to heart. They all missed this final warning. A mechanical clicking sound, crisp and cold to the extreme, suddenly echoed from the deepest part of the Shadow Rift. It pierced the crust, the rock layers, and the multiple decks of the Star Ring Fortress, traveling straight into the Energy Fusion Lab on the 77th floor and into the ears of Lin Fan and Kate.

Lin Fan's body stiffened abruptly, and Kate's body also tensed instantly. That sound did not belong to human civilization, the Sower Civilization, or any known civilization in this universe. It carried a cross-dimensional coldness, a chaotic and nihilistic will, and a pressure that could destroy heaven and earth. Just one sound made their souls feel ultimate terror, causing the stellar energy and dark matter within them to tremble involuntarily. It was a reverence from the origin of life, a submission to the rules of the universe, and a deterrent from an ultimate enemy. 'What was that sound?' Kate looked up sharply, breaking away from Lin Fan's embrace. A flash of alertness crossed her eyes as the starlight particles around her vibrated slightly, entering a combat state. Lin Fan also instantly reined in all his emotions. dark matter flowed slowly over his body, forming a sturdy defensive barrier. He frowned, his perception spreading out at full strength, piercing through the lab and the fortress decks to probe deep underground.

In the next second, Lin Fan's expression changed drastically. His pupils contracted violently, filled with unbelievable shock and extreme gravity. He sensed the Shadow Rift churning with chaotic black mist ten thousand meters below, the terrifying will within the rift capable of swallowing the entire universe, and an entity that did not belong to this dimension slowly awakening. 'Not good!' Lin Fan immediately pulled Kate behind him and brought the core of the light sphere in front of him, shielding the family of three behind a dark matter barrier. His face was grave to the limit. 'There's something deep underground! Something extremely terrifying!' Kate's heart sank to the bottom. There were very few entities in the entire universe that could make Lin Fan show such a serious expression. Even the Sower's ultimate warships, dimensional monsters, and cosmic black holes had never made Lin Fan lose his composure like this. What could it be?

Just then, dense mechanical clicking sounds echoed again from the depths of the Shadow Rift, like ten million mechanical gears turning simultaneously or ten million metal bones snapping together. The piercing sound rang through the entire underground, causing the Star Ring Fortress to vibrate once more, even more violently than during the energy rampage. With a loud boom, the entire Star Ring Fortress shook fiercely. A huge crack split the floor of the lab, and chaotic black mist spewed from the fissure, carrying a power that corroded everything and instantly swallowing the surrounding metal fragments. Lin Fan and Kate stood together, staring at the crack in the floor with eyes full of alertness. Then, a mechanical tentacle suddenly lunged out from the fissure.

It was a mechanical tentacle a hundred meters long, pitch black and covered in ancient cosmic runes. Its material was not any metal known to humans, nor was it the Sower's dark alloy or the starlight steel forged from stellar energy. It was a chaotic mechanical body from a Void Dimension, its surface flowing with black mist and its runes flickering with a cold, ghostly light. The joints of the tentacle were covered in sharp metal barbs, and at its tip grew a circular optical lens. The lens had no pupil and no light, only pure darkness—like the dead eye of a god, cold, ruthless, and void. It slowly rose and locked onto Lin Fan and Kate within the barrier. The optical lens rotated with a faint mechanical sound, as if observing two insignificant ants. One, two, three... more and more mechanical tentacles lunged out from the crack, crawling out from the Shadow Rift. They were dense and blotted out the sky, instantly occupying the entire lab and the 77th floor of the Star Ring Fortress. Chaotic black mist permeated every corner, suppressing the golden light of the barrier until it grew dim. Each of these mechanical tentacles possessed the power to destroy a planet and flowed with technological power surpassing the Sower Civilization. Each represented destruction and nothingness, and they were merely the appendages of a certain entity.

Lin Fan's heart pounded wildly. A name buried in the Sower ruin codes suddenly surfaced from the depths of his consciousness, leaving him cold as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. The Sower Civilization was not the top civilization of the universe; the Sowers were merely 'His' creations. The Sower's mission was to sow life in the universe, collect energy for 'Him,' and prepare for 'His' awakening. And 'He' was the creator of the Sowers, the master of the Void Dimension, an ultimate entity that crossed cosmic barriers, and the ultimate enemy of all life in the universe. His name was the Lord of the Void. At the same moment, Kate remembered this forbidden name. Her face turned as pale as paper, her eyes filled with extreme terror. They had fought the Sowers countless times and cracked numerous dimensional codes, thinking they were about to achieve final victory and that as long as they solved the energy overload, they could protect everything. But they never expected that the true ultimate enemy was not the Sowers at all, but their creator—the Lord of the Void.

And now, in their desperate situation—overloaded with energy, facing imminent cosmicization, and with only 48 hours of life remaining—the Lord of the Void had fully awakened. Black mechanical tentacles danced slowly in the air, and chaotic black mist filled the entire space. The dead eye of the god was fixed on Lin Fan and Kate. A cold, cross-dimensional will spread along the spatial fissure, enveloping the entire Star Ring Fortress, the Alpha Star System, and the entire known universe. A cold, inorganic mental fluctuation devoid of any emotion crashed directly into Lin Fan and Kate's consciousness, like a divine judgment announcing their fate. Lin Fan shielded Kate and Little Kate tightly behind him. dark matter erupted frantically around him, and stellar energy burned fiercely within his body. Even with the energy overload, even with cosmicization imminent, and even facing the ultimate Lord of the Void, there was not a hint of retreat in his eyes. He looked up, staring directly at that dead divine eye, the sky full of mechanical tentacles, and the awakened Lord of the Void. His spine was straight as an unbreakable spear, holding up the final line of defense for humanity, love, and perseverance in the face of despair.