Chapter 1668: Residue Aildris clenched his fists. "We’ll split into two battle-capable teams. Falco will lead one. Endric leads the other." Falco nodded, though exhaustion weighed sharply on his face. His body still carried the silver cracks of strain left behind by his deity heritage—scars from battles and overexertions the past months. Angy studied him quietly. He shouldn’t be fighting like this... none of them should. But they had no choice. Another spike of pain lanced through her abdomen. She gripped the underside of the table so hard her knuckles whitened. Falco glanced at her. "Angy? You okay?" She straightened instantly. "I’m fine. Just tired." Endric’s eyes narrowed. He could always sense fluctuations in aura since he had grown too perceptive over time. "Your aura is unstable. You’re pushing yourself too hard." Angy forced a smile. "We all are." They stared at her a moment longer, but then returned to the map. She let out a breath only after they looked away. One hour later, they were ready. Endric, Sersi and Xanatus departed first. Their target was the fragment near the Ruptured Nebula. Falco, E.E and Aildris boarded the second stealth skiff... a needlelike craft cloaked with residual Outworldly distortion. Its hull shimmered with dim violet sheen as it prepared for space-warp travel. Angy followed them to the launch chamber. Falco glanced back at her. "Stay safe," he said. "You too," Angy replied, but her voice cracked under a pressure she couldn’t hide. He frowned. "You sure you’re okay?" "Yes." She defensively corrected. "I’m just worried. For all of you." E.E grinned weakly. "We’ll be fine. You know Falco’s deity senses are cheats. Nothing gets past him." Falco looked away with guilt. He hated relying on power inherited from Nocturnis. The skiff doors closed slowly. Angy watched as the craft shimmered out of the pocket star’s thin airspace. Then she placed a hand on her stomach again. "Just a little more... Gustav... just hold on a bit longer..." ... Space warped violently as Falco’s skiff tunneled through a debris-scattered region near the Void Axis... an area patrolled by some of the strongest deities. They were moments away from the essence’s location when Falco froze. E.E noticed instantly. "What’s wrong?" Falco didn’t breathe. "...We’re not alone," he whispered. Aildris rose slowly from his seat. "Deities?" Falco slowly nodded. "One. But... it’s close. Too close." E.E’s heart sank. "Fuck." The radar lit up like a cosmic eyelid blinking once. Then space around them vibrated. A shockwave of divine presence rolled through the region, making the skiff’s hull groan. A booming voice echoed through the vacuum itself: "I SENSE... OUTWORLDLY RESIDUE..." The voice shook E.E’s bones. Aildris grabbed the wall for balance. Falco’s pupils dilated fully, his deity bloodline awakened instinctively. "It’s an Arbiter Deity," he muttered. "Rank Four." "Rank Four!?" E.E hissed. "Fucking hell—we’re dead." Falco raised a hand. "Shut up. Don’t move. Don’t breathe loud. Don’t even think loudly." "What?" "I SAID DON’T THINK LOUDLY!" The deity presence got closer. A thunderous ripple tore through the skiff’s surroundings as the Arbiter materialized, a gargantuan humanoid made of crackling crimson energy, its eye glowing like a dying star. It scanned the region, gaze sweeping back and forth. Falco trembled as he spread his signature around them and the spacecraft. Hide... Conceal... Dim the pulse... Collapse your signature. But not just yours... all of them. He shut his eyes and activated his inherited ability: Voidborn Misting. A shadow-like distortion rippled across the skiff. The craft dimmed, then blurred, as though wrapped in the shadow of a god. The deity’s gaze swept right over them. The hull creaked violently as E.E clamped a hand on his mouth and Aildris held his breath. The Arbiter slowly extended a massive finger, touching the space mere meters from the ship— Falco bled from his nose, ears and eyes instantly. The pressure... the effort... It was too much. His body wasn’t built for sustained deity-level concealment. E.E whispered desperately, "Falco—stop! You’ll kill yourself!" Falco didn’t open his eyes. "If I stop... we all die." The Arbiter paused as his finger hovered. "...STRANGE," it boomed. "THE RESIDUE... VANISHED." Falco nearly blacked out but held on. Seconds stretched into eternity. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢 Finally, the Arbiter turned away. It drifted backward, dissolving into the void like mist. When the presence disappeared fully, Falco collapsed onto the floor unconscious. --- Back in the pocket-dimension, Angy staggered as a violent wave of dizziness hit her. She grabbed the wall. Her child’s heartbeat pulsed faintly in her senses. It seemed to have developed a strange cosmic awareness, making her capable of faintly communicating with it. The child was reacting. Disturbances in space rippled faintly through her body. ’Something happened to Falco’s team? Oh they’re okay? That’s a relief...’ The whole time she was getting feedback from her belly about those who had gone out there. And soon she was informed that Endric’s team was returning. She didn’t have time to wonder as Endric’s team flickered into the hidden star, dragging an unconscious Xanatus with them. Angy gasped. "Another attack?" Endric nodded. "A near miss... a deity patrol. We barely escaped." Everyone’s hearts dropped further. Two missions. Two deity encounters. The noose was tightening. And Falco’s team wasn’t back yet. ... ... Meanwhile, deep within the dark palace forged from fragments of dead galaxies, Nocturnis stood atop a floating dark platform. An Ancient Executioner who was the size of an entire galaxy, knelt before him. "My lord... we still haven’t located your son." Nocturnis’ eyes glowed like pits of endless night. "And the others? The boy Endric? The woman, Angy?" Tension increased as silence reigned for a few seconds. "...Nothing, my lord." Nocturnis’s smile vanished. His aura exploded outward, obliterating three moons orbiting the palace. "How," he whispered with a calm and terrifying voice, "does my child elude me?" No being related to him by blood should have been able to hide. His senses threaded across the universe like a web of living darkness. He should have sensed Falco... Endric... Ria... Sersi... Angy and the others... Yet they were simply gone. Invisible. Unreachable. Untraceable. "...This is impossible," he muttered. "Unless—"