Echoes of Existence. Some were echoes that stretched across Frequencies. Others were of a different kind- types that many couldn't even begin to fathom. But as the first Spoke representing a True Frequency of Entropy bloomed within the Infiniverse Megalos and caused unknown echoes to spread... Previously scattered echoes that had bloomed from a Domus were about to make their return at this moment. Old echoes. Not the new echoes spreading out right now. What the new echoes that were now spreading would bring…remained unknown. — Outside the umbrella of the Wheel of Existence. Past its Infinite Ravines and the Gateway Domus. Beyond a silver rift flickering within the endless layers of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds. HUUM! The folds of collapse, existence, and nonexistence quaked as terrifying auras emerged, one after another. Each more dreadful than the last. At the forefront stood a childlike humanoid, its weavings actively devouring the surrounding strands of existence. A grin stretched permanently from ear to ear. Its eyes were pure obsidian. Cold. Merciless. Veltraxis, the Smiling Empty Maw. He had been alerted by Vha'Nekrul, the Harmonized Sourcebound Icon who had watched Noah empower the Great Beyonder and Veyl'Aethra within a certain Gateway Domus. Veltraxis appeared, his eerie smile sharpened with purpose. His body grew- dead skin tearing and expanding as waves of obsidian death and wonder rippled across him. Now, he stood as a towering skeletal silhouette cloaked in shadow-threaded robes that flowed like liquefied void. Spiked bone protrusions crowned his head like a twisted halo, and his maw stretched unnaturally wide, filled with serrated, smiling teeth. His limbs tapered into tendrils, swaying as if whispering secrets to the Nullvein Gravewake Folds. His Complexity... was High. High! Not Average. Not Moderate. High! Around him, massive Dead Things of similar Complexity manifested one after another, each more unstable than the last. Their weavings barely held together by Sorrowglass True Source Panaceas- without which, they would become Fractal Beings. Veltraxis, the Smiling Empty Maw, stood before the gateway- its infinite edges flickering with threads of decayed stars and devoured timelines. His hollow smile widened as his voice rang out- a paradox of elegance and entropy. "For cycles uncounted, we have wandered...half-things, hollow, converged into this mockery of form. And why? Because we believed. Because we hoped. Because we hunted the Loom. Each Wheel whispered fragments, echoes of a pattern... but never the whole. Some gave us strands. Others? Silence. Absolutely fucking nothing. But this one... this Wheel of Existence... it sings of vibrant True Sources. It might hold a melody. And if it hides a piece of the Loom within its Spokes..." "Then we shall strip it bare. Burn its Frequencies. Shatter its weavings until it bleeds the truth we were denied. We are tired of being Dead Things pretending to live. I want my True Source alive again- bright, burning, unforgotten! The rest of you feel the same, yes?!" HUUM! His weavings buzzed as monstrous forms of beings with Below Average Purity but High Complexity seethed behind him. One stepped forward- a hunchback giant composed entirely of writhing worms. "O 77th Mawbearer of Recursive Hunger, shall I alert nearby Mawbearers of this possibility?" …! The worm-entity asked as Veltraxis turned his cold gaze upon it. He, Veltraxis, was the 77th Mawbearer of the One Hundred Mawbearers of the Hollow Concord of Nullity. A legion of beings. Of Dead Things. United under a singular cause in this region of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds. The Concord of Hollow Nullity was a dreadful pantheon of Dead Things—forgotten champions, broken Architects, and failed Monads—bound by an agonizing purpose: to become alive again. Scattered across the Nullvein Gravewake Folds, these entities once held True Sources now lost to collapse and death. They clawed through shattered timelines in search of the Loom. At their heart stood the One Hundred Mawbearers—horrors of vast intellect and warped might. They sought not salvation. They sought reclamation—of essence, of memory, of meaning. They were not born to be hollow. They would not remain so. Veltraxis shook his head. "It is merely a single Wheel of Existence—one that already bears the stench of multiple Breakings. At best, there will be a Resplendent Monad or two. If it were a Wheel yet untouched... unbroken... it would be teeming with Monads and Converged Architects, and more of the One Hundred would be summoned. But this? This will be our feast. Let us go." WAA! Their bodies pulsed with heavy Dead True Sources. Without delay, they dove into the Gateway Domus—now an overlap of four Wild True Sources: Causality, Fear, Verbum, and Oxidation. The Hollow Cascade of Reversed Causality, the Pale Verbum Labyrinth, and the Domus of Absolute Fear of Existence twisted and collided with the fourth—once guarded by the Origin Singed—the Domus of Oxidation. In that moment, Veltraxis, a Converged Architect, and fourteen other Dead Things of similar power stepped through the veiled Domus doorway and into the Infinite Ravines. Among the 14, Vha'Nekrul who had reported to him could also be seen! — Within a certain Gateway Domus. The Mythic Signature of the Great Beyonder brought down her hand. Upon impact, eighty-one Pillars of Concordance bloomed all at once, converging upon a single Dead Thing whose True Source nearly shattered. Almost. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮 But a sliver remained. From nowhere, tendrils of gold wrapped around it, dragging its weavings toward the chest of none other than Noah. Into his Cradle of Purity. There, its Complexity would be dismantled and consumed. "Haha... that's the last of the Dead Things! We actually cleared all the Gateway Domus!" The expression on the Great Beyonder's vast Mythic Signature radiated triumph- the power of a Quasi-Resplendent Monad alive in her gaze, swirling with trillions of runes. With the efforts of Noah and Veyl'Aethra beside her, every Dead Thing in the region—each only Harmonized Sourcebound Icons of Moderate Complexity and Below Average Purity—had either fled or perished. Some, like this one, were preserved. Noah had gathered a total of nine Dead Things and their True Sources into his Cradle of Purity. The rest were erased beneath the relentless force of the Great Beyonder's Mythic Signature. She was becoming more and more familiar with her power as she turned towards Noah at this moment with shining eyes, her voice firm and filled with power. "It seems like your arrival has changed many things. More and more dead things will keep falling as the dire situation of the Infinite Ravines will soon be turned." …!