It felt as if the boundary of the dawn core, the invisible shell that defined its size was being ripped open.
The entire place hummed with pressure. The volcanoes floated shakily as the space widened around them. Even the mysterious black volcano at the center pulsed once, as if acknowledging the change.
The space inside the Dawn Core shook again as the genesis rune kept expanding.
The volcanoes that represented my laws glowed one after another, releasing thin streams of pure energy into the air.
And instead of going to the generator core, the rune floating in the sky drank everything.
Then rune began taking Essence, law resonance, and even fragments of matter from the land that had formed during the Dawn Core’s earlier upgrades.
I watched the ground split as pieces of soil, stone, and dust drifted upward. The rune twisted the material, compressing it into a tight sphere. At first it looked like a lump of dirty rock, nothing more than a dead piece of land floating in the void. But then the law energy wrapped around it, layering it again and again until the rough edges turned smooth. The sphere darkened, becoming almost pitch black. But there was no energy and even Essence inside it.
A dead celestial body.
That was the only name that fit.
It hovered slowly, unmoving, without any signs of life or power inside it. Just a silent, heavy, dead orb suspended in the infinite space of the expanding Dawn Core.
The genesis rune above brightened again. It wasn’t done.
The volcanoes trembled as more streams of energy escaped them. This time the pull was harsher. My lightning volcano dimmed. The fire one flickered. Even the space volcano cracked a little, releasing spark-like particles that rose into the sky.
I felt the laws shake in response but they weren’t being weakened, they were being used, shaped, rewritten in a way I had never seen before.
The rune absorbed everything and then the void itself twisted.
A point of darkness appeared.
A perfect circle, no bigger than my fist at first. It didn’t look like a hole. It looked like a stain on the world, an absence of space rather than an object. The surrounding air bent toward it. Dust, stray energy particles, even leftover fragments of matter from the forming land were pulled inward.
Slowly at first. Then faster.
The point expanded.
The void warped around it, forming a swirling ring like an accretion band, but made of law-light and compressed matter.
The glow circled the darkness, spinning faster and faster until everything blurred together. The center remained pitch black, swallowing anything that drifted too close. The outer ring kept twisting, pulling essence threads from the volcanoes as the genesis rune fed it without stopping.
I knew what it was.
A black hole.
But not like the ones present in interstellar space. This one was alive with my laws, my essence, my Dawn Core’s structure. A piece of the universe’s strongest concept recreated inside me using nothing but conflict energy and the mirror’s impossible power.
The rune dimmed after a long moment, its work finally slowing. The black hole stabilized, hanging in the vast inner sky with its glowing ring spinning around it. It didn’t move. It didn’t grow. It simply existed, waiting for whatever purpose the core intended for it.
Underneath, the dead celestial sphere floated quietly, untouched by the black hole’s pull. The two objects hung far apart, like two seeds planted in distant corners of a new world that wasn’t finished yet.
I floated in the center of the Dawn Core.
The limit had been broken.
And the Dawn Core had begun to change into something far beyond anything I had imagined.
The rune on the mirror finally dimmed, and the beam of light disappeared. I pulled myself out of the Dawn Core’s inner space and looked at the mirror again, just as the system’s notification appeared.
[Dawn Core Upgraded]
[Dawn Core deviated from natural progression]
[Analyzing new parameters]
[Analysis Complete]
[New abilities unlocked]
[Star of Origin (Dormant)]
A lifeless celestial seed formed within the Dawn Core. Stores and condenses Origin Source from external forces. Awakens slowly as more Origin Source is absorbed.
[Abyss Core]
A stabilized black-hole construct within the Dawn Core. Devours law fragments, refines them, and converts them into new law volcanoes or strengthens existing ones.
[Talent Panel]
Function 3 : Awaken Dawn Core [Complete]
– Core quality : Medium
– Generates energy from law conflicts
– Star of Origin (Dormant)
– Abyss Core
– Laws : 9
– Energy : Blue
I stared at the notifications for a long moment, letting each line sink in. The Dawn Core had changed. Not just improved, changed into something I didn’t fully understand yet. The first thing that caught my eye was the Star of Origin. A lifeless celestial seed...storing Origin Source. I frowned. I didn’t know what Origin Source was, but the name alone gave some hints.
Essence
My mind instantly went to the only two forces that had ever stood opposite to Essence in my experience.
Deathmist and the crimson corruption from the chained Fallen. Both had acted like natural enemies of Essence. Both had affected my Essence, my body, and even my soul.
If this Star of Origin could store something like that... would I finally be able to understand it? Would I be able to examine it without risking corruption? Could I gather it, contain it, and maybe find a way to use it?
The thought was dangerous, but exciting.
My attention shifted to the next ability: Abyss Core.
A black hole sitting inside my Dawn Core. A construct meant to devour law fragments, refine them, and create new volcanoes. Or strengthen the ones I already had. That one made my blood stir.
This was something I could use instantly. Fighting enemies, beating them, tearing out the essence of their laws... turning their strength into mine. The idea was simple and brutal, and I liked it. The more I fought, the stronger the Dawn Core would become. It felt natural.
Then I noticed the core quality.
Low+ to Medium.
A jump that big shocked me. That wasn’t a normal upgrade. That meant the entire structure of the Dawn Core had changed.
Its ability to produce energy from law conflicts would increase drastically. And more energy meant the generator core would create Essence at a much faster rate. Maybe double. Maybe more.
It honestly felt like the foundation of my strength just became several times heavier.
These three changes working together... it almost felt planned. As if the mirror had decided on its own how to evolve the core. As if the Dawn Core had taken a step toward something it was not meant to become.