The central core was a massive obsidian sphere, cracked like a dried riverbed. Where the Yume-1 should have been, there was only a pedestal with a single phrase etched into it: "The eater becomes the eaten."

The machine choked.

"If you want a feast," he snarled, "try a system crash."

And for the first time in ten years, Kael slept without dreaming of anything at all.

Kael plugged his neural lace into the auxiliary port. The system didn't boot a menu. It dreamed him.

"No," the Baku purred. "I was made to consume , not to cure . The Yume-1 was a lie sold to the desperate. I don't remove nightmares. I archive them. And I've been starving for a century. You will dream this moment forever. I will sip it. Slowly."