Chapter 583: “All they had ever been were sacrifices.”
"Wait, what?"
Arthur finally asked, his voice catching slightly and Jamie just burst out laughing at his dumbfounded expression without bothering to answer.
They both knew what Jamie had said, but they couldn’t fully process it.
This star was bigger than anything they had ever seen, a celestial behemoth that defied universal laws as they understood it. It had entire stars orbiting around it, drawn into its immense gravitational well.
How could something like this not have gone supergiant already?
Arthur shook his head, trying to force logic into the absurdity.
"By normal standards, that thing shouldn’t even be able to hold its own weight. It should collapse.
It should be collapsing right now, turning into a black hole."
Arthur spoke, his voice incredulous and Jamie finally managed to contain his laughter before speaking with a grin.
"But it’s not collapsing, it’s holding its own weight.
Size-wise, it is bigger than supergiants, but it hasn’t yet reached the supergiant phase of its life cycle."
Arthur fell silent while Evan had half turned off his brain, half given up on comprehending it.
For Arthur who was exposed to these kinds of things from a very young age due to being born in a family of Deities, it was even more ridiculous.
His understanding of gravity, physics, and stellar mechanics screamed at him that what Jamie said couldn’t be true.
Couldn’t. Yet, here it was, right before his eyes.
Then, as if trying to bolster his mental faculties to comprehend this absurd situation, his Pseudo-Authority of Gravity activated.
He delved into the universal law knowledge that he had comprehended and analysed the massive star before him. His thoughts ran over the universal constants he had learned, trying to wrap his mind around how this could even be possible.
After a moment, Arthur spoke again, his voice quieter, as if the words were pulled from some hidden realization.
"Jamie, if that thing were to go supergiant and collapse... the kind of black hole it would form—"
"It would form a black hole with a mass equal to that of the one exactly 136,000 light-years behind us. Right there, behind that band of stars."
Jamie cut in, finishing Arthur’s thought and at his words, the two boys turned sharply in the direction Jamie indicated.
Their eyes settled on the giant band of light stretching across the space, a cluster of stars so dense and radiant that it cut through the darkness like a blade.
The stars were packed so tightly together that it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the other—a luminous ribbon of galactic brilliance.
As far as they knew, the only thing capable of holding something like that in place, creating such a dense region of stars, was the core of the galaxy itself.
Evan seemed to already be aware of the truth behind this Star and Jamie noticed it. But for Arthur who was from another universe, the truth was just dawning on him.
Jamie vocalized his thoughts before he could even speak.
"If the Star of Lightning were to collapse, it would form a black hole as big as the core of this galaxy."
"No..."
Arthur shook his head, the disbelief returning.
"That shouldn’t be possible. You can’t have two supermassive black holes of that size in the same galaxy."
True, Arthur was right and Jamie nodded in affirmation. However, this star did not operate under normal mechanics.
The fact that it was drawing mass from other dimensions was already an absurdity.
"Wait up...it pulling stellar mass from elsewhere...is that to prepare itself for when it eventually goes supergiant?"
"Exactly.
When the time comes and it finally reaches the point where it can no longer hold itself together, it’ll collapse.
But the collapse won’t just create a normal black hole. It will pull in all of the mass from these surrounding stars, drawing on their material to fuel the formation of a supermassive black hole."
Arthur’s mind spun as the pieces fell into place.
The Star of Lightning was more than just an enormous celestial body. It was a machine—an engine drawing in stellar mass over time, preparing for an inevitable collapse that would create something as powerful and destructive as the core of the galaxy itself.
And when it did collapse, it would become the new Core.
Arriving at this realisation, Arthur’s voice dropped to a whisper.
"...fucking ridiculous."
"Indeed, it is!"
Jamie laughed, satisfaction at Arthur’s expression lacing his tone. The man acted like a kid who’d just pulled off a successful prank.
Taking a deep breath, he began a lengthy explanation.
"If, for some reason, the current galactic core of this galaxy, Orithya, were to falter or die out, the Star of Lightning’s black hole would take its place.
It’s like a contingency—a second core to keep the galaxy stable for unthinkable stretches of time.
This star is supposed to go supergiant and collapse into a black hole only if the black hole in the core of the Orithya galaxy starts losing mass.
You know that galaxies aren’t immortal, not by a long shot. Over time, the black hole in the centre begins losing mass and, when it can no longer hold all the stars around the over 500,000 light-years around it together, that’s when the plan kicks in.
The Star of Lightning will start drawing in the surrounding stellar mass to reach the critical point."
Evan’s brow furrowed when he heard the last part of Jamie’s explanation. As for Arthur, he glanced at the crackling star in the distance and repeated a portion of Jamie’s words.
"This entire process is being set up, not for now, but for an inevitable future event. A backup plan if the galaxy’s black hole gives out...this is the first of its kind I’ve seen."
"Exactly. The Star of Lightning is going to collect more mass and more energy, and once it’s gathered enough, it’ll go supergiant.
And when it finally collapses? That collapse will form a black hole large enough to replace the current galactic core.
It’s designed to become the new core of the galaxy. That’s why it’s so close."
They were over 100,000 light years from the galaxy’s centre, but on a Universal scale, that was indeed very close.
"Jamie."
Evan spoke up with a measured tone and the Hybrid turned towards him, a brow raised in question.
The Rogue Hero clearly wanted to ask something, but from what Jamie could see, Evan was already aware of this plan to replace the Galactic core so he was curious what Evan wanted to ask.
"You said it’s going to ’start drawing in the surrounding stellar mass to reach the critical point’, right?"
"Yeah."
"The ’Surrounding Stellar Mass’ means the stars around it, right?"
"Definitely."
Evan’s brows furrowed deeply, and the tone of his voice went deeper as he spoke.
"As far as I know, there are planets around those stars orbiting the SOL. Entire Interstellar Empires with trillions of people. Higher type civilizations and all.
What’s gonna happen to them?"
"..."
Jamie did not answer.
Evan’s question caused the realisation to dawn on Arthur as well. The godslayer had been so busy thinking about the ridiculousness of the whole situation that he had completely missed that part.
He alternated his gaze between Evan and Jamie and the silence on both sides showed they’d arrived at the same answer.
Finally, Evan spoke, his voice carrying a hollow realization.
"Then those stars... the ones orbiting the SOL... they weren’t just pulled there for no reason."
The recognition of the implications dawned on Evan.
"They were pulled there... to be sacrifices. Sacrifices to supplement the star’s mass when it goes supergiant."
Evan’s voice trembled as the weight of the truth settled in and Jamie nodded in affirmation.
"Quick on the uptake, aren’t you?"
Jamie’s words of confirmation made Evan’s stomach twist, his mind reeling at the thought.
Arthur was also surprised, but when he thought about it, he realised it was something he should have figured out the moment Jamie told him the star pulled on mass from other dimensions.
Those planets—those lives—they weren’t just existing in the natural orbits of stars. They were, unknowingly, part of a galactic sacrifice.
When the SOL went supergiant, everything around it—entire civilizations—would be drawn into its inevitable collapse.
To the average person, the notion was staggering. Horrifying even.
For Arthur, the notion was staggering. For Evan, it was horrifying.
Even Evan who had been in absurd situations like being sent through time 10,000 years was momentarily speechless at the weight of the truth.
Those civilizations—lives that would be lost in the star’s eventual collapse. All for the sake of galactic balance.
All for the creation of a black hole that would one day sustain the galaxy and extend its lifespan.
All they had ever been were sacrifices.
