An original AI generated sci-fi illustration on an immutable blockchain – The Warden of Collapse – The being emerged from the rift like a shadow given flesh, woven from streams of cosmic energy that tore across the horizon. Its form was vast, robes of starlight unraveling into fragments that became dust and flame, cascading into the void below. Planets drifted silently in the distance, their orbits disturbed by the pulsing surge of power radiating from this celestial figure. It was not alive in any human sense, but it was aware—ancient, waiting, and unbound. Those who watched from afar—pilgrims, scientists, wanderers of the void—called it the Warden of Collapse. Legends had whispered of its existence, of a guardian that rose when the boundaries of creation frayed too thin. Some believed it to be the remnant of a forgotten civilization that ascended beyond matter, bound eternally to protect the equilibrium of the cosmos. Others feared it was an omen, a harbinger of endings, each appearance heralding the slow unraveling of worlds. As its gaze swept across the galaxy, unseen but undeniably felt, starships faltered, and minds trembled with a single thought not their own. This was not a chance encounter but a reckoning. The being’s presence was both a warning and a question: would the civilizations of this galaxy endure the storm of their own making, or would they collapse into the silence from which all things are born? Its form dissolved back into the rift, but the message lingered—an echo carved into the fabric of existence itself.