The metabaron tells his master that he is the supreme metatron and that he has searched the galaxy for a teacher who can teach him love. The metatron compares his master to a luminous sea urchin who stretches out his skin to guide his craft to its fleshy port. The last poet is still alive, he says, but only a poet has the power to teach the metatron how to love. Love is a constant process, he explains, and if one of the two of them is the fate of the other, it is the other's destiny. If one of them uses even a tiny amount of their powers, he or she will lose consciousness. He explains that love is a "child of mystery" that will never be merged with another's. The shock of the operation lasts 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 20 hours, and 58 days. He realizes that he and his master are in love with one another, and that the master will hate him until he dies. He says that he can't destroy gzayn, the center of the universe, because it is surrounded by a "barrier of indestructible astro-fibers." The bugs around the tree have built a "temple protecting its roots" , but there are 72,000 mites guarding the surface. In ten minutes, his master "burst into the temple" and eliminated six thousand and seventy-two thousand.