******* [Billion's PoV]
It took me twenty-three seconds to finally understand how that ancient rune was meant to function when layered together with the others I already knew.
Not as a standalone construct. But as a stabilizer, something that could momentarily align incompatible systems without tearing them apart.
The realization clicked into place.
And the result was immediate.
Just before the massive deathmist beam fired from the ship could crash into my defensive dome, I forced my domain to surface.
I let it exist.
The effect was instantaneous.
From my perspective, the incoming attack slowed to a crawl. What had been a space-fracturing torrent of deathmist became a thick, dragging wave, every particle resisting forward motion as if time itself had turned viscous.
That was all I needed.
I activated the Star of Origin.
