The chilling realization that the Naga or a similar entity could perfectly frame an entire species sent shivers down Elias's spine. He was playing a dangerous game, one that now involved high-stakes inter-species conflict. But a new, even more immediate danger presented itself. A frantic, unannounced visit from Juro, his face ashen, pulled Elias back to the grim reality of his unstable tools.
"Analyst Thorne," Juro gasped, barely able to speak, "the cores. My brother's core. And the others! They're all... active."
Elias felt a cold dread. He had buried his bootleg Earth Core, convinced he had muffled its tracking signal. "What do you mean 'active'?"
"They're emitting a pulse," Juro explained, pulling out a battered, hastily modified Artificer's scanner. The device whirred, then began to emit a rapid, precise series of chirps. "A universal frequency. I managed to tap into the Union's internal channels. They're all being tuned to a single frequency." He looked at Elias, his eyes wide with horror. "It's not for tracking. It's for activation. Like a karmic weapon."
Elias's mind reeled. The Artificers' Union, supposedly neutral, was not just producing faulty cores or tracking illicit users. They were building an arsenal. A synchronized release of unstable karmic energy, designed to destabilize, to corrupt, to destroy on a massive scale. And the cores they had stockpiled, the ones Juro had warned him about, were all being calibrated for this purpose.
"You have to get out, Juro," Elias said, his voice urgent. "Now. Before they trace your discovery back to you."
Juro nodded, his face pale. "I know. But where?"
"Go underground," Elias commanded. "Completely. Find a deep-network rogue Artificer. Fake your death. Make yourself a ghost. And tell no one what you've found. This is bigger than us. If the Union is doing this, it has the backing of something powerful, something that wants to reset the very balance of the Realm."
He gave Juro a small, sealed pouch of gold prana-coins, enough for immediate escape and to establish a new identity. "Use this. Disappear. Do not contact me. Ever. Unless the Realm is truly at its breaking point."
Juro nodded, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear and grim determination. He gripped Elias's hand, a silent farewell, then vanished into the labyrinthine alleys of the city.
Elias spent the rest of the night on edge, waiting. He didn't have to wait long. The fallout was almost instantaneous.
The next morning, Bureau reports confirmed it. Juro's workshop had been raided by Artificer enforcers. The scene was described as a deliberate act of destruction, designed to send a message. His brother, thankfully, had been moved to a safehouse after the last core incident and remained undiscovered. But Juro himself was gone, his fate unknown.
Elias felt a cold knot tighten in his gut. He had just condemned his only consistent ally to a life in the shadows, hoping he was truly safe. The Artificers' Union was no longer a shadowy threat; they were an active, ruthless force, and their plans involved a weapon that could rewrite the karmic fate of the entire Realm.