With the Ledger secured, the team retreated to the capsule's makeshift cloaking field outside Kenshi. Elara immediately initiated the Causal Splicing Proof.
The Ledger was a tactile interface of chronal equations. Elara focused her will, feeding her own Equation Weaving into the Blade, using the recorded Anchor Proof as her foundation.
"I am separating Kairo's essence from my own command core," Elara muttered, her fingers flying across the etching. "I need to turn the chaos from a random variable into a controlled energy source—a chaotic battery that can only be accessed through my precise logical proofs."
Lira stood guard, her light-shadow filaments spread out to detect any incoming temporal fluctuations—the tell-tale sign of Helix pursuit. "Hurry, Reckoner. The Nomads are getting jumpy. They hate this still air."
Inside Elara's mind, the clash began. The Dragon-God's Essence resisted the partitioning—it was pure, unbounded freedom, and being placed into a logical container was agony.
"You bind freedom, little mind," a wordless, scorching thought hammered at her consciousness. "The universe demands entropy. Why impose the lie of order?"
"Because chaos is only meaningful when constrained," Elara thought back, channeling her strongest equations into the Ledger. "You are an infinite resource, but resource management requires limits. You will serve my purpose, or you will remain dormant."
The Ledger glowed intensely. Elara felt a searing pain as the Essence was partitioned. The chaos was drawn out of her core, out of her emotional circuits, and was meticulously anchored to the Void Scar in her arm.
Ssssshhhkkk.
The chaos was contained. The gold-veins in her body stopped flickering violently. A profound sense of clarity washed over Elara—the speed of the Dragon-God's essence, the raw power of unmaking, was now hers to command, but only through a logical key.
"Causal Splicing Proof: Complete," Atlas announced, the AI's voice stable for the first time since the jump. "Dragon-God Essence is now a Controlled Entropy Battery (CEB). Activation requires a successful Relativistic Proof (a logical equation with zero temporal uncertainty)."
Elara stood up, feeling lighter, sharper. The world didn't feel threatening; it felt like a perfectly solved puzzle. She had not cured herself, but she had achieved Total Strategic Control.
Suddenly, Lira's filaments retracted sharply. "Anomaly spike! High-order temporal folding—Realm 7 signature! Helix Architects are here!"
"Expected," Elara said, already moving. Her eyes scanned the horizon, calculating the fastest, most predictable path out of Kenshi. "They tracked the temporal noise from the Splicing. They know I have the Blade."
Before the Helix could even materialize, a shimmering dimensional disturbance opened directly over their concealed capsule. Two figures descended, not the chrome-robed Architects, but something older, clad in polished black armor etched with swirling dimensional proofs. These were Helix Sentinels, the enforcers of the Great Theorem.
"Temporal Auditor Elara Voss," one Sentinel broadcast, its voice a hollow resonance that spanned multiple dimensions. "You have violated the Causal Path and corrupted a Helix asset. Surrender the Blade and the Living Anchor."
Elara's mind raced, executing a multi-variable calculus of escape. She only needed one second of pure chaos.
"Lira," Elara ordered, channeling power to her Anchor arm. "Initiate the Capsule's self-destruct sequence. Nomads, you are running cover, full Newtonian force. I'll buy us the window."