The journey through Circuit Central was a relentless exercise in data evasion. The Viceroy, unable to compute Elara's unpredictable movements, retaliated by flooding the city with data echoes—false energy signatures, misleading map routes, and sensor noise designed to confuse the team.
Lira proved invaluable, using her deep Syndicate knowledge to navigate the corrupted environment. "He's using Electromagnetic Deception—trying to make us waste energy on non-existent threats," Lira explained, leading them through a hidden alley formed by decommissioned server towers. "He's predictable; he guards the data he thinks is important, not the physical location."
Their target, the Viceroy's central data tower, loomed ahead—a colossal spire radiating immense magnetic power. This was where the Dimensional Scanner was stored.
Elara paused, observing the patterns of the city's power flow. "He has concentrated his entire cultivation in that tower. It's an act of Absolute Data Authority. But every concentration creates a point of weakness."
"Reckoner, the Scanner is locked within the tower's central data vault. Protection protocol: Magnetic Field Recursion. It's an impossible lock," Orrin warned.
"Recursion?" Elara frowned. "A lock that defines itself? How can a magnetic field be recursive?"
"It constantly re-defines its own magnetic parameters based on the energy input trying to breach it," Lira clarified. "It's the ultimate 'if-then' statement. The stronger you push, the stronger it becomes. The only way in is to present an input that the Viceroy's system cannot compute as an attack."
Elara understood. They couldn't use force, and they couldn't use stealth. They had to use a Paradox.
"He's operating on an assumption of binary logic—attack or submission," Elara deduced. "What if we present an input that is neither?"
Suddenly, a massive, ornate hover-platform ascended the side of the tower. On it stood The Viceroy, a man encased in baroque, gold-plated armor that pulsed with raw electrical power, making his silhouette shimmer like a lightning strike.
"Temporal Auditors," The Viceroy's voice boomed, layered with a thousand computerized echoes. "You have introduced an Entropy Proof into my city's circuits. Your predictable chaos ends here. Surrender the Blade, and I will let your Nomad noise return to its stable realm."
The Viceroy raised his hand, and the atmosphere compressed, focusing all the Realm's ambient electromagnetic energy onto Elara. It was an attack of pure Data Authority.
Elara raised her Living Anchor arm, ready to execute a counter-proof. She had the chaos, and she had the logical key. She was about to execute the most strategically crucial action of her journey so far: The Viceroy's Predictable Flaw.
"Lira," Elara said, ignoring the crushing magnetic pressure. "He thinks he has all the data. I need you to find the single false statement in his entire Data Authority—the one piece of information he doesn't know about himself."