With the Dimensional Scanner secured, Elara's mind was a whirlwind of new, devastating data. The Aetherforge was a lie, a magnificent prison built on the ruins of Earth, and her mission had changed from a rescue to a massive act of Planetary Reconstruction.
She and Lira moved quickly, Thorne and Sira already scaling the power lines to prepare for their ascent.
"Orrin," Elara transmitted, holding the Scanner tight. "The Leviathan confirmed the Ouroboros Nexus is the core facility. Can you use the Scanner to bypass the Leviathan's lock and find your true body?"
"Not yet, Reckoner," Orrin replied, his voice tinny with relief at the proximity of his Scanner. "I need to run a Temporal Splicing Proof on this Scanner—it's designed for my Helix cultivation. I need time and a stable gravitational field to compute the spatial coordinates."
"A stable gravitational field," Elara repeated, already deducing the next step. "That means Realm 5: The Gravity Layer. It's the only Realm dedicated to high-level field theory—the perfect stability for your proof."
Lira looked worried. "Realm 5 is ruled by the Atlantean Cults. They're hyper-isolationists who cultivate pure Gravitational Mastery. They can crush you with a thought, Reckoner. They hate visitors."
"They rely on absolute field predictability," Elara countered, the chaos in her arm thrumming with confidence. "We will exploit their fear of the unquantifiable. Lira, can you hack the Viceroy's recovery proof?"
"Already done," Lira smirked. "I introduced a micro-proof that tells his system he successfully recaptured us and that we are currently imprisoned in the Eastern Capacitor Bank. He'll spend the next four hours celebrating his 'Data Authority'."
Just as they ascended the shaft, a new anomaly spike hit the Realm. Not Helix, but Abyss.
"Atlas: Identify signature."
"Signature detected: Kairo. The Abyss Predator," Atlas warned. "He is not in this Realm. He is using a Quantum Entanglement Trace—he's attempting to communicate from the Multidimensional Void!"
A single, fractured wave of pure, cold probability hit Elara's mind, a data burst that bypassed all of Lira's firewalls.
"ELARA. THE ANCHOR IS CRITICAL. YOU ARE IN DANGER. I AM SEARCHING FOR MY THIRD… THE MISSING PIECE. I AM COMING BACK. DO NOT TRUST THE EQUATIONS."
The message dissolved, leaving Elara reeling. His Third? The Leviathan said Kairo was only one-third soul. Was Kairo searching for his missing fragments, the pieces that made him human?
"He's alive and seeking to re-anchor his soul," Elara whispered, the revelation filling her with new resolve. "We need to find a way to track the Soul Concept."
Thorne and Sira had secured a launch point on a high magnetic tower. "The launch coordinates for Realm 5 are open, Reckoner," Thorne announced. "We need to go now. I feel the Viceroy's network stuttering back to life."
Elara channeled the CEB, preparing a small, controlled Entropy Pulse to slingshot their magnetic transport field. "Realm 5, here we come. We will find stability in the Realm of Gravity, and we will find the answer to Kairo's soul."