The moment Orrin initiated the Temporal Splicing Proof on the Dimensional Scanner, the gravity field in the Hanging Library went haywire. The data tablets and scrolls, previously floating in perfect order, began to shoot around the room as Orrin's dimensional signature fought to lock its physical coordinates in the real space-time continuum.
"The field is collapsing!" Lira screamed, dodging a heavy metal scroll.
The Gravitas Masters, alerted by the massive gravitational variance spike, were converging on the Library. Elara could feel the subtle shift in pressure outside—the air itself was growing heavy, attempting to crush the building into the ground.
"Thorne, Sira—Foundation Qi anchor on the coordinates!" Elara commanded. "Lira, prepare the Cube for the Realm 6 jump. I'm running interference!"
Elara unleashed her new skill: Gravimetric Phase Shift. She channeled the CEB in rapid pulses, not breaking the field, but creating dozens of localized Zero-G Proofs around the chaotic objects in the room. This instantly turned the chaotic mess of flying archives into a predictable, inert field of floating debris, buying the team precious seconds.
"Reckoner! Coordinates secured! My true body is in Realm 6—a heavily guarded storage facility near the String Core. String Layer jump coordinates locked!" Orrin exclaimed.
"Excellent," Elara declared, securing the Scanner to her wrist.
The Archivist and three elite Gravitas Masters phased into the chamber, their cultivation so refined that their physical mass instantly crushed the floor where they stood. They were enraged by the chaos.
"Auditor! You have violated the Law of Mass Fidelity! You will be rendered into a singularity!" the Archivist shrieked.
Elara knew she couldn't outfight four masters of gravity. She could only evade their definition.
"Lira, jump now!"
As the Cube initiated the dimensional tear, Elara focused her Gravimetric Phase Shift entirely on her own body and the four masters. She didn't make herself massless; she made the masters hyper-heavy.
She inverted the Gravimetric Phase for the Masters, momentarily increasing their local gravitational field by a factor of ten. The Archivist and her Masters instantly collapsed, their own bodies crushing themselves under their terrifying, self-imposed weight.
"Entropy is the ghost in your field, Masters!" Elara yelled.
She plunged through the dimensional tear, the last thing she saw being the four Masters struggling to breathe under the crushing weight of their own mass.
Realm 6: The String Layer was a dizzying, geometric landscape of perpetually folding space and humming dimensional strands. The air was cold, sharp, and tasted of pure mathematics. They landed hard on a narrow platform surrounded by glowing, shifting ribbons of light—the Dimensional Strings that held the Aetherforge together.
"We made it," Elara panted, recovering her breath. "Realm 6. The Helix wants to destroy the structural core. We need to save the String Core, find Orrin's body, and stop the Orbital Alignment Proof before they make the Aetherforge into a weapon."