The Sovereign's tendril coiled around Lira's skimmer, its speed and precision demonstrating a terrifying mastery of Causal Physics. Elara immediately recognized the Sovereign's move: isolating the key variable needed to complete the anti-Prime equation.
Elara slammed the controls, deriving an emergency vector shift: the Thrust Equation (\vec{F} = m\vec{a}) boosted by her Fracture Bind, slingshotting their craft toward the stricken ship.
"Thirty seconds until her hull is a zero-sum calculation," Kairo growled from the co-pilot's seat, his Solar Sovereign Dragons roaring out to intercept. One avatar engaged the shadowy tendril with Entropy Blades, while the other dove to secure the skimmer. "Next time, let's fight something that doesn't slurp ships like noodles."
"Focus, Tanaka," Elara snapped. Her Rift Harmony core pulsed, pushing her through a personal Bleed Weave portal, emerging directly on Lira's buckling hull.
The tendril was a lattice of corrupted code, a perfect Void Singularity. Elara slammed her palm onto the tendril, her Fracture Bind surging. She didn't try to pull it; she derived a counter-coil: Angular Momentum Reversed (L = -r \times p), forcing the shadowy mass to recoil with the destructive force of a broken spring.
The skimmer lurched free, but the tendril grazed Elara's arm—a void bite searing like ice fire, the chaotic energy instantly numbing her weave on that side. The cost of touching the Tenth Realm's true chaos was now physical.
Kairo's dragon avatar secured the tow line, yanking the skimmer back. Inside, Lira's form flickered, her aura destabilized by the void touch. Elara knelt, applying a Thermodynamic Purification Weave (\Delta G < 0) to stabilize her cousin.
"The Sovereign... he's the Fracture Incarnate," Lira whispered, her redemption holding firm (92% probability). "He needs the Prime completed to shatter the Core."
The fleet regrouped, Elara's arm throbbing with the newly acquired chaotic residue. She convened the council, using her Ultimatum Veil to silence lingering dissent, her focus solely on the Void Sovereign's Lair: a massive shadow nebula whose logic defied all nine realms.
The Infiltration Plan:
Lira (The Veil Breaker): Use her Syndicate experience and purified shadow techniques to scout the outer defensive veils.
Kairo (The Chaos Anchor): Use his Draconic Entropy to destabilize the predictable void currents.
Elara (The Reckoner): Use her compromised Bleed Weave and strategic calculus to find the Sovereign's Causal Dependency—his Achilles' heel.
The infiltration began. As they breached the outer veils, the Sovereign's whisper targeted Lira anew: "Come home, thief. Your weave is mine."
Lira's skimmer shuddered, residual void hooks flaring to pull her toward the nebula's core. She was still a powerful, targeted liability. Elara recognized the pattern instantly: Law 18 (Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself)—the Sovereign was using Lira's presence as a living, predictable magnet to draw Elara into a trap.