Asha led them into the recessed chamber—the core power repository of Aaru. At the center stood a colossal, fusion-powered engine, designed to keep the City of the Still Heavens eternally stable. It was a massive cylinder of glowing bronze and integrated circuits, humming with powerful, low-level Foundation Qi.
"This is the Aaru Beacon-Engine," Asha explained. "It maintains the City's Internal Harmony. If you feed it the coordinates of the Eye of Lyra, it can project a focused signal through the Earth-Wards. It's our only way to track Kairo and Orrin."
As Elara and Lira approached the main console, a figure dropped from the ceiling, moving with a fluid, terrifying efficiency.
It was a woman, draped in segmented, black ballistic armor interwoven with copper wiring. She carried no complex energy weapon, only twin blades crackling with pure, focused Electromagnetic Qi. She was a master of the Relic Realm (Realm 2)—the orbital layer defined by kinetic and magnetic manipulation.
"The Librarian has lost her quarantine," the woman hissed, her voice distorted by a voice modulator. "I am Kine, a Syndicate Reaper. The Helix paid high-level Relic Realm currency for the cleanup. You three are anomalies. I am the solution."
Lira's eyes narrowed. "Syndicate. I know that style. You hunt data and relics. Why work for the Helix?"
"The Helix pays well to eliminate uncontained data," Kine replied, immediately lunging. Her attack was blindingly fast, driven by a perfect mastery of Kinetic Proofs. She accelerated her blades using magnetic fields, striking with the force of a high-velocity projectile.
Elara and Lira separated instantly.
Lira, the former Syndicate thief, was the obvious match for Kine. "Thorne, Sira—protect the Beacon-Engine! Elara—get the coordinates ready!"
Lira met the Reaper head-on, her Unmaker binders flaring. Lira couldn't match Kine's raw magnetic speed, but she could match her deception. Kine's style relied on perfectly calculated trajectories; Lira used illusion and counter-proofs to break those trajectories.
Kine swung her copper blades in a figure-eight pattern—a pure Relic Realm cutting proof designed to bypass armor and bone. Lira's light-shadow filaments intercepted the attack, not by blocking it, but by projecting a counter-image of herself, slightly delayed, one centimeter to the left.
Kine's blades, designed to cut the high-probability target, passed harmlessly through Lira's real body.
"A simple Shadow Proof? Predictable," Kine sneered, already initiating a retraction-and-re-strike proof.
"Mine's an original," Lira quipped, returning the fire. She launched her own light-shadow filament, but this one wasn't an illusion; it was a physical, magnetic wire designed to lock onto Kine's conductive copper armor.
As Kine prepared to strike, Elara, working rapidly at the console, provided a subtle, strategic assist. She channeled a tiny surge of Foundation Qi into the floor beneath Kine, subtly increasing the coefficient of friction in that single patch of marble.
Kine, relying entirely on her magnetic-kinetic acceleration, momentarily snagged. That fraction of a second was all Lira needed.
Lira's magnetic filament locked onto Kine's right arm. Instead of pulling, Lira used the dominion's bite to inject a short, sharp burst of contradictory magnetic polarity into the armor.
Kine's right arm locked up, the armor segments tearing at each other. She cried out in surprise and pain.
"I know your training, Reaper," Lira panted. "The Syndicate always prioritized speed over internal consistency. Your armor is a liability when hit with a conflicting charge."
The distraction bought Elara the time she needed. She slammed her staff onto the Beacon-Engine's console, inputting the coordinates of the Eye of Lyra and the chaotic signal frequency Kairo's sacrifice had generated.
WHUMM!
The Beacon-Engine roared to life, a colossal beam of pure, refined Foundation Qi—stable, predictable, and incredibly powerful—shooting up through the City of Aaru and breaching the Earth-Wards.
Kine recovered instantly, ripping the magnetic wire from her arm, the copper armor sparking. She didn't press the attack; the Beacon-Engine's activation was her failure.
"You've violated the containment," Kine said, her voice heavy with cold frustration. "The Helix will send an entire Relic Realm Platoon now. You bought your little group a few hours of life. Enjoy the Foundation Realm while it lasts."
With a final burst of controlled kinetic energy, Kine vanished, using the magnetic currents in the City's ceiling to escape through a high maintenance shaft.
Lira slumped, breathless, her triumph mixed with deep concern. "A Realm 2 platoon is coming. We need to follow that beacon—now. But how do we get out of the City of Still Heavens? That beacon just painted a target on our heads."
Asha stepped forward, pointing to the ceiling shaft Kine had used. "The Beacon-Engine has a side effect. It disrupts the city's internal harmony for a moment. That maintenance shaft leads to the Ancient Space Elevator—the only structural link to the higher realms that survived the Convergence. It's the only vertical path out of the Foundation Realm."