"You cannot stop this Sylvia," Arthur argued. His voice carried a harsh desperate edge.
"The universe does not care about loyalty. It cares about weight. If I do not liquidate my core the entire Ebon Empire gets erased. Trillions of innocent mortals, you guys, all of it."
"We are aware of the stakes," Kaelith projected softly. The Primordial Weaver turned away from the console and fixed her blind white eyes on Arthur.
"But you draining your core is a temporary measure. It pays the immediate deficit but it leaves the foundational structure of our reality without an anchor. The realm will still eventually collapse."
"Then what is the alternative?" Arthur demanded.
"We restructure the debt," Aurelia said. Her golden eyes flashed with sudden military resolve. The fallen Valkyrie stepped forward and her dark-radiant spear vanished into her spatial ring. "The issue is that all the conceptual weight is centralized. It is all sitting in your core. The realm is top-heavy."
