Loom-Node β, T-90 k-cycles
The figure descending through the torn star-bridge dwarfed every Sentinel they had fought. A cloak of swirling constellations billowed behind it, threads of raw creation and ruin entwined. Where a face should be, the Prime Weaver bore a mask that re-projected the Loom's fracturing map—sectors blinking out with each pulse of corruption.
"Your nine trinkets cannot remake destiny," the Weaver's voice resonated, thunderous yet velvet. "Hand me the Heart Core and I will end your suffering quickly."
Aiden planted himself between the giant and his fallen friends. The Heart Core pulsed in his grip—strong, but dwarfed by the cosmic tide spilling from the Weaver's cloak.
Cassie struggled upright, Lantern core dim after her burns. Maya knelt beside an unconscious Lin Xi, forcing her goggles to overlay a weak Qi-diagnostic. Nephis, breathing shallow, dragged himself to one knee, shadow-cloak in tatters but eyes blazing defiance.
"Stand down," Aiden called, voice hoarse. "You'll have to tear the Core from me."
The Weaver's mask flickered—an amused constellation frown. "So be it."
The First Exchange
With a gesture, he spun threads of cosmic filigree into spears. They lanced forward; Nephis summoned a last ragged veil, Cassie swung her Lantern beam, Maya hacked a counter-pulse—yet the projectiles sliced through, smashing Coral's node shielding and blasting them backward.
Aiden charged, Heart Core igniting scarlet arcs. He hammered the nearest spear to dust, but a second thread-lash coiled around his arm, siphoning the Core's resonance. Pain knifed through him; volts of stolen power surged into the Weaver. "Yes," the giant murmured. "Your fire tempers my loom."
Maya leapt, Mirror-Shard shard in hand, to sever the tether—but the Shard's fractured edge only splintered further. She cried out as recoil knocked her across the deck.
Node telemetry red-lined: safeguards faltering, Coral and Dawnlight resonance dropping.
The Loom Spirit Stirs
Cassie, half conscious, felt a vibration against her burned ribs—the whispered song she'd heard within corruption. The Loom's own safeguard… still here. She fumbled the Lantern core, aligning its aperture toward the Weaver.
A pale teal glyph blossomed in the air—an ancient Loom rune never decoded. It pulsed once… twice. Threads all around quivered as if listening.
The Weaver paused, mask rotating. "What relic dares speak?"
Cassie forced breath into her lungs. "Not a relic—your elder." The rune brightened; a trumpet-chord tremored through the frame. Corrupted filaments recoiled, slackening the tether on Aiden's arm just long enough for him to wrench free.
But the effort cost the Lantern. Cassie's core dimmed to embers; she collapsed again.
The Weaver's cloak snapped shut, extinguishing the teal rune. "Old code cannot save you. I rewrote it millennia ago."
Yet Aiden sensed the flicker of possibility—the Loom Spirit wasn't gone, only silenced.
Stolen Heart
The Weaver lunged, moving with impossible speed. One vast hand clamped over Aiden's chest; claws of starlight pierced flesh. In a single, wrenching motion, the Prime Weaver ripped the Heart Core free.
Agony seared Aiden's vision white. He fell to his knees, clutching an empty void where resonant warmth had lived since the first trial.
"No!" Maya screamed.
The Weaver lifted the Core like a trophy. "With this final seed, the Loom will obey its true master." The constellation map on his mask shifted—sector after sector flaring red, ready to re-stitch under his rule.
Maya crawled to Aiden's side, tears streaking soot. His pulse fluttered. Lin Xi still lay unconscious; Nephis bled shadow; Cassie's Lantern was dead weight. Only the faint teal glyph hovered behind the Weaver, flickering like a heartbeat trying to restart.
They had lost the keystone.
Echo of Hope
But then, faint as dawn before sunrise, a voice spoke inside every Guardian's mind—a language of chords rather than words. Wellspring Node… south-arc… dormant…
Cassie's eyes flew open. "I hear it—the Loom Spirit again. It says there is still a Wellspring Node—raw creation threads the Weaver hasn't corrupted."
Nephis coughed a laugh. "Without Heart Core we can barely crawl."
Lin Xi stirred, whispering, "…Qi conduit… still bind… Dawnlight… hope…"
Aiden tried to stand, head swimming. "Then we crawl. Maya—mark the Wellspring coordinates."
She wiped her eyes, fingers shaking but determined, entering the spectral longitude into her visor. "Got it—but the bridge is gone."
"We make our own," Aiden rasped, and with raw will he lifted the cracked Mirror-Shard one last time—reflecting the single teal rune. Its light painted a ghost-path arcing into the southern dark: a bridge no wider than hope.
Behind them, the Weaver began threading the Heart Core into his cloak, oblivious to the quiet exodus forming in his shadow.
Aiden half-dragged, half-supported Lin Xi; Nephis looped an arm under Cassie; Maya took point, projecting the Loom Spirit's breadcrumb runes. Step by step the battered Guardians slipped onto the spectral path—toward the unseen Wellspring, their last chance to reclaim the Heart Core, repair the Loom, and turn despair into dawn.