Chapter 90: Weaving Anew
Ryan ran through the chaotic heart of the battle, his mind a whirlwind of focus and fear. The air was filled with the shriek of tearing metal, the boom of plasma explosions, and the guttural war cries of the Marauders.
A stray energy bolt sizzled past his head, so close he could smell his hair burning. He didn’t even flinch. His eyes were locked on a single point in the center of the besieged Enclave: the faint, flickering light of the Genesis Seed.
He skidded to a stop in front of the ornate pedestal, his friends and the last of the Precursors forming a desperate, living wall between him and the chaos.
Scarlett, having left the "Odyssey" on autopilot, was now fighting on the ground, a phantom of deadly grace with her twin pistols. Chris would have been proud of Emma and Zara; they had found a pair of Precursor energy rifles and were firing methodical, precise shots from behind cover, their faces grim with determination.
And Lyra, the First Weaver, turned her ancient, starlit eyes to him. Her form was now so faint he could almost see through her. The effort of bolstering the shields was consuming the last of her energy.
<There is little time, her thought-voice whispered, strained and weak. The Seed is a song of creation, but its melody is broken. You must feel the discord, find the wrong notes, and make them right.
We will share what knowledge we have left. It is all we have to give.
As one, the five Precursors reached out with their ethereal hands. They didn’t touch him, but he felt it. A flood of pure, unfiltered knowledge poured into his mind.
It wasn’t like reading a book or learning a skill. It was a billion years of wisdom, of understanding the fundamental rules of reality, downloaded directly into his brain.
He saw the universe as a great tapestry, a weaving of energy and matter, time and space. He saw how the Precursors had learned to pull at the threads, to weave new patterns. And he saw the jagged, ugly tear that was the Reality Schism.
The sheer amount of information was staggering. It would have shattered a normal mind, but Ryan’s SSS-Tier system, his high Intellect and Spirit, and the power of the Heart of Creation humming within him, acted as a buffer.