The sky above the Neutral Territories was bleeding. It wasn't blood, but mana a torrential downpour of golden and violet sparks as the Floating Isles of Aether began their forced descent.
Kenji Tanaka was no longer a man; he was a conduit. His body was suspended in the center of the Scrap-Venture's hold, his arms outstretched as glowing tether-lines of Absolute Gravity bolted from his chest to the hundreds of islands above.
[STATUS: WORLD-ANCHOR (CRITICAL)]
[MANA BURN RATE: 12,000 UNITS/SEC]
[CORE TEMP: 4,000°C - RECURSION ACTIVE]
"Kenji, your skin is smoking!" Elara screamed over the roar of the wind. She was blasting him with localized blizzards, her frost-magic turning into steam the moment it touched his white-hot shoulders.
"Don't... stop..." Kenji's voice was a tectonic grind. Every muscle was a frayed wire being held together by the Scrap of Infinite Recursion. He was dying and being reborn ten times every second. "If I let go... the islands... they'll impact at terminal velocity. Millions... will die."
"Mateo! Find us a landing zone!" Kael roared from the bridge, her knuckles white as she wrestled with the flight controls. The Scrap-Venture was being dragged down by the weight of a continent.
"I've got the Salt Flats of Giza!" Mateo yelled, his eyes glued to the topographical scanners. "It's the only place large enough and flat enough to take the impact. But Kenji has to guide them into a 'Soft-Touch' sequence!"
On the islands above, the panic was absolute. The Sky-Lords, the elites who had spent generations looking down on the "Grounders," were now clutching their marble balconies as the ground beneath them rushed toward the earth. The "Perfect Order" was shattered.
[WORLD BROADCAST: THE HEAVENS ARE FALLING]
[SYSTEM STATUS: TOTAL ARCHITECTURAL COLLAPSE]
From the horizon, the High Council's remaining forces, the Apex Interceptors streaked toward the ship. These were the elite of the elite, Rank 8 pilots sent by the Architect with one final order: Sever the tethers. Let the islands fall. Sacrifice the citizens to kill the Anomaly.
"They're going to fire on the gravity-lines!" Zola shouted, her lead-enforced eyes tracking the incoming missiles. "If those lines snap, the kickback will vaporize the ship!"
"Not on my watch," Bjorn growled. He stood on the outer hull of the Scrap-Venture, his boots magnetized to the Recursive Iron. He raised his rune-axe, which was now vibrating with the Star of Truth's clarity. "Zola, give me the metal! Priya, keep the shield tight!"
Zola reached into the ship's hold and pulled out every piece of spare scrap they had old engines, broken swords, bent plates. She fused them into a massive, rotating ring of debris around the ship.
"The Scrapsmith's Shield!" Zola roared.
The Interceptors fired. Volleys of high-yield mana-torpedoes slammed into the debris ring. Explosions rocked the Scrap-Venture, but the shield held. Bjorn leaped from the hull, using the low-gravity wake of the falling islands to "glide" through the air, cleaving through the wings of the Council's jets like a wolf in a sheepfold.
But Kenji was reaching his limit. The sixth Star was hungry, and it was feeding on his life-force.
Give in, the Scrap of Eternal Hunger whispered in his mind. Drop the weight. Eat the mana of the islands. Become the Sovereign of the Void.
"No," Kenji gasped, his vision blurring. He looked at the Salt Flats appearing through the clouds. "I am... a Smith. I don't... destroy... I... set... the... FOUNDATION!"
Kenji slammed his feet into the ship's floorboards. He funneled the Scrap of Blinding Truth into the gravity-tethers. He didn't just hold the islands; he "read" the geology of the Salt Flats. He saw the fault lines, the density of the sand, the pockets of air.
[SKILL EVOLUTION: ARCHITECTURAL RECYCLING]
He didn't just land the islands. He merged them.
As the first island touched the Salt Flats, Kenji didn't let it crash. He used the Scrap of Absolute Gravity to soften the earth beneath it, turning the salt into a liquid cushion. Then, he used the Stasis Diamond to lock the island into place the moment it reached zero altitude.
One by one, the Floating Isles of Aether met the ground.
The sound was like the world's slowest, loudest thunderclap. A dust cloud a hundred miles wide billowed into the atmosphere. When the last island settled, the tethers snapped back into Kenji's chest like whips of fire.
Kenji collapsed. The violet-and-white light in his eyes vanished, replaced by a hollow, terrifying darkness.
[OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: THE FALL OF THE HIGH BORN]
[FAME: THE WORLD-BREAKER (+100,000)]
[CURRENT RANK: 7 - MASTER APEX (EARLY)]
The Scrap-Venture landed in the center of the new "Salt City." The crew rushed to Kenji's side. He was cold to the touch, his skin translucent, showing the six glowing Stars orbiting his heart.
"He's not breathing!" Priya cried, her healing light flickering as it tried to repair the damage. "His core is too dense! It's pulling his soul inward!"
Elara knelt beside him, placing her hand on his chest. She didn't use frost. She used the Truth she had learned from him. "Kenji, look at the code. You aren't a star. You're the one who holds them. Come back."
Kenji's chest heaved. A single, dark spark of violet mana escaped his lips. He opened his eyes they were entirely black now, save for a thin, iridescent ring of gray.
"The islands..." Kenji whispered.
"They're safe, Kenji," Mateo said, looking out the viewport. "Thousands of people are stepping out onto the sand. For the first time in their lives, they're standing on the same ground as the rest of us."
Kenji closed his eyes and felt the resonance of the world. The balance had shifted. The Architect was no longer a god of the heights; he was a ruler of a crumbling tower.
But the price had been paid. Kenji could feel the seventh Star the final piece calling to him from the Tower of Ranks. It was the Scrap of the Architect, the core of the System itself.
"We have six," Kenji said, his voice stronger but devoid of emotion. "One left. Then the loop closes."
"Kenji, look at yourself," Elara said, her voice trembling. "You're starting to look like the Void itself."
"It doesn't matter," Kenji said, standing up with a grace that wasn't quite human. "The System is still running. The Architect is preparing the 'Total Revision.' If we don't take the final Star in the next forty-eight hours... he's going to reset the planet."
[FINAL QUEST INITIATED: THE SEVENTH REVISION]
Objective: Breach the Tower of Ranks.
Time Remaining: 47:59:59