The interior of the Sunstone Aether Bank was terrifyingly simple: a vast, circular chamber dominated by a single, monolithic pillar of sunstone crystal—the core of the capital's magical grid. Thousands of intricate copper coils wrapped around the pillar, steadily drawing power from the elemental forge deep below the city.
The air throbbed with raw, elemental energy, and the chamber resonated with the deep, rhythmic thump of the failing forge.
Kaelen scanned the chamber, his Temporal Foresight active. "Valerius is drawing the power too fast. The pillar is already under immense strain. We don't need to destroy the Bank; we need to induce a catastrophic, localized Feedback Loop."
Elara pointed to a maintenance panel near the base of the pillar—a small, unassuming access point that housed the elemental regulators. "The novel said the regulators had to be manually re-calibrated every ten years. They are designed for simple maintenance, not sabotage."
"Perfect," Kaelen said, moving toward the panel. "Valerius would have protected the complex spell, not the simple mechanism."
He used his Staff to pry open the maintenance panel, revealing a network of simple, non-magical copper wires connected to five small, glowing elemental prisms—the regulators.
"I must overload the prisms with raw Aether, but not my own," Kaelen explained. "My Aether is too pure. It will simply be absorbed. I need to force the Codex to expel the chaotic, residual Aether it accumulated during the Dimensional Lock ritual. That polluted energy will cause the feedback loop."
Kaelen placed the Codex of Echoes directly on the floor beside the panel, then placed his hands on the scroll. He channeled his core Aether into the Codex, forcing it to reverse its flow, expelling the chaotic energy it had absorbed.
The Codex responded with a violent shudder, and a stream of thick, black, chaotic Aether—the dimensional pollution—shot out of the scroll and wrapped around the copper wires of the maintenance panel.
The elemental prisms reacted instantly. They began to pulse erratically, changing from a steady orange to a frantic, destructive crimson.
"The feedback loop is active!" Kaelen cried out, leaping back and retrieving the now-calm Codex. "The bank is not destroyed, but it will rapidly drain itself, short-circuiting Valerius's military funding and crippling the city's Aether Grid for weeks. He can no longer fund the war or control the capital."
With the sabotage complete, Kaelen looked at Elara, a triumphant, yet exhausted, look on his face. "The King is disarmed, Elara. The final move is political. We must show the people the truth."
"Where do we go?"
"The Veridian Square. The site of our first successful attack. We will return and use the final, highest-level spell in the Codex," Kaelen stated, his eyes shining with cold determination. "The Mass-Scryer Rune. We will project the truth of the King's death, the Executor's demise, and the collapse of the Bank onto every magical surface in the capital. We will give the people the rebellion they need."