The chamber was a sphere of pure obsidian, five kilometers wide. Suspending in the center, held by thousands of translucent "Logic-Chains," was a Miniature White Dwarf Star.
This wasn't natural. The star had been compressed, its gravity harnessed to act as the "Battery" for the Rank 6 Aegis. But there was a corruption:
The Parasitic Siphons: Thousands of golden cables from the Shattered Moon Sect were plugged into the star's corona, bleeding its energy to power the Sect's floating palaces and the Council's local surveillance grid.
The Cooling Fluid: The "Mana-Water" that the slaves were forced to mine was actually being pumped here to prevent the star from going supernova.
The Consciousness: At the very center of the star, Yuan saw a flickering image—the Digital Ghost of the Original Architect. It was a fragment of Han's soul, left behind to manage the engine, now screaming in a loop of eternal agony.
"They didn't just steal the weapon," Fang Yuan whispered, his silver eyes reflecting the blinding white light. "They turned a God-Killer into a generator. They turned a Master Engineer into a slave-circuit."
[SYSTEM ALERT: DETECTING PLANETARY CORE OVERLOAD]
[ACCESS LEVEL: ARCHITECT-RECOGNIZED]
Yuan walked toward the central console. His Binary Heart began to hum in sync with the white dwarf. He didn't feel heat; the Aegis inside his bone marrow was absorbing the thermal radiation, converting it into Rank 2 Peak Mana.
"Han," Yuan spoke to the digital ghost. "Your shift is over. I am taking the wheel."
With a thrust of his hand, Yuan plunged his silver arm into the control interface. He wasn't just logging in; he was merging his Null-Logic with the star's core.