LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 11: Celestial Fractures
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### **I: Stacy's Exodus**
The *Worldstrider* hummed with latent divinity, its Celestial engines etching star maps into Stacy's retinas. Her System flickered, overlaying the cockpit with diagnostics only she could parse:
**[Vessel Integrity: 87%]**
▸ *Celestial Shard Synergy: Optimal*
▸ *Fuel Source: [ERROR – ENTITY NOT FOUND]*
"We're running on spite and duct tape," Jax muttered, rewiring the nav console. His ocular implant glitched, pixelating at the edges. "You sure this relic can jump universes?"
Stacy ignored him, allocating her latest stat points. The grind on this hellscape planet had pushed her to **Level 25**, but the cost glared in her **[Status]** log:
**[Celestial Nomad (Beta) – Mutation Progress: 32%]**
▸ *Physical Alterations Detected:*
- **Eyes:** Irises now fracture light into prismatic hues.
- **Dermal Layer:** Subcutaneous starfield patterns under stress.
- **MP Pool:** Corrupted → **Void Essence (VE): 150/150**
"Fuel source isn't missing," she realized. "It's *me*." The shard she'd absorbed pulsed in her chest, syphoning VE from her veins into the engine.
Jax froze. "You're joking."
**[New Quest: Cosmic Ignition]**
▸ *Activate the Worldstrider's core using Void Essence.*
**Reward:**
▸ *Class Stabilization*
▸ *Reveal System's Origin*
"Strap in," Stacy said. "We're ghostriding this thing."
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### **II: Mike's Limbo**
Mike Peters woke in a meadow that smelled of Diane's lavender perfume. Sunlight speared through his eyelids—*wrong*, he'd been debugging code in Lab 12B. His lab. His *old* lab, scrubbed from existence when Diane erased him.
"Simulation?" he rasped, but the grass stained his knees green. A child's laughter echoed—Stacy's, young and unburdened. He followed it to a hologram: his family, pixelated and looping. Diane serving pancakes. Tom sneaking syrup to the dog. Stacy, age seven, wearing his MIT cap.
A voice, glacial and familiar: **"You are a paradox, Dr. Peters."**
The Celestial Council's Arbiter Prime materialized, their form a mosaic of Diane's stolen features. **"Your wife's…*sacrifice*…reknit your thread. But threads can snap twice."**
Mike's fists clenched. "Where are my kids?"
**"Fulfilling their roles. The boy breaks. The girl evolves. You? You*…"** The Arbiter smiled. **"…will bait the trap."**
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### **III: Lira's Ascension**
Back in Tom's universe, Lira's scales molted. Midnight-black flakes rained as she writhed, her void-eyes swallowing the cave's bioluminescence.
"It *hurts*," she snarled, clawing at her arms.
Xina pinned her, the Sword of Sindore thrumming with Diane's residual warmth. "Fight it, Lira. Don't let the Voidweaver lineage consume you."
"*Consume?*" Lira laughed, a sound like collapsing stars. "I *am* the consume—"
Her voice splintered. Tom lunged, the Golden Roulette Wheel flaring.
**BADUMP.**
The Wheel landed on *[Chain of Stars]*. Cosmic filaments lashed Lira, binding her thrashing form.
"Did you… *restrain* me?" Lira hissed.
Tom's nose bled. "Bought us time. Not much."
Imma flickered, her hologram glitching. "The Council approaches. They've hijacked the Spires' ley network. And… there's something else. A ship. *Her* ship."
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### **IV: The Council's Wrath**
The Arbiter Prime's fleet descended—a swarm of jagged drones forged from dead timelines. Their cores pulsed with harvested memories: Diane's lullabies, Mike's equations, Stacy's laughter.
Xina raised the Sword, its blade singing Diane's battle hymn. "Imma! Get the kids to the Spires' core!"
"No," Tom said. The Wheel spun on instinct, landing on *[Retrograde]*.
Time stuttered. Drones unraveled mid-strike, their code regressing to inert stardust.
But the Arbiter Prime remained. **"Cute trick,"** they sneered, thrusting a spear of crystallized grief—Diane's, Mike's, *Tom's*—toward his heart.
A plasma torch severed the spear's tip.
"Miss me, *asshole*?" Stacy Peters stood in the Worldstrider's open hatch, her vibroblade crackling with Void Essence.
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### **V: Fractal Reunion**
The siblings' Systems collided.
Tom's Wheel emitted a frequency that made Stacy's HUD bleed static. Notifications overlapped:
**[Tom's Interface Detected!]**
▸ *Synergy Protocol: [Golden Roulette Wheel] ↔ [Celestial Nomad]*
▸ *Warning: Dimensional Feedback Imminent!*
"Stace, your eyes—!"
"Later!" She tossed him a VE-charged grenade. "Aim for the Arbiter's core!"
The Arbiter Prime recoiled. **"You dare weaponize *her* essence?!"**
"Damn right," Stacy spat. "Family discount."
The grenade detonated. The Arbiter's form fractured, revealing a shard of the Weaver's Loom embedded in their chest—Diane's final anchor to reality.
Tom's Wheel spun. Stacy's System *pushed* it.
**BADUMP.**
The symbol *[Reconciliation]* blazed.
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### **VI: Diane's Gambit**
In her prison, Diane Peters screamed. The Loom's threads seared her divine flesh as she rerouted the detonation's energy—not to destroy, but to *reforge*.
The Arbiter Prime's shard dislodged, embedding into the Worldstrider. The ship *changed*, its hull blooming with Loom-forged constellations.
**[Celestial Nomad Class Stabilized!]**
▸ *Mutation Halted at 49%*
▸ *New Title: [Starforged]*
Stacy collapsed, her System rebooting. Tom caught her, his Wheel cold and silent.
"Did we… win?" she slurred.
The Arbiter Prime's remnants coalesced into a hologram of Mike Peters, disoriented and blinking. "Stacy? Tom? Where—?"
Lira's voice cut through the chaos, void-deep and trembling: "They're coming. All of them."
Above, the fractured sky birthed new stars—Celestial Council warships, each a galaxy unto itself.
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### **VII: Epilogue – The Calibration**
Stacy's System pinged as she helped Mike to his feet:
**[System Origin: Partial Decryption]**
▸ *Source Code: 44% Diane Peters, 44% Celestial Loom, 12% [REDACTED]*
Tom stared at his sister's starfire eyes. "You've got Mom in your *code*."
"And you've got a universe in a roulette wheel," she shot back. "We're messed up, huh?"
Xina sheathed the Sword, its whispers now a chorus of Diane's voice. "We need the Loom. To end this."
Lira, half-shrouded in void-matter, nodded. "But it'll cost a soul. Maybe two."
The Worldstrider's engines flared, its new Celestial shard charting a course to the Council's heart.
Mike touched the hologram of his family, still looping. "I'll pay it. For them."
Stacy's System flared in warning, but Tom's hand found hers. The Wheel spun.
Somewhere, Diane wept—and wove.
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