Across the frost-covered dais, Princess Didi raised her silver rapier and traced a glowing perimeter six paces wide.
Luminescent frost crystals bloomed along the perimeter lines, insulating the royal conduits from the avatar's suffocating divine pressure.
"The bloodline frequency is isolated, Father," she announced through the communication stone, her voice ringing with absolute clarity.
"You may shift your shards without triggering civilian feedback loops across the city," she reported firmly.
"Do not hold anything back for your own safety... we are ready to take the brunt of the recoil," she urged softly.
"If the throne must fall today to save the citizens, let it break into dust," she added with unwavering resolve.
Within his sealed observation bunker, the aging monarch lifted his trembling right hand from the carved basalt armrest.
Twenty glowing sovereign shards orbited his frail shoulders, humming with the accumulated authority of three imperial centuries.
