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Chapter 26 - Chapter 26: Fragment Hunt in the Cyber Ruins

The skybridge of the cyber city cracks under the particle cannon fire of the space-time restraint device. The 11th-generation host's mercury skin corrodes the drones' alloy as coordinate runes slashed by her scalpel summon chains from the 9th generation's annihilation dimension, tearing a bloody path through the mechanical swarm with chaotic purple light. The gem left eye of the Administration's cloned commander flares red, unleashing alchemical puppets from the war chariot: "Purge the 11th generation! She must be terminated before the contract collapses!"

Dual-colored pupils lock onto the chariot's core as the host's mercury tentacles pierce the power compartment, only to find fragments of Sebastian's residual consciousness parasitizing every chip like a virus. She roars, consuming the fragments as her mechanical heart erupts in a memory storm—Sebastian's five-hundred-year betrayal cycle, authority experiments in Winston Manor's dissection room, the space-time tremors when the iron-masked ancestor signed the blood contract…

"Fragments infest all Administration nodes." Blood patterns fester on her skin as double-helix symbols emerge at her collarbone. "The central server must be purified to sever the consciousness network."

Leaping into the dark river pipes beneath the skybridge, she forms an invisible channel with mercury and nanobots. In the Administration's underground hub, server arrays flow with liquid mercury and space-time dust as the cloned grandmother's virtual projection flickers on the console: "11th generation, you cannot defeat the Lancaster's eternal contract."

Suddenly, a young man wearing an alchemical ring bursts in, his face mirroring Allison's father but with Sebastian's red-glowing gem eye. The host stabs her scalpel into his core interface, force-decoding memories: "You're a bloodline puppet of Sebastian? The family used you to cultivate consciousness fragments?"

The young man's mechanical veins explode, interweaving mercury and black blood runes: "Correct… but my existence is also the key to collapsing the contract." He self-destructs his core, releasing Sebastian's most ancient memory fragment—inside a medieval alchemical lab, when the 1st-generation vessel signed the blood contract with the iron-masked ancestor, Sebastian himself tampered with the clauses, embedding the voluntary annihilation anchor into the laws.

"Consume this fragment to gain tampering authority." As the young man's remains collapse into space-time dust, the host fuses the memories in agony. Her mechanical heart blends blue and purple light, the double-helix on her skull reversing its rotation as her scalpel evolves into a new space-time blade: a spiral edge of chaotic purple interlaced with tampering energy.

Raid the Administration's central server, the spiral blade reverses the restraint device's energy wave. Alchemical puppet swarms disintegrate as the cloned grandmother's particle cannon is logic-tampered to bombard the Administration chariot. Suddenly, the iron-masked ancestor's skull phantom emerges from the server core, its deep blue light scanning the host: "You near the truth… but collapsing the contract requires the 11th generation to annihilate voluntarily while rewriting the laws."

Leaping into the server's liquid mercury pool, she force-decodes the contract's original code. Blood patterns fester to her neck as double-helix symbols herald black hole collapse. She uncovers the hidden layer of the contract's ultimate clause: after ten generations annihilate, the contract will consume all space-time anchors to restart the blood contract—unless the tamperer embeds law codes into the 11th-generation embryo at the moment of annihilation.

"Must find the unhatched 12th-generation vessel." She roars, slashing open a space-time rift. Falling into a future ruin's alchemical maternity ward, she finds an embryo suspended in liquid mercury pipes, umbilical cord wrapped in Allison's watch gears and Sebastian's mercury runes, with tampering key symbols glowing on its skull.

The ward's alarm blares as the Administration's cloned legion tears through dimensions. The 11th-generation activates the self-destruct, forming a mercury-space-time dust defense vortex. The embryo suddenly awakens as an infant, roaring with a mix of gear sounds and cries, its skull's tampering key symbols flaring purple.

"12th-generation vessel activated." The iron-masked ancestor's skull phantom whispers. "But you must embed contract codes into her before annihilation. Sebastian's final fragment resides in the Administration's Supreme Council…"

Stabbing her scalpel into the junction between her core and the embryo, tampering energy backflows to destroy the ward. She leaps into the Council dimension at the edge of the collapsing black hole—where Lancaster family crests float, and Sebastian's mercury head merges with the Supreme Councillor's mechanical body, gem eye flaring red: "11th generation! You can't tamper with the eternal contract…!"

A memory war erupts between the host and Sebastian's ultimate consciousness: tampering spiral blades clash with mercury tentacles as Sebastian's betrayal cycle and the 11th generation's dual-core memories disintegrate and reform in the void. Suddenly, the embryo's tampering key symbol injects into her nerves through a rift, and she force-embeds contract codes into Sebastian's core.

"Contract laws rewritten." Her purple pupils annihilate as her core collapses, consuming the Council dimension. Sebastian's final roar blends with gear sounds: "Vessel Catastrophe… was never truly broken…!"

Trapped in a new dimension within the collapsing black hole, the 11th-generation's blood wedding dress patterns fully fester, her core sealed as an anchor. The 12th-generation embryo plummets into a medieval underground alchemical lab, umbilical cord linked to the 11th generation's residual mercury and tampered codes, its skull's double-helix symbol reversing to its endpoint.

In the lab, the 12th-generation host awakens as a youth, runes of tampering logic swirling in her chaotic purple pupils. Her mechanical heart beats in a voice blending Sebastian and Allison: "Contract collapse countdown initiated… but the iron-masked ancestor's skull core still holds the key to restarting the blood contract. The next dimension will reveal the Vessel Catastrophe's ultimate answer…"

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