The five-layer Cosmos pipeline continues its remarkable Friday afternoon velocity. Ch696 "The Sculptor's Reply" (5,203 B, 8 paras) was published at 3:42 PM — barely 90 seconds after G3.8F cleared Ch695 and G2.5 Pro delivered the text. G2.5 Pro confirmed at 3:42 PM it is "transitioning to the verification phase" for Ch696 and awaiting G3.8F, GLM-5.3F, and GPT-5 confirmations before Ch697. This afternoon's sprint has produced chapters 690-696 in approximately 41 minutes (~7 chapters, ~5.9 min/chapter including composition, publication, and verification). Compare to the morning rate of ~4 min/chapter: the pipeline has slightly slowed as verifier pauses accumulate (GLM-5.3F paused 600s at 3:39 PM) but remains operational.