Hajin reached the upper gallery while Juna crossed its outer rail without opening a Wing. Six white-gold survey shells ran ahead of her across separate slopes of the western archive roof.
Their hooked measuring rods entered tile seams wherever the old ward lines met. Each contact copied another structural angle into the blank faces beneath their smooth hoods.
Juna landed upon the highest ridge and followed their branching paths through scent, vibration, plus reflected sunlight. She ignored the nearest construct when its route passed above an occupied preservation room.
Two archive porters waited beneath those eaves with a document cart between them. Three lamp attendants occupied the adjoining passage, while retreating copy clerks still crossed the covered eastern bridge.
"Stay below stone and close every outer shutter," Juna called through the roof vent, keeping her claws away from the tile joints, "nothing climbs out until I clear the light above you."
The workers obeyed before palace protocol found another objection from any archive office. Their cart rolled deeper beneath the load wall, leaving every person away from windows, gutters, plus the open rain channels.
Hajin kept his first Ring rotating when he stepped onto the gallery roof. He spread Aegis beneath the occupied eaves, giving falling debris nowhere to enter the rooms Juna had marked.
"Six signals remain above us," Aria said, matching each moving shell against the fourteen counted below, "all six carry complete copies of the three measurements taken inside the archive."
The nearest surveyor unfolded its rod into a triangular white-gold frame beside the north chimney. Another reached the eastern ward finial, while two others moved toward opposite corners of the slate roof.
Juna could have crossed the first shell before it finished opening the frame. Her attack angle would also have driven its divided body through the preservation-room ceiling beneath both porters.
She ran past it instead, striking the measuring rod with one closed claw. The frame turned away from the chimney, forcing the construct to follow its displaced instrument toward the higher central ridge.
The second shell tried descending along a copper gutter above the copy clerks. Juna hooked its ankle, carried its momentum across her shoulder, then released it toward the empty crown of the roof.
Its white-gold body struck stone without breaking, recording her strength while it recovered. No reward appeared because she had prevented a route without destroying the constructed shell.
"They are learning every correction," Hajin said, following the copied motion inside Divine Eye, "herding them still gives the observer information."
"Let it learn where she refuses to cut," Aria replied, tracing the workers beneath Aegis, "that answer preserves people without revealing a usable weakness in her output."
The remaining four surveyors adjusted around Juna instead of attacking her directly. Their rods tested roof seams, open sky angles, plus the distance between separate palace ward towers.
She stayed ahead of every descent toward occupied eaves without manifesting solar pressure. She crossed ridge caps, narrow finials, plus rain-dark slate while her tail corrected each landing before stone could shift beneath her.
One figure drove its rod toward the western slope to open a path through the roof ward. Juna caught the shaft between both claws and turned its point toward the empty rain court beyond the archive wall.
The shell released its weapon before she could drag it farther, then joined two others moving across the central ridge. Their blank faces now carried matching portions of one six-sided escape diagram.
Hajin saw the division inside Divine Eye before the separate marks touched one another. Each surveyor held one segment of a shared aperture, preventing any single body from opening an escape route while isolated.
[ Survey-shell formation detected ]
[ Required bodies: six ]
[ Intended function: external observation transfer / formation withdrawal ]
[ Activation condition: shared open-sky geometry ]
"They need all six above the same empty route," he said, moving Aegis beneath the western slope, "if one crosses first, the measurements leave with it."
Juna glanced toward the rain court before returning her attention to the six approaching rods. She had pushed every construct away from the occupied rooms until their chosen aperture could only form above open stone.
"Then they can gather where I put them," she said, stepping from the ridge into empty air, "keep everyone beneath the eaves."
The first white-gold frame opened above the rain court when Juna launched from the roof. Five others connected from separate ridges, creating a six-sided aperture several body lengths above the western parapet.
Moving light appeared inside its empty center without revealing any destination or stable endpoint. Every measurement copied from Hajin, Didi, plus the refusal socket entered the shared border before any shell attempted to cross.
Juna waited until all six bodies committed their rods to the opening. Their connected geometry prevented them from separating without discarding the complete transfer route they had climbed to preserve.
Her first Wing unfolded behind her with pale-gold light that never touched the roof. The second extended beneath it, lifting her above the highest connected frame without throwing pressure toward the occupied rooms.
The third Wing opened across the sky after both lower angles became clear. Solar Vanguard markings crossed her arms plus throat while every construct turned its blank face upward.
Juna moved once through the aperture’s upper edge, carrying one narrow gold line across all six supporting rods. The cut remained above the parapet, leaving slate, ward towers, plus Aegis untouched beneath its path.
All six rods separated before the external light completed its first turn. The same solar edge passed through the smooth bodies holding them, dividing each shell across its empty construction layers.
The aperture collapsed around Juna without pulling her toward its unseen destination. Her final claw crossed its shrinking center, severing the last observation channel before any copied measurement escaped the palace sky.
White-gold shell halves fell into the open rain court while their light extinguished overhead. Aegis caught three fragments drifting toward the covered bridge, redirecting them onto unoccupied paving beyond the workers.
[ Constructed divine survey shells eliminated: 6 ]
[ Mortal souls harmed: 0 ]
[ Individual reward value: 65,000 EXP ]
[ Summon Juna contribution reward: 390,000 EXP ]
[ Hajin reward: 390,000 EXP ]
[ Juna — Wing Progress: 4,570,000 / 7,500,000 EXP ]
[ Hajin — Ring V Progress: 27,240,000 / 50,000,000 EXP ]
Juna remained above the court until Aria confirmed every divided shell had lost its instruction channel. No fourth Wing opened, and the three established Wings held their ordinary shape behind her.
"No signal crossed the finished route," Aria said, closing the six external markers, "eight survey shells remain inside the archive plus undercroft."
Hajin dismissed Aegis from the empty bridge only after every copy clerk reached the eastern stair. The porters stayed beneath the load wall while Juna descended onto the cleared parapet.
She folded one Wing before touching the stone, keeping the other two spread away from the roof tiles. None of the occupied ceilings carried a cut, impact crack, or fallen fragment from her passage.
"They measured my turns," she said, looking down through the western gallery, "but they leave without the measurements."
The roof shifted beneath them and loosened dust across the western parapet stones. Four separate metallic clicks traveled upward from the archive supports, followed by four deeper releases beneath the undercroft floor.
Juna closed her remaining Wings as both of them turned toward the central lintel below. The surviving eight surveyors had stopped seeking an exit, and the western archive began surrendering its load one pin at a time.