Hajin summoned the Legendary Chain directly into his empty right hand while three Rings continued turning. The first link entered his palm beneath the gold-purple Resonance lines already burning toward his shoulder.
He extended Phase Lock from the bounded avatar sample into the metal through physical contact. Ordinary gold along the Chain separated into measurement, command, plus incarnation phases matching the recorded frequency without copying their authority.
[ Phase Lock extension initiated ]
[ Target object: Legendary Chain ]
[ Sampled frequency: Witness Avatar incarnation core ]
[ Authority reproduction: none ]
[ Right shoulder pathway load: increasing ]
Every connected link accepted the same corrected relationship before leaving his hand. The Chain could now meet the avatar’s moving core at its own phase, preventing divine plate from turning every contact into another missed timing window.
"The lock reaches the final link," Aria said, marking one stable circuit across the weapon, "any phase change still requires your manual correction before the Chain can follow it."
The northern procession armor carried the concentrated incarnation core after its last transfer. Coronation plate plus the western shell remained occupied as active escape bodies through Ferra’s half-raised royal pin.
Vella held gold diagnostic mana inside the preservation rail from beyond the sealed servant boundary. Three pulses converged beneath her touch, allowing her to call the exact instant when none crossed between bodies.
"The common pin is quiet between rotations," she said, holding two fingers around the inactive beat, "lift during this interval, Ferra, before the core chooses another branch."
Ferra turned both ceramic wedges by hand while the hierarchy kept her one Wing collapsed. Their divided pressure raised the outer collar without touching the royal blood impression inside the white pin.
The coronation shell tried drawing the core south when the metal shifted. Hajin sent the Phase-Locked Chain around its empty breast cavity, matching the transfer frequency before the concentrated presence could enter.
Links closed across the route without crushing plate or catching an innocent soul. The incarnation core recoiled north, returning into the procession armor while Ferra completed the next fraction of removal.
"Core seated north," Vella said, pressing her thumb over the western branch, "both escape bodies carry active residue, but neither holds the central presence now."
Ferra pulled the common royal pin clear during the next quiet interval. Its white surface left the retaining collar beneath both ceramic wedges, separating all three ceremonial bodies from their shared preservation identity.
[ Common royal ward pin removed ]
[ Armor-network transfer authority: severed ]
[ Incarnation core: fixed inside northern procession shell ]
[ Remaining occupied escape routes: zero ]
[ Residual hostile shells: coronation armor / western ceremonial armor ]
She lowered the pin into a divided ceramic cup before releasing either wedge. Vella maintained physical contact until she confirmed no divine pulse followed the removed metal toward the safe side of the boundary.
Removing the pin did not destroy the governing law or damage the concentrated incarnation core inside its northern vessel. It ended one physical archive permission that had allowed three separate armors to function as a shared body.
The distinction left Hajin with an active avatar instead of three transfer positions. Ferra had isolated mobility through royal hardware, giving Juna plus Loccy two empty hostile shells they could destroy without chasing a moving core.
The room-scale law contracted around the northern armor when its common royal anchor disappeared. Didi retained her royal claimant mark, but Juna plus Loccy’s Wing resistance stopped routing through her three accepted Shards.
[ Royal-rank reassignment through armor network: ended ]
[ Wing-bond movement pressure transferred to Didi: none ]
Juna moved first from beside the coronation display, opening one pale-gold Wing without forcing Didi lower. The empty armor raised both hands through residual instruction despite carrying no incarnation core or mortal soul.
She crossed its reach, placed one claw against the already cracked breastplate, then opened her second Wing through the hollow body. Solar force divided the hostile shell inward without entering the cabinets behind it.
Coronation plate folded around its empty wooden frame before the helm struck nullstone. Juna cut the remaining instruction line above its collar, leaving every broken piece inert inside the former display circle.
Loccy faced the western escape shell with both arms hanging beneath numb shoulders. She opened all three Wings behind her while keeping her feet outside Ferra’s ceramic pin workspace.
The western armor advanced upon Didi through one final residual command across the measured floor. Loccy turned sideways into its path, catching the hollow breastplate between two broad pale-gold spans instead of lifting either hand.
Her Wings closed through the shell from opposing directions, driving it backward into its empty cabinet. Divine joints collapsed around the wooden support while the smooth white-gold face broke beneath the crested helm.
No contribution reward followed either destruction because both shells had lost the hostile incarnation core before Juna plus Loccy struck. Their attacks removed active escape infrastructure without inventing a second avatar kill.
[ Residual escape shell destroyed: coronation armor ]
[ Residual escape shell destroyed: western ceremonial armor ]
[ Remaining avatar vessels: one ]
[ Mortal souls harmed: zero ]
Juna closed her second Wing while keeping the first between Didi plus the northern shell. Loccy left all three open because her arms remained unavailable after Burdenfall, using their pressure to hold broken plate away from Ferra.
The Witness Avatar attempted another transfer through the absent network after both escape bodies fell. Its core struck the absent royal-pin route, returned through the northern breastplate, then became visible as a white-gold distortion beneath the procession armor.
Hajin sent the synchronized Chain from his right hand through that failed transfer timing. Links entered the distortion at matching phase, preventing the incarnation core from withdrawing behind an intact section of divine plate.
Ferra crawled clear with the sealed pin cup while Vella withdrew her gold current from the rail. Didi moved under her own strength toward Juna’s protected side after the reassignment route vanished.
Aria mapped the complete strike corridor from Hajin toward the northern armor. Every guard, councilor, servant, plus noncombatant witness remained beyond the coronation room, while Ferra, Didi, Juna, and Loccy occupied certified positions outside the Chain line.
[ Four-Ring strike corridor: clear ]
[ Civilian or pinned-guard exposure: none ]
[ Armor transfer paths: none ]
[ Incarnation frequency: Phase-Locked ]
Only then did Hajin open his fourth Ring around the burning right forearm. The established circles widened into their fivefold multiplier without restoring mana, healing the pathway burn, or granting another technique.
Four-Ring force entered the Legendary Chain after its frequency remained stable inside Hajin’s burning pathways. Every link tightened through the northern breastplate, pulling the moving core outward while the armor tried folding its divine defenses around the matched metal.
The incarnation distortion became one exposed vertical line between two procession plates. Divine Eye fixed its upper edge beneath the crowned helm, its lower edge behind the sternum, plus the core turning inside that narrow opening.
[ Witness Avatar incarnation core exposed ]
[ Visible seam: forced / Phase-Locked Chain ]
[ Core transfer options: none ]
[ Governing law: active ]
Hajin held the core inside that seam instead of striking before the last position cleared. His right shoulder burned beneath four Rings, but the avatar could no longer change bodies whenever damage reached its shell.
The Witness stopped measuring him through every accepted label after its escape routes disappeared. Every remaining rank thread reversed toward the exposed core, gathering the coronation room plus the archive below into one final answer.