The western monument discharged before Didi’s first route captain cleared its surrounding road. White-gold pressure struck the district gates from inside, locking evacuation bars that had been designed to stop an invading army entering the capital.
Hajin reached the nearest intersection with Juna beside him, while Ferra rode behind Loccy carrying three unfinished grounding stakes. One Ring turned around his right wrist as Aegis caught a gate beam before it crossed a line of trapped wagons.
"Move through the service lane behind Juna," he ordered, holding the barrier narrow enough to avoid the copied command from his room, "leave every wagon until the people behind it are counted."
Juna manifested one Wing and cleared the jam without cutting the occupied gatehouse. Her Vanguard blade removed two fallen axles, giving palace route guards enough space to pull families through the lane in groups of twenty.
Another monument reversed along the northern canal before the first road emptied. Defensive chains rose from the bridge supports, blocking both banks while white-gold lines spread toward the healer station built into its eastern tower.
Aria placed all nine districts across Hajin’s view as fresh reports arrived through royal messengers. Three monuments had inverted, two carried partial return pressure, while the remaining four waited beneath active foundation lines.
[ Capital ward state ]
[ Inverted districts: three ]
[ Partial inversion: two ]
[ Dormant under hostile authorization: four ]
"The missing key is testing each path before turning the complete network," Ferra said, driving one stake beside the western marker, "I can ground local pressure after people clear, but occupied wards must remain connected until their evacuation routes finish."
Loccy planted both feet behind the gate beam and caught its next impact through Burdenfall. She stored the recoil without releasing it, keeping the connected road beneath her declared boundary while the last families crossed.
"The gate wants the wagons more than us," she said, with her hammer resting against the ground, "pressure keeps following royal cargo seals, so strip those before moving anything toward another district."
Didi’s order traveled through every route captain before the second discharge landed. Guards cut palace seals from carts, supply chests, plus uniformed courier bags, denying the inverted wards an easy method to classify civilian movement as royal property.
The correction slowed the western gate without stopping the foundation; Ferra installed her first stake after the final child cleared, directing the next beam into an empty guard yard where Aegis dispersed its remaining force; "Western road empty," Didi reported through a frost-marked message plate, "canal bridge holds three hundred twelve residents, and the infirmary route still contains forty-seven patients who cannot walk."
"Keep the bridge connected until Loccy reaches it," Hajin replied, closing his Ring after the grounded ward settled, "send every available carrier toward the infirmary, but leave the healing relay untouched."
The palace shook before Didi could answer, sending white-gold lines across every monument at once. Their directions turned inward together, marking roads, stations, plus bridges as channels pointing toward the royal center.
A pressure larger than the ward network descended from the throne district. The King’s twenty-Shard current caught the combined discharge above the occupied streets, stopping it before defensive force could collapse through the capital.
Gold covered the sky in a fixed dome without striking the foundation below. The King held every inverted current against himself, but doing so anchored his output to the throne and removed any chance of pursuing the missing key personally.
"His Majesty has entered full containment," a royal messenger reported, arriving through Juna’s cleared lane, "the throne circuit cannot move while the district discharge remains attached."
"Then nobody asks him to move," Hajin said, turning toward the canal route, "tell the council he is holding their city while they finish evacuating it."
The group crossed the canal district while route guards transferred patients from the infirmary tower. Loccy planted on the bridge center, receiving pressure from three linked pylons as Ferra marked safe release points beneath the empty waterway.
Hajin opened two Rings only after every stretcher entered the western bank. Aegis held the patient route while Juna removed ward constructs forming along the bridge towers, each empty shell carrying the same observation geometry as the earlier surveyors.
Those constructs did not attack the team, instead turning toward the palace as if awaiting a command. Ferra warned everyone away from their shared line before hammering her second stake into the cleared eastern tower.
The constructs accepted the grounding circuit as another ward instruction, before anyone changed position. Their bodies locked around the stake, allowing Loccy to transfer the bridge recoil through six empty shells and drop them into the canal without damaging either bank.
No EXP appeared because none of the shells had become active enemies. Hajin left them restrained beneath Ferra’s circuit, refusing to convert uncertain constructs into kills while the capital still contained civilians.
"The center is gathering a vessel," Aria warned, enlarging the hidden foundation route, "one human soul entered the inversion point willingly, and every monument is directing authority toward him."
Didi reached the canal bridge with six route captains after clearing the western roads. Blood marked one sleeve where Crowned Frost training had reopened her wrist, but all three Shards remained closed beneath the current operation.
"Which councilor is missing?" Hajin asked, watching her compare the soul signature against the sealed hearing roster.
"Lord Veran," she replied, placing her brother’s authorization ledger beside the active map, "he defended the Sun Emperor evidence hold, challenged my servant records, and vanished from his assigned shelter before the wards reversed."
The name matched custody renewals discovered inside the willing network that had obstructed Hajin for years. Veran’s blood carried no royal authority, yet the missing foundation key could present his invitation through the First Prince’s recognized route.
"He is walking into the western ward center," Aria said, following the soul toward a monument courtyard sealed beneath the palace, "Dominion frequency is entering through his open core instead of replacing it by force."
Hajin sent Juna toward the roof route while Loccy maintained the bridge. Ferra stayed with the grounded pylons, because leaving the local circuit unfinished would release stored recoil through the evacuated infirmary tower.
Didi assigned two captains to every cleared district before joining Hajin at the palace road. She carried neither borrowed prayer nor an order from the King, only her sword plus the authority she had used to move people before the inversion closed.
The hidden courtyard opened through nine white-gold lines when they reached the final intersection. Veran stood inside the ward center wearing council robes stripped of every neutral seal, with both hands placed around the missing foundation key.
"Stop the descent and release the key," Hajin ordered, leaving the Chain stored while Collector’s Grasp examined the willing soul, "you can still walk out before the thing entering you removes that choice."
"Mortality gave me decades of kneeling beneath stronger blood," Veran replied, opening his ordinary core toward the descending frequency, "I have chosen the rank your system of accidents denied me."
The King’s dome pressed downward as Dominion entered the ward center, without crossing the protected line. White-gold armor formed across Veran’s willing body, connecting his open soul to all nine monuments while the missing key turned within his hands.
Every district gate closed again beneath the new avatar’s first breath, as Aria recorded the result. It raised Veran’s face toward Hajin, Didi, plus the retreating route guards while the capital’s inverted defenses waited for a hunting order.