Loccy held the western arch while Ferra removed the First Prince’s concealed lock one fastener at a time and the undercroft responded before the final piece came free.
White-gold figures unfolded from the ceiling, each carrying divine cores inside jointed stone bodies. Demonic extraction hooks rose from floor channels beneath them, creating alternating attacks that punished whichever circulation answered first.
"Divine bodies above, demonic tools below," Hajin said, opening two Rings around his right forearm, "nobody uses a broad counter, and nobody lets the two systems touch a living body."
Juna cut the first construct’s knee with a narrow solar edge before anyone changed position as its falling torso exposed three hooked cables aimed toward her divine signature, but Didi froze their blood-seeking command before they reached her ankles.
Loccy shifted the arch onto one shoulder and kicked a second construct through the sealed door. Rumi saw the opening and lunged after it, but Nari caught her sleeve before she crossed the marked line.
"Marked only," Nari said, repeating Ferra’s instruction with fierce concentration.
Ferra struck the safe mechanism with a wooden-handled hammer as Rumi opened a person-wide fold through the damaged shell, allowing Hajin’s Chain to enter behind its core.
Nari closed the same fold before the demonic hooks could follow him through it. Divine Sever split the occupied mechanism without touching the dormant extraction line.
[Laboratory Defense Destroyed]
[Experience Gained: 96,000]
The system receipt entered a new ledger while more mechanisms woke beyond the breached door. Hajin kept the notification at the edge of his vision and moved through the opening.
The corridor alternated between royal masonry and exposed ancient foundation. Every third arch carried modern nullstone plates engraved with the First Prince’s weak blood signature.
Beneath those plates, golden needles waited inside black demonic housings, forcing hostile energies to depend upon each other. Vella touched nothing while her Spirit senses mapped the circulation.
"The tools are drawing from living cores farther ahead," Vella said, pointing toward three branching lines, "destroy the housings only after Ferra marks the return channels, or the stored pressure enters those bodies."
"You heard her," Hajin said, directing the Chain around another construct’s arms, "we dismantle the room before we win it, even if the room keeps trying to kill us."
The team advanced by measured pieces as Juna removed moving limbs without breaking their cores while Didi froze command lines before every transfer.
Ferra marked safe joints in blue chalk while Rumi opened approaches through the marked shells and Nari erased each retreat before the attacks could redirect toward the patients.
The sisters still stumbled whenever their separate routes required opposing movements. Rumi twice reached backward for a body that no longer shared her spine, while Nari corrected closing angles designed for four legs.
Juna called each safe direction aloud, giving them a human rhythm to replace instincts their new frames could not perform yet. Rumi listened, and Nari repeated the instructions when the corridor geometry changed.
Loccy remained behind until the first arch accepted mundane supports. She then carried two ceiling spans forward at once, walking beneath stone loads that would have crushed the corridor after the awakened defenses withdrew.
Three more constructs died under coordinated cuts, followed by five extraction housings that yielded no experience because their cores were empty. Hajin’s laboratory ledger reached 384,000 before the corridor opened into a preservation room.
Three upright cases stood behind nullstone veils as Aria recorded the result. Each case carried a number instead of a name, plus the lowest number had been scratched away and replaced twice.
The alterations suggested earlier occupants whose remains never reached preservation. Hajin photographed every surface through Aria’s record before the chamber’s defenses received another opportunity to erase them.
Those bodies had been young when the palace sealed them there. Horns curved from one woman’s temples, while another possessed darkened veins around an emptied heart channel.
The third victim retained one horn and an expression frozen by extraction. Didi approached Vella’s raised hand and said, "These are the three he mentioned below, he called them failed subjects, but never used their names."
Vella examined each case through the veil before permitting Ferra to open the outer record compartment while her mana moved no farther than the preservation glass.
"Their bodies did not fail first," Vella said, tracing separated circulation scars with one finger, "someone forced their demonic cores away from their souls until every living pathway tore between them."
Ferra withdrew a stack of waxed laboratory pages whose handwriting began as a royal physician’s precise script, but corrections covered each margin in the First Prince’s narrow hand.
He had ordered stronger separation after every seizure and called survival beyond six hours proof that the method could work. The pages contained no concern for the people inside the cases, only measurements of how long their bodies resisted.
Didi read three pages before her fourth word failed to leave her mouth, and Hajin took the records without concealing their content.
"These go to the public evidence archive after the families are identified," he said, placing the pages inside a warded box, "nobody reduces them to proof against him before recording who they were."
"He signed the final extraction himself," Didi said, pointing toward the last line, "our father gave him no authority here, so there is no royal order to hide behind."
"Then the signature belongs to him," Hajin replied, holding her gaze, "you do not have to carry it because your blood opened the same door."
A strike shook the far wall before Didi could answer. Divine constructs emerged from both side chambers, while demonic chains snapped toward the preserved remains instead of the living team.
"They are destroying evidence," Aria warned inside Hajin’s thoughts.
Hajin opened a third Ring, threw Aegis across all three cases, and watched the first chain strike the golden barrier as black extraction pressure entered his right arm.
His new brace was not yet built, leaving recovered pathways to absorb the incompatible impact. Vella reached for the contract, but Hajin kept her attention on the preserved bodies instead of asking her to spend mana on him.
Juna crossed the chamber in one line and severed four construct wrists. Loccy caught a falling ceiling slab without leaving the arch she supported, while Ferra drove chalked wedges into two demonic housings.
"Blue fixtures are safe," Ferra said, pointing with her hammer, "leave every black collar attached until I identify what they are feeding."
Rumi widened the distance between Hajin plus the first blue fixture while his Chain crossed the chamber without traveling through the dangerous center, wrapped the marked housing, then pulled it from the wall.
Nari closed the route behind the weapon before a divine spear could follow. Didi froze the second fixture’s royal command, while Vella entered its Spirit circulation through the exposed joint.
Vella separated the stolen living residue from the hostile mechanism. Hajin shattered both safe cores with Divine Sever, and Juna destroyed the remaining constructs after their extraction hooks became inert.
The additional destruction added another 612,000 experience to the fixed laboratory ledger. Silence returned around the three cases, although the treatment rhythm beyond the western wall continued without interruption.
[Laboratory Ledger: 996,000 / 2,720,000 EXP]
[Confirmed Victims Recovered: 3]
[Living Signature Ahead: 1]
Vella placed one palm against the wall, closed her eyes, and said, "She heard the fighting, her circulation is trying to hide from us, but it still answers treatment when the room falls quiet."
Didi placed the recovered pages inside a warded evidence box and sealed them under her independent royal signature. Juna positioned herself between the survivor’s wall and the breached corridor.
Any returning mechanism would reach her before touching either room. Rumi and Nari stood beside Ferra’s blue marks, ready to open or close only the routes that had been certified safe.
Hajin stored the Chain and approached the next barrier as the survivor beyond it waited for rescue to hurt, then said, "We open it slowly, giving her a choice about contact before treatment becomes another command."