The First Prince attacked through the treatment equipment while the child slept. Four extraction housings detached from the prison wall and unfolded into jointed divine bodies.
Demonic hooks remained connected to their spines and fed each movement through the child’s forced circulation. Two constructs targeted Didi’s royal signature, while the others turned their blades toward the needles beneath the child’s heart.
"Only Ferra’s marks," Hajin said as two Rings opened around his right forearm, "breaking the wrong shell sends recoil through her, so nobody follows a target until its safe joint is named."
Ferra struck safe joints with blue chalk while Loccy placed herself between the constructs and the prison. Juna removed the first arm that struck with one solar cut, then redirected the falling blade away from the nullstone opening.
Didi froze both commands aimed at her blood, but the silver-gold interruption lasted less than a breath before the stolen foundation key rewrote their authorization.
Rumi opened an amber-edged plane through the nearest construct while her person-wide route entered behind its marked shoulder joint, then offered an approach that avoided three dangerous housings.
She tried to cross and stumbled because her new legs pushed with the feline timing of a leap. Nari caught her around the waist before she entered sideways.
"Together," Nari said, setting her sister upright.
The second construct moved to close Rumi’s route from within. Nari spread her smoke-gold Wing and folded its retreat behind the exposed joint.
The two spatial actions met like jaws around a single piece of prey. Rumi entered through the opening while Nari remained outside the closing edge.
For the first time since conversion, their bodies occupied opposite sides of the same hunt, and their linked sense carried position without requiring shared movement as Rumi tore the blue-marked housing free with both claws.
Nari closed the route before the severed divine arm could follow her sister back. The trapped mechanism crushed inward, safely separated from every black extraction line.
[Rumi - Active Mechanism Destroyed]
[Contribution Experience: 72,000]
As the remaining constructs changed formation, one attacked Loccy with divine pressure while its demonic hooks sought the child’s core around her guard.
Loccy caught the physical body by its waist and held it above the dangerous cables, giving Ferra enough time to mark the lower spine.
The construct increased its apparent weight until foundation stones cracked beneath Loccy’s boots. She lowered her center without shifting the body closer to the prison, so extra force traveled into a mundane support Ferra had prepared.
When the demonic hooks changed direction, Vella identified their living current and Didi froze only the command attached to it.
Hajin looped the Legendary Chain around the remaining divine arm and pulled sideways while the construct resisted, exposing its black collars without forcing Loccy to release the weight she carried.
"Blue collar beneath the third plate," Ferra said, striking the safe location, "everything below remains connected."
Juna cut through the marked collar as Didi froze the release command before the severed body could detonate, and Hajin’s Chain pulled the inert upper shell away.
The sisters followed the final pair into the side corridor while their separate legs still misjudged turns, then hunting intent organized the unfamiliar bodies.
Rumi opened a short route through one divine shield while Nari refused that obvious target and closed the second construct’s retreat instead, forcing both mechanisms into one bounded angle.
The first mechanism attempted to divide their attention by sending identical shells toward opposite walls, but their linked sense recognized different pressure behind each copy.
Rumi followed the route that carried movement, while Nari watched the empty shell until its false retreat exposed the controlling joint.
They crossed past each other without colliding, and separate bodies completed movements their old hunt once performed through instinct alone.
"Now," Nari said, fixing the closing plane.
Rumi crossed through the first shield, struck the blue mark behind the second core, and used its collapsing body to block the first. Nari folded both exposed mechanisms together after Ferra’s remote gauges confirmed every living line had withdrawn.
The amber and smoke-gold planes intersected without merging, with each sister controlling one side while neither action completed unless the other maintained position, so the two active mechanisms shattered between them.
[Rumi - Operation Contribution Reconciled]
[Experience Gained: 180,000]
[Wing 1 Threshold Reached: 30,000]
[Carry Progress: 150,000 / 300,000]
[Nari - Operation Contribution Reconciled]
[Experience Gained: 180,000]
[Wing 1 Threshold Reached: 30,000]
[Carry Progress: 150,000 / 300,000]
Light unfolded behind Rumi first as an amber-edged spatial plane angled outward from her back, thin enough to resemble a transparent wing without feathers.
Nari’s answering plane appeared behind her in smoke-gold and formed a closed surface that refused passage, while the separate Wings reflected two related hunters rather than one soul divided across bodies.
Rumi twisted to inspect her manifestation and nearly walked into the wall. Nari caught her sleeve, then her attention shifted when her inward plane reflected the corridor behind them without showing either sister.
"Wing," Rumi said, reaching backward without touching the amber edge.
"Mine," Nari said, studying the different fold behind herself.
"Both yours," Hajin said as he closed his Rings after the final hostile current faded, "different Wings, earned during the same hunt."
The child had awakened during the fight and pressed both hands over her ears, yet her eyes followed the sisters as they returned through the corridor.
When Rumi spread her plane, the child flinched at the open distance. Rumi dismissed it immediately and lowered her hands where the girl could see them.
Loccy lowered herself outside the prison, so the battle’s end was clear without moving closer. Juna gathered every severed blade and placed them beyond the child’s view.
Ferra covered the broken housings with plain cloth and removed the shapes the Prince had used to threaten the child’s circulation. The child slowly uncovered one ear and watched both manifestations disappear.
Nari closed her Wing and sat outside the prison beside her sister. Vella inspected the extraction lattice without sending treatment into it.
The active mechanisms died only after their connected currents withdrew, leaving every needle in its original position, and the child’s circulation showed no new seizure.
"The array remains unchanged," Vella said as she checked the twelve-count, "they killed its weapons without making her absorb the result."
Ferra gathered the broken blue housings for later study, each carrying the Prince’s recent alterations and fragments of the Dominion seam exposed during Hajin’s failed attempt.
"These pieces opened because their bodies moved away from the prison," Ferra said as she arranged them separately, "the hidden seam is routed deeper than this chamber."
Aria traced that route beneath the foundation as a blood-authorized corridor continued west and carried the child’s full prison toward an unknown destination.
Rumi felt the direction through her new Wing and pointed into the wall as she said, "Road moving, not us, room," with her amber eyes narrowed.
Nari placed one claw against the same surface and said, "Door waits to close."
Hajin looked toward the child as the Prince prepared to move the cage around her, while the sisters remembered how to hunt through two bodies and their next prey tried to steal the ground beneath them.
Ferra tightened every brace around the chamber before that movement could carry supporting walls with it and said, "We are no longer defending a room, but defending the route that keeps the survivor from being moved."
The distinction changed every position in the corridor as Loccy braced the arches instead of pursuing the next mechanism.
Juna watched the ceiling for a fold that moved, and Didi kept her frost close to the royal channel without freezing the child through it.
Rumi and Nari stood on opposite sides of the sealed wall, ready to use either Wing only when the route showed where the prison intended to go.
Hajin kept the Chain stored, because the next attack might be the room itself.