The First Prince gathered the power expelled from the child’s prison before the evidence crews reached the broken lattice.
Black-red current flowed through the stolen foundation key and entered the weak royal trace beneath his skin.
White-gold Dominion lines descended from the ancient node, offering structure where the Prince’s blood could not sustain the pressure alone.
Every person inside the chamber heard the voice that answered through the key.
"Accept ordered incarnation, and receive the rank denied by defective inheritance," the Dominion God offered, filling the chamber with layered sound.
The Prince stood behind the lowered gallery glass while demonic power twisted around both wrists.
A crown-shaped aperture opened above his head, and the expelled current pulled at his body as though the broken lattice still owned the years it had stored.
Ferra’s gauges showed the black-red pressure came from the extraction lattice rather than the child’s core.
The Sanctuary connection had carried the living structure away, leaving behind years of stored pain converted into usable demonic force.
Didi entered the gallery without manifesting Crowned Frost, keeping four Shards dormant while her brother watched the current gather.
The Prince’s face held the same controlled expression he had worn during the court hearings, yet one hand shook against the foundation key.
"Stop before the union closes, and answer as yourself while the child is alive and the laboratory stands recorded," Didi said, stopping outside the glass.
The Prince looked toward the recovery room beyond the broken gallery.
Loccy remained on the floor beside the child, while the unnamed girl held one piece of bread and kept the open doorway between herself and every approaching adult.
The child moved when a royal clerk stepped too close, crawling behind Loccy’s armored side without looking toward the Prince.
Loccy lowered one shoulder, giving the child the same shelter she had chosen after the Sanctuary connection stabilized.
The Prince watched the movement through the glass, and the white-gold aperture widened above him.
"She chooses another jailer when strength impresses frightened animals, and you will call that freedom while condemning the work that kept her useful," he said, drawing more current into his arms.
Didi’s hand closed around the edge of the gallery rail, yet she did not summon frost or let grief make the choice for him.
"She chose the person who did not touch her horns, and that small decision matters more than your entire theory," Didi replied.
The Prince looked at his sister through the glass while the foundation key pressed a white-gold line into his palm.
"You still think refusal makes a person clean, and the world has already shown you what refusal costs," he said, keeping the key raised.
Didi felt the Underworld claim answer beneath her Shards, yet she held it back from the expelled power.
"I think you can stop before another authority enters your body, and you can face the people your choice will harm," Didi said.
The Dominion voice returned through the aperture, without hiding its promise or disguising the ownership in its structure.
"Take the offered trace, and your royal blood will carry a command no council can remove from the world," the Dominion God said.
The Prince’s gaze moved from the aperture to the recovery room, where the child chose Loccy’s side of the floor and kept her bread in one hand.
The view gave him one clear consequence instead of another courtroom of witnesses.
Didi stepped closer to the glass and lowered her voice.
"You can put the key down, let the expelled current disperse, and face judgment as the brother I still recognize," she told him.
The Prince’s fingers loosened around the key for one breath.
The demonic current faltered, and the aperture narrowed while the chamber’s white-gold lines lost their perfect symmetry.
Didi held her breath without moving toward him, leaving the choice where he could reach it.
The Prince looked back at the child behind Loccy’s armor and saw no gratitude, fear, or recognition directed toward him.
His face tightened when the absence became more important than Didi’s offer.
Didi saw the hesitation leave his eyes before the demonic current answered again.
The foundation key dug into his palm, and the white-gold lines waited without forcing his fingers closed.
"You can still place the key on the floor, and I will stand between you and the court while you face what remains," Didi said.
The Prince glanced at her hand, then at the open corridor where the child stayed behind Loccy.
His answer did not come from the Dominion voice, and Didi recognized the silence as the last space where her brother could choose.
"I will not return to a court that calls my weakness a virtue, and I will not release the only power that answers me," he said, closing his hand around the foundation key.
Didi’s shoulders lowered, and grief crossed her face before the frost could hide it.
"Then you have chosen, and I will remember that choice before I remember what the God makes you do next," she replied.
The Prince pulled the black-red current into his royal trace.
The expelled power entered through his own channels, tearing the skin along both forearms while he held the foundation key toward the aperture.
Didi watched the blood run over his fingers and kept True Bearer from interfering with a choice he was making in full view of the witnesses.
The white-gold voice filled the chamber again, yet no command hid the offer or the price inside it.
The demonic force did not strike him from outside. He opened his own channels and joined the expelled pressure to the weak line in his blood.
White-gold Dominion law entered through the foundation key, wrapping around the new current without erasing the Prince’s decision.
[ Foundation Key: Voluntary Connection Confirmed ]
[ External Authority: Dominion Trace Accepted ]
[ Host Transformation: Crowned Avatar Initiating ]
The aperture collapsed into the Prince’s chest, and the gallery walls shook as a crown-shaped mark burned across his sternum.
Didi stepped back when the pressure reached the rail, keeping Crowned Frost dormant until the new law identified a person instead of a structure.
The Prince’s body rose from the floor as black-red power and white-gold command fused through the royal trace.
Hajin appeared at the retreat entrance with the Chain ready, while Rumi opened the verified route and Nari fixed the known endpoint.
"We protect the record before we fight the law, and his choice remains part of that record," Hajin said, keeping the Chain lowered.
Ferra pulled Breaker’s Lever from the dying prison seam while Juna carried the evidence seals toward the retreat.
Loccy lifted the child first and moved slowly so the girl could keep the blanket around her horns.
Vella followed through the Spirit Ring connection while Rumi and Nari closed opposite routes behind them.
The child pressed herself against Loccy’s armor when the new avatar’s pressure reached the corridor.
Didi remained until the last patient crossed the threshold, then turned toward the figure wearing her brother’s face.
The Crowned Avatar raised one hand, and white-gold law entered every stone above the chamber while the foundation prepared to assign the capital a new hierarchy.
"You chose this with your own hand, and everyone beyond this door will live with the answer," Didi said, holding his gaze.
The avatar’s eyes opened beneath the crown-shaped mark, carrying the Dominion God through a royal body that had accepted the union.
The new presence turned first toward Didi, then toward the retreat where Loccy carried the child away from the gallery.
Rumi’s route line flickered under the pressure, Nari braced the retreat marker, and Ferra locked the Lever inside its case before the chamber could take it back.
The household reacted without confusing the Prince’s decision with the God already speaking through him, and every witness carried the distinction toward the retreat.
Hajin crossed the retreat after Didi without closing the moral distance between the Prince’s wound and his decision.
Aria preserved the spoken acceptance, the voluntary seam, and the absence of possession at the final threshold.
The retreat door closed behind the household while the first white-gold command reached the upper palace.
Loccy carried the child into the quiet recovery room, and Vella remained beside her without touching.
Rumi and Nari marked the retreat in opposite directions, while Ferra placed the Lever inside an insulated case.
Didi kept True Bearer ready and did not use it against the new avatar until the law identified a person rather than a structure.
Hajin looked back once at the gallery and saw that the First Prince had chosen the God freely, while the Crowned Avatar now threatened everyone who had not made that choice.
The retreat sealed the witnesses away from the first command, but the household carried the Prince’s decision into every room that still needed protection.
Didi remained closest to the closed door, while Hajin kept the Chain ready and Vella checked the child without turning the rescue into a victory display.
The new avatar had chosen its god in public, and the household now had to meet a threat whose first power was the consent that created it.