Divine executioners converged behind Juna before she could complete the return line.
They emerged from the final three apertures and landed across occupied roofs, forcing the pylon ring to close through civilians.
Juna remained at 7,400,000 experience with three Wings while only one hundred thousand more was needed for evolution, and the threshold could not save people she had not checked.
Aria said, "Northern roofs still contain eleven people, while the western return line remains clear after the third tower," through Hajin’s shared map.
Juna ran toward the occupied section instead of the final mark. Aria recorded the decision while the nearest executioner dropped through a chimney.
The lower rooms held a family while Juna caught the spear between two Wings, redirected the force above the roofline, and kicked the body toward an empty courtyard.
Vella confirmed a willing core before Juna’s solar cut destroyed it, but the severed body tried to detonate along its original entry route.
Nari fixed the exposed aperture from the street while Rumi borrowed the traveled distance into the empty courtyard. Juna destroyed the core only after the death pressure pointed away from the family.
Three more bodies pursued her along the tiles while their white-gold law attempted to assign her as a weapon, strengthening every attack she made toward the route the Court selected.
Juna closed her solar edge while moving physically, crossed beneath one spear, lifted a child from a broken balcony, then carried him to the ordinary stair.
Local guards waited below while the executioners followed Juna’s chosen movement, leaving the remaining family enough time to descend.
One guard attempted to declare the roof cleared before the child’s mother appeared, but Juna returned through the smoke, found her pinned beneath a beam, and lifted the wood with two Wings.
The premature report entered the correction ledger before the captain gave a second complete count, because the roof could not become a cut point until every name had been verified.
The captain said, "The roof is clear, so you may cut," after checking every person.
Juna turned as her first strike removed two flight lines and the second traveled along a Solar Vanguard afterimage she had physically created.
The cut reached one exposed core beyond the family roof. She destroyed the final body only after it entered the empty courtyard.
Valid contribution experience accumulated through the cleared route while the Court opened six more executioners at the eastern interruptions.
Juna ran the complete marked line rather than teleporting between afterimages. Each roof she crossed confirmed that civilians had left and every stored solar mark still pointed away from occupied structures.
At the river tower, one guard had returned for a dropped medicine bag. Juna stopped the developing cut and carried him down with the bag.
She rebuilt the short segment through physical movement, then the guard apologized for delaying the battle while Juna required him to identify the patient who needed the medicine.
She sent another runner through an unmarked street, and the route resumed only after both people reached the medical shelter.
That delay allowed executioners to surround her above the southern market while three Wings spread around Juna as pale-gold edges.
She released stored cuts only along sections already verified clear, destroying four willing cores without touching the market below.
Two executioners escaped toward the final pylon, and those partial releases removed afterimages from their used sections.
Juna crossed each segment again while pursuing the remaining bodies, restoring the route through actual movement. Daybreak Path had not awakened, so no system preserved cuts she had already spent.
She followed the route on foot across every marked roof while Aria said, "Contribution total is approaching the threshold, but there is no progression until valid kills reconcile."
The first enemy folded into an escape aperture while Nari fixed that exposed exit from the street below, forcing it back onto the roof.
Rumi borrowed the distance it had traveled and returned Juna’s pursuit line behind the second body. Juna cut both cores across separate angles.
[Juna: Ordered Court Contribution: 320,000 EXP]
[Wing 4 Threshold Reached: 7,500,000]
[Carry Progress: 220,000 / 37,500,000]
Pale-gold light opened behind her while the nearby formation held every assigned position, and the evolution began where Solar Vanguard afterimages overlapped the complete physical route.
Light did not descend from the sky or restore her failing balance as it organized movement she had already performed into a structure capable of holding delayed cuts.
The fourth Wing unfolded above the existing three while its surface carried every Solar Vanguard route she had physically crossed and no restored mana entered her exhausted pathways.
The evolution organized the afterimages into a technique while preserving their dependence on movement.
[Technique Acquired: Daybreak Path]
[Function: Store solar cuts along a route physically traveled and release them together after completing the return line]
[Restriction: Allies and civilians inside stored paths are not automatically spared]
Juna landed on one knee while four Wings remained visible, but her spent reserves stayed low and the complete pylon ring still required a return line.
Vella offered stabilization through a temporary treatment connection. Juna accepted enough to stop one torn shoulder pathway, then stood before full recovery.
Occupied roofs still required checking because the Wing breakthrough provided no healing or mana refill beyond the technique itself.
Hajin said, "Do not release, because two southern streets have not reported clear," through the team channel.
Juna said, "I know, and evolution did not finish the map," while closing every stored cut behind her teeth.
She stood and resumed running as Daybreak Path gathered the solar marks without changing their geometry.
At each interruption, Juna checked local captains, roof ledgers, and physical rooms. The technique offered no automatic civilian detection and no exemption for allies standing inside it.
The Court sent no more executioners through the severed apertures, but ordinary pressure collapsed a roof ahead. Juna crossed the ground floor and found two trapped residents.
She carried them beyond the marked line before climbing back while the collapsed section had to be rebuilt across a lower balcony.
Juna informed Aria that the route elevation had changed while Ferra checked whether the later cut would reach a gas lamp store beneath it, then ordered the lamps moved.
Her fourth Wing stabilized the route while the first three carried movement, and the new power made the city-scale cut possible, yet discipline determined whether it became another disaster.
Juna reached the final western tower after sunrise touched the horizon beyond the Court clouds, standing one roof away from completing the return line.
Aria said, "All marked streets report clear except the archive approach, where Loccy and Ferra remain beneath the segment."
Juna held the entire Daybreak Path without releasing it or crossing the protected line while Ferra sent the archive measurements through a protected communication route.
The stored cut passed above Loccy’s bearing column but crossed two masterwork supports still connected to the roof, so those fixtures had to move before the route became clear.
Juna marked her position with ordinary paint and warned every captain that the fourth Wing offered no automatic ally exemption.
One late messenger entered the tower stair, saw the hazard mark, and waited below until the release finished while Juna kept every solar edge stored as the support crew worked.
Four Wings had opened during the run, but the technique still depended on the people standing inside her answer, not on automatic ally protection.
Ferra finally reported both roof fixtures clear while Loccy remained below the release plane, outside its geometry and still carrying the palace section.
The fourth Wing held no automatic protection for those workers, so patience became part of the technique rather than hesitation as Juna prepared to complete the return line.
She counted the remaining people twice through separate reports, then compared both lists against the roof marks. One missing name could place a solar edge through a room that looked empty from above.
The Court wanted her to mistake speed for mastery. Juna kept her feet on the roof, held the stored cuts in their chosen positions, and waited for Ferra’s final signal instead of turning a rescue into a demonstration.
Juna checked the support crew’s names again and kept Daybreak Path stored. One late worker would turn the cleared circuit into the Court’s weapon.