The Crowned Avatar turned the entire throne foundation into a falling weapon.
Connected stone rose beneath the palace and drove downward toward the approach, aiming its impact through royal channels into the King.
Twelve connected Shards strained behind the throne while the remaining eight protected outer districts from the returning discharge, making the palace itself the weight in the hostage circuit.
Ferra’s boundary map revealed three civilian walls still touching the central mass through old service bridges. Juna inspected each bridge from above and found them empty.
She severed all three before Loccy declared her burden, so western shelters remained outside Worldbearer while Loccy walked beneath the central supports.
Four Wings manifested behind her, and Ferra said while tracing the boundary through Masterwork Network, "Declare only the avatar-occupied structure, with civilian walls and the western archive remaining outside."
Loccy placed both hands against the lowest throne column and said, "I carry the connected foundation occupied by the Crowned Avatar, and nothing beyond the marked palace structure enters Worldbearer."
Four bearing planes spread behind her as the descending mass stopped before its impact reached the King.
Weight traveled through Loccy’s arms, shoulders, spine, and Wings, cracking the stones beneath her feet. The throne foundation remained lifted across every connected hall the avatar occupied.
Royal statues, empty galleries, and foundation machinery entered the declared structure. Loose furnishings did not, falling through rooms Loccy held and breaking against the floors.
Ferra marked those independent hazards for anyone entering later. Loccy could not move or attack while carrying the structure.
"Worldbearer stable," Aria said inside Hajin’s thoughts, "but release direction unavailable because premature release returns the entire impact through the current supports."
The mountain road remained marked but unable to carry the mass through Rumi and Nari’s two Wings. Hajin had to open a safe direction through the Ordered Court before Loccy could let go.
Executioners attacked from both sides while Juna took the upper approach, preserving the sky route plan and using ordinary solar cuts below it.
Hajin guarded the throne steps with the Legendary Chain, keeping every impact away from Loccy’s declared structure while one executioner deliberately struck the carried foundation and tried to route the attack through Worldbearer.
Hajin intercepted with Aegis before contact and let the force break an empty stair outside Loccy’s declaration.
Vella confirmed the attacker’s willing core. Juna removed its flight line, and Hajin finished the body without letting the death pressure enter Loccy’s burden.
Vella touched Loccy’s left forearm and slowed internal bleeding while her lost demonic range prevented remote treatment across all four Wings.
She moved physically between accessible injuries without entering Worldbearer’s core and said, "Both arms remain intact, but the load is reopening earlier fractures faster than I can close them."
"Stabilize only," Loccy said through clenched teeth, "because healing that resets nothing wastes both of us."
Ferra installed the finite supports preserved after the western section. They carried small portions of ordinary stone but could not assume the avatar-occupied mass.
Masterwork Network kept heat away from Loccy’s contact points and monitored changes in the declared boundary. When the avatar detached one empty tower, Ferra signaled before the load shifted.
Juna cut the final physical bridge, removing the tower from Worldbearer without dropping it into an occupied district. The Crowned Avatar increased foundation pressure through the First Prince’s blood.
Loccy’s four Wings widened until their edges touched separate throne supports while the ability multiplied her capacity to bear connected mass but supplied no independent shield.
Hajin maintained Aegis around exposed joints while Vella treated fractures through direct contact, and the King caught redirected discharge across twelve Shards.
He prevented it from reaching evacuated districts, but he could not attack while Loccy and civilians remained inside the same hostage circuit.
"Break the Court boundary," the King said through the royal line, "and do not release this structure into me."
Didi approached the blood shield alone while True Bearer denied assignment as subject and opened the first protected pace without allowing Hajin to follow yet.
Rumi and Nari guarded the mountain marks while Rumi tested the palace endpoint with one amber Wing as Nari maintained the distant basin through their paired sense.
Neither opened a mass road before their progression allowed it, and Rumi kept one claw against the stone before saying, "Direction exists, but the road still breaks."
"Hold marks, not mass," Hajin said, "because Loccy carries until we open the law."
Three executioners reached the support column, so Hajin stored the Chain and used Collector’s Grasp to identify their willing cores.
He retrieved the weapon and pulled them beyond the declared boundary. The inventory sequence cost several heartbeats because no artifact existed in two places at once.
Juna blocked the column during that transition and kept her solar edges away from the palace stone. Ferra called each safe attack angle from the network map.
Juna cut their flight routes, Ferra marked empty joints, and Hajin destroyed the hostile bodies without striking the foundation Loccy held.
Valid kills entered the Ordered Court ledger, and Worldbearer granted Loccy no experience for carrying inert mass while the throne hall tilted above them.
The King shifted two released Shards beneath his dais and supported his own seat without relieving Loccy’s declared mass.
Their powers met along a narrow boundary but did not combine into one skill. That coordination kept the hostage circuit from turning his survival into extra weight she carried.
Loccy adjusted one hand by the width of a finger, shifting thousands of tons across four bearing planes and breaking a stress line along her right arm.
Vella braced the fracture through physical touch and warned that release would still carry the accumulated cost.
"I know," Loccy said, keeping her gaze on the support column, "so count civilians, not my bones."
Eirwen confirmed that the palace structure held no civilians after the final archive evacuation while the King and Crowned Avatar remained inside the connected mass with fighters who entered by choice.
She reconfirmed the mountain basin through returning riders while both passes remained closed, trappers stayed beyond the expanded boundary, and headwater markers showed no new flow.
The safe direction remained valid for later release, and Aria said, "Occupied boundary confirmed, and Worldbearer excludes every evacuated district wall."
The distinction prepared the structure to become a weapon later, but Loccy could not choose a direction through intact Court law. She held the burden away from the King and everyone outside the palace.
Hajin looked toward Didi’s advancing frost line, Juna’s unspent sky route, Ferra’s finite pin, and the two unopened mountain marks.
Eirwen’s final rider report confirmed both mountain passes remained closed and the expanded basin held no people, so the safe destination existed while the road remained unfinished.
Ferra placed strain markers along Loccy’s arms and Wings while every additional fracture would remain after release, giving Vella an exact treatment map instead of a heroic assumption.
The King moved no free Shard toward the visible avatar while his blood still linked that attack to the city, and he kept holding what Loccy could not safely receive.
Loccy carried the throne’s foundation until every other specialist made a safe release physically possible. Vella renewed the external splints at the next fracture marker.
She used direct touch while avoiding the foundation’s hostile circuit. Ferra confirmed that the central mass stayed separated from every occupied wall.
Eirwen’s captains recorded the boundary before leaving the palace approaches. No evolution or receipt reduced the weight entering Loccy’s already fractured arms.
The foundation remained suspended, waiting for the six locks to open one by one.
Loccy could feel every crack as a separate answer inside her body. She kept the boundary exact, because widening it would make the palace easier to carry only by making more people part of the burden.
Hajin recorded that choice beside the strain markers while Worldbearer held a structure, but Loccy was still the person paying for every ton that stayed above the throne steps.