The Crowned Avatar struck through the opened seam before Ferra’s incarnation pin reached twenty seconds. White-gold force crossed the law toward Hajin’s chest, and Aegis rose with four Rings still turning around his right wrist.
Layered gold stopped the physical blade above his damaged shoulder, and the decree passed through the shield and wrote itself across his ribs, using his resistance as its sentence.
Every layer of Aegis that stopped the weapon gave the Court a clearer definition of challenger. White-gold words sank beneath Hajin’s armor without any edge touching skin.
Blood opened from his left ribs toward the core supporting the Rings. The line widened whenever he remained upright, while dropping the shield would let the blade reach his chest.
The wound changed Hajin’s balance at once. Aegis required his shoulder to stay raised, the half-kneel shortened his reach toward the avatar, and every attempt to shift weight made the white-gold sentence tighten beneath the ribs.
Loccy felt the direction buckle through Worldbearer, and Ferra moved the nearest fixture away from the open seam, while Didi narrowed the royal line so no civilian pressure entered the same command.
"The cut has changed our movement, and I need the shield, the half-kneel, and the Chain route held together without offering the decree another definition."
Hajin kept Aegis raised. Vella’s Spirit bond carried the strain into her own wrist, and the first instinct to heal became a choice she had to refuse.
[Royal Decree Wound]
[Order: The challenger’s cut remains open until the unlawful challenger kneels]
Vella caught the injury through their Spirit bond as her first healing thread touched the torn vessels, and the decree split the tissue wider in response.
"Restorative mana feeds the order, and every attempt to close this cut proves that you are still challenging its condition."
Vella stopped her gold before the wound deepened, and Hajin felt the blood run beneath his armor and lowered one knee without letting it touch the floor.
The cut paused, and a second clause surfaced beneath the white-gold words, classifying kneeling as consent to judgment.
Completing the posture might close the wound while replacing it with permanent Court authority.
"The first movement satisfied the literal command, and the hidden clause would turn full submission into an authority that stays inside your body."
Hajin held the half-kneel. "Then we test neither the final posture nor the promise hidden behind it."
Didi drove silver frost through the royal blood surrounding the decree. The ice slowed one branching sentence without reaching the foreign command, and her fourth Shard shook under the pressure.
"Dominion attached this order directly to Hajin’s flesh, so freezing my brother’s blood can slow the royal road without removing the divine frequency."
The Crowned Avatar pressed harder against Aegis as Hajin’s shoulder burned along the old Ring pathways, and the white-gold blade lowered by a finger’s width before the shield recovered.
Ferra tested the wound through a mundane gauge. Leather, untreated cloth, and a thin masterwork strip all acquired the same command after touching the blood.
She sealed the contaminated samples inside separate ceramic sleeves before any command could reach the table.
"The order turns whatever contacts the blood into part of its mechanism, and every bandage needs a custody seal before it touches him."
The first temporary support pressed against the ribs. White-gold text appeared across the cloth, and pain tore through Hajin’s side when Vella tried to tighten it.
Vella withdrew the support and placed both palms beside the wound. Spirit pressure closed the surrounding vessels without claiming to heal the cut, forcing her own mana through the damaged pathways until her wrists trembled.
"I can hold the vessels shut without repairing the decree, but the pressure will hurt and the measure will fail when my hands leave you."
"Use the painful measure, and preserve enough blood for the movement Ferra’s pin still requires."
Gold clamped the vessels, and the pain sharpened under Hajin’s ribs, though the blood stopped reaching his waist.
Vella’s Spirit mana did not enter the command, and the cut remained visibly open.
Loccy carried the foundation mass through four Wings beneath them, and the release direction Hajin had opened remained unavailable while Court nodes still connected civilians to the outer structure.
Worldbearer shifted under Loccy’s strain as Ferra held civilian supports beyond the changing boundary, Juna kept Daybreak Path around the sky route, and Rumi with Nari maintained the mountain marks without opening a road their paired Wings could not sustain.
The incarnation pin bent inside the seam, and Ferra watched the timer while the Crowned Avatar continued forcing the blade against Aegis.
"Nine seconds remain before the Wedge closes, and the decree stays attached unless another method reaches its source."
Hajin crossed the divine and demonic blades beneath the shield, and his shoulder could not withstand a full Crossed Resonance, so Divine Eye marked one exposed decree strand and guided the right-hand edge into a smaller cut.
The divine blade severed the strand, and the demonic edge consumed regeneration entering the narrow break, yet the primary order remained inside Hajin’s ribs.
The first crossing failed when the damaged shoulder changed the timing. Hajin aborted the movement before the left blade arrived late enough to cut his own pathways.
"The exposed strand is suppressed, and the wound source continues beyond the boundary your blades can reach."
Aria’s report arrived inside his thoughts. White-gold law widened the cut when the failed timing supplied more resistance, and Vella’s hands shook against the vessels.
Phase Lock touched the wound frequency as Hajin’s shoulder pathways failed to complete the circuit, and the decree opened another fraction across his ribs.
Hajin released the attempt before the incomplete sample locked the wrong clause. Kneeling grew stronger in the hidden text, though the command still had not closed the wound.
Vella placed one bare hand directly beside the cut. Neutral Spirit pressure slowed the blood while her gold stayed outside the decree’s edge.
The pressure hurt both of them. Vella’s fingers cramped against the ribs, while Hajin’s breath shortened under the force holding the vessels shut.
She kept the measure in place rather than release it for a cleaner but more dangerous healing attempt.
"I can hold this painful closure for one more exchange, and the party needs the time to decide whether the watch can sample the command."
Hajin felt the order press against the pressure without finding a fresh blood route. The wound did not close, though the body stayed upright long enough for Ferra to recover the clean strip beside the contaminated samples.
"Keep the vessels shut, and let the command show us its limit before Stolen Moment changes only my personal state."
The word inside the ribs returned with every heartbeat. Kneeling remained the literal answer, while the hidden clause waited behind the same order and promised a permanent authority if he completed it.
"This is not ordinary injury carrying foreign residue, and continued opening has become part of the order’s present state."
The observation settled the fight’s priorities. Vella had to keep blood inside the body without healing.
Ferra had to finish the pin before the Wedge closed, and Didi had to hold the royal line without giving the command a second blood address.
Hajin searched his inventory for an artifact governing personal state rather than tissue. Stolen Moment rested against his palm, promising three seconds of personal rewind with a twenty-four-hour cooldown.
Aria displayed the limits once. "The watch restores your body and personal mana to the earlier state, while enemies, positions, Ferra’s timer, Didi’s frost, and the external decree remain unchanged."
The distinction rearranged the party’s priorities. Vella would preserve blood without healing, Ferra would finish the sample before the Wedge closed, and Didi would hold the royal line while Hajin risked a personal reset that could not move anyone else.
"The watch can return my body to a moment before the order reached the core, and the battlefield will keep every threat exactly where it stands."
Aria kept the boundary visible beside the wound as the three seconds offered a sample window, not an escape, and the cooldown would remove the relic for the rest of the fight.
"A personal rewind can close this body for three seconds, and the outside order will still wait where it is."
"The wound returns when the command finds you, and the source remains outside the watch’s boundary."
Blood reached Hajin’s waist before Vella’s pressure stopped it as the child inside Sanctuary received none of the injury, and Vella kept that separate circuit closed rather than letting the decree learn another route.
"No transfer reaches Sanctuary, and the protected bloodline remains outside the order while I hold these vessels."
Ferra recovered every uncontaminated brace fragment as Loccy kept the foundation from shifting into the wound’s opened direction, and Juna held the sky aperture above the battle line.
The pin timer fell from nine seconds to five as Hajin held Aegis, both blades, the half-kneel, and the open cut while the Crowned Avatar searched for a stronger definition of challenger.
Vella asked him to state his awareness before using the watch. Hajin answered without looking away from the blade, keeping the next activation conscious rather than turning panic into an automatic choice.
"I understand the watch restores only my recent body, and I will use it for a sample window rather than call it a cure."
Stolen Moment remained closed as Ferra marked the blade position, Didi held the royal line away from the command, and Vella placed a clean strip beside the wound without touching its edge.
The order spoke beneath Hajin’s ribs, repeating one command through the blood it had claimed: kneel. Hajin kept his half-kneel, felt Vella’s painful pressure tremble, and held the watch ready for the three seconds the wound could not survive on its own.