A confirmation pulse reached Didi from the sealed western archive as the guards had crossed the foundation boundary, the inner corridor had closed, and no divine current had followed the body.
Didi returned to the throne room under her own authority. Grief remained in the tightness around her eyes, though her Shards turned toward the rising white-gold shell instead of the passage that now held her brother’s remains.
The return crossed the cleared floor in three measured steps as Didi stopped beside Hajin’s protected line, checked the frozen royal remnant around her sword, and gave the sealed archive a final glance without asking anyone to reopen it.
"The archive has the body, and the shell has no claim on what the guards carried beyond the boundary."
Hajin tightened his grip on the Chain. "Then keep the royal remnant away from the hostless core, and let the next movement belong to the battle in front of us."
The hostless incarnation core tore free from the empty space above the throne. White-gold authority climbed through the central foundation, gathering palace stone into a body while demonic extraction current filled its joints.
No mortal heartbeat remained inside the shell. Dominion law replaced the royal blood shield, and fragments of the First Prince’s armor fell away without carrying his voice or consciousness.
Vella checked each nearby fragment through direct Spirit range, and Ferra marked it as avatar material only after the examination found no mortal residue.
"The body remains beyond the sealed archive, and this shell carries no living host or royal heartbeat."
The hostless form measured between sixteen and eighteen Shards of effective pressure. Aria kept the estimate as a range while the true core remained embedded in palace mass, and Hajin treated the lower number as unsafe.
White-gold armor formed in layers around the exposed foundation as the first shoulder carried no human hesitation, and the unfinished face turned toward the nearest living authority before its mouth had finished forming.
"The lower estimate is already stronger than the corpse-bound shell, and the missing heart has removed the hesitation that limited its movement."
Aria kept the upper range hidden behind the active measurement, and Hajin felt the true pressure travel through Loccy’s Worldbearer burden, making the foundation heavier without changing the declared boundary.
Hajin stored both matched Growth blades, and the Legendary Chain entered his right hand from inventory, while Collector’s Grasp remained unavailable and his left hand supported Aegis around the Decree Wound.
The singular transition left no hidden third hand for the emergency. Three Rings rotated around his forearm, Phase Lock suppressed the wound, and Vella’s pressure bandage held the blood outside the decree.
"Bind the unfinished shell before it detaches from the foundation, and the open sky angle will widen once the central mass loses its anchor."
Ferra pointed to the exposed edge with her ceramic gauge, and Hajin threw the Chain as Juna cut one forming Wing away from the intended path, creating a clear opening through the white-gold body.
Legendary links wrapped the shell’s waist and one unfinished arm, and the weapon held Dominion material without accepting the avatar’s rank assignment, though the pressure dragged Hajin’s wounded shoulder toward the throne.
Each link struck a different layer of the shell as the first caught white-gold armor, the second caught demonic extraction current, and the third caught an assignment line trying to turn the Chain into a foundation component.
Hajin’s shoulder opened along the old Decree Wound pressure. Vella’s hand pressed against his ribs, while Phase Lock kept the command from widening along the weapon’s contact.
"The Chain is holding the body, and the avatar is already trying to classify the restraint as part of itself."
"Keep the links unassigned, and let the weapon remain a restraint rather than another piece of the foundation."
The shell pulled upward as Loccy’s throne support groaned, and Ferra placed the mundane collar beneath the anchor before the stone could split into the western archive line.
Loccy anchored the opposite end around a throne support still carried inside Worldbearer. The Chain tore one stone from its base, and Ferra inserted a mundane collar beneath the anchor to distribute the physical tension.
"One physical edge is bound, and the authority core remains hidden inside the foundation mass."
Aria’s report arrived through the Chain, and Hajin opened a fourth Ring only long enough to tighten the links, keeping the shell connected to palace stone while Vella’s Spirit pressure held his ribs.
Ferra ran toward the exposed shoulder with the deformed incarnation pin. Masterwork Network could no longer place it remotely, and the original point had melted during the first seam.
Two shell fragments struck her approach as Hajin turned one with the Chain, Didi froze the other’s royal command, and Ferra knocked the second aside with an ordinary hammer.
The surviving maker mark touched the same shell edge it had marked during the Court breach. Ferra drove the pin sideways into the unfinished shoulder, where the damaged artifact caught instead of opening.
The pin’s melted point cut a shallow groove through the white-gold edge. Ferra’s glove smoked around the handle, and the surviving fixture carried heat into the empty reservoir instead of the archive supports.
"The marker catches one edge, and the shell cannot smooth over this boundary while the Chain keeps its physical tension."
Hajin pulled the links half a turn, and the unfinished arm twisted toward him, exposing a seam where Dominion material met the old foundation language.
"The control point is real, and every completed limb will give the avatar another place to hide the core."
Ferra released the heated metal before the fixture failed, and her forge-light Wing closed around the pin’s handle, preserving the maker mark without reconnecting Masterwork Network to the hostile boundary.
"The pin is seated, and it holds this edge only while the Chain keeps tension across the unfinished body."
Heat traveled through the pin and one surviving fixture, and Ferra closed the link whenever Dominion pressure tried to travel backward, preserving the western archive support at the cost of constant physical monitoring.
The avatar completed its head without a First Prince face beneath the white-gold surface. Dominion entered the hall without a mortal throat, and the assembled voice carried no grief from the sealed archive.
When the new mouth opened toward Didi, no human cadence shaped the first sound, and the roots beneath the throne answered the voice before any royal blood could interpret it.
"The mortal voice is gone, and the foundation now carries only the authority that remains attached to the core."
Didi’s frost tightened around her sword hand. "Then the shell cannot use my brother’s face to make its next command look like a family decision."
"Willing vessel expended, and foundation with challenger receives corrected assignment."
No independent divine viewpoint entered the battle as Hajin knew only the public statement, the measured pressure, and the way the shell pulled against the Chain.
The free arm crossed toward Didi. She remained beside the throne, royal remnant frozen around her sword hand, while Hajin pulled the Chain and turned the unfinished body toward an empty wall.
White-gold force struck the Chain before the arm reached her as the links bowed toward the shell, and Hajin’s feet slid across the protected stone while the Decree Wound pulled at his ribs.
Vella forced Spirit pressure around the torn vessels without healing the command. Didi held her own line, and the King redirected a falling slab into the evacuated sky.
The blade struck evacuated stone as the King redirected falling debris into empty sky, and Ferra kept the shell edge from smoothing over the pin’s maker mark.
Rumi touched the palace mouth of the mountain route. Nari held the distant basin endpoint, yet the two Wings still failed whenever the central mass pressed against the spatial middle.
"The route has direction and a clear destination, but the foundation remains too large for this pair to carry."
"Hold the marks without testing a second transfer, and let the road mature through progression rather than courage."
Juna stayed above the shell with Daybreak Path surrounding the sky escape. Her stored solar route remained uncut, waiting for the avatar to commit its true weight.
Eirwen’s captains confirmed that the western archive held no civilian inside the central foundation. The King moved containment away from the throne as Ferra preserved one measurable shell edge.
The Chain tightened. White-gold pressure entered Hajin’s wounded ribs along the contact, and Phase Lock consumed mana to keep the Decree Wound from widening.
Vella maintained direct touch without feeding healing into the command as Didi held the royal remnant frozen, and Loccy adjusted Worldbearer without moving either planted foot.
The hostless shell pulled upward. Every completed limb exposed another place where Dominion material met the foundation, yet the visible body remained only the portion Aria could measure.
Hajin did not mistake the body for the true core as the Chain held the shell, Ferra held one edge, and Loccy held the structure beneath it.
The avatar turned its head toward the Legendary Chain. White-gold labels ran along the nearest links, trying to convert the weapon’s restraint into assigned property.
The labels reached the third link and stopped without entering a rank or owner into the metal, while the Chain’s refusal held the avatar to the body it was still trying to complete.
Hajin felt the weapon answer through his Ring, and the Chain was not merely pulling against the shell.
It was denying the foundation a legal place to put the hostless authority.
"It can fight the links, and it cannot assign them while the Chain keeps its own status outside the corrected foundation."
The hostless avatar raised its unfinished arm again as Ferra’s pin bent, Loccy’s Worldbearer burden shifted, and the Chain groaned under a pressure that now understood the restraint as its first obstacle.
Hajin felt the first link resist the label, and the Chain’s control was not only a physical bind.
It was the last unassigned rule keeping the hostless avatar from claiming the weapon as part of its corrected foundation.