The severed line remained above the hall after Vella cut it from the three petitioners, and its dark center still pointed east.
Hajin watched the line pull toward the outer wall and thought, ’It was cut from the people,’ resting his hand against the doorframe, ’but not from its sender.’
Aria sealed the petition records while Vella stayed beside the ferry worker, who remembered bells, ropes, and shore without remembering the missing interval.
Taren moved the public board inside and told the remaining workers, "The guild keeps receiving petitions, but nobody leaves the gate alone until Juna confirms the road is clear."
Marrick placed one hand on the ledger and replied, "That’s a temporary safety order, not permission to turn the hall into a prison."
The Watcher sat outside with Ash against her side, while Didi kept the Crown seal wrapped and Elina marked the petition as uncertain.
Juna reached the outer wall first, then searched dry grass, siege stones, plus an unused patrol road beyond the ditch.
Juna crouched beside the marker and said, "Nothing living is moving beyond the ditch, but the thread crosses the wall without touching the stone."
Hajin arrived with the group, while Didi remained inside beside the Watcher and Ash.
Ferra set a copper pin into the dirt and replied, "It may be measuring the town, the socket, or the people who repeated its sentence, so we need the body outside the wall."
Vella touched the air beneath the thread and said, "It carries stolen mana from their memories, but the petitioners aren’t feeding it anymore."
Loccy raised four Wings close to her shoulders and answered, "Then we cut it before it finds another source, because I don’t want a second mouth in the town."
Aria lifted pale light toward the thread and replied, "Cut it after we identify the anchor, because scattering the line could spread it through every road around the Sixth."
Hajin looked across the empty field and asked, "Can the body form there without civilians giving it a reason to stay?"
Aria adjusted the light and answered, "The line chose old siege pressure with no living population, so the location appears deliberate."
The Watcher rose inside the gate when Ash reached for her hand, but Hajin held up one palm before she crossed the wall.
Hajin said, "Stay with Ash, because if the line is surveying the town, your history may give it the shape it wants."
The Watcher kept Ash’s hand in hers and replied, "Then make the body speak before it learns the child’s name, because distance is his only shield."
Across the old siege road, the thread descended, and dry grass bent toward its center while stolen mana gathered into a torso without skin.
Six mouths opened around a hollow face, each at a different angle, though one throat supplied the voice that came from all of them.
Aria’s light struck the forming core and reported, "The body is a foreign Concord construct with a divine core, but it contains no human soul."
Ferra pulled three pins from her case and said, "Its feet aren’t stable, so bind the road rather than the shell, because the ground is carrying its weight."
Hajin opened the first Ring, and Aegis locked across the ditch without touching the gate or the people behind it.
All six mouths turned toward the wall and said, "The last wall has heard him," using one voice that carried a different breath each time.
Juna moved along the inner ditch and replied, "You’re outside the wall, so you haven’t heard anyone who chose to speak to you."
One hand extended, carrying stolen memory across the field as a narrow line with a bell, bridge pressure, and a wheel scraping dirt.
Hajin opened a second Ring and caught the line against Aegis before it reached Juna’s shoulder.
Hajin thought, ’It isn’t copying events,’ feeling the pressure move through the barrier, ’it carries the pieces people couldn’t remember as if their gaps belong to it.’
Vella pressed one palm to the ditch and said, "The memory wraps the Concord frequency, but the foreign core remains outside the records."
Hajin opened the third Ring and replied, "Then we separate the core from the evidence, because cutting the memory would punish the people it used."
The torso split its arms into six narrow cables, drove them into the dry road, and opened another mouth at every cable’s end.
Loccy raised four Wings and used Worldbearer to pin the nearest road section before the cables could reach the wall.
Loccy braced both feet and said, "The ground is carrying the shell, so I’ll make it stop agreeing with the thing above it."
Ferra drove the three pins into the road, then placed a fourth between them and called, "The route is held, but the frequency will leave when the shell breaks."
Hajin opened the fourth Ring, and the six mouths turned toward him while the body folded old siege stones into one straight line.
Juna cut the first stone from the gate road and warned, "The field is clear, but the answer is turning old defenses into speakers."
Hajin opened the fifth Ring and felt the Concord frequency touch the edge of his tattoo paths.
Aria sharpened her light across the hollow face and said, "The divine core sits behind the left shoulder cavity, while the shell uses stolen mana to hide it."
The six cables struck as Hajin opened the sixth Ring, stepped into the first impact, and caught the Chain’s wrapped handle in his right hand.
Hajin thought, ’The Chain doesn’t need to look divine,’ letting it cross the stolen memories, ’it only needs to hold what believes distance is ownership.’
He threw the Chain across the cables, and the links passed through the memories without cutting them before wrapping the left shoulder cavity.
The body pulled against the Chain, dragging two siege stones while Loccy held the road and Ferra’s pins held the route.
Juna severed the remaining cables before they could reach the wall, while Vella kept one palm against the ditch.
Vella said, "The petitioners’ memories are clear of the Chain, but the core is retreating through the shared line toward the open gate."
Hajin tightened the Chain and answered, "Then the line ends here, because it won’t use the town as its second body."
The six Rings turned together without Crossed Resonance, and Hajin pulled the divine core through the collapsing shell.
The body fell into dry mana, while the Chain tightened around the exposed core and Divine Sever cut the Concord frequency at its center.
Aria’s light crossed the field and returned with a system record:
[Divine core destroyed, foreign survey body defeated, valid hostile reward reconciled: 12,000,000 EXP]
[EXP: 262,000,000 / 1,000,000,000]
The record vanished without changing Hajin’s Rings, healing the tattoo paths, or restoring his spent reserve.
The six mouths opened once more and said, "Unbound custodian," before the words carried Ash’s description without his voice.
The Watcher pulled Ash behind her, but the child formed no halo, reached toward no route, and gave the mouths nothing else.
Hajin closed the sixth Ring, then the fifth, while Loccy lowered four Wings with shaking shoulders and Ferra collected the pins.
Juna looked across the empty field and said, "It found the household, but it didn’t find the town, so the next body may come closer."
Hajin faced the eastern road and replied, "Then we learn what followed this line before it finds another group that thinks paperwork is safe."
Behind him, Taren’s board remained posted, while the petitioners’ records stayed sealed beyond the foreign voice.