All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 314: Down the Shaft

Hajin clipped the second retrieval line beneath his left arm while Loccy tested its surface anchor.

Hans carried six rescue wedges, two lamps, and the only marked copy of Lower Third. Juna took no lamp because her eyes plus nose needed fewer lies from the dark.

"One pull means hold, two means give line, three means drag us out," Hans said, checking the knot below Hajin’s shoulder, "anything else gets ignored."

"What if I feel something pulling you down?" Loccy asked, keeping one hand around the anchored line, "three Wings or one?"

"One until the main brace moves," he replied, tapping the route marked behind her, "if that shifts, use whatever keeps the mountain outside the mine."

She accepted the order without enjoying it, planting her hammer beside the first support. The foreman repeated the evacuation count from above, confirming every other miner remained beyond the exterior brace.

Hajin crossed Lower Third behind Juna while Hans paid out their line through each support post. One Ring rotated around his right forearm, supplying a narrow Aegis panel ahead of their feet without pressing against the ceiling.

The mapped work face ended at a descending break where the floor had folded inward. Five lamp hooks remained along the upper wall, but every lamp belonging to Bren’s crew had vanished below.

Juna crouched near the edge, following the rising air through broken supports and untouched ground. Human scent remained beneath them, mixed with lamp oil, blood, and something carrying no breath.

"Four are together," she said, pointing below the north side, "Bren crossed farther east, his blood separates near the draft."

Hans attached their line to the final intact post before setting two rescue wedges across its base. The first held normally, while the second turned sideways after pressure moved beneath the floor.

Three evenly spaced impacts reached them from the lower shaft as he corrected it.

Hajin answered with no hammer, keeping the copied source from receiving another pattern. A weaker sequence followed from the northern pocket, two short strikes plus one dragged scrape.

"That one is human," Hans said, placing the response upon his map, "Bren’s shift used the scrape when somebody could not lift their hammer."

The folded route left a narrow descent along its western edge, though none of the old mine braces continued through it. Juna entered first with both claws against the wall, testing each foothold before letting their line move.

Hajin followed while Aegis covered the gap beneath Hans, preventing one failed step from becoming another missing name. The single Ring maintained its rotation without touching the deeper pressure moving through the hollow.

Halfway down, their retrieval line tightened against the upper edge despite Loccy giving slack from the surface. Every fiber pulled toward a vertical seam along the eastern wall, matching the direction that had crushed Bren’s clasp.

"Hold," Hajin said, giving one signal pull toward Loccy, "something inside the wall is taking the line."

Hans drove one wedge between the rope and seam before it could flatten another section. Pressure closed upon the metal instead, bending its head while the line remained loose behind it.

The wall released after several seconds, leaving the damaged wedge trapped inside a gap too narrow for fingers. Nothing visible moved there, while Divine Eye showed only blank surface plus their own support mana.

"It reacts to crossing weight," Hans said, marking the seam without attempting recovery, "Bren’s people passed together and gave it five bodies to pull."

"It counted my hammer too," he replied, dismissing the forward barrier until they cleared the gap, "mana might be another weight."

The descent opened into a horizontal pocket below every registered mine level. Four lamps burned upon a shelf across a twelve-pace break, revealing four miners pressed behind a fallen support frame.

All four moved when Juna called Bren’s shift code, raising empty hands before approaching the edge. One man supported a wrist against his chest, though nobody carried a wound requiring immediate treatment.

"Lord Hajin?" the nearest miner asked, shielding his lamp from the rising draft, "do not cross the middle, it closes whenever light touches the far wall."

"Where is Bren?" Hajin asked, keeping his Aegis behind the shelf boundary, "tell Hans what moved before you fell."

The floor beneath their work face had opened without breaking, dropping the entire crew through a sloped channel. Bren caught the rear line around one arm, taking the clasp against his leg before pushing the other four toward the shelf.

Something struck from the eastern route after their lamps scattered, though none saw a body. Bren answered it with his hammer, then disappeared beyond the next closing section while dragging his injured leg.

"We heard him twice after that," the miner said, pointing toward a narrow outlet behind Hajin’s side, "then the other knocking started copying every sound he made."

Hans recorded four found alive, one injured and still missing, then sent the count upward through the retrieval line. Loccy answered with one controlled pull, confirming the surface received it without disturbing the braces.

Juna measured the open break from both edges, lowering herself until one claw touched its inner wall. Twelve paces would not test her speed, but the closure had reacted before weight reached the middle.

"I can cross without touching it," she said, watching the opposite shelf instead of Hans, "one Wing carries me beyond the closing point."

"Then it closes behind you with four miners against that frame," he replied, placing his map between her feet and the edge, "speed solves your crossing, not theirs."

The nearest miner backed away when pressure tightened beneath Juna’s lowered claw. She withdrew before the wall moved farther, accepting the route could punish everyone waiting beside her landing point.

"We test it with something that can disappear," Hajin said, shaping a narrow panel behind the miners’ shelf, "nobody crosses until we know which side closes first."

Hajin extended one small Aegis panel across the twelve-pace break, keeping its edge below the miners’ shelf. The same invisible pressure closed from both sides before it reached halfway, compressing the barrier into a line that began dragging his Ring forward.

He released it before the force reached the injured pathways near his shoulder. Both walls stopped immediately, leaving the open break unchanged beneath the stranded miners.

"Four Rings would force more power into the same mouth," he said, watching the blank seam through Divine Eye, "that does not make crossing safer."

Hans fixed two lamp packs plus water to a throw line, letting Juna land them upon the shelf without touching the middle. The miners secured their support frame, then agreed to answer only the dragged human code until the route reopened.

"We find Bren and whatever controls the closure," Hans told them, placing the remaining wedges inside his coat, "stay behind the frame even if his voice calls from somewhere else."

Hajin gave Loccy two pulls for more line before following Juna toward the eastern outlet. Bren’s blood marked its lower edge, continuing beyond a smooth turn no miner had cut.

The passage narrowed until Hans had to carry his map sideways against his chest. Every registered work route ended behind them, while the rising draft carried gold dust toward something deeper.

One weak hammer scrape traveled from ahead, followed by two short impacts against the unseen floor. Juna started toward it before an evenly spaced third knock answered from directly above her.

She stopped beneath the ceiling with both claws raised, staring toward a shape moving beyond their lamp range without touching the passage floor.