All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 316: Damage Below

The shaft creature dropped between Juna and Bren’s opening with all six bands turning around it.

Juna crossed beneath the first two edges before its pale body reached the floor. Her claws struck one cracked plate, throwing the creature sideways while three bands buried themselves around her landing point.

Hajin opened one Ring around his right forearm and sent the Chain through the remaining gap. Divine Bind caught the lowest band before it could close around Juna’s waist.

The link pulled tight, stopping several hundred pounds of rotating metal without moving Hajin’s right arm. Purple light entered the four grafted fittings as the creature reversed every other band toward him.

Aegis met them from his left hand, turning one cutting approach away from Hans plus Bren. The next two bands curved around the barrier instead of striking it, finding the narrow opening beneath his shoulder.

"It is reading surfaces," Aria warned, marking the changing routes, "every completed rotation adds your last defense to its next approach."

"Then it gets fewer rotations," Hajin replied, pulling the captured band across the creature’s body, "Juna, clear the ceiling."

She opened one pale-gold Wing and kicked away from the wall, carrying herself above its blind head. One solar-edged claw cut through a ceiling grip without touching the white-gold lines beyond it.

The creature lost height as Hajin opened his second Ring, multiplying the Chain’s pull before its remaining bands could spread. Its pale torso struck the outer floor, stopping every orbit around it for one breath.

Hans dragged Bren farther behind the side collapse, using his final rescue wedge to hold the damaged edge. Neither man crossed the chamber threshold while the array brightened beneath the impact.

White-gold light traveled from the creature toward the dark central section, pulling every circle inward. The grafted fittings answered by forcing corrupted purple against that direction, making the outer routes shake beneath Hajin’s feet.

Their retrieval line pulled once through the western passage, carrying Loccy’s hold signal from the surface. A second vibration followed without forming another code, proving the main brace had begun receiving pressure from below.

"The array is reaching the upper supports," Hans said, trapping the line beneath his arm while guarding Bren, "Loccy can hold movement, but every correction travels through the same mountain."

"It is resisting the suppression pressure," Aria said, separating both flows across his sight, "the fittings keep its body outside the array’s inward pull."

The creature drove two bands beneath the Chain, using them together to lift its torso from the floor. Another band copied Hajin’s barrier curve and struck around Aegis toward the Ring rotation feeding it.

He dismissed the panel before contact, catching that edge against his bare left palm instead. Hybrid mana stripped its copied path while the metal cut skin across his hand.

Juna landed upon the creature’s back with her single Wing open, pinning one grafted fitting beneath both claws. Purple heat burned through her palms before she released it, leaving the crystal seated but unable to complete its next pulse.

"Those fittings are carrying the hostile route," she said, retreating from the next band, "the body follows after they light."

"Do not cut them inside the circles," Hans replied, shielding Bren from another falling edge, "anything they carry enters the floor when they break."

Hajin opened his third Ring as the creature spread every band toward separate chamber routes. The new rotation drove enough force through Divine Bind to wrench all six edges backward at once.

Each band held a different surface, making the chamber itself support the creature’s resistance. Three-Ring force tore every grip free together, stripping fragments from the ceiling before bending the metal toward its pale torso.

The Chain stopped moving after Hajin closed his right hand, though six bands continued pulling against it. His feet remained outside every carved circle while the creature lost another pace without taking one from him.

Metal folded around the pale torso, leaving its blind head exposed beneath the Chain. One more pull could drag the complete body across the nearest circle and into the uncut passage behind him.

The fourth Ring waited inside his core without an injury timer, offering another jump beyond what the creature could contest. Aria projected the result across Hajin’s sight before he reached toward it.

[ Four-Ring output projection ]

[ Creature restraint: immediate ]

[ Ancient array response: chamber-wide ]

[ Reactive closures connected to Lower Third: probable activation ]

[ Trapped miner survival: unverified ]

The same increase that would end the fight would enter every inward-facing line beneath the shelf plus Bren. Hajin left the fourth Ring closed, tightening three rotations around his right forearm instead.

"Three," he said, bracing the Chain across both hands, "the mountain does not get the fourth while people are inside it."

The creature’s head snapped toward the dark central section when his decision denied it another pulse. Two grafted fittings discharged into the band Hajin had captured first, burning purple through the metal toward Divine Bind.

He turned the hostile surge into Aegis before it reached his injured pathways. A gold-purple barrier opened around Juna, Hans, and Bren while leaving the creature outside its edge.

That protection cost one pace of restraint, giving the creature room to rotate a broken ceiling grip beneath its own body. The sharpened band entered the nearest carved circle before Hajin could pull it clear.

Purple mana traveled through the white-gold route, reversing one inward line across the chamber wall. Every other circle corrected toward it, forcing pressure through the embedded band and tearing its outer edge away.

The creature sacrificed the trapped metal without hesitation, leaving five rotating bands around its wounded torso. Dark fluid crossed the damaged array as it launched toward the eastern ceiling route.

Hajin pulled with all three Rings, ripping the detached band plus one cracked plate from its body. The remaining creature still escaped his strike line, folding itself through the same narrow passage it had used before.

Juna followed for two steps until Hans struck the floor with his spear shaft once.

"Do not chase through a route copying movement," he ordered, keeping the rescue wedge above Bren, "we have five people behind closures that just changed."

She stopped before the eastern passage tightened around the creature’s final band. Its movement continued upward beyond her sight, leaving blood plus corrupted residue along the ceiling.

Hajin closed Aegis after confirming everyone remained behind its protected edge inside the collapsing chamber. The three Rings stayed active while he lowered the recovered band away from every carved line.

No EXP notice appeared because the creature remained alive somewhere inside the shaft. Its detached metal held one incomplete orbit groove beneath the corrupted coating, giving Aria evidence without resolving what it had been.

The damaged outer circle flashed after the creature disappeared, sending one white-gold correction toward the central section. Another line answered late, then split across the route running beneath Lower Third.

[ Ancient suppression array damaged ]

[ Local correction sequence: failing ]

[ Reactive closures: unstable ]

Bren’s side opening narrowed against Hans’s final wedge while the retrieval line pulled once from above. Loccy remained connected, but the pressure beneath her brace had begun climbing through the mountain.

Hajin wrapped the Chain around the torn band without storing either item, then placed Aegis beneath the cracking outer circle. The array pushed downward through his barrier as something inside its dark center began answering the damage.