All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 318: The Mountain Speaks Twice

The buried circle completed its first turn, sending pressure through every Aegis section at once.

Hajin’s western panel dropped toward the four trapped miners while the eastern section pressed against Bren’s narrowing opening. The smallest barrier remained beneath the damaged circle, carrying its broken route away from both groups.

Three Rings accelerated around his right forearm when another orbital line joined beneath the mine. White-gold symbols crossed his barriers again, but the designation link remained closed after Ash’s answer.

"It is writing the same shapes," Juna said, pressing both claws beneath the western panel, "Ash did not stop it."

"He answered one transmission," Aria replied, placing both records across Hajin’s sight, "the local structure has started another."

The first sequence began inside the damaged circle before folding toward the chamber’s dark center. Ash’s returning symbol had entered from outside that pattern, closed one empty orbit, then vanished without joining the next message.

[ Communication sources separated ]

[ Local source: damaged suppression node ]

[ Remote response: unknown designation - Ash ]

[ Remote designation link: inactive ]

[ Current transmission: local ]

Hajin checked the registry markers before allowing the system to close them. Ash remained beside Lana beneath six guards, showing no external halo or new geometry after his single response.

"Keep that record shut unless he moves," Hajin said, shifting the central Aegis section away from another crack, "I need the mountain in front of me."

"Gladly," Aria replied, removing every registry pane, "one impossible structure at a time would be considerate."

The damaged node ignored her preference, carving its second sequence farther across Aegis. Each symbol turned the barrier into part of the inward-facing route, causing more pressure to gather wherever Hajin gave it a complete surface.

Hans watched the rescue wedge bend above Bren’s trapped leg, then struck his spear shaft against the eastern panel. The impact marked a section where the array had written no symbol because the barrier kept moving beneath it.

"It needs the surface to stay still," he called, dragging his spear along the protected edge, "keep changing the face before it finishes a circle."

Hajin divided the central panel into six narrow ribs, rotating each section without changing the load they carried. The next symbol crossed two ribs before their angles separated, breaking its route before it could fold inward.

Pressure left that section immediately, entering the chamber floor instead of the trapped openings. A new crack traveled toward the empty eastern ceiling passage where the wounded creature had escaped.

Juna lifted her claws from the western barrier as its surface broke into moving ribs beneath her. Her closed Wing stayed beneath the skin while she followed their rotation by shifting her weight between separate sections.

"The miners cannot walk on this," she said, testing the narrow gaps with one foot, "their frame will catch when the ribs turn."

"They are not walking yet," Hans replied, keeping Bren’s wedge beneath his spear, "first we stop the shelf from becoming part of the message."

Hajin sent four ribs beneath the route leading toward Lower Third, preventing any complete symbol from crossing the isolated shelf. The remaining two held Bren’s opening while Hans moved the bent rescue wedge away from his injured leg.

Bren released one strained breath beyond the collapse, refusing to pull against the stone around his knee. His hand entered the gap, passing Hans a severed strap from his work harness.

"Tie me above the joint," he said, keeping his voice below the array’s repeated interval, "if that support shifts, do not let the leg take me with it."

Hans threaded the strap through his rescue line without pretending the extraction could begin. Moving Bren would remove the body currently marking which stone had pinned him, while the route beyond remained narrower than his shoulders.

The second buried orbit gained speed as Hajin’s moving barriers denied it another complete surface. Its pressure traveled upward instead, reaching Loccy’s main brace through the secured retrieval line.

Two pulls returned from the surface before a third stopped halfway through its length. Loccy had caught the new load, but the main line remained stretched beneath her hold without completing their safe-withdrawal code.

"She has the brace," Juna said, placing her palm against the strained rope, "the line is not climbing or dropping."

"That gives us a direction, not time," Hans replied, fixing Bren’s strap above the wedge, "we still have four workers behind the western closure."

Divine Eye followed the load from Loccy’s brace through the broken mine supports. The original descent remained open above them, though two reactive closures had narrowed along the return route since the creature damaged the array.

Both closures carried unfinished symbols across their inner surfaces, copying the node’s second transmission without producing their own language. Their pressure would increase if Hajin fed another stable output through the chamber.

Ring 4 remained available beneath his three active rotations, offering force the closures could turn into more writing. Hajin left it inside his core before Aria needed to project another casualty estimate.

"No fourth," he said, closing his fingers around the Chain, "show me what changes if I remove the third."

Aria reduced his projected output while preserving the six moving Aegis ribs. Two Rings could maintain their rotation if Loccy continued carrying the upper brace, but the damaged circle would lose its smallest supporting section.

"The local node drops farther," she warned, marking the empty center beneath them, "the western route gains a walkable surface for eleven seconds between corrections."

"Eleven seconds does not clear four people," Juna said, looking toward the isolated shelf, "the last one steps onto empty air when the path separates."

"Then we make the interval repeat," Hajin replied, releasing the third Ring, "Hans, count the writing instead of the impacts."

The outer halo closed around his forearm, lowering the force entering every ancient route. One rib vanished beneath the damaged circle, allowing its edge to sink toward the dark center without reaching Bren’s side opening.

Hans ignored the movement and tracked each white-gold symbol as it crossed the remaining five ribs. The sequence used nine shapes before returning to the same incomplete orbit, giving them a fixed correction interval beneath the changing pressure.

Hajin shifted the five ribs on the ninth shape, laying three together across the western break. Their edges joined into one walkable panel after the array had already committed its writing elsewhere.

The route held for eleven seconds before separating, then returned on the next ninth symbol without accepting another line. Juna crossed during the second interval, reaching the isolated shelf before its support frame could catch between panels.

Four miners waited behind their brace with the supplies Hajin sent earlier. One held his injured wrist between two splints, while the others had secured themselves to the frame as Hans ordered.

"We are leaving on the next opening," Juna told them, checking every harness herself, "if you miss it, you wait for me instead of stepping after the barrier."

She moved the two unhurt workers nearest the frame into the first positions, then clipped the injured miner behind them. The final man received the supply rope, giving him something separate from the moving barrier to hold. Each order followed Hans’s existing rescue marks, preventing fear from changing the crossing sequence.

"Your wrist crosses third, after Hajin catches both men ahead of you," she said, tightening the injured worker’s shoulder strap, "you keep that hand against your chest until I place you on solid floor."

The miner tested his good hand against the rope while Juna pulled his harness from three directions. Nothing shifted along the splints, allowing her to mark his chest strap with one claw. She repeated the same check upon the final worker before turning back toward Hajin’s moving ribs.

Across the break, Hans changed his count into hand signals whenever the mountain covered his voice. Hajin answered each ninth shape by tilting the joined panel toward the shelf, showing Juna where its level edge would form. Their improvised code cost another complete sequence, but every trapped worker understood the route before anyone stepped onto it.

The miner with the bound wrist watched Hajin hold the route with two Rings, leaving the fourth closed. He tightened his chest strap with his working hand, refusing to ask Hajin for more power.

Another transmission began inside the damaged node as the western route separated beneath Juna. Aria compared it against the first local sequence, matching every shape while the registry designation remained inactive.

[ Second local transmission confirmed ]

[ Remote response count: one ]

[ Unknown designation location: registry - unchanged ]

[ Rescue interval: eleven seconds ]

Hajin rebuilt the western path on the ninth symbol, holding two Rings steady as Juna brought the first miner toward him. Beneath their moving barrier, the mountain started the same untranslated sentence again.