All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 320: A Rune Built to Refuse

The evacuation continued around Hajin while Hans finished fastening the closure board across the lower lift. Two miners carried Bren toward the treatment cart, keeping his splinted leg above every rut in the approach.

Loccy remained beside the upper wheel with both hands around the slack cable. The second pulse had ended below them, though smaller movements still traveled through the broken guide.

Hajin closed his two Rings after Aegis stopped receiving pressure from the sealed shaft. The Legendary Chain stayed around his right hand, holding the detached band plus cracked plate against his palm.

Ferra arrived through the workers leaving the ore yard, carrying a forge case beneath one arm. Her single Wing turned above her shoulder, keeping six inspection tools suspended away from passing bodies.

"Bren has a trapped-leg injury, and another worker needs his wrist reset," Hans reported, meeting her beside the gold line, "five recovered, nobody remains below."

"Then the healers get the people before I get the metal," Ferra replied, stepping aside for Bren’s cart, "where did the lower guide break?"

Hans showed her the bent upper wheel, the snapped cable, then the sealed entrance beneath both. She examined the quarantine pin without touching it, following each scrape until her eyes reached Hajin’s closed fist.

"You carried something out," she said, setting her forge case upon an empty sorting table, "put it here without dismissing the Chain."

Hajin crossed the cleared approach while Juna followed the corrupted scent around his sleeve. He lowered the wrapped evidence onto the table, keeping one Chain link around his wrist until Ferra fixed three clamps beside it.

"The creature lost one rotating band and this plate while escaping," Hajin said, opening the links between them, "four similar fittings carried corrupted Shard mana through its body."

One suspended gauge stopped above the Chain where dark residue marked its contact with the band. Ferra followed that stain across three links, preserving their order before allowing Hajin to loosen another section.

"Did you release the Chain or store either piece during the withdrawal?" she asked, fixing a narrow clamp beside the darkest mark.

"Neither left my hand," he replied, keeping the final link around his wrist, "the array reacted whenever the band approached a complete circle."

"Good," she said, marking the band face that had rested against his palm, "these contact scars still show which direction received pressure."

Juna identified the same inward face by scent, separating corrupted residue from the cleaner route underneath. Ferra recorded both directions before moving any fragment beyond the Chain’s original hold.

"This plate carried some of it," Aria added, projecting the recorded circulation above the table, "the band beneath it belonged to an older orbital structure."

Ferra caught the cracked plate between bare scaled fingers, turning its broken edge toward the afternoon light. Purple residue occupied two drilled channels, while rough fastening scars crossed the metal underneath.

"The plate was added later," she said, placing it beyond the first clamp, "whoever fitted it cut through an existing gap instead of making a seat."

The detached band required both remaining clamps before Ferra released the Chain from its outer edge. She cleaned one incomplete orbit groove with a bronze pick, exposing shallow recesses spaced beneath the corrupted coating.

Juna leaned closer without opening her Wing, following the mine’s white-gold scent through each recess. Every cavity ended before reaching the band thickness, leaving carefully shaped empty sections inside the metal.

"Those holes smell cleaner than the surface," she said, keeping her claws above the table, "the corruption crossed them, but it did not settle there."

Ferra rotated her forge-light Wing until two gauges settled across opposite recesses. Their measurements matched despite the damage, proving the empty sections had been cut before the band ever broke.

"They are negative-space sockets," she said, drawing a charcoal curve around the first cavity, "the missing metal supplies the working boundary."

"Sockets usually hold something," Hajin replied, watching her extend the curve toward the incomplete orbit, "these seem poorly committed to that purpose."

"A common socket holds material through every wall," she said, pressing the cracked plate over its fastening scars, "this one removes the exact surface an entering current would need."

The later plate bridged that interruption with two corrupted channels, turning the empty boundary into a completed route. Ferra lifted it away again, restoring the original break across Aria’s projected circulation.

"The modification gave pressure somewhere to enter," Aria said, reversing the creature’s last recorded pulse, "the older construction kept rejecting the same inward route."

"Rejecting, yes," Ferra replied, placing three copper wires around separate cavities, "I cannot tell you what from one torn band."

She bent each wire around the missing sections instead of following the surviving metal. The three curves formed incomplete orbits, matching separate shapes from Hans’s nine-symbol count without copying their surface lines.

Hans brought his marked rescue sheet beside the table, calling each symbol in its recorded order. Ferra repositioned the wires after every number, reconstructing the pattern through the spaces its maker had removed.

The seventh shape required the cracked plate to rest outside the band’s original fastening scars. The eighth turned its broken corner inward, while the ninth left an empty center facing Hajin.

Pressure tightened beneath his right sleeve before Ferra completed the final curve. Dull gray lines rose from his wrist toward his shoulder, tracing the old Resonance pathways without drawing mana from his closed core.

Juna caught his sleeve near the elbow, pulling the torn fabric away from the changing marks. Their gray branches shifted beneath his skin until three ends faced Ferra’s reconstructed empty center.

[ Resonance pathway response detected ]

[ External mana transfer: 0 ]

[ Ring manifestation: none ]

[ Skill formation: none ]

Ferra removed the ninth wire before the lines could reach beyond Hajin’s shoulder. The pressure ended immediately, leaving every pathway dull gray while the fragment pattern remained incomplete.

"That answered faster than the metal," she said, turning his wrist without pressing the lines, "your arm recognizes the construction, but it does not know the finished work."

"Good," Hajin replied, checking his core after Aria closed the notice, "I have enough unfinished problems carrying tools."

The Chain coiled tighter when another small movement passed beneath the sealed lift. Its links held both fragments against their clamps, preventing the cracked plate from crossing the ninth wire again.

Ferra looked from the moving cable toward Hans’s rescue sheet, then opened her forge case across the table. She removed a folding rule, three ceramic spacers, plus a jointed brace shoe built for damaged furnace walls.

"The mine stays closed," she ordered, placing the jointed shoe across the rescue map, "nobody enters while the return route offers continuous faces to that pattern."

The foreman stopped beside the table while workers continued clearing lamps from the outer sheds. Ferra marked alternating brace positions above the lower lift, leaving separated contact points wherever Hans had recorded a completed symbol.

"Build these from ordinary mine timber," she said, passing him the first measurements, "use ceramic breaks between the shoes, and give every section its own withdrawal line."

"How many before you inspect the chamber?" he asked, holding the drawing away from the corrupted plate.

"Enough to reach it without borrowing the mountain’s surfaces," she replied, closing her Wing around the gauges, "I inspect every brace before anyone crosses the gold line."

Hajin retightened the Chain around both fragments while Hans added the new route to his count. Behind them, the foreman carried Ferra’s measurements toward workers already opening the timber shed.