All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 321: Grammar Older Than Shards

The workers lowered each segmented brace through the service shaft beside the sealed lift. Ordinary mine timber carried the load, while ceramic breaks separated every shoe from the next contact point.

Ferra inspected each section before allowing the foreman to lower another frame. Individual withdrawal lines returned to Loccy’s surface wheel, preventing one failed support from taking the complete route.

The final frame settled against the lowest reachable wall without completing a continuous face. Ferra struck every joint with a small hammer, then marked the route safe upon Hans’s rescue sheet.

"Workers stay above the gold line," she ordered, fastening her forge case beneath one arm, "we inspect before anyone starts repairing the lift."

Hajin crossed first with every Ring closed, carrying the wrapped fragments inside his Legendary Chain. Juna followed his right side while Hans checked the numbered lines behind Ferra.

The new route descended beside the broken guide through alternating platforms plus short ladders. White-gold residue crossed several old closures, though each symbol ended at a ceramic break before reaching another brace.

Three measured pulls followed from Loccy whenever their weight entered another supported section. Hans answered each signal upon a separate line, preserving every withdrawal route the workers had built.

Ceramic joints creaked under each transfer, though no white-gold line crossed their separated edges.

The lowest shoe shifted when Hans placed his full weight upon the next platform. He stopped before the timber could settle against the wall, then sent two short pulls through its dedicated line. Loccy lifted that section alone, removing its load without disturbing the other braces above them.

Ferra climbed down beside the hanging frame and checked the ceramic break beneath its upper joint. One edge had chipped under the transfer, leaving enough separation for the rune to fail but too little support for another descent.

She replaced the spacer from her case, then shortened the withdrawal line until the shoe rested clear of the chamber wall.

"Mark that section for one return crossing," she said, striking a new limit beside Hans’s number, "the workers built us a route, not a permanent mine."

Hajin watched the nearest unfinished symbol reach the repaired gap before turning back into the original wall. The pressure searched along each separated surface, but it never found enough connected material to complete another shape.

Aria added the failed crossing to Ferra’s measurements, giving the workers a tested minimum distance for every ceramic break.

"Nothing has written across the timber," Aria reported, comparing every surface against the previous sequence, "the separated shoes interrupt all nine shapes."

"That means the workers followed my measurements," Ferra replied, testing the next joint beneath her weight, "try sounding less surprised by competent hands."

"I remain delighted whenever instructions survive contact with people," Aria said, keeping the lower route marked, "the historical record gave me modest expectations."

Hans reached the chamber entrance before their exchange found another victim along the descent. He secured his line around the final brace, keeping the cracked floor outside every wooden contact.

The side opening that trapped Bren had collapsed after their withdrawal, covering its wedge marks beneath broken stone. Across the chamber, the isolated shelf remained standing beyond the divided western route.

Hajin entered without manifesting Aegis, placing each step outside the damaged circles. The old node rested lower inside its dark center, while the eastern ceiling passage carried the creature’s dried residue upward.

Ferra opened her forge-light Wing and released five tools around the nearest rune. None touched its white-gold surface until she fitted ceramic tips over every metal edge.

"Show me the original band against this curve," she said, fixing two gauges across an incomplete orbit, "keep the cracked plate outside the circle."

Hajin loosened enough Chain for the detached band to rest beside her tools. Its negative-space sockets matched three missing sections inside the wall rune, including damage the surface reconstruction had left uncertain.

Juna followed both materials by scent, finding the cleaner route beneath the corrupted band. The same trace occupied the wall recess, though years of stone plus metal separated their exposed surfaces.

"They belong to the same construction," she said, lowering her nose toward the final cavity, "the plate smells younger than either one."

Ferra pressed a narrow chisel into the band beside its original empty socket. The internal grain curved around that absence, proving the metal had been forged with the missing section already planned.

At the cracked plate seat, every grain ended where later drilling had cut across it. Purple residue filled those cuts without entering the older curves preserved underneath.

"The band was shaped around these spaces," she said, passing one gauge through the original cavity, "the Shard fitting bores were driven through settled work afterward."

Aria projected the other three fittings from the creature’s recorded body, aligning their fastening routes above the band. All four used matching bore angles that crossed existing sockets instead of joining them.

Ferra moved to the chamber rune, lifting one mineral scale from its damaged outer lip. The sealed layer continued through each negative-space curve, while the corrupted plate residue ended upon its surface.

"These runes were finished before any recorded fitting touched the structure," she said, trapping the scale inside a sample clasp, "the creature carried newer work across something older."

"Can you place the older work?" Hans asked, keeping his stance beyond the nearest circle, "the miners need more than ancient before they cut another route."

"Older than every Shard fitting we found here," she replied, examining the unbroken scale, "I need more of the chamber before giving you a useful age."

Aria removed the material comparison, replacing it with three orbital records above the damaged node. Hajin’s complete Rings rotated around one shared center, preserving an unbroken path around his forearm.

Ash’s registry Ringlet appeared beside them as an incomplete curve with its open edge facing Gold Mountain. Its single recorded turn opposed Hajin’s rotation, then closed briefly while sending one symbol toward the mountain.

The chamber array used nine incomplete orbits that folded inward around empty centers. Their changing shapes prevented either personal halo from matching the complete sequence.

[ Shared geometry: orbital construction ]

[ Hajin Rings: complete bearer-centered circulation ]

[ Ash Ringlet: incomplete reverse response ]

[ Mountain array: inward refusal sequence ]

[ Common origin: unverified ]

"They use related grammar," Aria said, separating all three records again, "their direction, closure, plus intended function remain different."

"Use Ash’s answer only where it completed the mountain’s missing curve," Hajin replied, keeping his right arm outside the model, "do not treat him as the translation."

Ferra laid ceramic spacers across the rune instead of supplying active metal. Hans called the nine symbols from his rescue sheet, allowing Aria to place Ash’s one response after the local sequence.

The first six shapes remained unreadable because their missing centers admitted several arrangements. Ferra rejected each completed surface, rebuilding the model through cavities that preserved the refusal boundary.

On the seventh shape, the detached band supplied an original edge lost from the chamber. The eighth established direction, while Ash’s response closed only one grammatical break inside the ninth.

Aria removed every uncertain mark before allowing three translated concepts to remain. They formed one damaged phrase without naming a speaker, target, location, or surviving command.

[ Partial translation recovered ]

{foreign incarnation denied}

No additional symbol accepted a stable meaning inside Aria’s model after the phrase appeared. The node remained inactive beneath the reconstruction, leaving Hajin’s Rings closed plus his Resonance pathways dull gray.

"Does incarnation describe the creature?" Juna asked, watching the dried trail above them, "it used the fittings to resist this place."

"The surviving grammar does not identify a subject," Aria replied, closing the hostile body record, "the phrase may describe whatever the array expected to refuse."

"And Ash?" Hajin asked, looking at the incomplete Ringlet beside the translation, "does his answer place him inside either word?"

"No," she replied, removing his registry image from the comparison, "he answered in related geometry, while his designation remains unreadable."

Ferra pressed the reconstructed cavities into a blank ceramic plate before disturbing the chamber again. She locked the unfinished copy inside her forge case, preserving every missing section without completing the ninth symbol.

Hans marked the translation beneath his brace count, then turned toward the worker-built ascent. Hajin secured both fragments inside the Chain before following him back toward the numbered withdrawal lines.