All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 323: The Lever Pulls Back

Ash released Hajin’s sleeve only after Lana promised the copied plate would leave the witness desk. Two guards escorted them into the northern record room, keeping the child beyond both closed doors.

"He is finished with tests," Lana said, carrying her signed ledger beneath one arm, "anything else happens outside his sight."

"Agreed," Hajin replied, waiting until the second door closed behind them, "keep him inside the registry until the mine settles."

Ferra moved the ceramic frame into the repaired southern yard, placing it upon a stone evidence table. Juna checked the open approaches while the remaining guards cleared every registry worker beyond the wall.

Hajin loosened the Chain from his right hand and lowered its wrapped fragments into Ferra’s separate clamps. She secured every link before allowing him to remove his palm from the bundle.

"The copy found a boundary around Ash without activating it," Aria said, reopening the incomplete ninth symbol, "one stored artifact carries a compatible forced-entry concept."

The Breaker’s Lever remained inside Hajin’s inventory where he had left it after the royal vault. Its record still showed a sealed Divine grade without any available function or stated release condition.

"You own a boundary tool and waited until now?" Ferra asked, keeping her ceramic frame covered, "tell me it looks less suspicious than your other equipment."

"It is a rusted crowbar," Hajin replied, opening the inventory slot above his right palm, "the suspicion has survived several years without improvement."

The Breaker’s Lever entered his hand with its old rust covering the curved iron end. Nothing upon its surface resembled Ferra’s negative-space sockets, while Divine Eye found the same sealed golden signature beneath the metal.

The Collector’s Grasp remained dormant upon Hajin’s left hand, while Stolen Moment stayed silent inside inventory. Only the Lever’s sealed signature tightened around the copied boundary record, keeping the response specific to one artifact.

[ The Breaker’s Lever ]

[ Grade: Divine — Sealed ]

[ Conceptual alignment: forced entry ]

[ Available function: none ]

Ferra approached without touching the artifact, measuring both ends through her suspended gauges. The visible rust carried no ordinary decay beneath it, leaving every worn section part of the sealed construction.

"Do not clean this," she said, withdrawing one bronze pick before contact, "the useless surface may be holding something less polite inside."

"That describes most Divine artifacts I own," Hajin replied, resting the straight end above the evidence table, "show me where the copied boundary should be."

Aria placed the mountain’s translated geometry around Ferra’s ceramic frame without supplying mana. The phrase `{foreign incarnation denied}` occupied the reconstruction, though every uncertain symbol remained absent.

Juna planted both hands upon the stone table, prepared to throw the complete frame into the empty yard. Her Wings stayed closed while Hajin kept every Ring inside his core.

Ferra made him test the Lever against three ordinary boundaries before approaching the copied shape. Its curved end passed a table edge, a sealed ceramic clasp, plus the registry wall without changing weight.

Divine Eye found the golden signature unchanged after every contact, narrowing the response to something the reconstructed geometry supplied.

She placed separate chalk marks around the evidence table, giving Hajin three retreat positions that never crossed the ninth curve. Juna fastened one release line to the frame while keeping another around the covered plate.

A single pull would separate both objects even if the Lever refused to leave his hand.

"If it drags you forward, I break the frame before I touch the tool," Juna said, testing both lines against her claws, "you release it instead of proving which one of us is stronger."

"The crowbar can win that argument alone," Hajin replied, shifting his bandaged palm along the straight end, "Ferra calls every position, and I stop at the first pressure."

Aria fixed the untouched control tests beside the artifact record before displaying the incomplete ninth shape again. Any response beyond those marks would belong to the copied boundary rather than rust, contact, or Hajin’s grip.

Ferra checked his final hand position, then uncovered only the empty section required for the test.

"Begin outside the ninth shape," she said, rotating the plate beneath its cover, "the Lever approaches empty space before it approaches ceramic."

Hajin moved the curved end across the first missing section without touching the frame. The artifact remained ordinary weight through seven positions, offering neither pull nor heat against his grip.

At the eighth position, Divine Eye detected pressure leaving the sealed handle without entering the plate. Aria stopped Ferra before she completed the final rotation, preserving the distance between both objects.

"The artifact noticed the direction," she warned, marking a point above the plate’s empty center, "a response is forming where I have no visible structure."

Ferra turned the ceramic frame one measured degree, completing the copied ninth alignment. The rusted tool dragged sideways before Hajin moved, pulling its curved end toward clear air beside the plate.

His right arm followed half a pace until he locked his shoulder against the table edge. Juna caught the ceramic frame, preventing the same force from changing its recorded position.

The Lever stopped several inches above the copied center with its curved end pressed against nothing visible. Hajin pulled backward once, but the tool remained fixed beyond its apparent contact point.

Divine Eye narrowed around the empty position after the artifact supplied a valid reference. A nonphysical seam crossed the air above Ferra’s plate, existing between two incomplete curves without occupying the ceramic itself.

Ferra passed an unmarked ceramic gauge through the exposed position while Hajin held the Lever fixed. The gauge crossed without resistance, proving the seam offered no ordinary physical edge for her tools.

Juna shifted between the seam and the registry doors, keeping every approach outside its projected length.

[ Boundary response detected ]

[ Boundary type: unidentified ]

[ Physical structure: absent ]

[ Breaker’s Lever recognition: valid ]

"There is your seam," Aria said, tracing its length beyond the copied ninth symbol, "the plate describes it without containing whatever rests across it."

"Can the tool move along it?" Ferra asked, holding her Wing around the frame, "test pressure before leverage."

Hajin changed his grip without opening a Ring, applying only enough force to turn the handle. The curved end held its position, while the entire artifact pulled backward against his palm.

Heat entered through the sealed handle before his wrist completed the motion. A narrow burn crossed his right palm, following the invisible seam instead of the rusted metal touching it.

He released the Lever before pressure could reach the dull gray lines under his sleeve. The artifact stayed fixed for another heartbeat, then dropped across the stone table without opening anything.

Ferra covered the copied plate while Juna caught the fallen tool beneath one claw. The seam disappeared from Divine Eye as soon as both objects lost their completed alignment.

[ Boundary displacement: 0 ]

[ Artifact seal status: unchanged ]

[ Function activation: failed ]

[ Right palm injury: superficial boundary burn ]

"It recognized a valid boundary," Aria reported, closing every projected route around the frame, "its seal prevents the artifact from applying leverage or sustaining contact."

"Then it stays sealed," Hajin said, opening his burned hand for Ferra, "I am not feeding it Rings until it becomes cooperative."

Ferra inspected the narrow red line crossing his palm, finding intact pathways beneath the damaged skin. She wrapped the hand with a clean forge strip, leaving his fingers free while covering the Chain’s normal grip line.

"Your hand remains usable," she said, tightening the final loop below his thumb, "another attempt reaches the gray pathways before the seal changes."

"There will not be another attempt," Lana replied from the southern doorway, keeping Ash behind both record-room doors, "I have one artifact response plus one injury to enter."

She recorded the copied plate’s position, the Lever’s fixed point, then the unchanged ceramic afterward. Her entry ended with Hajin releasing the tool before any seam opened across the registry yard.

{The Breaker’s Lever moved toward empty space beside Ferra’s copied plate and remained fixed there until Hajin released it. A narrow burn crossed his right palm through the handle, while the plate, yard, and registry positions remained unchanged.}

Hajin dismissed the sealed Lever into inventory after Aria confirmed its surface carried nothing from the seam. Ferra returned the covered plate to its ceramic case, keeping both artifacts physically separated.

The first emergency bell from Gold Mountain reached the registry while she retightened the final clasp. A second strike followed through the road before the mine runner cleared the northern gate.