The Null Body opened its shoulder and drove one flat hand between Renn and the boy.
CLINK!
Its arm stretched farther than any joint should have allowed. Pale fingers crossed the gap without cutting skin, yet the boy’s hand vanished from Renn’s grasp as if the air had pulled them apart.
The boy cried out and reached blindly for him.
GASP!
Renn caught his wrist with his injured hand. Pain folded him forward, but he locked both arms around the boy and refused to lose him. "I have you. Keep holding on, even if your fingers cannot feel mine."
The pale cord between them tightened. The Null Body had learned where Kael’s protection began, and it had chosen the weakest pair in the living chain.
The Sovereign Root opened inside Kael’s sight.
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
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≫ HOSTILE COUNTERMEASURE PRESSURE DETECTED: Protection Severance Strike
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +3
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▶ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND: NONE GIVEN
====================================================================
Three shards entered him while the severance cord kept tightening around the boy, so Kael chose immediately.
One shard went into Core Mass Density. One entered Gravity Vector Impact. The final shard went into Velocity Movement Authority.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
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≫ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +3 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Core Mass Density -> 37
- Gravity Vector Impact -> 36
- Velocity Movement Authority -> 32
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≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Structural weight, impact authority, and deviation movement surged within current pressure bracket.
====================================================================
Kael’s heel came down before the Null Body finished turning toward him.
THUD!
The floor dipped under his new weight. He drove the impact beneath the creature instead of throwing another strike its mirrors had already studied. Stone rose under its left foot, caught the smooth joint at an angle, and twisted it aside.
CRACK!
The severance cord missed the boy’s shoulder by an inch. Renn dragged him down with the rest of the line, coughing blood across his own sleeve.
"All fourteen are still here," Renn said. His voice shook, although his grip did not. "Keep your hands joined, even when the cord makes them feel empty."
Vaela pushed the nearest survivors lower and checked the boy’s fingers as they passed. Blood still warmed them, and the nails had not turned white. "His hand is alive. Keep him behind your left shoulder, Renn, because your right wrist will not survive another pull."
The Null Body faced Kael. Plates turned inside its open ribs, each one holding a movement stolen from the previous rooms: a knee, a palm, a lowered skull, a protective step. Its empty chest did not imitate everything. It kept only the motions that had saved someone or broken an obstacle.
Orrek drew his chain close to his damaged shoulder. "It has been collecting the useful parts of us. I would be offended if it had left me out."
Jaro ducked behind a slanted pillar and pointed at the creature’s lower ribs. "Its left side opens whenever the white cord pulls. Keep it busy, and I can warn you before the next line comes out."
The Null Body’s mask snapped toward Jaro. A second cord flashed toward the back of Kael’s knee.
SWOOSH!
Kael let it strike the scarred flesh of his calf. The new density kept the cord from reaching bone, but blood ran into his boot as it tightened. He planted both feet and pulled before the creature could use the wound.
RIP!
The cord tore out of its rib cage and snapped into the wall behind it.
SCREECH!
White stone split around the buried end. The Null Body lurched toward the damage and closed two plates over its exposed side. Kael saw the response, and so did Vaela.
The torn cord struck across the survivor line. Orrek caught it with his chain and turned his damaged shoulder away.
CLANG!
The force dragged him one step before Kael trapped the chain beneath his heel. Vaela pushed Renn and the boy under Orrek’s arm, while Jaro caught an older worker whose knees failed. The others followed without breaking wrist contact. All fourteen reached the next pillar.
"The shoulder is slipping," Orrek said through his teeth. "I can hold until everyone reaches the next pillar, but another full pull will tear it open."
Vaela checked the angle of his arm without asking him to release the chain. "Shorten your grip and brace it across your hip. Let go if the fingers turn numb, because the joint will tear before Kael’s foot moves."
The warning gave Orrek something useful to do with the pain. He shortened his grip, braced the chain across his hip, and held while Kael watched the creature close its wounded side.
"It protected the cord instead of attacking," she said while guiding the boy behind a pillar. "The body needs those lines, which means we can make it choose between us and its own frame."
Ten narrow paths appeared in the air around Kael. Each one ended where the Null Body expected him to strike: mask, throat, ribs, knee, hollow chest. He held still, and every pale path held with him.
Orrek watched the creature wait. A slow grin pulled at one side of his mouth. "Oh, I see what you are doing. It planned for the angry version of you."
Kael backed away.
The Null Body tilted its mask. Its feet followed him, but the bright paths shifted more slowly. Renn moved the survivors toward the broken cord while Vaela protected his injured side. Orrek guided two exhausted workers around the pillar with his chain.
The creature opened its ribs to calculate another attack.
Kael dropped and seized the torn cord with both hands. His wounded wrist buckled, but he kept his grip and drove his stored force into the wall that held it.
BOOM!
Stone folded inward. The Null Body twisted away from Kael to brace its left ribs, offering him the first clean view of its back. He did not waste the opening on a strike. The movement had already answered the more important question: damage to the cord could command the body.
Kael rose with steam lifting from his palms and blood filling the heel of his boot. Zero shards remained. The Null Body repaired its foot with one smooth step, but it kept its left side between Kael and the broken wall.
Fourteen people had seen it flinch.
Their route opened into a chamber built around slanted white pillars and black seams. The ceiling dropped low over the survivor line while the center rose high enough for the Null Body to stand upright. Each dark seam ran from a pillar into the creature’s path, giving its feet clear ground while forcing everyone else to turn sideways.
Renn studied the floor while the boy stayed tucked beneath his arm. "The room is helping it move. Those seams reach the same side as the cord we broke."
Vaela drew her wrapped white edge but kept the blade close to her thigh. "We have one useful fact, not an invitation to touch every bright surface. Watch where its weight disappears before anyone tests the floor."
Orrek rolled his injured shoulder once and let his chain hang loose. "I can pull a pillar if Kael loosens it. I cannot promise the shoulder will enjoy the work."
Jaro stayed near the survivors instead of searching for another hiding place. "Warn me before you pull, because I will need time to move everyone away from the falling side."
The Null Body entered the chamber. Light passed through its hollow ribs and spread along the seams. Its mask reflected Kael’s familiar attacks before he made them.
Kael stepped toward the center and stopped.
The creature shifted to meet him.
He moved toward a second seam, stopped again, and watched its left foot lift before its body followed. A flare passed through the floor into the ankle joint. The room was not scenery around the enemy. It carried the enemy.
Kael stamped beside the seam.
BOOM!
The impact missed the bright line and broke a support rib beneath it. The Null Body’s shoulder jerked. Its foot dropped hard enough to chip the smooth floor, and one of its predicted paths vanished.
A second seam flashed beneath the survivors. The nearest pillar leaned toward the low ceiling, threatening to pin three people. Renn felt the movement and pulled the boy sideways.
"Left side, close to me. The pillar is coming down across the rear."
Jaro repeated the warning in a voice loud enough to reach the back. Orrek cast his chain around the pillar’s narrow waist, and the links snapped tight against his wrapped palms.
CLANG!
His injured shoulder dipped, yet the arm remained in place. Kael drove one hand against the stone and took the falling weight before it reached the survivors. The pillar ground across his palm, showering white grit over Vaela as she guided the last injured woman through the gap.
GRIND!
The Null Body used the distraction to cross two seams. Its mask stayed fixed on Kael, but its feet kept choosing the dark lines. Every step confirmed the same connection between the chamber and its joints.
Vaela followed the change with narrowed eyes. "Its strength reaches it through the floor. Keep breaking the supports beside the seams, because the bright lines may be waiting for a direct strike."
Renn shifted the count around the first damaged pillar. Orrek looped his chain across the base without pulling, ready to move only when Kael gave him an opening. Jaro kept the weakest survivors away from the low ceiling, and the boy maintained his grip despite the numbness in his fingers.
The Null Body stepped onto another black seam.
CLANG!
Its weight vanished for half a stride. The floor fed the joint, lifted the creature over the broken stone, and placed it beside a flashing crack near Vaela. The weakness looked too clean, too exposed, and too eager to be struck.
Vaela did not move toward it.
Kael saw her refusal and understood. The designed enemy had finally offered them an opening, which meant the next attack had already begun.