The dark stain began beneath the Null Body’s bare feet.
It spread across the white floor in a thin circle, filling the shallow cracks between the stone plates. Kael stepped near its edge and pressed down with one heel. His foot landed straight, but the force slid sideways beneath the stone and struck the next plate instead.
The plate beside Renn jumped hard enough to throw him against the wall.
THUD!
Renn caught himself with his injured hand and gasped. Kael lifted his foot at once, but the dark circle continued widening.
Jaro stared at the shaking plates. "The floor is carrying every step somewhere else. Keep your weight low, and do not stamp unless you can see where the force will come back."
Orrek shifted the chain into his left hand. His wrapped shoulder had begun bleeding again, although he still managed a tired grin. "I was hoping the next room would ask less of my feet."
Vaela tightened the cloth around Renn’s wrist before checking Orrek’s stance. "Keep your steps short. Your shoulder is bleeding again, and a hard turn will open it farther."
The stain reached the survivors before anyone found a safe path. Stone rolled under their boots as if loose bars were turning beneath it. One worker fell onto his shoulder, another crashed across his legs, and the boy lost his grip on the furnace-scar woman’s hand.
CRASH!
Renn caught the boy by his sleeve. His damaged wrist bent under the sudden weight.
CRACK!
Air escaped him in a thin, painful gasp, yet he pulled the boy close and pushed him back toward the woman. "Hold his arm this time. His hand is too small when the floor moves."
The Null Body stepped into Kael’s path before he could reach them. Its smooth mask followed his shoulders, and both pale arms opened at the same angle he had used during the last rescue. The thing had remembered how he moved when someone fell.
Orrek saw the trap and entered the darkened floor from the side. His right boot slid forward, but he dropped his hips and caught a thick stone pillar with his left hand. When his weight shifted, the plate beneath him struck upward instead of rolling away.
BOOM!
The impact split the dark stain around his boots for less than a breath.
"I can keep this patch open," Orrek said. Pain tightened every word, but he kept his attention on Kael. "Take Renn and the boy through first, because the shoulder is already slipping."
A white cord snapped from the Null Body’s ribs and wrapped around that shoulder.
RIP!
Blood soaked through Orrek’s bandage. His knees bent, and his injured arm dropped against his side, but he twisted until his back met the pillar. The narrow clear strip between his boots remained open.
Kael crossed toward him. The redirected force struck through his heels, climbed his shins, and jarred the wounds along his ribs. The Null Body drove more pressure into the floor, trying to close the only path to the survivors.
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ HOSTILE COUNTERMEASURE PRESSURE DETECTED: Floor-Impact Collapse
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +2
--------------------------------------------------------------------
▶ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND: NONE GIVEN
====================================================================
Kael sent one shard into Primordial Marrow Layer and the other into Regenerative Dominion. His bones needed to hold their shape, and the torn flesh around them needed to survive whatever the floor returned.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +2 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Regenerative Dominion -> 27
- Primordial Marrow Layer -> 24
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Bone-depth stability and wound recovery accelerated under floor-refusal stress.
====================================================================
Heat spread through Kael’s marrow. The shaking inside his bones stopped first, followed by the bleeding beneath his torn shirt. Nothing healed completely, but damaged muscle tightened around his ribs and held when he stepped deeper into the stain.
His right foot slid. Kael drove his toes into a crack and kept his balance.
THUD!
The stone beneath him bowed instead of throwing him aside. The Null Body raised both arms to meet the rescue movement it expected.
Kael struck the floor between Orrek’s boots.
BOOM!
The blow travelled down through one plate and burst upward on either side of Orrek. Blood sprayed from his shoulder as he took the force through his back, but the dark stain split wider. He slammed his left fist into the pillar before the stone could settle.
BOOM!
Renn dragged the fallen worker through the opening by his collar. Three others crawled after him while the furnace-scar woman kept the boy low beside her. Four bodies reached firm stone before the gap began to close.
Vaela pressed one hand against Orrek’s side as she passed. "The cord keeps pulling where the old wound gives way. You have several breaths before the shoulder stops obeying you, and I need you to tell me when your fingers go numb."
Orrek flexed his left hand against the pillar. "The fingers still move, and I will call when they stop. Keep the others moving."
The last words came out thin. Vaela stayed close enough to catch him, but she kept her hands free while one ruined joint still held fourteen lives.
The Null Body turned toward Orrek. Pressure deepened around his left knee, forcing the plate to roll inward. Kael struck in an uneven sequence, using his heel, palm, shoulder, and heel again. Each blow landed in a different crack, giving the floor no repeated rhythm to redirect.
THUD! THUD!
Pale ribs clicked inside the Null Body as it tried to follow the changing blows. Three more survivors crawled through while it corrected.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
Jaro watched the white cords tense at the wrong moment. "Its right side is late. Keep changing the interval, and it has to choose between Kael’s hands and Orrek’s feet."
Renn crouched beside the survivors and counted them by touch. "Seven are across. Tavin and Dorran should move next, while the plates beside Kael are still low."
Orrek glanced at the enemy’s mask as it turned away from Kael. "Move now. Its mask is off Kael, and this gap will not stay open."
Kael drove his elbow into the stone beside the Null Body’s rear foot.
CRACK!
A metal pin beneath the plate bent without breaking. The enemy’s stance shifted by the width of two fingers, which was enough to slow the pressure around Orrek’s knee.
Tavin crawled through first. Dorran followed until one boot slipped and his chest struck the edge of a rising plate. Orrek caught the back of his shirt with the injured arm.
A hard pull caught beneath his ribs and crushed the breath in his throat.
GRUNT!
His right shoulder sagged, but he hauled Dorran close enough for Renn to seize him. The boy reached toward Orrek and stopped when the furnace-scar woman pulled him clear.
Dorran looked back, shame plain on his face. "My foot slipped before I found the stone, and I nearly pulled you down with me."
Orrek’s voice shook with effort rather than anger. "Use both hands and keep your chest low. Renn has you now, so look ahead and crawl."
Dorran obeyed. Two more survivors followed the same way, crawling through the strip while Kael kept the floor moving out of rhythm.
Orrek’s legs began to tremble. He forced his spine against the pillar, but the shaking travelled from his left knee into his hips. The Null Body felt the change through the plates and increased the pull beneath him.
Vaela moved back toward him. "Your fingers have gone white, and the shoulder is opening below the old tear. Let Kael take your weight before the cord reaches the joint."
"Three people are still behind me," Orrek said as he shifted his grip. "Keep one hand under my elbow while they cross, because I cannot hold the shoulder up by myself."
The floor tilted left, aiming his fall toward the survivors. Orrek refused the direction by throwing himself backward into the pillar.
BANG!
Stone cracked behind his spine. His shoulder tore wider, yet his boots remained apart and the passage stayed open.
Kael struck beside him again. The force held the split for three breaths. The boy and the furnace-scar woman crossed together, bent almost double as they moved.
Renn touched each wrist. "Twelve and thirteen are across. One person remains behind them."
The Null Body released the pressure without warning. Orrek had braced against a force that vanished, and his knees folded as his body pitched forward.
Kael reached him before his face struck stone. He planted one palm against Orrek’s chest and drove him back into the pillar.
THUD!
Orrek coughed and found Kael holding him upright. "I am awake. Keep me here until Renn finishes the count."
Kael kept his other hand against the floor, feeling the plates turn beneath them while Orrek forced each breath through bruised ribs.
The last survivor crawled over firm stone. Renn checked every wrist again, lingering over each pulse until his own breathing steadied.
"Fourteen are past it," he said. "The space between the plates is empty."
Kael lifted Orrek away from the pillar while Vaela caught his injured side. The dark stain still moved around their boots, but it no longer reached the survivors.
Orrek leaned against Vaela and dragged in a breath that scraped through his chest.
WHEEZE!
"I need one more step," Vaela told him. Her damaged white edge remained tucked into her belt, and her free hand supported his bleeding shoulder. "Afterward, you may collapse somewhere I can reach the wound."
Orrek managed the step. "Tell me where to put the next foot, because the left side is starting to disappear."
The Null Body watched him leave the darkened plates. Its pale ribs opened and closed, searching for a simpler pattern in the wounded man. Orrek’s knees had shaken and his smile had slipped, yet he had changed his grip whenever the body expected him to fail in the same way twice.
Its smooth mask turned toward Renn.