Chapter 544: Collector’s Hand

The first thing through the aligned routes was a claw, and the empty city square split beneath its shadow beside the archive.

The arm behind it was larger than the old crossing body from Arc 9, with obsidian plates carrying fresh red seams.

Aria measured the limb before its elbow reached Ouro, and the result tightened every Ring around Hajin’s forearm beneath the route.

"True-body segment confirmed," she said inside his thoughts. "This is not a disposable material projection."

The claw turned toward the archive stair, where Ash stood behind the Watcher with one small hand around her wrist.

The Collector’s fingers opened, and the route pulled at the child’s unknown designation beneath the old refusal pattern inside the archive.

The Watcher moved first, closing both hands around the claw before it crossed the inner boundary beside Ash’s feet near the stair.

Stone burst under her feet, though she kept Ash behind her shoulder while the black fingers strained against her grip.

"You do not reach the child through my house," the Watcher said, holding the claw away from the stair.

The Collector’s arm twisted, and the old guardian’s knees bent beneath pressure that belonged to a body still beyond the route.

Hajin opened six Rings, then crossed the square before the next obsidian plate arrived from the widening seam above the crater.

He struck the wrist with Aegis, then wrapped both arms around the golden barrier’s outer edge while Loccy planted behind him.

The impact drove Hajin through the square’s paving stones, and the foundation opened beneath three bodies without civilians nearby or shelter overhead.

Loccy caught the connected street supports, while Juna’s four Wings cut falling roof tiles away from the empty houses along the market road.

The square dropped into a widening black hollow, yet the Collector’s arm continued moving through the shared force toward the archive stair.

The Watcher’s markings brightened across her forearms, and the old guardian shifted her grip toward the claw’s first joint beneath the pressure.

"This body carries a route older than the Crown," she said. "It still has to pass through the space we keep standing in."

Ash remained behind her shoulder with one hand pressed against the fabric at her back, while his pale Ringlet stayed quiet.

Hajin felt the boy’s Ringlet pulse once, then settle when the Watcher lowered her free elbow across the inner line.

"No answer from you," she told Ash. "The road already has enough hands."

The child nodded against her shoulder, leaving the old refusal pattern quiet while Hajin’s six Rings caught another push from the route.

Hajin felt the limb’s pressure enter Aegis, then his six Rings, then the tattoo lines around his damaged shoulder beneath the old wound.

’This is not a crossing body, since the source is reaching through one narrow door and using our city as its hinge.’

The Collector’s wrist rotated against the golden barrier, and the Watcher slid one foot backward across the broken square beneath the archive.

Juna landed beside Hajin with her four Wings open, then placed one hand against his back while her solar pressure entered Aegis.

"You are not stopping that wrist alone," she said. "Let the family carry the part your Rings cannot."

Hajin shifted his weight, allowing Juna’s pressure to brace the barrier without entering the Collector’s route or touching the claw.

Loccy took the falling foundation through Worldbearer, while Ferra drove three masterwork stakes into the surviving edge of the square.

Rumi opened one short path from the collapsing market edge to an empty field beyond the houses outside the civilian boundary.

Nari held the retreat side, refusing to let the black route use that path as another entrance into the district.

Eirwen sent one unstrung arrow through the ground marks, checking every living root before withdrawing her power from the dead foundation.

The arrow found no valid network in the dead city stone, and Eirwen kept her Zone closed rather than waste an answer.

"No forest answer here," she called. "The square is ours through bodies, tools, and choice."

The Collector’s voice arrived through the arm from far beyond the wound in the air, carrying an order aimed at the bloodline.

"Royal blood has been located. Foreign custody is recorded as interference."

Didi stepped to the square’s edge with five Shards bright around her, while Crowned Frost covered the nearest broken paving stone.

"The person behind this route accepted no custody from you," she said. "Your record does not create consent."

The arm pulled harder, and the Watcher dragged one heel through stone while Ash remained behind the line she had chosen.

Hajin drove his left boot into a remaining paving block, then held the wrist at the edge of the empty crater.

"Do not let the claw touch the archive stair," he said, keeping six Rings open against the black pressure.

"My hands are the last thing between it and the archive," the Watcher replied, while the claw tried to close around her fingers.

The Collector’s arm bent around the barrier, trying to reach past Hajin toward the stair where Ash watched behind the line.

Six Rings screamed through Hajin’s right forearm, while Aegis cracked from palm to elbow beneath the physical force inside the wrist.

He pushed the wrist back, and the square dropped another level beneath the combined pressure of the route toward the empty hollow.

Loccy caught the broken foundation before it fell into the hollow, though the four Wings behind her folded under the connected load.

Ferra shouted a warning, then pulled one stake from the collapsing edge before the route could turn it into another joint.

"The third support is failing, and the arm is using the foundation as its next body."

Hajin changed his grip, pressing the inner Aegis barrier against the wrist while leaving the Watcher room around the claw.

The physical arm stopped moving forward, though its pressure did not weaken or retreat through the black seam beneath the six Rings.

It simply began tearing the empty square open around Hajin, the Watcher, and every support Loccy could still reach beneath the market road.

Walls split along old seams, market stalls fell into the hollow, and the nearest roof slid away from the protected archive stair.

Rumi redirected the roof through her marked route, while Nari closed the path after the last timber cleared the civilian boundary.

The Watcher kept the claw away from Ash, though the arm dragged her across the broken stone with every pulse.

Cessy’s voice reached the square from Vella’s protected line, carrying the recognition of a danger she had seen once before.

"That is the true body reaching through the key," Cessy said. "It has not committed a crossing portion."

Lucan stood beside her near the room’s outer boundary, staring at the black limb with no interest in hiding his fear.

"If the arm dies here, the main body feels the loss. The route still will not grant you a kill."

Hajin tightened six Rings around the wrist, then answered without looking away from the exposed plate beneath the black claw.

"Then I will stop the hand before I try to punish the owner."

The Collector’s fingers flexed, and the black claw scraped across Aegis while three golden layers split beneath it above the hollow.

The Watcher gave a deep cry that shook dust from the remaining walls, then twisted the claw away from Ash.

Hajin caught the wrist beneath the first plate, while Juna’s hand pressed against his back to keep his shoulder from folding.

Their combined force turned the arm sideways, tearing the square from the archive stair toward the empty market road beneath the old walls.

Every surviving wall remained standing only because Loccy carried the connected foundations away from the civilian blocks beyond the empty square.

The Stream showed the open crater beneath the two bodies, and the viewers reacted before the dust could settle across the empty market road.

[ CringeSlayer91: ] six rings and the mountain woman are holding one wrist and the city still lost a square

[ JunaFanClub: ] the watcher’s hand never left ash’s line, repeat never

[ ashley (Mod): ] the empty district is confirmed, and the archive remains intact

Hajin felt his arms tremble inside the six Rings, while the old shoulder wound burned through every stabilizing pathway beneath the route.

Juna leaned close to his ear, keeping her solar pressure behind the inner Aegis layer rather than feeding the foreign route.

"You have one clean exchange before that shoulder gives us a personal crisis," she said. "Take it before the route changes."

"I need one frequency sample."

"Then take it, and come back with the same number of arms."

Her words cut through the roar more cleanly than any blade, while the Collector’s wrist turned beneath the barrier toward the exposed strand.

The movement exposed one dark strand beneath the obsidian plates, and Phase Lock recognized a frequency it could not yet hold.

Hajin dismissed the outer Aegis layer, keeping the inner barrier between the claw and the Watcher while his left palm opened.

Dark-gold lines formed across his bare hand, and Collector’s Grasp waited for the contact the route had finally exposed beneath the obsidian plate.

The Watcher tightened her grip on the claw, while Ash stayed behind her shoulder with both feet planted on safe stone.

The Collector’s wrist held still for one breath beneath six Rings, four Wings, Worldbearer, and the damaged square below the archive.

Hajin stepped under the exposed plate, ready to touch the route without letting it touch the child behind the archive stair.

Collector’s Grasp waited across his palm while the exposed frequency trembled beneath the obsidian plate beside the broken route near Ferra’s anchor.