Chapter 545: A Sword Eats the Crossing

Hajin stored the Legendary Chain before touching the exposed wrist, leaving his left palm bare for Collector’s Grasp beneath the six Rings.

Six Rings continued turning around his right forearm, while Juna, Loccy, and the Watcher held the arm above the broken square.

"I need one touch," Hajin said. "After that, I change weapons before the route can use my hand."

The Watcher tightened her grip on the claw without looking away from Ash, who remained behind the inner boundary near the stair.

"Touch the route, not the child."

"That is the plan."

Hajin stepped beneath the wrist and pressed his bare left palm against the exposed black strand beneath the obsidian plate.

Collector’s Grasp opened across his skin in dark-gold lines, then found the route’s original frequency before the limb could close.

Pain entered his palm, traveled through the old tattoo path, and settled beneath the Resonance Wound in his shoulder beneath the route.

The Royal Collector’s voice struck the square from the contact point, carrying the same calm authority that had ordered Didi’s blood recovered.

"Foreign hand recognized. Value exceeds local discretion."

Hajin held his palm in place while the words tried to classify his body as another recoverable object beneath the foreign law.

"You can recognize me without owning me," he said, keeping his fingers against the route until the sample stabilized.

The Collector’s wrist pushed harder, and the Watcher dragged one heel across the broken stone while Juna braced Hajin’s belt.

"You have one breath left before that shoulder gives us a personal crisis," Juna said. "Take the sample now."

The dark-gold lines on Hajin’s palm brightened, copying the route’s pressure into a stable frequency the blades could later answer.

[ Collector’s Grasp: Route Contact Confirmed ]

[ Foreign Frequency: Sampled ]

[ Exposure: Manifested Limb Authority ]

Hajin released his palm before the route could use his arm as another bridge, and the Grasp withdrew into his skin.

The dark mark left across his hand felt colder than the surrounding air, while the six Rings kept the wrist from pulling away.

He dismissed the remaining Aegis layer, then summoned the divine Growth blade into his right hand with the sampled authority held inside his pathways.

The pale edge appeared without a flash, and its material answered the route with a clean pressure beneath the arm.

Hajin retrieved the demonic Growth blade into his left hand a breath later, leaving the Grasp mark hidden beneath the dark handle.

The demonic edge opened toward the wound beneath the wrist, while the divine edge aligned above the same narrow incision.

[ Divine Growth Blade: Right Hand ]

[ Demonic Growth Blade: Left Hand ]

[ Legendary Chain: Stored ]

The Collector pulled harder, and black regeneration began entering the exposed strand from the distant body beyond the route beneath the square.

Hajin crossed both blades at the sampled line, forcing the two opposed frequencies through one physical cut beneath the obsidian plate.

The demonic edge touched the wrist first, and the black regeneration entering the cut vanished into the blade without reaching Hajin’s arm.

The divine edge followed the same incision, separating the sampled route authority from the manifested limb without striking the distant core.

[ Crossed Resonance ]

Gold crossed with black beneath the obsidian plates, and the Royal Collector’s voice lost its calm for one broken breath.

"Unauthorized separation."

Hajin drove both blades through the final connection, while the Watcher turned the claw away from Ash and Loccy carried the falling foundation.

The wrist separated from the route, and the entire arm folded inward around the wound before either blade could become trapped.

Rumi marked the first black thread trying to rebuild beneath the crater, while Nari closed it before regeneration reached the bed chamber.

Ferra drove a ceramic gauge into the second scar, then shouted when route pressure reversed around the metal beneath the crater.

"The limb is gone, but its authority is searching for another body," she said. "Keep every living person outside that search."

Vella answered from the protected room, her gold surrounding the child’s Sanctuary without entering its core or carrying the foreign wound.

"The outer shelter felt the route once, then it withdrew when the Sanctuary held the doorway."

Hajin kept both blades crossed over the exposed wrist, while the Royal Collector’s true body pulled against the severed line.

The five lesser routes opened together beneath the crater, and black threads searched for another point where the authority could enter Ouro.

Juna sent a narrow solar line across the empty square, severing those threads before they joined beneath Hajin’s boots near the archive.

The light did not touch the distant body, while the demonic edge continued consuming only regeneration entering the severed wrist.

The divine edge continued cutting only the sampled route authority, leaving the true body beyond the boundary alive beneath its distant court.

The arm fought the cut through physical force rather than a fresh command, and the six Rings carried that force into the hollow.

Hajin’s boots slid across broken stone while Juna kept one hand against his belt and the Watcher turned the claw toward the empty road.

"The wrist is drawing inward," Juna said. "Keep your grip away from the archive seam."

Loccy carried the foundation beneath the last moving plate, while Rumi opened a short route beneath the falling debris outside the houses.

Nari pinned the far end until every stone landed outside the houses, then closed the path before the black thread could follow.

Ferra watched the wound through two ceramic gauges, and her face tightened when the distant pressure refused to weaken beneath the cut.

"The cut reached the authority," she said. "The true body still has enough strength to pull, though it cannot regrow this limb here."

Hajin felt the difference in the left palm where Collector’s Grasp had sampled the source beneath the crossing and the broken square.

The mark did not feel stronger like a Ring, and it did not refill the mana burning through his shoulder beneath the old wound.

It simply held one foreign frequency long enough for the matched blades to answer a creature that had crossed without offering its whole body.

The Watcher released the claw before the collapsing limb could drag her into the hollow, while Loccy caught the falling arm’s weight.

The severed limb collapsed into black plates, then vanished through the court-facing route as the five lesser seams recoiled above the emptied crater.

The route folded shut around the missing arm, leaving five black scars beneath the stone and one narrow thread of foreign attention.

Aria recorded the distinction before the remaining route could hide its condition from the team beneath the damaged warrant and crater.

[ Manifested Limb: Removed ]

[ Route Body Access: Closed ]

[ Foreign Attention Thread: Active ]

[ Distant True Body: Survives ]

[ Royal Collector: Alive ]

[ Kill Credit: None ]

Hajin closed the demonic blade first, then dismissed the divine blade while six Rings remained open around his shaking arm.

The matched weapons returned to inventory, leaving both hands empty while the new Grasp mark cooled across his left palm.

Aria displayed the updated artifact record after the last black strand faded beneath the crater beside the archive road and broken stair.

[ Collector’s Grasp Progress: 12% ]

[ Previous Grasp Progress: 10% ]

[ Direct Contact Result: Route Authority Sampled ]

The panel landed after the limb vanished, and the Stream erupted across the empty square beneath the broken archive road.

[ ShadowMage44: ] bro cut the actual arm out of the world and got zero exp

[ CringeSlayer91: ] that is not a kill, that is a very expensive warning

[ JunaFanClub: ] he has both arms, somebody archive this immediately

[ ashley (Mod): ] no kill credit, no true-body death, but the route limb is gone

Juna stepped in front of Hajin and checked both arms before touching the new mark across his left palm beneath the route.

"Count them," she said, while her fingers tested the wrist the route had touched.

Hajin lifted both hands beneath the six golden halos, then flexed each finger through the lingering pain beneath his shoulder.

"Two."

"Good. Keep that number available for future arguments."

She touched her forehead to his for one short breath, then turned toward the retreating black scars beneath the square.

The Watcher stood beside Ash with one knee cracked from the force, though her hands remained steady around the boy’s shoulder.

Ash looked at Hajin’s empty palms, then at the dark mark across the left hand beneath the stored artifact and the fading route.

"Hand hurt?"

"It remembers the route," Hajin replied. "The hand still works."

The boy nodded, satisfied enough to lean against the Watcher’s wrist while the remaining attention thread tightened beneath the city.

Lucan examined the empty space where the arm had been, and his face showed no relief at the true body’s survival.

"You wounded the route authority, but the Collector now knows your exact frequency."

"It already knew my location," Hajin said. "Now it knows what I can cut."

Cessy looked toward the five black scars beneath the square, while Didi’s frost held the completed warrant above them beside the room.

"The lesser cores will cross through the damage," Cessy said. "They will use the opening before the authority rebuilds."

Didi’s frost tightened around the route’s outer edge, and a black line began traveling from the seal toward the protected room.

"The route is not retreating," she said. "It is changing direction toward the child."

Hajin turned toward the bed where Elina and Vella waited beneath the Sanctuary beyond the protected doorway, inside their guarded room.

Six Rings remained open around Hajin’s arm while the five routes began moving through the attention thread toward the child.

The Collector’s hand was gone, though the order it carried had found another way forward through the five waiting routes.