Chapter 654: Three Seconds Held

Smoke poured from the fractured breastplate of the Choral Incarnation, drifting across the bloodstained flags of the central causeway.

The brilliant solar rift carved by Juna’s saber pulsed with dying embers of dawn light, exposing the raw harmonic conduits beneath the divine shell.

Hajin sprinted across the shattered causeway, his six physical Rings rotating around his chest in tight combat alignment.

Two towering elite construct sentinels lunged forward from the flanking rubble, their polearms aimed directly at his throat.

Before the blades reached him, crimson lightning cracked through the morning air, tearing through the sentinel on his left flank.

Cessy materialized out of the dark smoke, her demonic daggers severing the construct’s neck joints in a single fluid strike.

"Keep running, summoner!" she yelled, driving her knee into the falling sentinel’s armored chest. "I will handle this side!"

"Do not let them flank the causeway!" he called back, never breaking his forward stride.

"They will not touch you—just break that monster!" she shouted, parrying a counterstrike with a sharp spin.

On the opposite flank, a monstrous hound made of dark crystal sprang toward Hajin with jagged jaws gaping wide.

A black halberd sliced downward through the air, cleaving the crystalline beast cleanly in two from snout to tail.

Lucan ripped his weapon from the shattered carcass, planting his feet firmly against the scarred stone flags.

"The right approach is secured!" Lucan barked, whirling to face two more approaching constructs. "Go take that seam!"

"Hold the stair!" he commanded, vaulting over a pile of broken masonry.

"I have the stair covered!" Lucan yelled back, swinging his halberd in a wide defensive sweep.

Hajin reached the staggering Incarnation as the zone countdown timer ticked past the forty-fifth second.

The divine construct snarled in fury, bringing both of its crystalline fists down in a crushing double slam.

"Die in the dust, mortal thief!" the Incarnation roared, pouring every scrap of its embodied might into the blow.

He did not attempt to parry the descending crystalline fists with the two spare short blades at his belt.

Instead, he raised his right arm, activating the ancient relic that slumbered dormant within his gauntlet.

[ Sovereign Grasp: 15% resonance active ]

[ Duration: 3.0 seconds ]

[ Target: Exposed harmonic command seam ]

His fingers locked around one exposed strand of the pulsing seam, clamping shut with the absolute authority of a sovereign king.

A deafening shockwave reverberated through the Incarnation’s colossal frame as its entire body seized violently in mid-air.

For three absolute seconds, the divine construct could not move a single joint, frozen solid by the ancient grip.

Three precious beats of time hung in the mountain air, ticking against the desperate heartbeat of an empire.

With his left hand, Hajin drew the Unchanging Lever from his dimensional belt and drove the wedge into the seam.

[ Relic activated: Unchanging lever ]

[ Seam wedge: Deployed ]

[ Seam retention duration: 30 seconds ]

The three-second grasp expired, and the Incarnation’s fists slammed violently into the ground, shattering the paving stones around them.

Yet the wedge held fast, sliding along the continuous fissure and forcing the fractured plates apart with relentless pressure.

"Get this filth out of my chest!" the Incarnation screamed, clawing at the wedge with jagged crystalline claws.

The wedge refused to bend, locking the breach open for thirty seconds while sparks showered across the causeway.

"Loccy, bring the engineers forward right now!" Hajin shouted, holding the construct’s left arm back with his spare blades.

"Moving up right now!" Loccy bellowed from the lower ramp, leading four royal engineers carrying bundles of tempered metal braces.

Loccy slammed her twin shields into the ground right beside the Incarnation, creating an impenetrable barricade.

Behind her shielded stance, the engineers scrambled onto the monster’s lower chassis, sliding the prepared braces into the gap.

"Bolt the upper brackets first!" the lead engineer shouted, driving iron pins through the locking collars.

"The wedge is at twenty seconds... hurry!" Hajin urged, deflecting another wild slash from the Incarnation’s free claw.

"Braces are set and locked, sir!" the engineer cried, hammering the final crossbar into place.

With a sharp resonant click, the ordinary mechanical braces expanded, taking the crushing pressure of the contracting plates.

The thirty-second timer on the Unchanging Lever reached zero, and the magical wedge dissolved back into his inventory.

The Incarnation strained with all its physical might, trying to snap the mortal braces and seal its wounded chest.

The tempered alloy creaked violently under the immense strain, but the rigid triangular bracing held the fissure wide open.

A physical breach remained permanently exposed in the construct’s core, independent of any magical expiration timer.

Fifty yards away, Cessy and Lucan finished off the last construct guards, kicking their severed heads into the ravine.

The sibling demons wiped the black ichor from their blades, glancing toward the pinned Incarnation with savage grins.

"That construct is completely pinned!" Cessy called out, twirling her daggers.

"The forge has its target now!" Lucan added, resting his halberd against his armored shoulder.

"How long can those braces hold?" Loccy asked, brushing flakes of pulverized rock from her shoulders.

"Long enough for the strike to land," Hajin answered, his hand resting on the pommel of his short sword.

"Ferra signaled that the ignition sequence is under a minute away," Aria whispered into his ear.

"Then let us clear the area and give her a direct line of sight," he said.

"All units fall back twenty paces!" Loccy roared, herding the engineers down the stone stairs.

The royal engineers grabbed their field toolboxes and scrambled down the ramp without once looking back toward the thrashing construct.

’The domain window is already past the halfway mark,’ Hajin thought, tightening his grip on the spare hilts.

The shattered stone flags rattled beneath the shuddering frame of the immobilized construct, filling the canyon with the screech of straining metal.

High above the battle line, the morning sun crested the high granite peaks, bathing the valley in brilliant light as the allied army stood watching.

High above the mountain pass, the celestial broadcast interface lit up with a blinding barrage of golden donations.

[ Seoul_Tactician: "Three seconds on that brace, and the Sovereign Grasp found its opening!" ]

[ StarlightScholar: "Using the 30-second Lever to install permanent physical braces before it expired... absolute 200 IQ tactics!" ]

[ IronVanguard: "Loccy’s shield wall gave the engineers total cover! That is how you combine magic with mortal craftsmanship!" ]

[ HearthKeeper: "The demon siblings held both flanks so Hajin could make the play! Flawless teamwork from everyone!" ]

[ ShadowMage44: "Zone seconds 45 to 80 executed to perfection! The seam is pinned, and Ferra is ready with the first ignition weapon!" ]

[ TacticalNerd: "The Incarnation cannot close its wound while the braces hold the plates apart. Keep those bolts tight!" ]

[ NewViewer_02: "Hajin’s timing with the Grasp was insane! Exactly three seconds, not a millisecond wasted!" ]

[ CringeSlayer91: "The Incarnation has literal scaffolding bolted to its chest right now! That has to be humiliating!" ]

Hajin stepped back from the pinned construct, his split-colored eyes gleaming with cold confidence and surgical focus.

"Three seconds was all I could buy," Hajin said, watching the seized mechanism strain against the cracked flags.

"Then use them," Ferra answered from the lower ramp, already climbing with the tempered pair secured in her hands.

He kept his spare blades crossed against the core’s last moving plate, giving her a clear path instead of reaching for the weapons early.

When her feet struck the causeway, he shifted his weight without releasing the pin, and she placed each hilt within reach.

The gap was secured, the foreign god remained silent, and the final ignition strike was already descending from the forge.