Chapter 554: Every Exit Counted

Rumi stepped through the prepared threshold with Cessy’s scarf in view, following the curve she had laid around the hooked creature’s reaching arm.

The scarf was caught near its point, the loose cloth drawing tight whenever Cessy tried moving her shoulder away from the grip.

Rumi could see the other end of her road behind the defensive line, Nari’s anchor holding that familiar patch of stone steady beneath the opening.

"Cessy, come toward me."

The demon looked at her through the space below the hook, her breath catching as the pull under her feet brought the bandage against the taut cloth.

"I am trying."

"Leave the scarf."

Cessy’s fingers stopped pulling at the knot, her hand opening just enough for Rumi to catch the loose end against her palm.

Dead Road stretched between the marked positions, its amber edge burning along Rumi’s left insignia as she moved around the hooked arm.

The creature turned with her, bringing its shoulder across the approach while she slipped into the narrow space it had left beside Cessy.

Her right arm went beneath the demon’s uninjured side, taking her weight as the hook scraped closer to the place where they stood.

"Now step."

Cessy pushed off the stone with a short, pained breath, trusting the pull at her waist enough to lift the foot the bundle had been dragging.

Rumi carried that movement into the prepared road, her body turning sideways while the hook tore through the loosened scarf behind them.

The cloth parted below its knot, leaving the small tied piece against Rumi’s left hand as the rest whipped back toward the creature.

Cessy’s weight struck her shoulder harder than expected, the awkward impact sending heat up the insignia she was using to hold their route.

Rumi bent her knees through the landing, keeping the demon against her until both feet reached the marked stone beyond the grip.

Vella took Cessy’s other side at once, her gold settling near the bandage while Rumi pulled her arm clear of the transfer.

"Thank you," Cessy said, the words rough against her next breath.

"Stay here for a moment."

Rumi tucked the scarf-knot under her wrist wrap, its ordinary cloth catching against the hot skin while she turned back toward the road.

The hooked fighter had lunged after them, throwing its reaching arm into the path through which Cessy had just escaped its hold.

Its own weight carried the shoulder across the first mark, the dark plates around its chest opening as it twisted to keep the hook ahead.

Nari’s right hand pressed down behind it, fixing the exposed return point while the creature tried hauling its arm back through the approach.

Rumi felt her sister’s anchor take the far end, the answering pressure settling through the road with a firmness she recognized immediately.

’There.’

She bent the prepared path around the exposed chest, drawing its next stretch through the gap the creature had opened beneath its shoulder.

The hook struck stone beyond the nearer mark, its point biting into empty paving while the chest turned against the road carrying it.

Rumi followed that turn with her left palm, the amber edge catching between the plates until the core behind them stood alone inside the narrowed passage.

The body dragged against its own committed route, its arm trying to pull forward while Nari’s anchor held the way it had used to enter.

Rumi could hear claws scraping on the far side of the fold, the noise making her ears flatten as she leaned toward the isolated core.

Its surface showed a thin moving seam where the road had pulled the surrounding protection away, a small opening that kept turning out of her reach.

She waited through one scrape of the hook, shifting her foot when the creature’s next desperate pull brought that seam toward her hand.

Her claws entered the opening as the core turned, the impact jarring her fingers before she brought the prepared road sharply around its exposed edge.

The core cracked against the bend, its light breaking into scattered pieces while the hooked arm struck the paving beyond the mark.

Rumi held her palm in place until the fragments stopped pulling at the road, the hot pressure beneath her insignia easing into a deep ache.

[ Rumi experience gained: 1,000,000 ]

[ Rumi Wing progress: 4,000,000 / 7,500,000 ]

Hajin brought the fields into view above the broken approach, their clean lines appearing while Rumi pulled her hand back against her chest.

Three amber-edged planes remained behind her, their angles trembling as the road she had spent collapsed between its two marked ends.

"Bring the answer home," Juna called.

Rumi looked toward Cessy on the safe stone, finding Vella beside her and the severed scarf still hanging loosely across her shoulder.

"Already here."

The reply came out more breathless than she wanted, her claws retracting slowly while a little dust settled where the first core had broken.

She drew a strip of the torn scarf along the stone, gathering that dust before folding it into the cloth with the back of her fingers.

The knot stayed beneath her wrist wrap, its familiar roughness pressing into the tender place where the road had burned her skin.

On the second approach, split-jaw dragged Lucan toward a rebuilt opening, its two halves biting at the space where Nari had fixed the first exit.

Rumi turned toward her sister, the pain in her palm sharpening when she saw a second escape point begin opening beside the creature’s right shoulder.

"Your left," she warned.

"I see it."

Nari stepped into the angle with her back toward the wall, pressing her right palm against the already exposed point before it could widen.

The opening stopped beneath the anchor, its edge bunching into a narrow fold while split-jaw’s nearest half snapped at the space it had lost.

Lucan pulled his shoulder away as the grip faltered, catching himself on the wall when one of his knees struck the broken paving.

Nari kept her palm low until he cleared the bite, the first pin holding the entry behind the creature while she fixed the second at its shoulder.

"Please stop offering it your arm," she told him.

"I hadn’t meant to."

"Then we agree."

The third exit rebuilt beneath split-jaw’s jaw, its dark edge opening toward the loose route the creature was still trying to use behind Lucan.

Nari lowered herself beside the exposed mouth, placing the final anchor where the two halves had parted far enough to reveal it.

Rumi felt the closing pressure through the nearer mark, her own fingers curling against her chest as Nari held the last rebuilt route shut.

The split jaw struck its first blocked exit, then its second, the separate impacts traveling through the pinned folds with a harsh, uneven rhythm.

Nari stayed beside the third point, watching the creature’s core follow the only retreat it had left until the light lodged inside the fixed seam.

Her three planes folded inward as she pressed the exposed route closed, the pinned ends holding while the core caught between them cracked.

The sound came through all three exits at once, a brittle series of breaks that ended with both halves of the jaw striking the ground.

Nari held the final point through the collapse, her right shoulder shaking before she let the pressure settle beneath the anchors.

[ Nari experience gained: 1,000,000 ]

[ Nari Wing progress: 4,000,000 / 7,500,000 ]

The second set of fields appeared beside the first, Hajin looking between them while his Chain stayed taut across the fifth fighter’s approach.

"Terrifyingly polite," he said, his voice rough from where Juna was still supporting him, "both of you."

Nari glanced toward him over the stopped jaw, her ears lifting a fraction before she looked back at the pins she had placed.

"He moved his arm."

Rumi let out a short breath that almost hurt enough to spoil the laugh, stepping beside her sister as the last fragments settled between the folds.

Nari took the chalk Rumi offered with her free hand, putting a number beside each of the three exposed exits before releasing any of them.

The first pin came free with a small shiver through the route, its edge fading above Nari’s right palm as she checked the empty point beneath it.

She withdrew the second more slowly, waiting until the stopped jaw lay still before she touched the final marked seam beneath its mouth.

"Three," Rumi said when the last pin cleared.

Nari nodded, letting her hand drop only after she had looked back across all three chalked places and found the exits empty.

Lucan had reached Cessy’s side, his hand hovering near her shoulder before she caught it with the fingers that had been pulling at her scarf.

Rumi looked at the knot beneath her wrist wrap, suddenly aware of how small a piece of cloth could feel against the road burn.

"I’ll want that back later," Cessy told her.

"I’m keeping it for the toll."

The demon’s mouth moved around a tired attempt at a smile, her grip tightening briefly around Lucan’s hand before she looked past him.

Rumi caught Nari watching the scarf-knot, her sister’s gaze dropping toward the burn beneath it before they both turned back to the square.

Three fighters remained beneath the scars, their movements drawing closer together as Hajin’s Chain pulled against the road the fifth one still held.

The pale red-threaded body shifted toward Didi, its ribs turning around the frost she kept pressed against the line reaching for her blood.

Loccy stayed in front of the designation-bearer, her shoulders rising with a deep breath as the markings across its body faced the protected passage again.

Rumi stepped back toward Nari, keeping the folded core dust in her hand while the three surviving approaches tightened around the space their dead companions had left.