Ferra signaled the team to stop at the gallery threshold before the mobile core found another crack in the vault ceiling.
Through the dim lantern light, the glowing crystalline core of the Split Custodian darted along the ceiling like a frightened bird.
It moved with eerie, liquid fluidity, seeking hairline cracks in the granite where it could burrow away to heal the vault.
"Remember the doctrine—do not chase it!" Ferra called out through the acoustic horn from the upper observation platform.
"If you press it with raw violence, its immune reflex triggers an explosive shockwave across the entire sector!"
"Keep the lateral walls soft... leave only my mapped drainage channel open for its escape route!"
Hajin stood fifty paces back in the central tunnel, his four retained bronze rings rotating with steady, quiet restraint.
Beside him stood his identical construct, clad in plain gray wool with two silver rings glowing behind its shoulders.
