Ferra shoved the final lock bolt across, and four ceiling niches split open above the passage as floor hooks rose.
Four sentinels unfolded from the niches, each carrying a divine core burning high in its chest like a stolen lantern. Beneath them, the hooks swung blindly toward whichever living circulation answered first, extraction tools hunting for a pulse to drink.
"Oh, come on, two kinds of ugly at once?" Hajin hissed, his single Ring humming beneath his ribs.
'Cores up top, needles down low, and both want the first idiot who flinches.'
He lifted Chains of the Goddess with his dressed left hand while Ferra checked the nearest hook's return connection.
"Different systems," he warned, tracing their crossing routes without pushing his Ring toward either waiting hook.
"Cores above, extraction below, and nobody gets a wide swing until we know where its force comes home!"
Loccy tested the first arch against its timber supports, then left their accepted load for the forward lane.
