Chapter 612: Nari Counts Back

Nari crouched upon a cedar telephone pole twenty paces from the fortified compound, her spotted ears swiveling in silent concentration.

Nari marked the moving guard’s blind interval in her mind before committing to a route beneath the four visible vents.

She counted four distinct spatial exhaust vents glowing with faint violet runes along the perimeter wall of the counting house.

Her Four-Winged ability, No Exit, allowed her to clamp down on dimensional escape vectors, sealing spatial movement within a bounded perimeter.

Beneath her perch, Hajin held position behind the river boulders while Rumi slipped through a service louver toward the inner shelves.

"Four escape portals active," the younger twin whispered into her communication cuff, her voice calm and calculated.

"They intend to transmit the synchronization sequence in less than ten minutes."

"I am inside by the west shelves, little sister," Rumi answered over the link. "Hajin has the outer perimeter."

Nari dropped from the pole in a soundless dive, slipping through a high ventilation louver into the vaulted counting chamber.

The room was vast and lined with towering archive shelves, revolving brass gearworks, and desks covered in stamped requisitions.

In the center of the chamber, an elevated platform held a massive mechanical timing wheel humming with concentrated choral mana.

Keeper Ossik stood beside the wheel, his robes stitched with purple runes and his fingers resting upon a revolving bronze aperture.

"A little beastkin scout," the keeper mocked, his voice echoing from three different corners of the room simultaneously.

"Did you really believe you could breach our sanctuary before the dawn signal transmitted?"

With a flick of his wrist, Ossik opened three spatial portals, scattering six armed guards through the outer corridors.

Six guards vanished into the glowing apertures, leaving two beside the keeper in the counting chamber.

Ossik smiled with condescending arrogance, stepping backward toward the fourth portal behind the central timing wheel.

"Pursue them if you like, little kitten... but you will never catch six couriers running in opposite directions!"

"I do not need to chase anyone," Nari replied with icy detachment, planting her feet firmly against the center of the floor.

She flared her four ruby wings, sending crimson boundary lines toward each marked aperture while keeping both feet planted.

"Clear the threshold!" she shouted to the outer perimeter, warning her allies as the spatial lockdown initiated.

Translucent ruby boundaries snapped shut over all four dimensional apertures, severing their connections with a resonant chime.

[ Four Wings manifested: No Exit activated ]

[ Spatial lockdown: 60 seconds remaining ]

[ Dimensional vector movement: Sealed within 50-meter radius ]

The glowing purple portals collapsed into sparks, trapping Ossik and his remaining guards inside the very chamber they attempted to flee.

The six scattered couriers ran the outer passages, unable to jump back while Rumi held the only chamber door.

Ossik gasped in horrified disbelief, stumbling backward as his escape portal dissolved into thin air before his eyes.

"What did you do to my portals?" the corrupt keeper shrieked, drawing a serrated short sword from his ornate sash.

"I locked the portals," Nari answered, keeping both feet fixed beside the timing wheel as she drew her daggers.

"For sixty seconds, none of you can jump away. The ordinary doors still work, so do not let them reach one, sister!"

"Kill her before the timer expires!" Ossik screamed to his two remaining guards, lunging toward Nari’s planted stance.

Rumi sprang from the west shelves and struck the first guard’s cleaver aside before it reached her sister.

"You left two guards in here with me?" Rumi laughed. "That was the worst part of your plan."

She hooked the first guard behind the knee and sent him crashing onto a low table beneath the archive shelves.

The second guard swung overhead, but Rumi caught his cleaver on her dagger and drove an elbow into his ribs.

His armor clasps snapped under the blow, and he fell beside the first guard with a wheezing groan.

Ossik circled the raised dais with his serrated blade, looking between Nari’s fixed stance and Rumi guarding the ordinary door.

"Forty seconds. That door stays yours, sister. I can’t follow him without dropping the seal."

"I see it. The outer guards are taking the stairs. I will hold this door!" Rumi answered, dragging the fallen guards away from the threshold before either could crawl toward its latch.

One guard grabbed her ankle and earned a sharp kick to his wrist, leaving Rumi beside the exit as Ossik turned on Nari.

The keeper lunged for the timing wheel, aiming to shove her from the mark where she held all four apertures shut.

Nari caught his sword against her left dagger and twisted at the waist, keeping both soles firmly planted on the flags.

"You can keep your little cage," Ossik spat, pulling his blade free. "The signal needs only one turn of that wheel."

"Then come take it," she replied, setting her other dagger across the exposed command lever without touching the civic gears.

He struck at her wrist twice, and she parried each blow within the narrow reach her anchored stance allowed.

The wheel clicked onward while Rumi held the guards at the door, and the next three exchanges consumed the seconds Ossik expected to save.

"Ten seconds," Nari called as the keeper abandoned the wheel and broke toward the ordinary exit.

"That door is open," Rumi said, stepping across its frame. "You still have to get past me."

Ossik changed direction instead, charging Nari’s flank to break her stance before the sealed portals reopened.

She crossed her daggers around his sword arm, drawing his momentum toward the dais while her feet remained fixed.

His serrated blade struck the flags, and Nari drove her dagger hilt into his jaw before he could recover his balance.

The corrupt keeper collapsed beside the wheel, incapacitated by Nari’s own hand while Rumi kept the guards away from them both.

When the sixty-second countdown expired, Nari released her stance and let the ruby boundaries dissolve without touching the civic controls.

Nari walked over to the central dais, inspecting the humming mechanical timing wheel with a sharp, analytical gaze.

To her astonishment, she discovered that the timing mechanism did not belong exclusively to the Choral Incarnation’s military network.

Interleaved within the hostile gear ratios was an independent civic channel, maintaining water levels and irrigation gates for local farmers.

"If we smashed this entire wheel to pieces, every farm downstream would have flooded by sunset," she realized softly.

Hajin breached the main door to find Rumi binding Ossik while Nari inspected the wheel she guarded throughout the fight.

"Good seal, Nari. Good interception, Rumi," Hajin said as he stepped onto the dais to examine the wheel.

"You kept the keeper from escaping and preserved the civilian infrastructure without touching the gears."

"Look at the gear ratios, Master," she pointed out, indicating the dual copper tracks beneath the main dial.

"The civic channel is intertwined with their command signal... we cannot use brute force on these relays without hurting the townspeople."

"Then we will dismantle their network with surgical precision," the young lord declared, his split-colored eyes gleaming with resolve.

"We need Princess Didi to examine these municipal registers," he added, pointing to the stacks of civic records beside the dais.

"Her royal court experience will help us distinguish the coerced civil clerks from the fanatical choir operatives before Vella attempts severance."

Nari nodded in agreement, wiping her twin daggers clean with a soft linen cloth before sheathing them at her waist.

The stream caught the moment Nari released her field, and viewers watched the civic technicians regain control of their own station.

[ Seoul_Tactician: "Nari held four exits shut and dropped the keeper herself while Rumi blocked the ordinary door!" ]

[ StarlightScholar: "No Exit is such an incredible ability, locking down spatial cowards who rely on cheap teleportation!" ]

[ IronVanguard: "She saved the civilian irrigation lines too, the summoner companions are true heroes through and through!" ]

Rumi bounded onto the dais, wrapping her arms around her sister in a playful headlock while ruffling her pointed ears.

"You were so cool in here, little sister!" the elder twin purred happily, nuzzling her cheek against Nari’s temple.

"Get off me, you oversized fur ball," Nari complained with a blush, though her spotted tail curled affectionately around her twin’s waist.

"Leave the registers where the clerks can verify them," Nari told Hajin, easing her daggers away from the civic controls.

"My field is down now. Nobody touches those dials until Didi separates the real warrants from the forged ones."

Rumi posted herself by the stair, giving the frightened technicians a clear exit while the evidence remained in their sight.

Both sisters turned and leaned against Hajin’s shoulders, their soft lynx ears twitching in synchronized contentment as they shared a peaceful breath.