From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

An awakened hand caught the tank trolley's front wheel and began pulling itself apart.

Jade leaned over the gold rim and struck the wrist with the seventh-line wrench. The hand released after two fingers broke beneath the wheel.

The convoy kept accelerating as broken fingers vanished beneath its wheels.

Heat entered the tunnel ahead through ceiling vents, each marked by a blade pointing down the slope.

Palla saw the third marker and dragged herself beside Kegaku's bed.

"The furnace descent begins after the next track crossing."

JJ checked both pump housings while the trolleys shook beneath her.

"How long does the tank survive inside those furnaces?"

"The glass fails first, and everything else follows quickly."

Behind them, the Reaper used its hook to pull closer along the rail. Awakened bodies clung to its robe and lost pieces whenever the walls narrowed.

Ty threw one sickle. The blade struck the scythe shaft, though the Reaper kept advancing.

"We need an engine before that thing reaches our coupling."

The tunnel widened around a lower junction cut beneath the furnace routes.

A funeral locomotive crossed beneath them with six sealed cars and a square cab built around a standing control frame. Smoke rose through pipes along its roof rather than through one central stack. Its wheels matched the condemned line's iron grooves.

The descending trolleys would pass over the locomotive once before reaching the furnace slope.

Palla pointed toward the roof hatch with two piston rods.

"The roof hatch leads into the control frame, but the operator may remain inside."

Jade looked at Palla's failing knees and then at the closing distance.

"Can you operate that engine if I carry you across?"

"Keep Erebos out of the cab, and I will operate anything Sadle built."

Jade lifted Palla with one arm around her waist. Palla stiffened against the contact, then secured both damaged hands around Jade's vest.

"Put me down if I strike twice against your shoulder."

"You get one strike because the second wastes distance."

Yun-Jin anchored violet thread to the locomotive roof. Jade jumped when the funeral engine passed beneath the trolleys.

The thread caught their combined weight and swung them through smoke from the roof pipes. Jade landed on one knee beside the hatch while Palla struck once against her shoulder.

Jade released Palla immediately and kept both hands visible.

Palla crawled to the hatch and inserted three piston rods into its lock, turning her wrist until the internal catches broke around her fingers.

The roof hatch opened beneath both women and struck the cab wall.

An operator stood inside the cab with a metal brace holding his spine against the control frame. His head rested forward over a row of levers. Kegaku's approaching pulse reached him through the rails.

His hands closed around the throttle when Kegaku's pulse reached the cab.

The funeral engine accelerated away from the trolleys.

Jade dropped through the hatch and caught the operator around the waist. His spine brace kept him standing while his elbow drove backward into her ruined eye.

White pain crossed her vision. She kept hold and pulled his hips away from the controls.

Palla entered behind her and pushed both piston rods through the brace release.

"He served this line before my execution yard received authority."

The brace opened. The operator fell against Jade with enough weight to drive her into the control frame.

His teeth worked near her shoulder, though no sound came from his crushed throat.

Palla caught his throttle hand before the engine gained another yard.

"Worker, your route ended before either of us reached this cab."

She bent his wrist away from the lever. Jade lowered him into the corner rather than throwing him beneath the wheels.

The operator continued reaching for the throttle from the floor.

Palla used a broken safety belt to secure his working arm to the brace.

"He will keep trying while Kegaku's pulse reaches the engine."

"Then give him room to fail without losing another body."

Jade climbed back through the roof hatch and looked toward the descending convoy. The gap had widened to thirty feet.

Yun-Jin stood on the tank trolley with violet thread wrapped around both forearms. She fired an arrow into the funeral engine's rear coupling.

The thread drew tight between the engine and the trolleys.

Omina extended green bars along the violet line, building a rigid bridge while the funeral engine crossed under them.

"Lower Kegaku's trolley before the furnace switch divides both routes."

Palla pulled three levers inside the cab. A set of empty roof clamps rose behind Jade.

The condemned line dropped toward those clamps with trolley wheels screaming against the turn.

Kegaku's trolley hit first, its front wheels leaving the upper rail and striking the locomotive's rear platform. The pressure bed bounced inside its restraints, sending a hard spike through the tank hose.

Jade ran across the engine roof and caught the first flexible return before it kinked.

The tank trolley followed with JJ holding both pumps against their mounts. Yun-Jin's thread guided the overhanging gold rim between the locomotive's roof pipes.

Omina collapsed the green bridge after the final wheels landed.

Ty jumped from the upper rail and caught the tank rim. Zunoder landed beside the engine coupling with blood spreading from the Reaper's earlier hook wound.

Kieran followed while keeping one hand over the flute case.

Erebos remained on the upper line with the Reaper directly behind him.

"The engine has room for one shadow thief and no collector."

Palla reached for the route lever before Erebos jumped.

He dropped through the smoke and landed on the final sealed car. The Reaper's hook followed through his coat and pinned him to the roof.

Ty ran along the tank trolley while Erebos cut his coat away with shadow, leaving the fabric on the scythe. The Reaper used it to swing from the upper line onto the funeral car.

Awakened bodies came with it and struck the roof behind the creature.

The funeral engine reached the route split while its rear cars leaned toward the furnace descent.

Furnace doors waited below one track while the other curved upward beneath a chain of signal lamps.

Palla gripped the upward lever with both damaged hands.

"The living freight loop opens every city warning when condemned cargo enters."

Jade dropped into the cab beside her and braced against the control frame.

"Open every warning before this train reaches anyone alive."

"Sadle will cut the rails when they see my keeper mark."

"Then they can cut rails after people leave the platforms."

Palla pulled the upward lever while the first wheels entered the split.

Iron beneath the engine shifted while the first wheels entered the split. The funeral cars leaned toward the furnace doors. Omina drove green bars between the rails and forced the rear wheels onto the rising track.

The engine climbed hard enough to shake ash from every roof pipe.

Signal lamps turned from blue to white along the tunnel. Mechanical horns opened in the walls and released one continuous warning ahead of the train.

The Reaper crossed the first funeral car while Ty and Zunoder fought awakened bodies between the sealed roof boxes. Kieran cut hands away from the tank hoses without opening the flute case.

Kegaku's pulse traveled through the locomotive and entered the sealed funeral cars.

Inside all six sealed cars, restraints began striking against metal.

Palla heard the new rhythm through the controls.

"These cars carried the final bodies from three execution districts."

"Can you detach them without losing our trolleys?"

"The tank rides behind every funeral car, so detachment abandons it with them."

Jade climbed back onto the roof and followed the coupling line with her eyes. The tank trolley was fixed behind the sixth car, while Kegaku's bed occupied the locomotive's rear platform.

The Reaper planted both feet on the roof of the third car.

Ty met it across the fourth car with both sickles raised.

The sealed roof beneath them buckled upward as something inside reached Kegaku's pulse.

"Nobody opens those cars while the train is moving through a city."

Omina placed green bars across every roof latch. Yun-Jin threaded all six together, making one restraint that would either hold the cars or tear every latch loose at once.

The tunnel climbed through a final stone gate.

Daylight struck the engine roof as it entered an elevated rail above Sadle's lower city. Workshops, food stalls, and narrow apartment towers crowded both sides of the track. Workers abandoned freight carts when the warning horns reached them.

People looked up and saw Keeper Palla at the controls, a glass tank behind six funeral cars, two versions of Ty fighting on the roofs, and the Reaper crossing toward them.

Uniformed rail cutters ran onto the bridge ahead.

Their leader lowered a mask over her face and drove a hooked saw into the left rail.

The funeral engine had four hundred feet before the bridge ended.

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