The Fragments of Persistent Pain
The sky above Edenfall dawned tinged with a dark red, as if the city were bleeding from above. The signal was clear: Edenfall's nervous system was responding to the accumulated trauma. Fragments of Lingering Pain began to emerge in the forgotten neighborhoods, small floating crystals that held echoes of past emotions.
"These fragments aren't just memory," Lirea said, examining one carefully. "They're seeds. Of pain. Of rage. Of what we couldn't express."
As the fragments fell to the ground, they released frozen scenes of trauma: crying parents, clashing siblings, broken promises. The city was being forced to remember, and in that memory, something new was brewing.
The Clan of the Living Lament
Taking advantage of the activation of the shards, a new mafia emerged from the ruins of the former industrial sector: the Clan of the Living Wail , led by a masked figure known as Arkael . They didn't seek to control Edenfall. They wanted the city to break apart entirely.
Each member of the clan possessed a power derived from the specific pain they represented. One, Dorei , could replicate the cry of a lost mother, paralyzing his enemies for minutes. Another, Shorai , transformed hopelessness into sonic waves that eroded physical structures.
Akihiko, Kael, and Naeya intercepted one of their rituals. Upon confronting them, they realized that the Clan wasn't fighting for power, but to disintegrate hope .
"They believe the only way to cure Edenfall is to destroy it altogether," Kael whispered, after watching a child lash out with the tears of his dead father.
III. The Blood of the Tree
Amidst the chaos, the Blood Tree beneath the Resonance Center began to literally bleed. Its red sap flowed like a slow river, seeping through the cracks in the ground.
Lirea and a group of emotional researchers discovered that this blood contained genetic and emotional information from every past conflict. It could absorb memories and return them in augmented form.
"This tree isn't a symbol. It's an archive. And it's crying."
The Throne attempted to control that sap to use it as a weapon of collective erasure, but Akihiko used his Void to seal the main channels, losing much of his life energy in the process.
The First Emotional Eclipse
An unprecedented anomaly enveloped Edenfall: an eclipse where there was no darkness, but absolute emotional intensification . For five minutes, the entire city felt its emotions multiplied tenfold.
The fighting intensified. The Living Lament Clan attacked with all their might, and Akihiko, still weakened, managed to summon the Refracted Void Form , a technique that channeled his pain into pure blade.
During the battle, Naeya awakened his new power: Touch Memory , with which he could make an enemy feel the memory of another person in their body. He used this power to make Dorei feel the screams of the victims he had replicated. He fell to his knees.
The Last Fragment
At the end of the chapter, Lirea finds a different fragment. It wasn't red, but transparent. Upon touching it, she heard a voice:
"Edenfall cannot be restored... if it is not accepted."
That fragment contained the Original Memory , a primordial memory that could rewrite Edenfall's entire emotional history. Shoen Rikudō, from the shadows, observed it.
"It's near. The origin. The error."
The chapter ends with the fragment levitating toward the Blood Tree, while everyone in Edenfall feels an inner shudder. Something is about to awaken that will change the city forever.