Lowwater hadn't breathed since Marra.
Hook Street worked ovens cold, merchants standing idle with hands meant to lift. The Slums muttered too loud, pipes tapping nervous instead of steady. Even the Towers rang their bells late and wrong, ashamed to be stone that thought it was order.
Evan stood in the street with his storm crawling violet along his arms, ribs still wrapped, eyes burning. His body ached, his guilt chewed, but his panel wouldn't let him look away.
It wanted to be read.
Quest Complete — Rise Again.Objective: Surpass anomaly [Cross]. Status: Fulfilled.Reward: Path Evolution unlocked.Reward: Stat Transfer — anomaly [Cross] defeated.
Processing…
Stat Increase: +120 Speed (absorbed).Bonus: Black Lightning Residue detected → integrated (passive resistance +15%).Overflow: 30% → 38%.
Evan Sharp — StatusLevel: 17Speed: 1,276Tier: 2 — Silver (Lightning Stepper → Ghost Current)Condition: Stabilized (bandaged fractures, conduction strain residual).Active Path: Ghost Current (Phase II).
Skills:
Thunderstep (C) — shockwave locomotion; refined.
Vector Break (C+) — microplane cuts; range improved.
Velocity Veil (C) — afterimage replication; fatigue −5%.
Arc Ascension (B) — storm embodiment; stabilized.
Ghost Current (B−) — vector compression + lane weighting; fear → speed conversion (12% cap).
Passives:
Domain Weighting +15%.
Fear Resonance suppression (−20% Slums).
Black Lightning Resistance (+15%).
Evan shut his eyes and let the numbers settle. Cross was dead, but his speed wasn't. It lived in him now, folded into marrow. The system hadn't just recorded the win—it had eaten it, chewed it, and given him the bones.
The arcs around him hissed louder, violet burning closer to white. Faster. He felt faster, not just in his legs but in his blood.
He whispered to the air, "You're mine now."
The city didn't answer, but the pipes hummed three-two-three without hands.
Silver squad arrived in force. Aelira, braid tight, slate glowing with Registry alerts. Cairn behind her, yellow arcs grumbling.
"You killed Cross," Aelira said. Ledger voice, not praise. "You killed Chorus too."
"He killed Marra," Evan answered. His storm spat sparks at the name.
"And now," Cairn said, spitting iron into the gutter, "the bells are breaking themselves."
As if to agree, the Towers rang. Not one bell—all of them. At once. Out of order. Their voices collided in mid-air until the sound bent, sick and wrong.
The Registry slate in Aelira's hands glowed hot enough to crack.
"Three at once," she breathed. "Docks. Foundry. Towers."
The panel shoved into Evan's eyes.
Registry Alert — Multi-Anomaly Surge Detected.Codename: Splinter (Towers sector).Trait: Shard Division (reflection replication).
Codename: Maw (Docks sector).Trait: Consumption. Object → void.
Codename: Ashfall (Foundry sector).Trait: Ember Replication. Fire given shape.
Projected Collapse: 72 hours.Directive: Eliminate before network erosion.
Evan's storm rose higher. His ribs screamed. His guilt chewed deeper. But his feet were already turning.
"I'll burn the Foundry," he said.
Aelira snapped her braid tight, eyes hard. "I'll take Towers."
Cairn rolled his shoulder, yellow arcs snarling. "The Maw is mine."
Silver squad scattered, each to a district. The bells rang again, crooked and scared.
Evan bent into a run.
The Foundry had become a kiln.
Ashfall rose from broken furnaces like a man-shaped bonfire. Its body was ember-black, smoke for blood, eyes molten. Every step it took cracked sparks from cobble; every exhale shed cinders that crawled into smaller shapes.
Workers fled. Sparks lit abandoned tools. Hammers screamed against anvils they weren't meant to hit.
Evan burst in with Thunderstep rattling beams overhead. Violet arcs cut the smoke.
[Ghost Current] — Vector Cleave Engaged.
Compressed lightning folded through the alley, snapping outward. Three ember-spawn shattered at once, their smoke shrieking into glass dust. Ashfall turned molten eyes toward him and bellowed—a roar of sparks, ash spraying like knives.
Anomaly: Ashfall.Trait: Ember Replication.Weakness: High-velocity dispersal.
Perfect.
Evan blurred forward, his storm splitting into three echoes. One slammed the core, one cracked the limb, one uppercut through its jaw. Ash scattered. Embers reformed. More bodies crawled from the fire.
The Slums' pipes hammered faint, miles away, three-two-three. Evan's ribs hurt less when he heard it.
Fear → Momentum Conversion: +7%.
He struck again. Thunderstep low, Vector Break high, splitting smoke into quarters. Arcs chased embers before they could reform. His storm drank the heat, spit it back as violet sparks.
Ashfall screamed with a hundred crackling mouths. Evan burned it to silence.
Anomaly [Ashfall] Eliminated.Reward: Level Up (Lv. 17 → 18).Reward: Speed +35.Domain Bond: Foundry Reinforced.
The fire guttered. Sparks died. The Foundry sighed in relief.
Evan wiped blood from his mouth. His storm crawled higher, greedy.
"Next," he whispered.
The panel shoved again.
Registry Update:Splinter (Towers): escalating — Division x12.Maw (Docks): escalating — Cargo consumed, piers collapsed.
And then a new alert.
Central Surge Detected — Slums.Codename: Choir.Behavior: Composite Song.Threat Level: Catastrophic.Projection: Entire Domain collapse if unchecked.
The pipes banged all at once. Not three-two-three. A different rhythm, chaotic, wrong. The lanes themselves shook with it.
Evan clenched his fists. His storm climbed into his throat. His guilt clawed deeper.
He whispered to the Slums, to Marra, to the whole city:
"Then I'll teach it a better song."
And he ran.