The Slums had never been quiet. Even in fear, pipes tapped, doors slammed, dogs barked because they could. Tonight it wasn't noise. It was a song.
A wrong one.
Every pipe rattled at once, not in rhythm but in layers stacked on layers until the alleys shook like throats. Every mouth whispered the same syllable until it turned into stone splitting.
"Ghost."
Evan hit the border at full storm, violet arcs scraping cobbles, ribs shrieking with every stride. The Domain tugged in his chest—Slums thread stretched thin, fraying under weight.
The panel spat red.
Anomaly Surge: Central Slums. Codename: Choir.Threat Level: Catastrophic. Trait: Composite Song. Effect: Structural collapse, speech corruption, Domain unravel.
Directive: Eliminate anomaly [Choir]. Failure: Network collapse; Slums erased.
He cut a corner, almost ripped his jacket off on a wall, and stopped dead.
Choir stood in the courtyard where Cross once laughed.
A body too tall, stitched of mouths and ribs bent into flutes. Every breath whistled a different note. Its chest cavity sang in chords, hundreds of voices stolen and stacked until it felt like Lowwater itself was humming wrong.
Children clutched their throats in doorways. Merchants covered ears with cloth. The song still seeped.
Evan's arcs screamed against it, sparks snapping into counter-rhythm.
"Not your voice," he said. "Not your city."
Choir turned. A hundred mouths smiled.
[Combat Engaged: Choir.]
Choir — Status:Health: Unknown. Body Count Absorbed: 312.Voices Stored: 510.Replication: Active.
It sang.
The first note cracked shutters. The second rattled pipes into splinters. The third blew a man off his feet twenty paces away.
Evan ran.
[Ghost Current] — Vector Compression Engaged.
Arcs collapsed inward, pressed tight, then snapped forward like an elastic whip. He struck low, Thunderstep detonating cobbles beneath Choir's knee. Stone jumped.
Choir staggered, mouths howling dissonance. Smaller figures tore free from its body—spawnlings, ribs twisted into flutes, screaming like teeth on glass.
"Spawn," Evan spat.
He blurred through them, violet afterimages splitting alleys.
Velocity Veil: 8 echoes active. Spawnlings eliminated: 12.Momentum Conversion: +5%.
Choir roared louder. Its song stole words from air. Civilians screamed and no sound came out. Their voices crawled into Choir's chest, swelling its chord.
Evan grit teeth. "Over my dead—"
His voice cut off.
The panel blinked.
[Voice Theft Engaged.]Warning: Command-based abilities unavailable (10s).
His arcs stuttered. A spawnling raked claws across his ribs. Pain spiked hot, but he didn't stop. He ran harder, storm scraping stone into sparks.
Arc Ascension (B) — Activated.
Lightning bloomed full, arcs stretching across three alleys. He became storm in every corner. Each afterimage struck with weight enough to crater cobble. Choir's chord broke for a second, one wrong note squealing as lightning chewed into its ribs.
Evan's voice snapped back.
"Give them back!" he roared, and punched straight into its chest.
[Vector Break — Precision Critical.]
His hand cut through bone-flutes, arcs detonating inside the cavity. Dozens of voices spilled out, screaming free, rushing back to throats that had been empty seconds ago. Civilians gasped, coughed, clutched at their necks.
The Domain thread in Evan's chest tightened.
Slums Stabilization +12%.
Choir reeled, mouths snapping like shutters in a storm. Then it screamed—not notes, but Marra's voice.
"Eat," it said in her tone.
Evan froze for half a heartbeat. His arcs wavered. Guilt flared, sharp and merciless.
Spawnlings hit him. Ash teeth tore at his arm, his shoulder, his face. Blood sprayed violet with sparks.
He roared back, grief a weapon.
[Ghost Current] — Lane Anchor Activated.
He slammed his foot into cobble. His storm threaded pipes, bricks, beams. The Slums themselves hummed his note, not Choir's.
Three–two–three hammered everywhere at once.
The spawnlings faltered, tripped, collapsed in seizure. Choir's chest cavity cracked, song splintering.
Evan blurred, violet arcs slashing in a spiral.
Vector Cleave (Phase II) — Unlocked. Effect: Area-wide chain strike (radius: 15m).
Every mouth in range exploded into silence. Choir staggered, half its chest caving in, rib-flutes snapping into dust.
"Mine," Evan growled, storm burning white at the edges.
The panel surged.
Boss Phase — Choir (Critical).Health: 41%.Replication: Aggressive. New Ability Unlocked: Resonant Collapse.
The air screamed.
Every wall, every pipe, every stone in the courtyard sang Choir's note. The ground fractured, houses shook, windows shattered.
Civilians fell screaming again. Their voices bled into the song once more.
Evan's arcs flickered. His ears bled.
"Shut. Up."
He pushed everything.
[Arc Ascension] Overdrive — Unsafe. Conduction strain: 82%. Neural Burn Risk: 91%.
He didn't care.
Lightning tore free in a storm dome. Pipes hummed his rhythm, three–two–three hammering back. The Slums themselves screamed in his key.
He dashed—once, twice, ten times. Every strike a cleave, every echo cutting. Choir's body shredded, mouths torn silent one by one.
Momentum Conversion: +11%. Domain Overflow: 42%.
At the last strike, Evan leapt, violet arcs crowning his body like jagged wings.
"MY city!" he roared, and drove his fist down.
[Fatal Vector Strike — Executed.]
Choir imploded. Voices spilled out in a scream that became sobbing, then silence. Spawnlings crumbled into soot. Pipes rattled once, then quieted.
The panel blinked calm blue.
Anomaly [Choir] — Eliminated. Reward: Level Up (Lv. 18 → 19).Reward: Speed +40.Reward: Path Upgrade — Ghost Current (Phase III).Effect: Lane Override unlocked. User may impose rhythm on Domain (minor).
Evan staggered, blood dripping, ribs barely holding. The Slums thread in his chest hummed steady now, tighter, stronger. People peeked from doors, voices returned, whispering his name like prayer.
Ghost.
He didn't smile. His storm wouldn't let him.
Because ashes drifted in the courtyard, gathering in corners where the voices had died.
Ashes that hadn't been there before.
The panel flickered.
[System Warning] — Excess Residue Detected. Designation: Divine Interference.
And in the silence after the wrong song, the air whispered with smoke.