The city did not scream when it began.
It blinked.
Streetlights across Crescent City flickered at the same time.A single pulse.Dark.Light.Dark again.And then something worse.
They stayed off.
Rei felt it before anyone spoke.The mark on his chest tightened like a hand closing around his heart.Not burning.Not warning.
Listening.
Aira stopped walking.Her fingers dug into Rei's sleeve.
"Rei," she whispered."The sound is gone."
He listened.
No engines.No distant sirens.No murmuring crowds.No wind.
Even the awakened city that never truly slept had fallen into a hollow silence.
Zeke turned slowly, metal knuckles flexing."This isn't a blackout."
Suki's flames dimmed to embers."Yeah.No panic.No surge.No chaos."
Kai swallowed."It's like the city is holding its breath."
Rena was already pale.Her silence field trembled without her meaning to.
"It's not silence," she said quietly."It's absence."
Rei felt his stomach drop.
They stood at the intersection where four streets met.All directions stretched into darkness.The buildings loomed like empty shells.Windows stared back at them with dead reflections.
Then someone screamed.
Not nearby.Not far.
Everywhere.
The sound hit all at once.A layered echo of voices overlapping at impossible angles.It wasn't pain alone.It was confusion.Fear.Disbelief.
Kai covered his ears."What is that?"
Rei shook his head."Not sound."
The mark pulsed once.
"It's memory."
The ground rippled.
Not cracked.Not shattered.It folded.Like the street itself forgot what shape it was supposed to hold.
A man appeared mid step and froze.His body blurred at the edges.Then he was gone.No flash.No blood.No residue.
Just gone.
Aira screamed his name.She didn't know it.But her voice still broke.
Zeke moved instantly, pulling her back."Rei!"
More people vanished.A woman clutching a child.A man shouting into a dead phone.A group of awakened teens mid argument.
They weren't being taken.
They were being skipped.
Rena dropped to one knee, gasping."Something is selecting."
Suki's eyes burned brighter."Based on what?"
Rei stared at the empty space where the man had been.
"Recognition."
The mark flared.White.Lightless.
The world tilted.
And then the city spoke.
Not aloud.Not through vibration.
Directly into their heads.
ERROR IN SEQUENCE
REALITY LAYER MISALIGNMENT DETECTED
Kai cried out and collapsed.Zeke caught him before his head hit the pavement.
Aira clutched her temples."Rei…I can hear it."
Suki laughed once.Hard.Shaky."That's not a god.That's a system."
Rena looked up slowly, terror naked on her face."No.Systems have rules."
The street in front of them folded inward.
A doorway formed.
Not a rift.Not a tear.
A missing piece of space.
Beyond it was not darkness.
It was a city.
The same city.
But wrong.
Buildings stood in the same places.But they were unfinished.Frozen mid construction.People were there too.Not moving.Not breathing.Eyes open.Empty.
Aira's voice shook."Rei…that's us."
Rei felt cold spread through his chest.
Inside the doorway stood versions of them.
Himself.Mark dim.Unscarred.Unaware.
Aira smiling.Kai laughing.Zeke relaxed.Rena unguarded.Suki younger.Less sharp.
A life that never broke.
The voice returned.
THIS WORLD DEVIATED
CORRECTION IN PROGRESS
Zeke stepped forward, fury igniting."You don't get to decide that."
The doorway widened.
Something stepped through.
It wore no face.No shape.No armor.No aura.
It was a gap where something should have been.
Reality bent away from it.
Rena whispered,"That's not a villain."
Suki's flames refused to ignite."Then what is it?"
Rei answered without blinking.
"It's what comes after gods."
The thing tilted its head.
And spoke in Rei's voice.
"You were never meant to continue."
Aira screamed.
Rei moved.
The Rift tore open behind him.Not wide.Not violent.Precise.
The entity paused.
For the first time.
"Interesting," it said using his voice again."The variable resists deletion."
Rei gritted his teeth."I'm not a variable."
The mark roared.
"I'm the mistake you couldn't erase."
The city around them began to fragment.Windows duplicated.Streets overlapped.People flickered between present and absent.
Kai struggled to his feet, lightning unstable."Rei…what do we do?"
Rei didn't hesitate.
"We break its rule."
Zeke cracked his neck."Finally."
The entity raised its hand.
Everything stopped.
Not time.
Decision.
Rei felt it pressing into his thoughts.Trying to reduce him to probability.Trying to find the version that would fail.
Aira stepped in front of him.
Her Moon Herald mark burned silver.
"No," she said softly."You don't get him."
The entity recoiled.
"Anomaly detected," it said.
Rena's silence exploded outward.Not quieting sound.But erasing the concept of command.
Suki's flames returned.Black edged.Greedy.
Zeke charged.
Kai screamed and unleashed lightning not upward.Not forward.But inward.
Into the doorway.
The alternate city shattered.
The entity screamed.
Not in pain.
In confusion.
Rei felt the mark split open.
Not breaking.
Opening.
He saw something behind the system.Behind the correction.Behind the voice.
A room.
White.Infinite.
And a single figure standing inside it.
Azeroth.
Watching.
Smiling.
"You weren't supposed to see that yet," Azeroth's voice echoed inside Rei's skull.
The entity froze.
Then collapsed.
The doorway slammed shut.
The city lurched.
Sound rushed back.Sirens.Screams.Engines.Panic.
Reality snapped into place like a bone being reset.
Rei dropped to one knee, blood spilling from his nose.
Aira caught him.
"It looked at you," she whispered."Like it was afraid."
Rei laughed weakly.
"It should be."
Rena stared at the empty street.
"That wasn't one of the Five."
Suki nodded slowly.
"No.That was a janitor."
Kai blinked."A what?"
Rei wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Something that cleans up failed worlds."
Zeke clenched his fists.
"And it failed here."
Rei looked at the sky.
The cracks were gone.
But the stars were wrong.
Arranged differently.
Watching.
Somewhere far beyond the city.
A counter ticked down.
Azeroth's voice whispered one last time.
"Now you understand," he said."Why gods don't end stories."
Rei's mark pulsed.
The ground beneath them trembled again.
And deep below the world.
Something new woke up.
Not ancient.
Not divine.
Artificial.
Learning.
And it had just marked Rei as priority one.
Rei tightened his grip on Aira's hand.
"This city blinked first," he said quietly.
"But the world won't."
Far away.
A signal finished transmitting.
And a screen lit up in a place that did not exist on any map.
TARGET CONFIRMED
BEGIN FINAL ITERATION
The countdown began.
And this time.
The world would not wake up again.