The initial scream echoed from the canal treatment pavilion while Loccy's bridge documentation still awaited its final administrative stamp.
A wave of agonizing resonance flooded through six municipal medical stations, transforming routine healing conduits into a horrific possession choir.
Every laceration inflicted upon Veran's armored form traveled directly through the corrupted network to strike helpless patients lying upon cots.
Warned through the Spirit Ring bond, Hajin ran from the restored bridge to the canal station before the next damage transfer reached its cots.
Vella followed him into the pavilion, her starlight gathering around the diagnostic hand she kept clear of the corrupted treatment lines.
Her ethereal gaze locked onto a terrified healer who was desperately grasping three vibrant conduits inscribed with alien scripture.
The crawling runes wound along the woman's forearms, channeling agonizing pulses into a child with a reopened chest wound.
