Night in Ironreach did not fall.
It thickened.
Smoke pressed low against the rooftops, turning the city into a suffocating maze of iron veins and coughing chimneys.
Searchlights cut through the haze like surgical blades.
Kael ran.
Lyra's broken glider wings hung useless at her back, sparks still dying along the brass hinges. She kept pace beside him, boots striking rusted steel as alarms wailed across Sector Twelve.
"They've locked down three districts," she said between breaths. "Malrick doesn't escalate unless he's certain."
"Certain of what?"
"That you're not just a Void user."
They vaulted over a narrow gap between buildings. Below, Church enforcers flooded the streets—white coats, brass masks, rifles glowing with charged Aether rounds.
Kael's chest ticked faster.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Each step sent tremors through his ribs, like something inside him was adjusting.
"Why does it react when I'm scared?" he asked.
Lyra didn't answer immediately.
"Void Cores don't respond to fear," she said finally. "They respond to instability."
They ducked into a maintenance corridor suspended between two factory towers, Steam burst from ruptured pipes, cloaking them in heat and noise.
For a moment, they were alone.
Kael leaned against the wall.
The ticking grew louder.
TickTick.
Lyra lifted her monocle. Blue light scanned across his chest. Symbols flickered across the inner lens.
"Your synchronization rate is climbing."
"I don't even know what that means."
"It means," she said carefully, "the Oblivion Engine recognizes you."
The name sent a cold ripple down his spine.
"I saw it again," he admitted. "Under the city. Beneath everything."
Her expression darkened. "You're seeing the substructure."
"The what?"
"The machinery beneath Aetherfall."
She stepped closer.
"This city isn't just built on industry. It's built on something older. The Engine isn't a power source."
Kael's pulse slowed unnaturally.
"Then what is it?"
Lyra hesitated.
"A regulator."
The corridor trembled.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the entrance.
Malrick's voice carried through a speaker unit.
"Subject Noctis. Continued evasion will be classified as rebellion."
Kael stiffened.
Lyra whispered, "We need vertical movement."
Above them, a freight lift shaft rose through darkness.
She pried open the access gate. "Climb."
Metal groaned as they pulled themselves upward.
Below, enforcers entered the corridor. Aether rounds fired, scorching steel.
Kael felt the distortion before it appeared.
The air bent.
Light stretched.
Bullets slowed mid-flight.
Lyra stared.
"You're doing it unconsciously now."
"I can't control it!"
"Don't try to control it," she said urgently, "Stabilize it."
"How?!"
"Think of something real."
Real.
The word felt fragile.
He thought of the moment she grabbed his hand before they jumped.
Warmth.
Certainty.
Tick.
The distortion softened.
The bullets dropped harmlessly to the floor below.
Lyra exhaled slowly. "Good."
They emerged onto a higher platform overlooking the industrial valley of Ironreach.
Airships hovered above, their undersides glowing.
Searchlights scanned relentlessly.
Malrick stood on an adjacent rooftop, coat flowing in the toxic wind. His mechanical arm unfolded into a rifle configuration.
"You are not an anomaly," he called out. "You are a malfunction."
Kael met his gaze.
"And you're afraid," Kael replied quietly.
Malrick's mechanical eye rotated, focusing.
"Fear is inefficient."
He fired.
The Aether round streaked toward Kael like a comet.
Time fractured.
The world slowed into viscous silence.
Kael felt it clearly now.
The Void inside him.
Not darkness.
Not emptiness.
Possibility.
He raised his hand instinctively.
The space in front of him folded inward.
The bullet vanished.
Not deflected.
Erased.
Lyra's breath caught.
Malrick lowered his weapon slightly.
"Synchronization confirmed," he murmured.
The ticking in Kael's chest shifted.
No longer frantic.
Measured.
Controlled.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Pain exploded behind his eyes.
Visions surged violently.
A laboratory bathed in white light.
A circular chamber.
Scientists observing from behind glass.
A younger version of Lyra crying against a sealed door.
A voice declaring: "Void compatibility exceeds projection."
Kael staggered.
Lyra caught him.
"What do you see?"
"You were there," he whispered.
Her grip tightened.
"What?"
"You were there when they—"
The vision shattered.
Reality snapped back.
Malrick had closed the distance.
His mechanical arm reconfigured into a blade.
"You are property of the Engine," he said coldly.
He lunged.
Kael moved on instinct.
Space warped around him.
Malrick's blade slowed as if pushing through water.
Kael's shadow expanded unnaturally, stretching across the rooftop like spilled ink.
The air cracked with black lightning.
Lyra stumbled back, shielding her eyes.
"Kael! Stop! It's destabilizing!"
He couldn't hear her.
The ticking accelerated again.
TickTickTickTick—
Malrick slashed through the distortion with his Aether blade, cutting into Kael's shoulder.
This time, pain came.
Sharp. Real.
Human.
Kael gasped.
The distortion faltered.
Malrick pressed forward.
"You are not a god," he hissed. "You are an experiment."
Something inside Kael broke.
Not anger.
Not rage.
A memory.
The girl in white feathers.
Falling.
Reaching for him.
The ticking stopped.
Silence swallowed the rooftop.
Malrick froze mid-strike.
The world dimmed.
Color drained from Ironreach.
Only Kael remained vivid.
A black halo formed behind him—gears rotating within void space.
When he spoke, his voice carried two tones layered together.
"Then why," he asked softly, "does your god answer to me?"
Malrick's mechanical eye shattered.
The distortion exploded outward.
Shockwaves rippled across rooftops.
Airships spiraled off course.
Church enforcers collapsed as gravity twisted unpredictably.
Lyra watched in horror and awe.
Synchronization reading flashed in her lens:
18%
Too fast.
Far too fast.
Kael stepped forward.
Each footfall left cracks in the air itself.
Malrick attempted to retreat—but space folded, trapping him in place.
"You don't understand what you are unleashing," Malrick warned.
Kael's eyes glowed faint violet.
"Neither do you."
He clenched his fist.
The space around Malrick compressed violently—
Then Lyra screamed.
"KAEL!"
Her voice cut through the distortion like a blade.
The ticking faltered.
Kael turned.
She was crying.
Not in fear.
In desperation.
"If you lose yourself now," she said, voice breaking, "there won't be anything left to save."
Save.
The word anchored him.
The void halo flickered.
Malrick collapsed as gravity normalized.
The city's tremors subsided.
Airships steadied.
Color returned.
Kael dropped to his knees.
Tick.
Slow again.
Fragile.
Lyra rushed to him.
"You're still here," she whispered.
He looked at his trembling hands.
"Was I going to kill him?"
"Yes."
A beat.
"And worse."
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Reinforcements were coming.
Lyra helped him stand.
"We can't stay," she said.
Kael glanced at Malrick's unconscious body.
"He'll keep hunting us."
"Yes."
"Then we need answers before they find us again."
Lyra nodded.
"There's someone who might know more."
"Who?"
She hesitated.
"The Crimson Syndicate."
Kael looked out over Ironreach.
Smoke drifted like restless spirits.
Far below, deep beneath the city—
The Oblivion Engine rotated again.
Faster.
Watching.
Responding.
And somewhere within its endless machinery—
A system log updated.
Subject Noctis — Void Resonance confirmed.
Emotional catalyst identified: Lyra Veyne.
Kael felt a faint chill in his artificial heart.
As if something had just taken interest.
The storm wasn't beginning.
It had already begun years ago.
And now—
It finally had its center