The tower screamed. Metal buckled in chords; the same note played a thousand times wrong. The ash god's presence wasn't heat—it was subtraction. It ate color, sound, and courage in the same breath.
Aelira's visor glitched into static. "Evan—"Her voice warped, doubled back through the walls.
He didn't answer. The storm around him had gone silent, compressed into a sphere of violet light no larger than his chest. It beat once, twice—then exploded.
Glass shredded the air. The ash curtain tore apart in concentric rings as his lightning erupted outward, flooding every conduit in the tower. For a heartbeat, the God of Ashes looked like a statue under floodlight—then the light broke, bending around its frame like space refused to touch it.
Cairn roared and threw a bolt the size of a car. It hit nothing. The god blurred, its form dissolving into gray motes that reappeared behind him. One ember-hand pressed against Cairn's back.
<< thunder is the first sound a dying star makes. >>
The touch launched him through a wall of conduits. The tower shook. Aelira's slate flared red.
[Warning: City Lattice Unstable] [Node Seven — Breach Risk: 42%] [Recommendation: Evacuate]
She ignored it. Her palms danced through holographic sigils, tracing stabilizers faster than her heart. "Evan! Anchor yourself! You'll fry the grid!"
He heard her, distantly. The world had thinned into wavelengths and pressure. Every breath he took rearranged air molecules into arcs. His skin glowed like glass catching sunrise.
The god's eyes—if they were eyes—opened as twin furnaces. Smoke poured out, forming pillars that twisted into shapes of faces. Each one spoke in a different echo.
<< you think the city is yours. >><< the city is the scar of what we burned. >><< you run through our graves. >>
Evan stepped forward. Every footfall resounded like thunder through the floor's veins.
"Then I'll outrun the graves."
He blurred. One instant, meters away. The next—his fist in the god's chest. It was like punching the memory of stone. The impact rippled the air, sending shockwaves through the chamber. Ash burst outward, turning into fragments of screaming whispers.
But the god didn't fall. It absorbed the strike. The cracks that appeared on its chest sealed with molten light.
<< speed without weight is just wind. >>
A backhand like a meteor caught him square in the ribs. Evan flew sideways, hitting a containment pillar hard enough to crack it in half. Lightning bled across the room in arcs that lashed anything metallic.
He coughed, felt something sharp inside his chest shift. His aura flickered.
[Warning: Structural Integrity — 63%] [Residue Level — Rising: 31%]
He spat iron and laughter. "You hit like a dead star; I'll give you that."
Cairn stumbled back into view, half his armor slagged, eyes glowing fury. "We can't kill that thing, Evan! It's feeding off the ash!"
"I'm not trying to kill it." Evan pushed himself up, lightning rethreading around his limbs. "I'm going to outrun it."
The god tilted its head. << run. all roads lead to me. >>
"Not this one."
He slammed a palm to the ground. The entire city lit up. Streets, alleys, rails—all of it—burned with violet light, threads weaving upward into the tower. The glass throne behind him shattered into shards that hovered midair, orbiting him like slow moons.
[Ability Activated: Lattice Link] [All Nodes Connected — Synchronization: 100%]
The storm became the city. Every door cracked open. Every streetlight flared. Every window reflected his eyes.
Aelira's slate overloaded, projecting thousands of images of him running through Lowwater's arteries simultaneously—one man, a million reflections.
The god's form distorted, its outline fracturing like a mirror dropped on stone. It spoke in fragments.
<< you cannot fight a concept. >><< i am erosion. memory. ash. >>
Evan vanished from sight. Then—impact. He hit the god from twelve angles at once, each strike folding light around it. The chamber filled with a strobe of violence, time itself stuttering between frames.
Cairn shielded Aelira as debris turned to dust midair.
When the flares cleared, Evan was kneeling, breathing hard. The god had split in two—but both halves reformed, recombining into something larger. Its head brushed the ceiling now. Smoke coiled from every crack like steam from a furnace.
[Residue Level — 54%] [Containment: Failed]
The ash-god reached out, fingers like collapsing stars.
<< you carry my breath. you brought me through the door. you are my vessel, storm. >>
Aelira screamed over the chaos, "He's infected! The residue's using his lattice!"
Evan looked down. The lightning around his arms had turned gray. It flickered—not power, but corrosion. The storm was going cold.
He clenched his fists. "You want a vessel? Fine."
He blurred again—straight into the god's chest. But instead of punching, he phased. His body dissolved into violet lightning and entered the god's mass. The world flashed white.
Inside was not space. It was a heartbeat. A dying one. Each pulse was an explosion of ash and memory—cities burning, skies turning to soot, divine engines dying in the dark. He saw the first time the god had burned, when its own worshipers tried to contain its flame. He saw it fail to die.
"You're just a fire that forgot its name," Evan said, voice crackling through the storm. "Let me remind you what burning feels like."
He unleashed everything. Every lane, every wire, every member of the city poured through him. The lightning turned white-hot, then ultraviolet, then invisible.
[Overflow Cap Exceeded] [New Threshold Detected — Limit Break Protocol Engaged]
The god convulsed, body fracturing into fractals of light and ash.
<< stop. >><< you will unmake yourself. >>
"Then I'll unmake you first."
A scream like collapsing mountains. Then—silence.
The ash vanished. The god's form disintegrated into dust and drifted upward, sucked into cracks of light that stitched the air. The temperature dropped.
Evan stumbled out of the collapsing vortex, steam rising off his back. He fell to his knees. His lightning was dim now, reduced to pale blue threads crawling across his skin.
Aelira caught him before he hit the floor. "Evan! Talk to me!"
He managed a grin that looked like it hurt. "Next time… warn me if the chair summons gods."
Cairn's armor dimmed, smoke trailing from his shoulders. "Next time, punch the god before it finishes talking."
The tower groaned, structure failing. Panels flickered with their final message:
[Residue Neutralized] [Containment Restored] [Unknown Data Fragment Preserved — "ASHCODE"]
Aelira's eyes widened. "Ashcode… it left something behind."
Evan looked up, voice hoarse. "Then it's not over."
Outside, Lowwater's skyline shimmered lights flickering in rhythm with a heartbeat that no longer belonged to just him.
And somewhere beneath the city, buried in soot and silence, a spark smiled.