Lowwater's dawn felt different.Quieter, but not calm.The city wasn't resting — it was listening.
Evan walked the edge of Barrel Court's rooftops, violet light pulsing beneath his armor like a slow heartbeat. Every motion hummed through the rails below. He could feel people stirring in the apartments, kettles heating, doors opening — all of it feeding the rhythm that now lived inside him.
[RUNBREAKER FORM — ACTIVE] [LATTICE SYNC: 100 %] [ENERGY STATUS: STABLE]
Aelira's voice came through his comm. "You've been moving for three hours. You testing endurance or showing off?"
"Bit of both."He crouched, lightning rolling off his shoulders in quiet waves. "The suit wants movement. If I stop, it hums like it's bored."
"Machines can't get bored."
He smiled under the visor. "Neither could gods, apparently."
Cairn's voice cut in, sharp. "Hold that thought. Got a reading — heat spike at the western sector. Looks like the Ashcode's trying to wake something."
Evan straightened. "Show me."
Aelira fed him coordinates. "Node Fourteen. Old smelter district."
"Perfect."He leaned forward, and the world folded into motion.
[PULSE STEP — RUNBREAKER SYNC INITIATED]
Violet light streaked across the skyline.He passed empty towers, bridges, trains frozen mid-repair. Each window he crossed reflected a flash of lightning wearing human shape.
He hit Node Fourteen in twelve seconds.The air was thick, hot — metallic heat without flame.Inside the smelter, old machines twitched on their own, their furnaces glowing faint gray.
He landed between them. "Talk to me, Aelira."
"No human power source in that sector," she replied. "Whatever's heating those furnaces isn't ours."
A low whisper rolled through the vents.
<< you keep my fire alive, little storm. >>
Evan froze. The words didn't echo through the air — they came through his armor.Through the System.
[UNREGISTERED TRANSMISSION DETECTED][SOURCE: ASHCODE][TYPE: INFECTED SIGNAL]
The furnaces flared white-hot. From the molten metal, a shape pulled itself upright — gray at first, then glowing from inside, like a body made from slag. It had no face, only a hollow where eyes should be, and embers spilling from its ribs.
Evan raised his hands. Lightning spread across his armor like wings. "You again."
<< not me. a copy of a copy. >>
"Then tell your original he's running out of tricks."
The construct lunged.Evan vanished.
He reappeared behind it, planted a hand on its back, and fired a burst of kinetic energy. The blast tore it apart — but the fragments hung in the air, reforming into smaller versions of the same creature.
Aelira's alarm came through. "It's replicating through heat signatures! Each fragment's feeding on temperature!"
"Then we cool the room."
He dashed through the swarm, every move leaving arcs that froze the air with static. His Overdrive Field pulsed once — the sound like thunder inside metal walls.
[OVERDRIVE FIELD — RELEASE 110 %]
The shockwave flattened half the factory. The clones evaporated into vapor, leaving streaks of molten glass.
Silence followed, broken only by the hiss of cooling steel.
Aelira exhaled over comm. "Reading's clean. No residual signals."
Evan didn't answer right away. He walked to the center furnace. Its inner wall was covered in symbols burned into the metal — not words, but looping marks shaped like circuit diagrams.
He touched one. It burned cold.
<< you are the pattern i was not. >>
The whisper again — weaker now, more curious than cruel.
"Why keep trying?" Evan asked softly. "You lost."
<< loss is just data rewritten. >>
The furnace light dimmed to ash gray, then faded.
[SYSTEM NOTICE] [FOREIGN SIGNAL TERMINATED] [RESIDUAL DATA ABSORBED INTO LATTICE][NEW SUBROUTINE UNLOCKED — 'THERMAL SENSE']
Aelira sounded cautious. "Evan… the System just gave you something. That's not normal."
He stared at his hands. Heat traces shimmered across his visor — the world tinted with faint red lines, like veins of warmth threading through everything. "It's adapting again. Learning from what it fights."
Cairn grunted. "You mean you're learning."
"No." He looked up at the roof where sunlight cut through the smog. "It's both of us. The System, the city, me — even the god's leftovers. All one storm now."
Aelira hesitated. "That doesn't sound comforting."
He smiled faintly. "It's not supposed to."
He stepped outside.The morning had broken into full day, but the clouds above Lowwater still flickered with violet. The people below looked up, some shielding their eyes, others just watching in silence.
He felt the pulse again — the rhythm of a living city keeping time with his heartbeat.
"Runbreaker test," he said quietly. "Complete."
Cairn's voice came back through the static. "Verdict?"
Evan grinned under the visor. "It works."
[RUNBREAKER FORM — STABLE] [NEW ABILITY REGISTERED: THERMAL SENSE / PASSIVE TRACKING] [ASHCODE ACTIVITY: 1 % / OBSERVING] [CITY STATUS: HUMMING IN SYNC WITH USER]
And somewhere deep in the Lattice, far below the rails, a spark of gray light blinked once —then divided into two.
<< the storm runs. the fire learns. >>