Ash coated Aion's skin like a second layer. The ruined forge groaned as twisted steel beams collapsed behind him. The man—the one who tried to awaken whatever slept inside him—was gone, scattered by the silent pulse that had erupted from Aion's core.
Aion staggered forward, legs shaking.
"What… was that?" he whispered. His breath curled in the air, even though the forge was still warm from the blast. The energy inside him wasn't like the fire Laws the Scorians used. It wasn't loud or bright. It was... empty. A stillness that devoured everything around it.
His fingers twitched, and for a moment, he saw the air ripple—Ether bending and twisting away from him, like it was afraid.
"You don't have a Law. You are one."
The man's words echoed in his head.
He didn't understand. Laws were inherited, bonded during Resonance, trained at the Academies. You didn't just become one. And certainly not a Law that canceled others.
The sound of boots on broken stone pulled him back to reality. Voices—guards—closing in.
Panic sparked. Aion ducked out of the wreckage, heart hammering, and bolted through the alleys. Every step made the new energy inside him tremble, like it wanted to escape, to consume.
---
He didn't stop running until he reached the only place he could hide—The Spine—a narrow ridge of stone jutting above the slums. From here, the city of Scoria looked like it was on fire. Towers of obsidian flame reached into the sky, and the Core Furnace pulsed in the distance, glowing red like a second sun.
Aion sat, clutching his arms, shaking.
"Was it real?"
The ground beneath him cracked slightly. His aura flared without warning—just for a heartbeat—but enough to split the stone he sat on.
He stared at it.
Then he laughed.
A bitter, broken sound.
"They're going to kill me for this."
---
Somewhere far above, in the towers of Scoria's ruling class, a crimson-robed woman opened her eyes.
She had felt it—a pulse of Ether unlike anything recorded in centuries.
"Null…" she whispered, voice trembling. "It lives."
She turned to the silver-masked figure behind her.
"Send for the Inquisition. No one from the slums escapes tonight."