NOVEL NEXT Chapter 396: Awake At Last
Aurelius stood at the edge of the ruined district office, the long folds of his dark robes stirring only faintly in the dead wind.
The building had collapsed inward in places and was missing entirely in others, massive chunks of stone littering the ground. The roof had also partially caved in from the chaos of the battle days ago.
The silence that filled the air in the destruction wasn't just eerie. It was unnatural.
No sound passed through. Not footsteps, and definitely not voices. Only the faint crunch of his boots echoed as he moved forward.
He walked past shattered desks and destroyed walls, the smell of old blood strong beneath the dust.
A hidden switch near a collapsed archway hissed as he pressed it, causing a section of the wall to slide open.
The shadows inside swallowed him as he stepped down the spiral stairway, deeper into the basement of the broken district office.
The descent was long, the stairs narrow. There was no light, and he needed none. His eyes had long since adjusted to darkness, both literal and ideological.
At the bottom was a wide room carved directly from the mountain. The walls bore symbols from a time before Carthage, when their ancestors had been digging deep for signs of the Primordial Flame.
And in the center of the room, nestled in a sunken pedestal, was the Shard of Oblivion.
It was small, no bigger than a child's skull, but it pulsed like a beating heart. It was pitch black, and shot through with veins of dull gray.
The silence in the room was so complete it seemed to press against Aurelius's skin.
He knelt.
The Shard hummed.
Then, Aurelius reached into his cloak and retrieved a crystal vial. Inside it, a faint glow swirled. That was the main reason he'd had the mercenaries go around killing people.
They were fragments of souls, torn from the bodies of those who had died inside the silence of the Shard in the upper layer. Guards. Clerks. Innocents.
With reverence, he uncorked the vial and poured the contents over the shard.
The moment the soul matter touched the Shard, it absorbed the glow greedily, like water into parched earth. Then, a pulse rippled out from the pedestal.
The darkness seemed to shift as the silence deepened.
Aurelius stood, his eyes glowing faintly beneath his hood.
He hummed in satisfaction before turning and walked to the stairway, pausing only briefly at the entrance.
Behind him, his general stepped out of the shadows. Right now, she was armored in the muted steel and grey robes of the Silent Choir. She knelt before him.
"Myra." Aurelius said, his voice almost lost in the hum of silence, yet still perfectly clear. "You will remain with your squadron. This place is now sacred. The Shard is awakening. Guard it with your life. Kill any who dare approach."
Myra rose, saluted with a closed fist to her chest. "It will be done."
Without another word, Aurelius began his slow ascent, each step echoing like thunder within the silence.
When he emerged from the ruins, the silence had already grown. It expanded like a living mist, crawling through cracks and alleys, slipping past stones and under doors.
By the time he reached the nearest plaza, the entire upper layer was muted.
Children pointed to their mouths in confusion. Market stalls stood still. Conversations were reduced to frantic hand gestures.
And it spread.
The silence crept down the stairs that linked the upper levels with the next. It slithered into homes, over bridges, through courts and watch posts. It sank its claws into the very air of Carthage.
Not just absence of noise, but the devouring of it.
It was like a storm without wind. A scream with no voice.
And at the heart of it, buried beneath the broken bones of a forgotten office, pulsed the Shard of Oblivion, awake at last.
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The group was walking through the alleys of Carthage when the air changed.
It happened without warning. There were no tremors or rush of energy to indicate that something had happened.
One second ago, the world was alive with the sounds of the city. Then, in the next instant, everything stopped.
Ren froze, his foot hovering above a puddle. Lilith and Thorn came to a stop behind him.
The air felt dense, not with heat or pressure, but with absence. It was like the mountain itself had drawn a breath and refused to let it go.
Then came the realization.
The silence had arrived.
Ren slowly turned his head to look at the others. Lilith's eyes were wide, already scanning their surroundings. Thorn's hands curled into fists, his shoulders tense, a light sheen of sweat breaking across his brow.
They'd felt this before. That creeping silence. That invasive emptiness that wrapped around the world like a noose.
The Shard of Oblivion was no longer lying dormant. It had awakened. Carthage was now under its grip.
Ren opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. No breath. No sound. His voice didn't carry.
He tried again, louder, but his throat moved uselessly. Not even the scrape of his boots as he shifted weight registered in the air.
He looked down at his fingers, then raised them slowly, forming a simple gesture with his hands.
"You feel it?"
Lilith responded first, her fingers fluid. "The silence."
Thorn nodded quickly, signing to them. "It's active. Full power."
They fell into a triangle, backs to each other, watching the dark, twisted alleys around them. Every shadow was now suspicious.
After a few seconds of nothing happening, Ren turned to them and gestured. "We move."
"Where?" Lilith signed
"Shelter. Hide first. Then decide." Thorn signed.
Ren nodded, tapping his chest twice. "With me."
They moved deeper into the alleys. Without sound, the world became surreal.
Their breathing was invisible. Their steps were felt more than heard. The silence pressed into their skin like cold mist, numbing and muffling everything.
Even their thoughts felt quieter.
They passed a shuttered apothecary, a crumbling smithy, a long-abandoned bakery. All of them were too open. Too exposed.
Every corner they turned, Ren led with his instincts, following paths with cover, avoiding straight lines, and choosing narrow alleyways where pursuit would be harder.
Twice they saw motionless figures standing in the distance. Choir members. Watching. Waiting.
Ren guided them away and they turned another corner. Then another. Past a stone archway that had partially collapsed, down a small slope that led into a semi-underground courtyard surrounded by slanted buildings.
It was dark, cold, quiet, and perfect.
Ren turned to them, signing again. "Here."
Thorn scanned the rooftops. "No higher buildings. Good."
Lilith was already checking the walls, running her hand along the stone. "Structure stable."
Ren moved to a wooden door, shouldering it open. It creaked, but no sound reached their ears. The silence swallowed it.
Inside was darkness.
Broken furniture. Dust. A shattered lantern on the floor. But the walls were stone, the roof intact, and the windows small and narrow.
They slipped inside, closing the door behind them.
Only once they were inside, their backs against the cold stone, did they allow themselves to breathe.
Ren sank to one knee, fingers still twitching with the last signals. "Temporary. But safe."
Lilith leaned against the wall, brushing a curl behind her ear. "How long until the Shard spreads further?"
Ren answered. "Too late. If we're in it, so is the rest of the layer."