NOVEL NEXT Chapter 397: The Deep Silence
Ren sat cross-legged in the quiet dark of their hideout, rifling through his spatial pouch.
He finally retrieved three tightly-wrapped sandwiches and passed them silently to Thorn and Lilith.
Even the sound of rustling parchment seemed deadened in the all-consuming silence pressing against their eardrums.
They didn't speak. They couldn't.
Lilith bit into her sandwich and chewed absently, her eyes flicking to Ren. Her hand moved.
"We have to destroy the Shard and end this Calamity."
Thorn swallowed his bite, setting the sandwich down on the dusty floor beside him.
"How?" he signed. "We don't even know where it is."
Ren stared into the middle distance, jaw clenched.
Thorn lifted his hands again to continue, but then his brow creased. His fingers twitched once, twice, before curling into a fist.
Ren noticed immediately. "What's wrong?"
Thorn's response was fast, frantic.
"Fusion. I can't feel it."
Lilith froze mid-chew. Her hand trembled before she reached for the knife at her thigh, the one that was always connected to her Pull resonance. She flicked her wrist.
Nothing.
The blade didn't budge.
Her eyes snapped to Ren in horror.
Ren held out his hand and tried to summon his own Push resonance.
Nothing came.
He tried to use his Soulbinding. Also nothing.
Only silence.
No buzz. No hum. No flicker of power.
He could still move. He could still feel his heart beating. But the usual power of his abilities, the soul-deep pressure that had always accompanied his resonance, was gone.
All of it.
Snuffed out.
"It's the Shard." Ren signed, slowly. "It's smothering everything."
Lilith signed frantically. "I didn't know the silence would be this total! Where could the Shard be?"
Ren's eyes narrowed. He stared at the cracked wall across from him, his thoughts racing.
"The district office," he signed after a long pause. "It's the perfect place. It's already destroyed. It's central. Survivors are few. And the deaths mean there are souls to fuel the Shard. That's where they planted it."
Thorn's face twisted in frustration. "Then we go there. Find it. Destroy it."
Ren shook his head. "You can't."
Lilith's brow furrowed as she signed. "What do you mean?"
Ren inhaled slowly, then reached for his wrist. He dragged his nail across the skin, and the wound healed almost instantly, sealing shut in less than a second.
"My regeneration still works."
They stared at him.
Ren pointed to himself.
"Remember. When I almost died and Lilith stitched my soul to my body, it changed me. My regeneration… my strength… some of it doesn't rely on my Soulbinding."
"It's not a Gift. It's a product of the way my body and soul sit against each other. It's a part of me. The Shard can't smother that."
Thorn slammed his hand against the wall. The frustration could be seen in every action he made. He turned back, signing to Ren. "You'll be alone."
Ren nodded. "But I'll survive. I can survive. I'm immortal, remember? You two can't fight without your powers. If you're caught, you die."
Lilith's hands trembled as she signed. "Let me come with you. Please."
Ren looked at her.
Her eyes were filled with unshed tears. But there was also steel in them. The fire he'd fallen in love with.
Still, he shook his head.
"If the Shard isn't destroyed soon, the silence will spread. Across the city. Then the mountain. Then beyond. No one will be able to stop it. Not even if we destroy the Shard later. By then, it'll be too late."
He looked at both of them.
"I have to go. Now."
Silence pressed between them, thick, heavy, mournful.
Lilith crossed the distance and hugged him tightly, burying her face into his chest. Ren closed his eyes, holding her close.
Thorn stepped forward and clapped his hand on Ren's shoulder, then pressed their foreheads together, just for a moment.
Then Ren stepped back.
He looked at them one last time, his family, his comrades, and smiled.
No words. No signals. Just a look.
Then, without a sound, he turned and slipped out into the alleys, alone.
The silence swallowed him whole.
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The chamber of light was nestled deep in Carthage's Elder layer. Wreathed in warm white glowstones and polished stone, it had long served as the sanctum of the Warden of Light.
The man known simply as Elder Vaen stood in the center of the room, his long silver robes and mask glowing softly with the light of his domain.
His heart thudded in his chest, and for the first time in a very long time, he was feeling the primal emotion called fear. Not just fear but terror. The kind that he hadn't felt since he was a boy.
But even with the fear wrapping all around him, he couldn't let it stain his dignity. He held his head high and his back straight as his power hummed in the air around him like a song of defiance.
But the silence was just too strong.
His subordinates had reported when the silence had arrived, and before long, it had dampened their abilities till they were as powerless as normal men.
No one knew where the silence had come from, but Vaen could feel it eating away at his power. He didn't have much time left until he too would be as powerless as a newborn baby.
His head tilted upwards a fraction as he noticed a low distortion rippling through the chamber.
The door of the chamber of light opened, and three figures stepped into the room, their cloaks trailing behind them.
He could identify them by their masks.
The Warden of Law, Aurelius, led the group, followed by the Warden of Statistics, Maren, and the Warden of Knowledge, Kant.
Vaen's eyes narrowed.
"So it's true." He said. His mouth moved and no sound emerged, but he knew they could understand him. "You're the ones behind the silence."
Aurelius didn't deny it. Instead, he spread his hands wide.
"Vaen." He said, his voice calm, almost conversational. Unlike everybody else, his voice was loud and clear, the silence not even affecting him.
"We're not here to kill you, Warden of Light." He grinned. "You've served Carthage well… but your time as a free man has ended."