The borders of the conflict
The world was no longer divided by countries.
Nor by beliefs. Nor by visible loyalties.
Now, lines were drawn according to the bloodlines that had come to light , the skills that awakened in dormant blood, and the factions that accepted or rejected the return of the ancient clans.
The Autonomous Defense Circles that Edenfall had organized began to lose their geographical stability.
The war was no longer fought along straight lines…
but along fault lines that cut across cities, friendships, and families.
"It's not about where you are," Marek said in a hidden transmission.
"It's about who you are… and what power claims you."
The Appearance of the Varhaz Clan – The Echo of the Latent Bone
Among the ruins of the frozen district of Kovar, a new clan emerged: the Varhaz .
Ancient practitioners of the Resonant Bone Technique , an ability that allows them to generate internal vibrations in their skeleton, causing ultrasonic fractures in their enemies.
Their leader, Thozan Varhaz , was a man who walked hunched over, as if his own body weighed too much.
But each step he took caused micro-cracks in the ground.
When a detachment of the Nodo Circle attempted to intercept them, only one survived. A young girl named Naeya , who had the power to absorb electrical impulses and return them in pure bursts of energy.
The fight lasted nine minutes. It ended with her covered in internal cuts, her bones still vibrating hours later.
"They don't fight to win.
They fight to remind the world… that they are meant to destroy."
III. The Shelter of Mixed Bloods
As the fighting intensified, a new structure emerged on the outskirts of Elytrum:
a place called Litha Shelter , run by Lirea and protected by Akihiko and the survivors of the original Edenfall core.
The Refuge wasn't a center of power or combat. It was a place for those of mixed blood —children of duplicates, altered humans, minor clans.
People who were not accepted by either side.
There, they trained in their own way. Sael led some of the exercises. His control was still limited… but increasingly evident.
—"If I was created from many,
then I can use something from each one," he said.
And so, he developed his first conscious skill:
"Fractal Line" – a technique that allowed him to activate minor power sequences from different clans for a few seconds, without needing to master them.
It wasn't stable. But it was unpredictable. And that… made it dangerous.
The murder at the High Synod
During a truce summit between ancient clan leaders and Edenfall envoys, a double assassination occurred:
The representative of Clan Karesh and the diplomat from Elytrum were torn apart from within , as if exploded from their veins.
The recordings showed no weapons.
Just a figure that passed between them without touching them .
Riva analyzed the data. "It wasn't physical.
It was a neurosonic ability. Someone vibrated their bloodstream from outside. This isn't a known clan.
It's someone new. "
Akihiko knew then that there was a third force . Not the clans. Not Edenfall. But an independent swarm , perhaps made up of broken children of both eras.
And in the slow motion image, they identified the figure: a woman with white hair… and a fractal tattoo on her neck.
Sael recognized her.
—"I dreamed about her.
And in the dream, she told me: 'You are the seed. I am the forbidden fruit.'"
The birth of the Free Blood Front
The murder was the signal. Entire groups of young people with unstable powers began to declare their independence. They renounced Edenfall, the clans, everything that had created them.
They called themselves the Free Blood Front . And their motto was simple:
"No one uses us.
No one defines us. Blood without a flag."
Akihiko wanted to build bridges. He sent a delegation to Lirea. But they were intercepted… and marked with spiral scars , a symbol of rejection.
—"They want to be born from themselves,
without owing anything to previous mistakes," Lirea explained.
Riva, however, saw it clearly: "And that's exactly what Ezra was waiting for.
Chaos where everyone thinks they're right. And no one remembers why the fighting started."
The Siege of Fort Venyn – Total Combat
One of the Edenfall enclaves was attacked by combined forces of Clan Vayen and a radicalized section of the Free Blood Front.
Marek was there, along with a mixed squad of transient fire, acoustic manipulation, and osmotic defense users.
The fight lasted over an hour.
It was the most intense yet.
Yukari Vayen slowed the squad's movements with her heart rate. The Front radicals used a joint skill called "Raw Consciousness ," where they temporarily connected their minds, generating impulsive attacks that were impossible to predict.
Marek, using his Environment Rewrite ability , managed to alter the fort's layout and separate the attackers. But the damage was massive.
"We didn't win.
We just avoided all of us dying at the same time," he wrote in his report.
VII. Akihiko's Choice: The Akasha Code
After the siege, Akihiko gathered the surviving leaders: Riva, Juno, Lirea, Marek, and Sael.
He presented an emergency codex, developed years ago and never activated:
The Akasha Code – a protocol that allows Edenfall to use experimental hybrid techniques derived from duplication technologies, bloodlines, and emotional AI.
But the cost was high:
It could cause loss of identity. Genetic instability. Activation of uncontrolled cross-memories.
—"Shall we use that?" Riva asked.
Akihiko replied, "Only if the next battle… isn't to live.
But to remind the world who we are before we disappear. "
END OF CHAPTER 156