The roar of the still loyal bodies
A week had passed since the activation of the Antiviral Chronicle.
Edenfall Alpha was experiencing an emotional respite: the number of Manifesto conversions had dropped. The Akasha network was once again beating irregularly… but with hope.
Until reports came in from the eastern border:
"One of the mixed settlements has been annihilated."
The attack was clean, brutal, and surgical.
No emotional premonitions. No mental vibrations. Just bodies. Perfectly aligned. With white spirals etched into the skin… and the heart intact .
—"They didn't want to kill emotions," Riva said.
—"They wanted to show that the body can live without them."
The Rise of the Delkhar Clan – The Void Technicians
Delkhar was an ancient clan, dissolved after the Age of the Silent Scream.
It was believed to be extinct.
But now he reappeared, with a devastating technique:
Directional Neurocortisol –
capable of disconnecting emotional sectors of the nervous system without destroying motor or cognitive functionality.
The Delkhar didn't kill. They converted.
And they acted under the new doctrine of the Manifesto.
—"The soul… is an unnecessary interruption of performance."
III. The Dense Shadow Squadron: Edenfall Counterattack
Akihiko authorized an offensive operation. A new mixed squadron was formed:
Juno , expert in sonic dissonances. Marek , master of the reconfigured environment. Naeya , controller of emotional dispersion electric fields. Thalor , with a rare lineage: his blood emits micropulses that interfere with control networks.
The mission: to intercept the Delkhar before they reached the second settlement.
Location: A forest near the old Tureh power plant, full of sensory trees.
Combat: Rhythm vs. Precision
Dense Shadow Squadron found the Delkhar in a triangular formation,
all wearing white masks without holes.
As soon as they were detected, the air changed. Literally.
The sound was suppressed by a vibrating layer.
Juno countered with Frequency Fracture V , a sequence of random ultrasound.
Marek reconfigured the terrain:
roots emerged to confuse his movements.
But the Delkhar didn't use sight or hearing. Their movements were dictated by shared mental algorithms.
It was Naeya who turned the tide. He used his pulse to generate a field of "affective noise,"
simulating false emotions that confused the Delkhar.
That created a 14-second window . Enough for Thalor to unleash his blood—projecting a pulse that
disrupted the cognitive networks of three enemies.
But they paid a price. Juno suffered a partial neurosurgery. Her ability to recognize her own emotions was suspended.
—"I can't differentiate between what I feel and what I remember feeling."
Sael: the tearing apart of the shared self
During the battle, Sael collapsed in the center of Edenfall. His connection to Juno was indirect…
but when she lost her emotionality,
he felt an emptiness he couldn't name.
Lirea tried to steady him. But Sael began to speak in the plural. "I am not one.
I am not me. I am us without Juno."
Riva realized that Akasha's emotional bond was generating echodependencies.
If someone fragmented, others could do so as well.
It was time to reinvent the emotional network.
The Duel of the Contrary Echoes
Akihiko intercepted a Delkhar leader:
a man named Kessan ,
with a smooth face and an unintentional gaze.
The fight was pure technical art:
Akihiko used Cyclic Error Path , a technique that simulates vulnerability to induce a predictable pattern. Kessan responded with Static Fractal Motion ,
a style where each step replicates the previous one within milliseconds.
It was a battle of rhythm and deception. A clash of minds designed neither to hate nor to love…
just to execute.
Akihiko broke the pattern with a sentence: "Do you know why I'm still here?
Because every mistake hurt me. And it hurt me… meaningfully."
Kessan failed the next step.
Because he thought. And thinking… was feeling.
VII. Reconstruction and revelation
Juno slowly recovered.
But something changed in her. Her voice… had a new crack. An emotional dissonance that made her stronger, because now she understood the fear of not being able to feel.
Riva redesigned the Akasha core with an emotional elasticity feature:
"Not everyone can feel the same,
but everyone deserves a framework that allows them to rebuild when they break."
And Sael wrote again in the reverse garden:
"Blood doesn't need to have a soul…
but if it loses one… then all that remains is obedience."
END OF CHAPTER 163