Lowwater's mornings weren't quiet anymore.Not since the storm learned to breathe.
Every streetlight hummed faintly, every rail flickered with leftover charge. The city had taken on Evan's rhythm — and that scared Aelira more than she'd ever admit.
She met him in Foundry Square just after dawn. The air still smelled like burnt metal.
"You're not running again," she said.
Evan didn't even look up from tightening the wraps around his forearms. "You said that yesterday."
"And you ignored me yesterday."
"Then it's a routine."
Cairn dropped down from a broken balcony, landing hard enough to shake the street. "You two argue like old people. Let the man run; I need a show."
Evan rolled his neck, violet arcs crawling up his jawline. "You sure the Lattice can handle another test?"
Aelira's slate flickered red at the question. "No," she said flatly, "but you'll do it anyway."
[SYSTEM — TRAINING FIELD LINKED][USER: EVAN SHARP][CADENCE SYNC — 76 %][PULSE STEP: READY][CITY STATUS: HUMMING]
He closed his eyes.
The city answered — its thousand tiny sounds folding into one beat. Hammer strikes, footsteps, cables whining in the wind. A rhythm too fast to be natural.
He matched it.
Lightning burst from his heels as he launched forward, vanishing into violet afterimages that wrapped the district like veins. Air cracked, buildings vibrated, streetlights dimmed in waves.
Aelira shouted into her comm. "He's accelerating past sync curve!"
Cairn's grin widened. "And here comes the part where everything explodes."
[SYNC RATE — 87 % → 94 % → 101 %][SYSTEM WARNING: LATTICE BREACH IMMINENT]
The ground split under his feet. The storm inside him pushed against its limit — and kept pushing. He could feel the world thinning around him. Each step tore a hole in the air.
He wasn't just inside the city anymore; he was inside the system.
Endless light stretched in every direction — rivers of data and memory looping around him like lightning carved into glass. He could see where every street connected, where every voice lived, where every spark had gone when the gods fell.
It was beautiful.
It was killing him.
[SYSTEM ALERT]User Overflow: 189 % → 203 % → 218 %Containment: FAILING.User Viability: COMPROMISED.Initiating Protocol — "RUNBREAKER."
His body froze mid-run.
The world inverted — not color, not space — weight. Gravity, air, and sound all folded around him, funneling toward the storm at his core.
Violet light flared from his chest, brighter than anything he'd seen before. His ribs felt like molten steel, his skin like cracked glass.
Aelira's voice echoed through the distortion. "Evan, you're tearing the grid apart! You need to stop—"
He couldn't.He was already gone.
The Lattice screamed in mechanical prayer as the System began to reshape him.
[FORGING CONTAINMENT VESSEL…][CORE INTEGRITY — 42 % → 58 % → 91 %][RECALIBRATING SPEED DOMAIN PARAMETERS…]
Lightning folded into geometry. Arcs coiled across his body, solidifying into glasslike lines. Thin plates grew from energy, layering over his chest and arms, glowing with inner light. Every plate pulsed once, in perfect rhythm with his heartbeat.
The air shuddered with each pulse. His shadow turned into streaks of light that lagged behind him like echoes.
Aelira shielded her eyes. "It's building around him…"
Cairn muttered, "No — it's building him into the city."
[RUNBREAKER PROTOCOL — COMPLETE][CONTAINMENT STABILIZED][NEW FORM DESIGNATED: RUNBREAKER][SPEED LIMIT — REMOVED WITHIN DOMAIN.]
The light broke.
Evan stood in the crater where the plaza used to be. Steam coiled off his shoulders. The suit fit like skin — sleek, dark, faintly reflective, with arcs of violet lightning running under the surface like veins.His visor came online, translucent, its glow pulsing with every breath.
Aelira stared. "The System forged it for you…"
He looked down, flexed his hands. The armor hummed quietly, alive with stored energy. "No," he said softly. "It forged it from me."
[RUNBREAKER FORM — ONLINE]Speed Output: 3,145 m/sOverflow Cap: 200 %Abilities unlocked:• Overdrive Field — Converts speed into impact energy.• Arc Memory — Replay last three seconds of movement.• Phase Run — Pass through solid matter while maintaining motion.• Passive Regeneration — Repairs damage through kinetic flow.
He took one step, and the air trembled. Another, and the light posts along the street turned toward him, following the current. The armor wasn't heavy. It wasn't armor at all. It was velocity given shape.
Cairn laughed under his breath. "That's not a man anymore. That's a thunderstorm pretending to walk."
Aelira's slate pinged. "Energy output stable. The Lattice isn't collapsing. For once, you didn't break the world."
"Yet," Cairn said.
Evan tilted his head, scanning the plaza. "No gods? No warnings? No side effects?"
Aelira hesitated. "So far… no."
Then the lights around them dimmed.
A low tone rolled through the ground, followed by gray motes of ash drifting from the broken rails.
The Ashcode was watching.
[ALERT: FOREIGN ENTITY DETECTED][SOURCE: "ASHCODE"][STATUS: ADAPTIVE][COMMENT: "THE FIRE WATCHES THE LIGHTNING."]
Evan's visor glowed. "Guess it didn't like the upgrade."
Cairn stepped forward, arcs lighting his fists. "Good. I've been bored."
"No," Evan said, raising his hand. "This one's mine."
The ash gathered into a shape — a copy of him. Its eyes burned red, its lightning black. The air froze between them, two storms facing off.
Evan's storm hummed, steady, confident. "You learn fast," he said. "But I'm what comes after fast."
The copy lunged.
Evan moved first.
Violet light swallowed the plaza. He vanished, reappeared behind the clone, and drove an elbow into its back. The impact detonated a shockwave that threw sparks into the clouds.
The clone twisted, swinging back — its arm cutting through the air like molten glass. Evan ducked, slid forward, and launched himself upward, dragging lightning behind him like a comet tail.
[ABILITY: OVERDRIVE FIELD — ACTIVATED][KINETIC OUTPUT — 128 %]
He came down hard, a violet blur slamming the clone into the street. The explosion lit half of Lowwater for an instant before fading to rain and steam.
When the smoke cleared, only Evan was standing. His armor flickered once, cooling, lines dimming from bright white to calm violet.
[RUNBREAKER FORM — STABLE][ASHCODE PRESENCE — 1 % (DORMANT)][LOWWATER STATUS — SYNCHRONIZED]
Cairn whistled low. "You just outran a god's ghost."
Aelira shook her head slowly, still looking at the readings. "No. He didn't outrun it. He outpaced the infection point. The Ashcode couldn't keep up."
Evan's visor retracted, revealing his eyes — bright violet, faint lightning still flickering through them. "Then let's keep it that way."
Aelira finally smiled, small but real. "You realize you've officially broken every recorded Registry limit."
"Good," he said. "I'm not here to set them."
He turned toward the city skyline, the storm in his chest settling into a steady hum. The new armor breathed with him — alive, responsive, waiting for its next sprint.
Cairn crossed his arms. "So, what's next?"
Evan's eyes narrowed as thunder rolled across the horizon. "Next? We see how far the world goes before it breaks."
He crouched, lightning flaring from his boots. The streets answered, glowing violet in unison.
Then he ran — and the city followed.
[RUNBREAKER FORM — ACTIVE][TIER 4 — DIAMOND (TEMPORARY)][SPEED LOGGED: 3,217 m/s AND RISING][LOWWATER STATUS: HUMMING, IN SYNC WITH USER.]