The glory of the Concept Sanctuary faded behind them, becoming a distant star on the horizon. Lin and Aya's journey plunged into a soundless abyss. Here, there was no fanatic faith, no dazzling light, only a suffocating, boundless silence. It was not a pure tranquility but a materialized concept, like a thick layer of felt that absorbed all sound and locked away all emotions. Lin felt an unprecedented unease. He had always relied on the fluctuations of sound and emotion to perceive the world, like a bat navigating by echo-location. This silence disoriented him and dulled his abilities.
Aya was worse off. In the silence, the chaotic particles within her became unusually active, slithering through her blood like countless tiny vipers. She clutched her head, curling up in pain in a small alley, her body trembling slightly. The chaos was tormenting her, but Lin knew this pain was also part of her, something he was unwilling and unable to strip away so easily.
Just then, a clear female voice, one that did not belong to this land, broke the silence.
"Don't be afraid. Here, my voice cannot be swallowed."
A girl emerged from the depths of the alley. Her name was Lily, a "Resonator." As she reached out and touched Aya's forehead, Lin saw a faint light flow from her fingertips like a clear spring, nourishing Aya's parched soul. Aya's pain immediately lessened. There was no pity in Lily's gaze, only a kind of understanding, as if she had already seen through Aya's inner struggle. She told Lin that the city's silence was not the residents' choice but a passive resistance. They used silence to fight an even greater terror. That terror had no sound and no shape, yet it could, like a cancer, slowly gnaw away at their hearts.
Lin immediately realized this was another one of Chaos's tricks. He looked at Lily and asked, "Can you hear their fears?"
Lily nodded, a hint of sorrow on her face. "I can. But it's too painful. That kind of fear is like a tsunami; if I heard all of it, I would be drowned." Lily's eyes reflected Lin's image, and she saw in his gaze a loneliness similar to her own. One who could hear others' pain and one who could bear others' pain had found a resonance in this silence.
They decided to work together. Lin needed to use Lily's "Resonance" ability to find the most primal "Fear" concepts suppressed beneath the silence, then precisely strip them away. They chose a silent old man. Lily mentally linked with the elder, closing her eyes, her face contorting in pain. Lin could see twisted, gray fear essences rising from the old man, swirling around him like mist.
"It's... it's a whisper," Lily whispered painfully. "He heard a whisper. A soundless whisper that goes straight to the soul. It told him he could survive as long as he stayed afraid."
Lin's heart sank. He reached out and precisely stripped the twisted fear from the old man. When the stripping was complete, the elder let out a raspy, guttural sob, a sound filled with exhaustion and relief. However, just as Lin was about to leave, an invisible force surged from the depths of a library. It was a pure, silent pressure that had no physical form but caused the surrounding concept essences to twist. A "Whisperer" formed from chaotic particles appeared. It had no eyes, no mouth, yet Lin felt its cold gaze. Its target was Aya.
"Found you…" A soundless thought directly entered Lin and Lily's minds, filled with madness and chaos. "...my seed."
Lin instantly shielded Aya, while Lily spread her arms, attempting to block the oppressive force. They knew that what they faced was no longer a simple concept essence but a true creation of Chaos, more terrifying than any fear. Their meeting was no coincidence; they were now inextricably bound by the threads of fate. From this moment on, their escape had truly become a war of concepts.