The girl's eyes widened.
"Hey—!"
He couldn't hear her properly anymore. His senses were being stolen from him. Not a single muscle in his body responded to him. He himself couldn't fathom what was happening. The figure in the alley wasn't moving. It just stayed there—staring at him. It's pure white, glowing eyes basked within the darkness of the alley.
His hearing collapsed further. All of the sound near him stretched into a deep, warped hum. The pressure in the air felt even thicker. His sight hollowed inward until only the darkness ahead remained.
The girl's eyes were fixated on Vayne the instant she saw him freeze completely. Panic was slowly settling across her expression.
She thrust her hand forward without hesitation and spread her fingers wide towards him.
A faint distortion rippled through the air around her palm. Then her fingers curled sharply inward—like she was grabbing hold of something unseen.
"Aero, compress!"
The oxygen and nitrogen particles between them compressed violently, erupting into a blast of wind. Dust and loose scraps of paper jerked upward as the atmosphere itself warped inward around Vayne's body. For a split second everything went unnaturally still.
Then she yanked her arm hard to her right. The compressed air detonated sideways.
Vayne's body was ripped off his feet quickly. The force hit him like a speeding vehicle, launching him across the pavement before violently dragging him toward the wall beside the alley.
He slammed shoulder-first into the concrete wall with a sickening impact. The unholy pressure that crushed his senses shattered apart. Cracks splintered across the surface where he hit.
Sharp fragments of broken concrete tore into his back and shoulder as he collapsed against the pavement.
His hand reached behind himself slowly and pulled one of the jagged shards free. He stared at it for a moment.
The girl stumbled slightly after the motion. Her control almost slipped with it. The air around her hand continued twitching erratically, spiraling in uneven currents before slowly settling.
"...Shit."
Her breathing had gone uneven. Her gaze settled near the alley. The figure was still there, she could see it with the corners of her eye. Those white eyes remained fixed on them.
Vayne stayed against the cracked wall, one hand pressed onto the ground next to him. His senses slowly forced themselves back. Pain pulsed through his shoulder from the impact.
But now he could move again. He observed.
Whatever was in that alley—looking at it was a mistake.
No. Looking at it was a mistake. But his eyes keep wanting to drift back toward it. Not consciously. Like the thing in the alley occupied a space the mind instinctively tried to return to. Even without directly looking at it, he could feel his awareness pulling toward the darkness in front of him little by little.
The girl's expression tightened immediately.
"...Don't look at it."
She spoke louder, her breath returning back to her.
"Whatever that thing was, it turned your creepy-ass white eyes into bottomless black pits."
The girl noticed his eyes subtly drifting again and immediately raised her hand.
A faint distortion rippled around her curling fingers.
"You completely froze up."
Her fingers tightened.
"Brume—envelope."
Moisture from the air, the damp pavement, and the trickling runoff condensed violently outward around her outstretched hand. Thin strands of pale mist spiraled into existence before rapidly thickening into dense fog.
The alley disappeared behind layers of shifting white haze. The figure was unable to be seen through the thick layers of mist.
Vayne immediately felt the pressure on his mind weaken slightly.
The girl exhaled shakily, keeping her hand raised as the fog continued curling around them in unstable currents.Tiny droplets hovered unnaturally near her fingers, vibrating faintly before dissolving back into the mist.
"...Okay," she muttered quietly. "How long are you gonna stay down there?"
Vayne was still crouched near the cracked wall, one hand planted against the pavement beside him. His pale eyes remained lowered, deliberately avoiding the fog-covered alley in front of him.
His shoulder throbbed. A jagged piece of broken concrete rested loosely in his hand.
Vayne didn't answer immediately. His attention stayed on the concrete shard.
"...You hit me pretty hard."
The girl stared at him blankly for a second.
"What?"
He slowly pushed himself upright against the wall.
"You're welcome, by the way. Maybe try thanking me instead of antagonizing me."
Her voice came out more defensive than intended.
Vayne barely reacted. His fingers brushed lightly against the torn fabric near his shoulder before pausing there for a moment longer than normal.
The girl noticed.
"...What?"
Then Vayne dropped the concrete shard onto the pavement.
"Nothing."
The fog drifted slowly around them while water continued dripping from a rusted drainage pipe nearby.
"What's your name?"
Her tone was flat and demanding while remaining soft. Her eyes were still fixed ahead toward the mist-covered alley.
Vayne glanced at her briefly.
"Why?"
"If we're trying to get out of a Veil Zone together, I'd rather not keep calling you 'you.' "
"...Vayne."
She gave a small nod.
"Lune."
The alley fell silent again. There were no sounds of pods hovering over them going through the city. No wind. The city sounded completely hollow. The world felt gray, like it had been dyed in dark shades of blue.
Neither of them spoke for a while; they were busy searching for clues.
They left the alley cautiously. Moving through the empty streets without a real destination in their minds. There was no movement or signs of living creatures around them. It looked less like the city had been abandoned and more like life itself had been removed from it.
Store screens still flickered. Transport pods hung motionless above the streets, frozen in the air mid-transit. A steaming cup of coffee sat untouched on a table outside a nearby café.It was as if the properties of the world had remained even after everything else disappeared.
The deeper they walked into the city, the more Vayne realized this wasn't just an empty place. Something about reality itself felt disconnected.
Vayne looked around slowly. Within two days, he had found someone who could move through shadows, met a girl who could seemingly manipulate wind and water, and somehow ended up in a version of the city where reality itself felt wrong.
His mind kept trying to rationalize everything—to force logic onto it—but every answer only created worse questions.
Was this hidden from the public somehow?
No.
The Lowline District didn't teach people things. It taught them how to survive long enough to learn on their own. Information was something you earned through beatings, mistakes, or luck. Usually all three.
Maybe that's why Vayne wasn't exactly panicking right now. Not because he was calm. But growing up in the lowest district meant getting used to the feeling that something terrible was always happening outside of your understanding.
People disappeared. Gangs rose overnight and vanished a week later. Entire streets became places nobody walked through anymore, and nobody ever explained why. You learned very quickly not to waste energy being shocked.
You watched.
You adapted.
Or you died before things started to make sense. That was how Vayne had lived for as long as he could remember.
Observe. Adapt. Survive.
The world never stopped long enough for explanations. Hesitation only got people killed in the Lowline District. So instead of panicking, Vayne watched. He watched the empty streets.The hollow silence. The girl beside him was manipulating forces he couldn't understand. And he adapted to the impossible the same way he adapted to everything else.
The atmosphere became heavy. It started to become harder to walk, similar to when they first entered.
A sharp cracking noise echoed across the sky.
They both immediately looked up.
The dark blue sky above the city had split open. A thin fracture was overhead like broken glass, glowing faintly with white light beneath it.
Vayne's eyes narrowed.
"...What the hell is that?"
Beside him the girl froze. She panicked before but never showed any signs of fear until now.
"That's not supposed to happen this early."
Another crack spread across the sky.
Larger this time.
The buildings started to tremble slightly.
Vayne looked back at her.
"You wanna explain?"
"...The Zone is destabilizing."
Vayne tilted his head slightly and looked at her, confusion written on his face.
"It means we need to figure out how to exit before we're fully severed from the Allrune."
Another crack echoed above them. Vayne studied Lune's carefully.
Up until now, it felt as if she knew everything.
No.
Her mask was slipping. It wasn't that she knew everything. She was lost.
Lune lowered her eyes toward the empty street.
Vayne spoke.
"Do you know how to leave?"
Her hands clenched slightly at her sides. After pausing for a second.
"...No."
The word landed heavier than the fractures above them. Because for the first time since entering the Zone, both of them understood the same thing.
They had no clues. No direction. And no idea how much time they had left.