The night after killing Cross should have been quiet.
It wasn't.
Lowwater hummed restlessly beneath Evan's feet as he stood on a rooftop overlooking the city. The skyline twitched with scattered arcs of violet light—little sparks that shouldn't exist. The wind carried the faint metallic taste of static, a sign the Lattice was still rewiring itself after the battle.
Evan flexed his hand, reopening the cuts across his knuckles. Crusted blood cracked. Violet energy pulsed under his skin.
He felt different.
Not tired.Not drained.Just… heavier.Like something new was waiting behind every breath.
Aelira's voice came from the comm, soft for once."You haven't slept. At all."
"Don't feel like I need to."
"That's not comforting."
Evan looked over Lowwater. The city lights flickered in patterns—strange ones. Rails glowed for no reason, power lines vibrated, rooftops lit in pulses he wasn't used to seeing.
The Lattice wasn't just stabilizing.
It was growing.
Cairn chimed in over the channel. "We're running new diagnostics on your suit. Whatever happened when you killed Cross left an imprint. A big one. I'm seeing energy spikes that don't match Runbreaker protocols or Lattice currents."
Evan cracked his neck. "Meaning what?"
"Meaning," Cairn said slowly, "you didn't just win. You absorbed something."
Evan didn't respond.
But he had felt it.When the pole drove through Cross.When the black lightning died.Something inside Evan's chest had clicked.
He wasn't sure if it was power… or something worse.
He turned to leave the rooftop—but the city reacted first.
Every rail in Lowwater flashed violet.
Every streetlight flickered at the exact same time.
Every Lattice node pulsed in the same rhythm as Evan's heartbeat.
And then:
[SYSTEM UPDATE DETECTED][LATTICE SYNC — 140%][RUNBREAKER FORM — EVOLVING][NEW FACTOR IDENTIFIED: CROSS-RESIDUAL ENERGY][ABSORPTION LEVEL — UNKNOWN]
Aelira's voice sharpened. "Evan… what did you just do?"
"I didn't do anything."He clenched his fists.The violet glow beneath his skin flared—brighter than ever.
The System pulsed again.
[NEW SUBROUTINE FORMING][PROCESSING — 12%][18%][27%][WARNING: EVOLUTION OUTPACING SYSTEM LIMITS]
Cairn's voice broke. "Evan, stop running! Just stay still until we—"
Too late.
Evan moved.
He didn't mean to.His legs just reacted, like instinct had taken over.
He stepped—and the world vanished.
For a moment, everything was white.Light stretched.Time bent.
And Evan was standing on the far edge of the city without remembering crossing a single street.
He staggered. "What the hell—"
Aelira shouted, "Evan, we just lost your location for a full second! You disappeared from every tracker!"
"That's impossible," Cairn muttered. "He can't phase. He's not built for that."
Evan touched his chest.His heartbeat was vibrating—fast, but not tired fast.More like a second heart had grown under the first one, beating at a frequency his armor struggled to contain.
The System flickered again.
[ABLATION DRIVE — UNLOCKED][EFFECT: MOMENTARY DISTANCE REMOVAL][STATUS: UNSTABLE / UNCONTROLLED]
Aelira froze. "Distance removal? Evan… you just ran by deleting the space between you and the next spot."
Evan stared at his hands.They were shaking—not from fear, but from raw energy.
Cross's last attack.His collapsing field.His dying lightning.The moment the pole pierced his heart—
Something passed into Evan.
Not dark.Not evil.Just potent.
Wild.
A new pulse went through the Lattice, hotter this time. Streetlights dimmed. Rails vibrated. Distant car alarms blared from the surge.
Evan's visor blinked.
[SECOND UPDATE DETECTED][RUNBREAKER EVOLUTION — 29%][PHYSIOLOGY SHIFT — IN PROGRESS][STAMINA LIMITER REMOVED][SPEED LIMITER REMOVED][HEAT TOLERANCE — EXPANDED][MICRO-COGNITION — BOOSTED]
Aelira whispered, "Evan… you're getting stronger every minute."
Cairn added, "That's not a buff. That's a runaway evolution."
Evan closed his eyes.
The city hummed louder. Every block. Every alley. Every rooftop.
He wasn't just in sync with Lowwater anymore.
Lowwater was syncing to him.
He jumped again—trying to move normally this time—and the space between him and the next rooftop blinked out again. He reappeared on the far edge of the building without feeling motion.
He didn't even feel the air.
A shiver ran down his spine.
"What's happening to me…?"
The System answered immediately.
[YOU KILLED THE CITY'S GREATEST THREAT][THE LATTICE RESPONDS TO SURVIVAL][THE SYSTEM RESPONDS TO VICTORY][NEW STORM PROTOCOL: USER ASCENSION]
Evan's breath caught.
Cross's death wasn't an ending.
It was the fuse.
The Lattice, the System, the residual energy, the Ashcode—they were all rewriting themselves around him. Not slowly. Not over weeks. Not through experience or grinding.
But right now.Fast.Explosive.Like something knew Evan needed more power immediately.
Cairn's voice broke through again."Evan… I think you're becoming the new core of the Lattice."
Aelira added, barely audible, "And I don't think you have a choice."
The wind shifted.Violet arcs spiraled around Evan's arms without him triggering anything.
The city lights dimmed again.
More updates rolled across the visor.
[RUNBREAKER FORM — PHASE II: 71%][LATTICE OVERRIDE PERMISSION — GRANTED][AUTO-ACCELERATION — ENABLED][USER SPEED POTENTIAL — UNLIMITED]
Evan swallowed hard.
A new storm had begun.
And it was him.