The district beyond the outer recovery wall looked abandoned by time itself.
Rain dripped steadily from the remains of broken highways overhead, forming shallow rivers along cracked asphalt streets. Entire apartment blocks leaned at dangerous angles, their windows hollow and black like empty eye sockets staring into the night.
No reconstruction crews came this far anymore.
People avoided this place.
Even resonance users did.
The transport vehicle rolled slowly through the ruined avenue before finally stopping beneath the shadow of a collapsed residential tower.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Kael looked up from the resonance monitor in his hands.
"We're here."
His voice was quieter than usual.
Not fear.
Concern.
The readings on the screen pulsed erratically, rising and falling in unstable bursts that refused to settle into any recognizable pattern.
Juvy felt it before stepping outside.
The resonance in this area felt wrong.
Not corrupted.
Not hostile.
Just… wounded.
Like something was screaming without knowing how to stop.
Cold air rushed into the vehicle as the doors slid open. Rain struck the pavement in soft metallic rhythms while distant thunder rolled across the skyline.
Maxruell stepped out first, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.
"I already hate this place," he muttered.
Nobody disagreed.
Aren exited slowly behind the others. The moment their feet touched the street, their expression changed.
Their resonance reacted instantly.
The fragments drifting faintly around Aren's body trembled with visible unease.
Juvy noticed immediately.
"You okay?"
Aren nodded after a short hesitation, though the answer clearly wasn't honest.
"It feels…" Aren searched for the words carefully. "Lonely."
That single word settled heavily over the group.
Kael activated a small projection screen beside his wrist. A blinking signal pulsed somewhere inside the ruined tower ahead of them.
"Upper floors," he said. "The resonance spike keeps moving."
"Moving?" Lina frowned.
Kael nodded once. "Like it's panicking."
The group entered the building carefully.
The lobby had long since collapsed inward, forcing them to climb through fractured concrete and exposed steel beams. Water dripped continuously from the ceiling above. Every step echoed through the hollow structure.
And the deeper they went—
The stronger the emotional pressure became.
Juvy felt flashes of unstable emotion brush against her Balance Resonance.
Fear.
Confusion.
Anger.
Unlike Aren's resonance, which instinctively sought connection, this one lashed out violently against everything around it.
As though it expected rejection before anyone even spoke.
Halfway up the stairwell, the lights overhead exploded.
A violent pulse of resonance tore through the building without warning.
The entire floor shook.
Aren flinched.
Lina instinctively grabbed the railing to stabilize herself while Maxruell looked upward sharply.
"Well," he sighed, "there's our welcoming committee."
Another pulse followed.
Closer this time.
Then—
A scream echoed somewhere above them.
Not monstrous.
Not inhuman.
Young.
Terrified.
Juvy ran first.
The others followed immediately behind her as fractured stairs cracked beneath their feet. By the time they reached the upper levels, the hallway ahead looked devastated.
Doors had been ripped from their hinges.
The walls themselves carried deep resonance fractures spreading like veins through the concrete.
At the center of the destruction stood a boy.
He looked roughly Aren's age.
Dark hair partially covered glowing silver eyes, and unstable fragments spiraled wildly around his body in violent bursts of light. His breathing was uneven, almost desperate, as though he'd been running for hours despite standing still.
The instant he noticed them—
The resonance exploded.
"DON'T COME CLOSER!"
The pressure slammed through the hallway hard enough to crack the floor.
Maxruell raised an arm immediately, shadows spreading outward to absorb the impact before the structure collapsed entirely.
But what struck Juvy most wasn't the violence.
It was the fear behind it.
The boy looked cornered.
Like an animal expecting execution.
Juvy slowly stepped forward despite the unstable pressure surrounding him.
"We're not here to hurt you."
"Liar!"
His voice cracked sharply.
"You're from Ground Zero!"
Another burst surged through the hallway.
Aren froze beside Lina.
Because they understood that fear perfectly.
The boy backed away until his shoulders hit the shattered wall behind him. The fragments around his body became even more unstable, reacting directly to his emotions.
"I heard what people say about us," he said, breathing hard. "Monsters. Disasters. Things that shouldn't exist."
Silence followed.
Heavy silence.
Rain continued falling outside the ruined building while resonance light flickered violently across broken concrete walls.
Then the boy finally noticed Aren.
His expression changed instantly.
The aggression didn't disappear—
But confusion cut through it.
"…You're like me."
Aren hesitated only briefly before stepping forward.
"My name is Aren."
The boy stared at them as though the idea itself made no sense.
Another existence like him.
Another person born from resonance.
Not alone.
The violent fragments circling his body weakened slightly.
Only slightly.
But enough for everyone to notice.
"I…" The boy swallowed hard. "I don't have a name."
Lina's expression softened immediately.
Juvy exchanged a brief glance with Kael.
The same beginning.
The same fear.
But this resonance carried something Aren never had during their awakening.
Resentment.
And deep beneath that resentment—
Pain that had already begun turning into anger.