The Silence of Bone The cold didn't just touch Corvin's skin; it gnawed at his bones. He stood at the edge of the 'Rib-Walkers' district, motionless, as if his body were part of the terrain. Beneath his feet, the ground was a mix of pulverized bone dust and old engine oil, viscous and cold. Every small step let out a faint grinding sound, like something fragile shattering beneath his boots. He looked up. There was no open sky. Instead, the massive ribcage of a dead Titan arched overhead. Colossal bone struts rose from the earth, twisting above him to block out the horizon. Those bones were sharp as blades, as if still fighting even after death. Behind them, a sickly violet light bled through, barely revealing the outlines of the calcified alleys. Corvin clenched his jaw. The taste of copper filled his mouth. His body was warning him; whenever he prepared to push his energy to the absolute limit, his veins began to tear from the inside.
"Target identified." The voice came from inside his ear, sharp, mechanical, like the sound of direct friction against bone. "High resonance. Erase the echo." He didn't answer. He gripped his fractured sword. His fingers tightened around the hilt until his knuckles turned white. He breathed slowly and began to move. He passed by shattered bone pillars, wading through a heavy stench of rust and something rotting he couldn't identify.
Then, he saw him. In a cramped corner, behind a pile of smashed vertebrae, there was a boy. Small, scrawny, and covered in dust. The child wasn't moving, but the air around him wasn't still. The dust was slowly swirling in precise geometric circles around his small body, as if guided by an invisible force.
"Resonance confirmed. Execute." The brass-cog shrieked in his ear with maddening sharpness. Corvin didn't move. He just watched. The boy didn't cry, and he didn't scream. He was letting out a low hum, a faint vibration that rattled the walls of the skull he inhabited. Corvin felt that vibration directly inside his own chest. His breath hitched for a second.
In that moment, Elara's face returned. The same silver hair. The same calmness. The same look she had given him before he ended her life with his blade. "Don't, please." The boy whispered. The word wasn't so much heard as it was a pulse that struck Corvin's heart directly.
He took a step back, as if someone had punched him in the chest. "Kill the target! Now!" The machine screamed, its voice warping into electrical noise that tore his head apart from the inside.
Corvin closed his eyes for a second. The past wasn't dead, but he wouldn't repeat the mistake, acting as if driven by his heart. He spat crimson blood onto the ground and raised his hand to his ear. "Enough."
He dug his finger behind his ear and pressed with all his might. An electric spark burst. A sharp pain slammed into his head, but the mechanical screaming cut off instantly. A real, heavy silence descended.
He approached the boy and grabbed him hard by the collar of his shirt. "Run."
The boy didn't move at first, terrified, thinking Corvin wanted to kill him. Corvin yanked him with more force. "Listen to me! If we stay here, we become part of this dust." Suddenly, a distant scratching sound echoed. Then another. Then, an incredibly sharp howl shattered the surroundings. Corvin turned slowly. The shadows between the bones shifted. The Blood-Hounds had arrived. "Now you run." He dragged the boy behind him and started sprinting.
The ground was unstable, bones snapping beneath their feet, dust choking their throats. The sound of the howling approached at insane speed. One of the beasts lunged. Corvin heard it before he saw it. He spun around instantly and raised his sword. A metallic claw crashed into the fractured blade with enough force to send sparks flying. Corvin skidded backward and looked at the hound that landed in front of him; its body a hybrid of metal and bone, its red eyes breathing with a sound like boiling water.
Corvin pushed his muscles beyond human endurance to dodge the next strike and bash the hound in the side of its head. The heat in his skull spiked immediately, and blood vessels ruptured in his eyes, sending a line of hot blood gliding down his cheek. This was the toll of his speed; his body eating itself from the inside. "Run!" he shouted at the boy, shoving him toward a narrow passageway between two giant ribs.
They entered the dark passage, barely wide enough for two people. Corvin turned and stood at the entrance, blocking the way with his exhausted body and raised sword. His vision began to shake from the pain and blood pressure, but he could hear the footsteps of the rest of the pack closing in through the dark.
The boy looked at him from behind, scared and disoriented. Corvin motioned for him to keep moving into the dark, wiping the blood from his eye. "Don't stop."
Behind them, howling filled the space. Ahead of them lay an unknown path. Only one thing was certain: there was no going back.