The Grand Hall vibrated. It wasn't a metaphor. The marble floor, the vaulted ceiling, even the air inside Lucas's lungs—everything was shaking.
On the balcony, fifty students stood in perfect unison. Their eyes glowed with the varied colors of the viral spectrum—Violet, Green, Yellow.
Julian, the Head Prefect, raised his broken baton.
"First Movement," Julian announced, his voice echoing with unnatural amplification. "Crescendo."
The students opened their mouths. They didn't scream. They emitted a unified, high-frequency hum.
HUMMMMMMM.
[SYSTEM ALERT: EXTERNAL RESONANCE DETECTED.]
[DECIBEL LEVEL: 140. STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED.]
"My ears!" Kain screamed, dropping his guns to clutch his helmet. Blood trickled from his nose.
The sound wave hit Team Arachne like a physical wall. Alexander Vane was thrown backward, his silver cane skittering across the floor. The marble pillars began to crack, spiderwebs of fractures racing up the stone.
Lucas didn't fall.
He saw the world through Tier 2 Resonance Sight.
To him, the sound wasn't noise. It was a wireframe ocean. He saw the waves of energy pouring from the students, converging into a single, devastating lance of pressure aimed directly at them.
"They're a Hive Mind!" Elena shouted over the comms, her voice distorted by the interference. "They're linking their frequencies! It's a sonic cannon, Lucas! You have to kill them before they liquify your brains!"
Lucas looked at the balcony. Fifty kids. Fifty victims.
"Kill them, Lucas!" Alexander yelled, struggling to stand. "It's us or them!"
Lucas raised his Shatter Pistol. The targeting reticle locked onto a twelve-year-old girl in the front row. Her eyes were blank, glowing yellow. She was crying, even as she sang the note that was killing them.
[CALCULATION: LETHAL FORCE REQUIRED.]
[HUMANITY INDEX: 64%... 63%...]
"No," Lucas growled.
He dropped the pistol.
"Lucas, what are you doing?!" Kain shrieked.
Lucas stepped forward, directly into the blast wave. His armor groaned, the metal plates buckling under the sonic pressure.
[WARNING: SUIT FAILURE IMMINENT.]
[VIRAL OUTPUT: 80%.]
"I'm not killing children," Lucas gritted out. "I'm cancelling the noise."
He planted his feet. He activated the cooling sleeves on his right arm. The liquid nitrogen hissed, turning to steam instantly.
"Julian!" Lucas roared.
The Prefect looked down, sneering. "You can't stop the music, Ghost. We are perfection."
"You're out of tune," Lucas said.
He slammed his crystal palms together.
[ABILITY ACTIVATE: COUNTER-RESONANCE.]
[THEORY: INVERTED WAVEFORM.]
Lucas didn't scream. He projected. He used his crystal arm as a tuning fork, reading the frequency of the students (440Hz) and blasting out the exact mathematical opposite (-440Hz).
BOOM.
The two sound waves collided in the center of the hall.
The result was... silence.
Absolute, vacuum-sealed silence.
The "cancellation" effect shattered the air pressure. The windows of the Grand Hall blew outwards.
On the balcony, the connection broke. The students gasped, clutching their chests as the feedback loop snapped. They collapsed in unison, unconscious but alive.
Julian didn't collapse. He staggered, blood pouring from his ears. He looked around wildly.
"The song..." Julian whispered, terrified. "I can't hear the song..."
"Good," Lucas said.
He didn't run. He walked up the invisible stairs of air pressure he had created, jumping to the balcony in a single hydraulic leap.
He landed in front of Julian.
The boy raised his hand to strike, but he was trembling. The arrogance was gone. He was just a terrified kid who had lost his connection to the hive.
Lucas didn't hit him. He placed a hand on Julian's shoulder.
"Sleep," Lucas commanded. He sent a low-level pulse into the boy's nervous system. Julian's eyes rolled back, and he slumped into Lucas's arms.
Lucas gently lowered the boy to the floor.
Slow clapping echoed from the shadows.
"Bravo," The Alchemist said.
The scientist was standing by a hidden elevator door at the back of the balcony. He was holding a heavy metallic briefcase.
"You managed to save the pawns," The Alchemist chuckled, punching a code into the keypad. "But you wasted so much energy doing it."
Lucas stood up, his suit smoking.
[VIRAL LOAD: 95%. CRITICAL.]
"You're not leaving, Doctor," Lucas said, raising his hand.
"Oh, I think I am," The Alchemist smiled. "You see, while you were playing nanny, I was securing the real curriculum."
He patted the briefcase.
"The Architects' blueprints. The location of the Prime Geode. And... the list of your replacements."
The elevator doors hissed open. The Alchemist stepped inside.
"I'd stay and chat, Lucas, but I have a meeting with Apostle Number Four. He handles the funding. I handle the biology. And you? You just handle the trash."
Lucas fired a sonic spike.
THUMP.
But the elevator doors were made of something else. Something dark and light-absorbent. The spike dissolved on impact.
"Resonance-dampening alloy," The Alchemist winked as the doors closed. "I learned from your file. Goodbye, Subject Zero."
The doors sealed. The Alchemist was gone.
"Dammit!" Kain yelled from the floor below. "He ghosted us!"
Lucas stared at the metal doors. His arm was throbbing, the blue light erratic and angry. He wanted to tear the wall down. He wanted to chase.
But he looked around. Fifty unconscious children lay on the balcony.
If he left now, they would freeze, or worse—The Syndicate would send a cleanup crew.
"Tank," Lucas said, his voice heavy. "Call the extraction team. We need medical transports. Lots of them."
"What about the Alchemist?" Alexander asked, climbing the stairs. He looked at the sealed elevator with a mix of frustration and respect. "He has the data, Lucas. He knows where the Source is."
Lucas walked over to the podium where Julian had been conducting. On it lay a tablet. The Alchemist had left it behind in his haste—or perhaps, as a taunt.
Lucas picked it up. He hacked the bio-lock with a spark from his finger.
The screen flickered to life. It wasn't a map. It was a schedule.
[PROJECT: ASCENSION]
[PHASE 1: BIOLOGY (COMPLETE)]
[PHASE 2: ECONOMY (INITIATING)]
[NEXT MEETING: THE OLYMPUS CASINO, LAS VEGAS.]
[ATTENDEE: THE BANKER.]
Lucas looked at the screen.
"He didn't escape," Lucas said coldly. "He just moved to the next level."
He turned to his team.
"Pack up. We're going to Vegas."
[SYSTEM ALERT: NEW OBJECTIVE.]
[TARGET: THE BANKER (APOSTLE #4).]
[DIFFICULTY: IMPOSSIBLE.]
Lucas looked at the unconscious Julian.
"Tank, get the kid," Lucas added. "He's coming with us."
"Why?" Tank asked. "He tried to slice us in half."
Lucas looked at his own crystal hand.
"Because he's not a soldier," Lucas said. "He's a symptom. And we're going to cure him."