Gilded Ashes-Chapter 279: Strange Sounds

Raizen slowed without meaning to.

The silvery knife in his hand didn’t feel heavy, but it didn’t feel too light either. The red threads around it kept moving - circling in a way that made his skin itch, like the knife waited for something.

He held it closer to his face, rain pattering on his knuckles, and tried to make sense of it. Elin’s voice came back to him - calm, impatient, sovereign-like - telling him what to do and when. The knife wasn’t supposed to activate twice. It already did its job. The contract broke. The Ruler died. Everything should’ve been... Finished.

But the threads stayed. Kenzo kept walking, Enya still thrown over his shoulder like a miniature soldier, hammer hovering at his side. He didn’t look worried at all.

Raizen slid the knife back into his sleeve pocket anyway, like hiding it could make the feeling go away. It didn’t. He still felt the warmth through the fabric, the faint tremor every few steps, like the blade insisted.

They moved higher, now fully into Ukai’s lower routes, where the city started feeling like platforms and terraces again. Then he remembered the glass dome.

He remembered peeking into the Echelon meeting from thirty meters up, branch cutting into his palms, and Elin stepping into that marble room. If she appeared at the Echelon meeting, then she was still probably around. Maybe she wanted the knife back. Maybe she activated it again because she needed him to do something else.

Raizen hated how quickly his brain turned everything into a mission. He didn’t even want to admit it, but after everything that happened, "Elin wants her knife back" sounded almost comforting. At least that was a normal kind of danger. Not the kind that made you "supervise" something probably even stronger than you.

He glanced at Kenzo again. "Hey."

Kenzo hummed, still walking.

"Did you... feel anything?" Raizen asked. He tried to sound casual. He failed.

Kenzo’s eyes slid to him for a moment, then back forward. "Like what?"

"The air" Raizen said quietly. "It feels... Different, somehow."

Kenzo didn’t answer right away. He took another step, boots splashing softly on wood, and Raizen saw his shoulders shift like he listened to something Raizen couldn’t hear yet.

Then Kenzo paused - mid-step, like someone pressed a hand against his back and told him to wait.

Raizen’s breath caught.

A hum rose through the rain. It wasn’t a sound from a beast. It wasn’t mechanical either. It didn’t come from one direction. It didn’t echo off stone or wood like a normal noise should. It just... Existed - everywhere at once.

Raizen tilted his head, trying to locate it, and failed. The hum grew anyway, slow and steady, like someone turned a dial step by step.

Kenzo’s expression didn’t change much, but his eyes sharpened. His hammer drifted a little closer, like it woke up from its sleep, too.

Raizen looked up through the branches, expecting to see something swooping down, a Nyx, an ambush, something.

Instead he saw a small black shadow against the black sky.

Raizen instantly recognized the shape. Ever since he last saw it, it was stuck in his head. Elin’s dragon. Or at least the shape of it, barely visible between moving leaves. It glided in a slow circle.

"That’s Elin" Raizen muttered before he could stop himself.

Kenzo didn’t even look surprised. "Who?"

Raizen blinked. "Uhh... Nobody!"

Kenzo shrugged with one shoulder - the one not carrying a fully armored menace. "Whatever you say, I guess..."

The hum deepened. Raizen’s eyes narrowed. That sound wasn’t from the dragon alone.

Kenzo finally glanced up properly, tracking the sky through the canopy. "Wha-"

Raizen felt it in his teeth now. In his ribs. It even made the fog tremble slightly.

Then the sky distorted.

At first it was subtle - the blackness above didn’t change color, but it changed shape. The darkness seemed to stretch, as if the clouds grew a second skin. Like someone laid a giant dark blanket over everything.

Raizen’s heart started beating faster, and he didn’t know why. He knew what this was, but it didn’t make sense at this hour, after this day.

The Echelon dome.

It became visible because dozens of white particles flickered into existence inside it - first a few, then more, then hundreds.

They looked like fireflies trapped under glass.

They didn’t drift like real insects, though. Their movement was too smooth. Too synchronized. They rose and fell in patterns that made no sense for nature. Some lines spiraled slowly, some clusters pulsed together like a heartbeat, and some motes snapped into place like they followed silent commands.

Raizen stared, rain sliding down his face, and forgot to blink.

This was too big.

Kenzo exhaled like he just smelled a familiar meal. "Ahh" he said, voice low and almost satisfied. "Brings back memories."

Raizen slowly turned his head. "What?"

Kenzo smiled faintly. "They’re trying to imitate stars. You never saw them do stuff like this in Neoshima? Launching really small rockets that explode into shining glitter in the air?"

Raizen stared harder. "No!?"

Kenzo chuckled.

Raizen’s throat went dry. "Kenzo. What is this."

Kenzo looked up again, eyes reflecting those flickering motes. "Eiden told me somethink about it. The Echelon planned a little surprise for the Firefly Festival."

Raizen’s brain lagged behind the words. "A LITTLE surprise."

Kenzo nodded. "When Ukai throws petals and branches. Echelon throws... Uhm... Whatever this is."

Raizen couldn’t stop himself. "Why now? It’s the middle of the night."

Kenzo’s smile turned lazy. "Because it’s the middle of the night."

Raizen clenched his jaw. "That’s exactly what I said."

Kenzo tilted his head, like Raizen was the one being slow now. "Nobody’s awake. Nobody complains. Nobody panics. If something goes wrong, it goes wrong quietly."

Raizen didn’t like how reasonable that sounded. He forced himself to look back up. The particles inside the dome grew brighter for a few seconds, then started thinning, like someone was playing with the dials. Always sliding into new positions, like they were mapping something. Measuring. Calibrating.

The hum rose higher, then steadied again, and Raizen felt his sleeves flutter slightly even though there was no wind. Leaves near the canopy trembled. Some of the smallest ones lifted and floated for a moment like gravity forgot them.

Kenzo spoke again, tone casual, almost bored. "Eiden said they’re testing it. I don’t know. They want it perfect before they show off to the whole city. Make the rain stop. Make the sky sparkle. Make everyone think it’s magic."

Raizen swallowed. "Isn’t it magic."

Kenzo snorted. "It’s Echelon. That’s as close as you can get."

That answer didn’t comfort Raizen at all. He watched the canopy a few seconds longer, trying to figure out what it actually did. Was it holding rain? Was it changing pressure? Was it filtering the fog?

Then the particles froze.

For a single second, everything held still - the lights inside the dome, the hum in the air, even the rain seemed to pause in Raizen’s mind.

And suddenly, it all ended.

The hum cut off like someone snapped their fingers. The particles vanished completely

The sky returned to its original black nothing, like it was never even touched. The distortion disappeared so cleanly that if Raizen blinked at the wrong time, he would’ve convinced himself it was just his imagination.

Kenzo started walking again like nothing happened. "See?" he said, almost cheerful. "Test done." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Raizen didn’t move for half a second. His mind stayed up there under that dome, trapped with those flickering motes.

Then he forced his legs to follow. They kept going. Ukai’s roots guided them like old roads. The fog thickened again, reclaiming the space the dome briefly made feel exposed. The distant city noises stayed muted. Everything looked normal.

Raizen touched his sleeve pocket again, just to reassure himself the knife was still there.

It was. Warm. Still circling with red strings.

Raizen opened his mouth to speak - to ask Kenzo what memories he had.

And then a new sound hit his ears.

A weird sound. Soft. Wet. Rhythmic.

At first Raizen’s mind tried to interpret it as rain violently dripping off leaves. Then as a beast breathing. Then as a branch creaking under weight.

It kept repeating.

Raizen stopped so hard his boots slid slightly on a wet root. Kenzo stopped too.

They looked at each other in silence, rain pattering around them.

The sound came again.

Kenzo’s eyes shifted toward his shoulder.

Raizen’s eyes followed.

Enya’s helmet still hid her face. Her armor still covered everything, body limp over Kenzo.

And she snored like she slept in a warm bed, not after getting hit by a Nyx projectile that exploded.

Raizen stared for three full seconds.

Kenzo stared for more. Then his mouth twitched. Raizen didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

The snore came again, louder, like Enya took pride in it.

Raizen exhaled slowly, shoulders dropping despite himself. "You’ve got to be kidding me."

Kenzo adjusted her slightly, not gently, not rough - like he shifted a bag of groceries. "Mmmyeah..." he said, voice calm. "Stubborn."

Raizen’s eyes stayed on the helmet. "So you weren’t wrong... She’s really just... Sleeping."

Kenzo nodded. "Told you."

And Enya kept snoring.