The moment Melody saw the Mandala structures rotating behind him, she immediately played the Orchestral Violex again.
The ocean beneath them surged unnaturally as temporal distortions formed across the battlefield, creating zones where currents accelerated and outright froze. Even the clouds above twisted strangely, moving forward and backward in conflicting motions as if the sky itself had forgotten which direction time was supposed to flow. Her clone moved again immediately.
Veneri exhaled and vanished again. The sheer force of his acceleration shattered the water beneath him as he activated the Second Plenituse Technique, Calm Gale.
Unlike Viridescence which focused entirely on explosive force and overwhelming destructive output, Calm Gale refined movement itself. His body became absurdly light while his agility and reaction speed skyrocketed. Nepenthes runes wrapped around his body in sapphire spirals, augmenting his muscles, nerves, perception and reflexes until even the surrounding distortions of time felt slower in comparison.
Melody's eyes widened but the clone reacted first. Its blade swung toward empty space only for Calimostria to suddenly appear.
The glaive crashed against the clone's weapon so violently that the impact ruptured the ocean beneath them, sending a kilometer-wide shockwave across the sea. Before the clone could even stabilize, Veneri twisted his body with terrifying fluidity and kicked it directly in the ribs.
The clone shot through the sky and he followed using Flight Runes.
Calm Gale made him terrifying.
Veneri has always been absurdly talented at adapting combat styles, but forty-five years of training had polished him into something completely different. His movements no longer wasted energy, his balance was perfect and his reactions flowed seamlessly between offense and defense like breathing itself. Combined with Master-level Weapon Mastery and decades of accumulated battle experience, his glaive felt less like a weapon.
Melody suddenly appeared behind him. The Orchestral Violex gleamed white, causing a temporal slash at his spine. He ducked beneath the attack so smoothly it looked rehearsed, spun Calimostria around his wrist and slammed the butt of the glaive toward Melody's stomach. She rewound time around herself instantly, appearing several meters away before the strike connected.
Hundreds of giant crystal formations manifested around the battlefield. For decades, Sapphire Materialization has been his specialty.
Massive sapphire spears shot from beneath the ocean while floating crystal blades formed above the sky. Entire walls of sapphire rotated around him defensively while countless razor-sharp fragments orbited his body, each moving independently according to his will. The sheer scale of control was terrifying because he no longer needed conscious effort to maintain it.
He manipulated sapphire like breathing.
Melody barely had time to react before dozens of sapphire spikes headed towards her from every direction. For the first time since the fight began, Calimostria suddenly swept across her shoulder.
She laughed softly. That was the first proper hit he had landed all battle.
Calm Gale amplified his speed to absurd levels while Nepenthes continuously enhanced him further. Sapphire constructs moved with him, striking in perfect coordination with his glaive techniques. Giant crystal walls emerged to restrict Melody's movement while countless floating shards forced her to constantly evade.
Melody rewound an attack but Veneri anticipated it. She accelerated her movement and he adjusted instantly. She manipulated her own time to distort perception but he used pure combat instinct. Forty-five years of training under Melody herself meant he understood her habits frighteningly well.
He changed techniques and used the Third Plenituse Technique, Scattered Scales.
All four hundred sapphire-water scales materialized around him at once. Compared to the three hundred twenty-seven he once struggled to maintain, these scales were sharper, stronger, larger and more stable. Water and sapphire fused together perfectly as they floated in the sky.
All the four hundred giant fragments formed a colossal peony flower around Melody.
Each petal consisted of dozens of massive sapphire scales rotating at high speeds, creating an enclosed formation that stretched for kilometers. Water currents spiraled around the structure while razor-sharp pressure distorted the air itself. From afar, it looked breathtakingly beautiful. From inside, it was horrifying.
Melody moved faster than ever before.
The Orchestral Violex played continuously as time warped around her body, letting her dodge attacks that should have been impossible to evade. One scale nearly tore through her arm, another missed her neck by centimeters, while dozens tore through empty afterimages she intentionally left behind.
Her clone acted as a frontline combatant. It intercepted scales with precise sword strikes while Melody herself danced through the formation, rewinding fatal mistakes and accelerating her reactions. It was absurd. Melody felt the pressure because Veneri had improved monstrously.
He vanished again and used Viridescence. The clone turned too late as Calimostria descended. A vertical sapphire slash split the world.
The clone was split cleanly in half.
The ocean beneath them separated again as a massive gorge stretched endlessly through the sea. The aftershock alone created tidal waves that surged toward Modernia's ruined coastline while clouds above were torn apart from displaced pressure.
Melody stopped moving. Even she had not expected him to erase her clone so quickly.
Veneri stood above the churning ocean while sapphire fragments rotated around his body. Calimostria rested against his shoulder while the four hundred scales hovered behind him like arrows waiting to be released.
He was bleeding and covered in injuries yet somehow, he looked stronger than ever.
Melody suddenly stopped moving.
She floated quietly above the water with the white Orchestral Violex rested against her shoulder. Her dark hair was slightly disheveled from battle while blood ran down one arm where he had finally managed to wound her. Despite the injuries and despite having fought continuously while lowering herself to the Fifth Enlightenment, she looked strangely calm, as though she had finally reached the point she had been waiting for since the fight began.
When she looked at him again, her lips slowly curved upward into a smile that felt wrong in a way he could not immediately explain.
Veneri immediately moved.
The Second Plenituse Technique still flowed through him while Nepenthes runes reinforced his speed, perception and reaction time to absurd levels, causing the ocean beneath him to split apart as he surged toward her faster than sound itself.
He had no intention of letting her activate anything dangerous because the expression on her face alone already told him that whatever she planned next was going to be a problem.
But he was too late.
"Overwrite, Final Cadenza."
The moment those words left her lips, Veneri's body reacted instantly.
He already knew the danger of Overwrites because once spoken aloud, they invoked a law upon reality itself, making interruption almost impossible unless someone anticipated it beforehand. Unfortunately for him, Melody had spoken too quickly and far too unexpectedly, choosing the exact moment where he relaxed just enough to believe he had begun turning the tide.
The ocean disappeared. The wind vanished. Everything stopped existing so suddenly that for the briefest moment, Veneri felt as though the world itself had blinked. When awareness returned, he found himself sitting.
Confusion overtook caution for a second. He no longer stood above the churning oceans. Instead, he sat comfortably inside an elegant crimson chair with gold patterns running along the armrests. Its softness was oddly luxurious despite the overwhelming discomfort crawling through his instincts. The air smelled faintly of old wood, perfume, dust and something strangely nostalgic, though he could not tell whether that nostalgia belonged to him or the place itself.
An opera house stretched endlessly before him.
It was far larger than logic allowed with rows upon rows of seats extending infinitely into darkness while balconies spiraled endlessly upwards until they disappeared somewhere above where no ceiling could be seen. Golden chandeliers floated overhead yet somehow the warm glow they emitted failed to make the place feel inviting. Instead, every light only deepened the eerie atmosphere.
Veneri immediately attempted to stand but nothing happened.
He frowned deeply and pushed harder while his Soul Energy surged through his body but despite every effort, he remained seated exactly where he was. It was not paralysis and it was not weakness either. He could feel his body responding perfectly yet some invisible law prevented him from rising.
He looked towards the stage.
At first glance, it looked normal enough. It was built beautifully with polished dark wood and prepared for a grand performance, complete with instruments positioned perfectly across its enormous space.
Violins rested beside chairs while grand harps gleamed softly beneath dim lighting, percussion instruments waited silently near the back and dozens upon dozens of music stands sat ready. The moment his eyes properly adjusted, he finally understood why the place felt creepy.
Every member of the orchestra was Melody.
Every musician sitting silently on stage possessed her exact face, body and presence, though countless variations existed between them as if they had been pulled from entirely different lives. Some looked younger while others looked older. Some appeared exhausted while others carried expressions of quiet happiness. Some even wore clothing entirely different from what she currently had on. Regardless of the differences, every single one held an instrument silently while staring ahead with unnerving stillness.
Everything turned dark.
The lights vanished so completely that even the endless audience seats disappeared into blackness. For several seconds, absolute silence swallowed the opera house. Despite everything Veneri had endured throughout his life and suffering that would destroy most beings, something about this silence genuinely unsettled him.
A spotlight suddenly appeared. The original Melody stood beneath it.
She still held the Orchestral Violex gently in one hand while blood ran down her arm from the battle. Standing alone beneath that spotlight with the entire opera house hidden in darkness, she somehow looked less like a warrior and more like someone born solely to perform upon a stage.
She looked directly at him and smiled. The smile was not malicious or cruel. Before he could even begin understanding what he was seeing, a sound suddenly echoed throughout the darkness.
An applause. It was perfectly synchronized.
Veneri turned slowly and immediately felt unease crawl through him again. The audience seats around him were no longer empty.
Every seat stretched endlessly in every direction, occupied entirely by Melody, with each version carrying a different expression while clapping in perfect synchronization toward the stage below. Some cried while applauding, some smiled proudly, some looked exhausted beyond belief and some stared with haunting emptiness, yet all of them continued clapping.
Melody on stage bowed gracefully. The applause intensified.
It echoed endlessly across the opera house until it no longer sounded celebratory and instead resembled something ritualistic. No matter how much he analyzed it, he still could not understand how this was an Overwrite, especially when compared to the overwhelming destructive force most Overwrites possessed.
The applause stopped instantly. Perfect silence swallowed everything again.
Every Melody in the audience became motionless while the orchestra on stage slowly straightened their posture in perfect synchronization. Each one calmly lifted instruments as though responding to a silent command. Under the lone spotlight, the original Melody slowly raised the Orchestral Violex toward her shoulder.
They began to play.