The island of Concerto was massive. Alpha II had forgotten just how large it truly was.
From above, it looked endless.
The first thing she noticed were the lights. They stretched across the island like fallen stars scattered over the earth, glowing softly against the darkness of the rainy night. The architecture was beautiful even beneath storm clouds. Giant bridges connected sections of the island while glowing musical engravings shimmered faintly on roads and walls.
She forgot her fear for a moment. Even after everything, it was beautiful.
The journey there had taken the entire day not because the island was impossibly far. Alpha II had terrible motion sickness. The giant had quickly discovered this fact during the first hour of flying.
At first, she tried enduring it before she almost threw up and actually did, repeatedly.
Every time he accelerated even slightly, her stomach twisted horribly while the wind pressed painfully against her body. The speed terrified her because the world became impossible to process. Clouds turned into streaks, the ocean became a blur beneath them and rain struck her face hard enough to sting.
The strange part was that the giant never complained. Whenever she looked pale, he stopped. Whenever she got sick, he landed somewhere quiet. Whenever she needed rest, he simply waited. At one point, she sat miserably against a rock near a coastline while trying not to cry from nausea.
"You really are weak."
She glared at him immediately.
"You fly like a monster."
"I was going slow. Your body will adjust eventually."
"I do not want it to adjust."
Eventually, after countless stops, too much vomiting and enough breaks to make the trip last far longer than intended, they finally arrived. Night had already fallen. The giant landed near the outskirts of Strings Regio.
Alpha II vaguely remembered Concerto from when she was younger. Music used to exist everywhere. Streets carried songs naturally. People played instruments casually while walking, children practiced melodies outside homes and even the rivers sometimes echoed with music carried by enchantments.
Now, the rain filled the empty streets instead.
The buildings still looked beautiful. White towers curved elegantly into the sky while long crystal windows reflected faint lights. Roads were lined with glowing engravings resembling strings from instruments yet the place felt exhausted.
The giant placed her down gently.
"Follow me."
She nodded immediately. After all, she belonged to him now. If he saved the children, then she would stay with him forever. The two walked through the silent district. Nobody stopped them. Nobody questioned why a massive stranger walked beside a young girl. What confused Alpha II most was how nobody even noticed him.
He was ridiculously tall and handsome so he was impossible to ignore. People simply looked past him as though he naturally blended into the background whenever he wished.
Eventually, they arrived at Strings Palace.
Massive pillars lined the entrance while elegant architecture shaped like stretched violin strings wrapped around the palace walls. The inside glowed warmly beneath chandeliers resembling floating instruments, though tonight, the atmosphere felt tense.
Voices echoed loudly.
The giant simply walked inside and Alpha II followed closely behind. They entered a massive circular hall.
It reminded her of stories she once heard about ancient debate councils. Rows of elevated seats surrounded the center while leaders, elders, nobles, healers, explorers and representatives from every Regio argued loudly among themselves. Everyone looked exhausted. Some looked furious and others looked terrified.
At the center of the discussion stood several explorers, visibly worn from travel. One of them spoke firmly.
"We already confirmed the solution. The disease can be treated."
Immediately, voices exploded across the room.
"You expect us to humiliate ourselves?"
"Absolutely not!"
"We are not begging Spheraphase for help!"
The explorer clenched his jaw.
"With all due respect, children are dying."
An elder slammed his hand against the table.
"And whose fault is that?"
Another leader stood.
"You want us crawling back to a world that forgot us and where we do not exist?"
A woman from Percussion Regio folded her arms.
"To Spheraphase, the Musica are extinct. Goddess Melody erased our existence centuries ago. Every record was destroyed. Every mention disappeared. We are ghosts."
The explorer did not back down.
"Ghosts or not, people are dying."
A younger representative stood abruptly.
"Then we should ask for help!"
Several elders turned towards him immediately. One scoffed.
"You speak emotionally."
"Yes, because children are dying."
An elderly woman narrowed her eyes.
"You think they will welcome us? We are weaker. We live shorter lives. Our race barely survives already."
Another elder nodded.
"They will pity us and look down on us. They will treat us like some forgotten lesser race."
A healer finally stood from his seat. His hands trembled.
"My daughter is dying. My son is infected too. I do not care about pride anymore."
Another elder sighed heavily.
"You are grieving—"
"No! I am desperate."
An explorer stepped forward again.
"The disease resembles mystical contamination mixed with soul deterioration. Spheraphase healers know illnesses like this. Their restoration can cure it."
Another voice interrupted harshly.
"And then what?"
Silence followed. The elder continued.
"What happens afterwards? We reveal ourselves? We explain why we vanished? We tell them our founders erased us from history? We expose our weaknesses?"
A representative from the Woodwind Regio crossed his arms.
"Do not forget history. Our ancestors were exploited. Our lifespan is inferior and we were treated as lesser beings. We finally gained independence and would throw that away?"
The healer looked furious now.
"What independence? Children are dying! We cannot even stop a disease! How many graves must we bury before pride stops mattering?"
Nobody answered because nobody had one. The room only grew heavier. One explorer finally spoke again.
"The first child died three weeks ago. Now we bury children every few days."
Nobody wanted to look at him. Nobody wanted to acknowledge what everyone already knew.
The giant and Alpha II sat quietly in the back. Nobody seemed to notice them. The giant leaned slightly towards her.
"What do you think?"
Alpha II looked around the room.
"I do not know what to say..I only know children are dying. Some of them are my age."
The giant looked at the arguing council again and sighed softly.
"I suppose that means it's time for me to take action."
The giant stood up. At first, nobody noticed him properly. After all, the debate had grown heated. Elders argued loudly across the chamber while explorers desperately tried explaining the severity of the situation.
The room fell silent. Even she noticed the change immediately. The giant leaned slightly toward her before speaking quietly enough that only she could hear.
"Play along."
She looked confused.
"With what?"
"You're sick."
She frowned immediately.
"But I am not sick."
"You still look terrible from motion sickness."
That was unfortunately true.
Her stomach still felt strange. Her body still felt weak from spending the entire afternoon flying through rain at speeds her body clearly hated. She still looked pale.
"That sounds rude."
She sighed quietly. Still, she trusted him enough. So she lowered her head and stayed quiet. The giant walked forward calmly.
He stood absurdly tall even after shrinking himself, giving him an appearance that somehow felt elegant and intimidating at the same time. And unfortunately, the man was ridiculously handsome. A few people forgot what they were saying. One elder visibly paused mid-argument.
A younger woman blinked several times before looking away.
"Who in the world is that?"
The giant cleared his throat.
"I have a solution."
The elder presiding over the debate narrowed his eyes.
"A solution?"
"Yes. I can cure your disease."
"You can what?"
"That is absurd!"
"We have spent months trying to solve this! Healers cannot stop it!"
"How exactly are you planning to cure something even specialists cannot understand?"
The giant waited patiently and sighed softly.
"You are all overcomplicating this."
"Who are you?"
The giant answered immediately.
"I cannot tell you."
Another representative frowned.
"You expect us to trust a stranger who refuses his identity?"
The giant nodded once.
"Yes. I am under oath not to reveal my name or my Musicum Instrumentum."
Several elders exchanged looks. Understanding appeared on their faces. A woman near the center slowly adjusted her bangles.
"A philosopher?"
The giant shrugged lightly.
"That is close enough."
Nobody questioned it after that. Music philosophers were strange people. Some abandoned identity entirely in pursuit of musical understanding. Others swore vows never to reveal their names or Musicum Instrumentum because philosophy demanded detachment from individuality. It was uncommon but not unheard of.
An older elder exhaled slowly.
"Fine. Suppose we believe that. How exactly is a music philosopher supposed to cure a plague?"
The giant interrupted before he could continue.
"Because it is not a plague. It's is an energy problem."
Nobody spoke. Several healers frowned immediately. One stood up.
"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
The giant gestured toward Alpha II. She sat quietly while pretending to look weak, which— to be fair— was not difficult right now. He looked back at the council.
"In Spheraphase, children are weak. The Ascension Curse suppresses growth. At around six or seven years old, children awaken their power slowly. They start from the lowest ranking possible. They adapt, stabilize and grow. You Musica do not. Your children are born Divine."
Nobody argued because it was true.
"They are on the First Enlightenment from birth. That sounds impressive until you actually think about what that means."
One healer crossed his arms.
"Explain."
He walked slowly while speaking.
"Divine Energy is unstable, violent, overwhelming and demanding. It's something infants should not naturally handle. To be perfectly honest, this has always been a problem among the Musica. You have simply normalized it. How many Musica throughout history died from sudden heart failure? How many died from body collapse? How many mysteriously collapsed despite appearing healthy? How many simply failed to wake up one day?"
Nobody answered because everyone knew. A healer quietly spoke up.
"Too many."
The giant nodded.
"Yes. And do you know why? Your race never learned how to manage Divine Energy properly."
One representative frowned deeply.
"That is impossible. We have Divine control—"
"No. You have Divine possession. Those are completely different things."
Nobody interrupted him this time.
"In Spheraphase, Divines survive because of Dynasties. They are not merely governments or noble families. They are energy ecosystems. They stabilize Divine Energy, gather it and distribute it. They generate enough pressure and influence to sustain powerful Divines. Strong Divines naturally consume absurd amounts of energy. Without enough support, they collapse."
The healers were listening now.
"You Musica do not possess a properly stabilized faction. You have Regio. You have leadership. You have organizations but none of it properly regulates Divine Energy on a racial scale. You lack enough Divine Energy to sustain yourselves."
Someone quietly muttered—
"That cannot be true."
The giant looked at him.
"Then explain the deaths."
Nobody answered.
"For centuries, supply barely exceeded demand. The balance was unstable, but survivable. You lost people and accepted tragedy. You called it unfortunate and adapted to suffering. But now, the problem spread to children. They are dying first because they require more stabilization. Their bodies are weaker. Their souls are immature. Their Divine Energy consumption is absurd. The demand for Divine Energy has surpassed supply."
"..."
"Your population increased but your Divine infrastructure did not. Demand became higher than supply so the weakest began dying first and those are the children."
A heavy silence spread. The giant continued without hesitation.
"Sooner or later, adults will begin collapsing too. At first, it will seem random. The sudden deaths, body failures, soul deterioration and energy starvation. Eventually, your entire race goes extinct. It's as simple as that."