The air had stopped humming. Now, it was a pure, crushing vibration, as if a single, massive string had been stretched taut across the entire valley and was being plucked, relentlessly. It was a suffocating pressure, dense and physical, lodging itself behind their eardrums and settling like metallic dust on their tongues.
Eleanor anchored her boots, her teeth grinding together as Melody dragged one long, deliberate hand across her harp. The resulting note was barely audible, a ghost of a sound, yet the pressure it generated felt like a precise, hard punch to Eleanor's ribs.
The Void minions jerked into motion, twitching and aligning like puppets yanked by unseen strings. Their movements weren't the wild, chaotic lunges of before; they were disciplined, maneuvering in complex, interlocking patterns driven by the unheard, rhythmic pulse of Melody's spell.
Lucy swore, tucking herself under a horizontal sound-wave slash that scored the ancient stone precisely where her head had been moments earlier. "Bro, she didn't even commit to a strum yet. This is just a soundcheck!"
"Everyone spread!" Peter's voice was strained, cracking like stressed steel. His dual blades were a frantic silver blur, deflecting incoming black shrapnel. "Don't let them group us up! They're coordinating their attacks now!"
The fog ripped open as two minions, gliding like shadows under a flickering light, lunged straight for Eleanor. She swung her axe up fast, sparks showering as the creatures' claws scraped across the blade's edge. They were impossibly fast, their attacks clean, synced perfectly to whatever grim, internal tempo Melody was establishing.
Eleanor's heel slipped on the broken ground. Too slow. One minion shot out a clawed hand, aiming straight for her unprotected throat, and Allen slammed into the creature from the side, a burst of compressed wind shoving the body off-course with a sudden woosh of visible mist.
"Yo!" he yelled, eyes wide with the realization of the near miss. "These things got a skill buff! They're running tactical formations now!"
"Just stay alive!" Eleanor snapped back, instantly resetting her stance, the air around her axe head sizzling faintly.
The second minion spun, its form flickering like a corrupted signal. It darted toward her left flank.
The warmth in Eleanor's chest surged again.
This wasn't the frantic pump of adrenaline. This was raw energy, hot and overwhelming, demanding to be let loose. Golden light fractured across her skin for a terrifying half-second, a fleeting internal supernova.
Her body moved without thought. She dropped low and swung upward in a single, fluid motion, her axe splitting the air in a perfectly timed arc she hadn't consciously planned. The minion's torso didn't just break, it detonated into a cloud of fine, black dust, the sound-stuff instantly vaporizing the moment the golden edge touched it.
"…okay," Eleanor whispered, her breath catching in her throat. "That wasn't normal. That wasn't me."
Lucy, cleanly dropping a flanking creature with a precise plasma shot, shouted across the melee. "You glowing again, sunshine? I need to know if I should be worried about the enemy or about you!"
"Not the time, Luce!" Eleanor retorted, though a genuine thread of panic coiled in her stomach. She had no answers, only the terrible, thrilling heat coursing through her.
Melody tilted her head, her smile stretching unnervingly slow. She sounded genuinely delighted, like a connoisseur observing a rare, exquisite event. "Your rhythm's waking up. How exciting."
Peter's warning shout tore through the vibrating air. "Get back! NOW! Cooldown's over!"
A focused shockwave, thick and devastating, slammed into the ground where they had been standing, cracking the stone like dry timber and sending heavy fragments spinning. The sheer force of the sound wave launched the closest minions like shrapnel, their dark limbs cartwheeling until they skidded to a stop, ready for their master's next beat.
Silvia barely managed to block another blast with her shield, the silver surface protesting with a loud, tearing KSHHHH as spiderweb fractures spread across the metal.
"She's doubling the tempo!" Silvia shouted, straining to hold her position against the impact. "The frequency is too high! If this keeps up, she'll shatter our basic protection layers!"
Melody flicked her wrist, an infinitesimal movement. The air snapped.
A minion shimmered and reappeared behind Silvia out of nowhere, teleporting through the high-frequency resonance field.
"Silvia, look out!" Eleanor screamed.
She didn't process the action. She didn't aim. The gold inside her chest roared, a soundless internal ignition, blazing brighter than it ever had.
Her wings flared, not just white, but briefly catching the incandescent gold, every feather standing rigid, and she shot forward with such impossible speed that the air cracked with a localized sonic boom. Her axe slammed against the minion's arm, locking it in place mere inches from Silvia's spine.
Silvia gasped, her eyes wide with fear and shock. "Eleanor, that was too fast for you!"
Eleanor barely registered the words. She shoved the creature back and cleaved it down, but her hands were trembling violently afterward. Too fast. Too much raw power for a simple deflection. She knew Peter had seen it. The look he gave her was no longer confusion. It was deep, agonizing worry for her fundamental stability.
Melody raised her harp slowly, her slender fingers hovering above the strings as if savoring the terrifying stillness before the storm.
"Let's move into the second movement, shall we?"
The words slithered and coiled under Eleanor's skin. The fog began to spiral around Melody, forming a loose stage of drifting dark feathers and echoes. Her remaining minions gathered behind her like a sinister, waiting choir.
Then, she strummed.
It wasn't a chaotic strike. It was a melody. Soft. Hypnotic. Beautiful in a way that made Eleanor's deepest instincts scream in primal terror.
The air warped. Vibrated. Bent.
Lucy staggered, clutching the sides of her helmet. "What in the Realm is that?! It's not loud, but it's making my organs ache!"
Silvia bit down hard on her lip, her focus narrowed to fighting the deep internal pressure. "It's a master resonance spell. She's attempting to sync our heartbeats to the rhythm. If she matches the tempo exactly,"
Peter finished grimly, the implication heavy in the air, "She can stop them. Or make them burst."
Eleanor froze, the realization hitting her like a physical blow. Melody wasn't trying to overwhelm them with deafening noise. She was attempting to seize control of their very essence.
"Don't worry," Melody said sweetly, subtly adjusting her grip on the harp. "I'll be gentle. Especially for her." Her eyes, sharp and predatory, fixed onto Eleanor.
Silvia hissed under her breath. "She means you. You're the center of the target."
Eleanor's pulse hammered, surging faster, way faster than the slow, hypnotic beat Melody was pushing into the world. Her chest was searing again. Brighter. Heavier. Like something contained inside was clawing its way free.
If I lose control here, I won't just take her out. I'll take everyone with me.
Peter seized her shoulder, his grip painfully tight and grounding. "El. Stay with us. You have to fight the rhythm."
"I'm fine," she lied, the breath catching high in her lungs.
Melody's fingers began to dance across the strings, and the melody intensified, layers stacking upon layers like an orchestra rising to a chilling, sinister crescendo. Her minions twitched in deadly preparation on every single beat.
"Let's see how long a newly forged Sun angel can resist," Melody whispered. "You are always such fragile, promising things."
"Say it again." Eleanor hoisted her axe high, her jaw clenching so hard it ached. "I dare you."
But her heartbeat, it refused to sync. It was doing the exact opposite, battling Melody's forced rhythm with its own. A golden, violent one. A dangerously escalating tempo.
The fog around her trembled. The world dimmed around the edges as the raw golden light inside her threatened to consume her entirely. Miles away, back at the command center, the shifting dimensional signatures caused an urgent alarm, snapping the generals out of their tense waiting.
Zenith Guard Headquarters
Theo slammed his hands flat onto the divine map table. "Her trail vanishes right here. That's not merely distance, that's deliberate suppression. Someone is actively cloaking Katya from the entire security network."
Zak paced the length of the command deck, his worry manifesting as restless energy. "Meaning someone profoundly powerful is running interference. Strong enough to rewrite the dimensional signature of a core Ascendant for hours."
Meredith pinched the bridge of her nose, the gesture conveying her mounting stress. "We need a mind capable of locating a divine energy signature that is being actively masked. Our scanners are utterly useless against that level of interference."
Theo looked up, his eyes already fixed on the entry hatch. "There's only one person in this sector I know who can read the subtle threads of a dimensional lie on that scale."
Soft light spilled into the command room like the ringing of distant wind chimes, and the tense air instantly turned crystal-clear. A figure stepped through the doorway.
Lyra, the Spirit Ascendant, was already present, her entire being radiating profound calm. Her wings, structured like transparent flame, pulsed with a gentle blue fire. Six glowing orbs of spiritual light floated in precise formation behind her head, and her hair floated around her head as if she stood submerged in water.
"Someone is interfering with your soldier, Katya," Lyra said calmly, her voice resonating like three pure tones layered together. "The silence is unnatural. Show me the missing trail."
Zak let out a slow breath, sagging slightly in relief. "Lyra... thank the Realm you arrived."
Lyra extended her hand over the strategic map. Threads of pale, spiritual light curled out of her fingertips, searching, weaving, filtering through the complex web of reality recorded on the table.
Then, she flinched violently, her composure shattering. Her eyes snapped open, and the gentle blue fire within them hardened instantly into a shard of cold, penetrating ice.
"…Void corruption," she whispered, a deep tremor running through her voice that echoed across the silent room. "Someone powerful is rewriting the dimensional sound field around her. This is General Vorlag's signature. He's been orchestrating this for months."
Theo's breath hitched. "Vorlag? Why would he make Katya his top priority?"
"This is not a random attack," Lyra stated, withdrawing her hand slowly. "He is not merely hiding her. He is isolating her. Katya is either being actively corrupted, or she is being used as a Trojan horse to carry a weapon deep into your territory, masked entirely by his power. You cannot afford to delay."
"Can we still reach her before he completes the process?" Meredith demanded, leaning forward, hands braced on the table.
Lyra looked at Theo, her gaze direct and profoundly urgent. One of the spiritual orbs behind her intensified its glow. "We can. But you must move now. The distortion leads directly to the Silent Canyon, precisely where Vorlag was last sighted." The orb dimmed, then shot outward like a miniature comet, pointing toward the map. "You must launch a swift counter, and pray you are not too late."