The lab felt like a tomb.
Evie sat hunched over the reassembled Veilbreaker Lens, her fingers steady but her eyes hollow. The relic glowed with unstable energy, its iridescent alloy fused with Starlight Ash and Void Resin—a paradox of creation and entropy. Symbol stood nearby, his guitar slung across his back, its strings still humming with the aftershock of the Veilbreaker Chord. Lila paced like a caged animal, her knife tapping rhythmically against her thigh.
"It's ready," Evie said, her voice stripped of inflection. "But activating it will pull the Symphony's full attention. And yours."
Symbol nodded. The Lens required his Creative Synthesis at maximum resonance, a feat that would drain his Energy to near-zero. Worse, it risked merging his consciousness with the Symphony's hive mind. "Do it."
Lila stopped pacing. "You sure about this?"
"No," he said. "But we're out of time."
The Lens activated with a scream.
A beam of fractured light lanced into the sky, tearing a rift above Neo-Noctis. The Symphony retaliated instantly. Reality buckled, and from the rift emerged Mirror-Symbol—a perfect replica, save for his hollow eyes and a guitar made of black ice.
"Pathetic," Mirror-Symbol sneered, his voice layered with static. "You think this toy can save them? You couldn't even save your father."
The words struck like a physical blow. Symbol's Energy (20/25) plummeted as doubt seeped into his veins. Mirror-Symbol struck first, his guitar unleashing a wave of dissonance that shattered windows and sent Lila sprawling.
Evie shouted over the chaos, her tablet syncing with the Lens. "I need five minutes to stabilize the rift!"
"We don't have five minutes!" Lila rolled to her feet, blood trickling from a cut on her cheek.
The duel was a war of echoes.
Every chord Symbol played, Mirror-Symbol mirrored, twisting it into something darker. The Veilbreaker Lens amplified the clash, its light flickering as the two forces collided. Buildings trembled, and the Energy Monitor clone on Evie's desk flared crimson, its alert blaring across frequencies.
"Cascade event detected. Guild intervention imminent."
Lila lunged at Mirror-Symbol, her knife clashing against his guitar. "You're not him!"
"Aren't I?" The replica grinned, parrying her strikes with eerie precision. "I'm every regret, every failure. The son who let his father die."
Symbol faltered, his notes slipping. Mirror-Symbol's guitar surged, a black tendril spearing toward Evie.
Interlude: The Memory
Lila grabbed Mirror-Symbol's arm, forcing him to meet her gaze. "You want to be him? Then feel this."
She channeled a memory into the replica's mind—Thomas's final moments in the Silent District. The scream of overloading dampeners. The resolve in his eyes. The way he'd whispered "Make it count" before the collapse.
Mirror-Symbol recoiled, his form flickering. "N-no… that's not—"
"That's who he is," Lila snarled. "And you're nothing."
The Turn
Symbol seized the opening. He channeled his remaining Energy into the Lens, the Veilbreaker Chord erupting in a nova of light. Mirror-Symbol shattered, his shards dissolving into the rift. The Symphony's core loomed beyond—a swirling mass of musical fractals and screaming faces.
"Go!" Evie yelled, her voice raw. "The rift's stable, but not for long!"
Lila hauled Symbol toward the light. "You're not dying today, maestro."
They plunged into the rift as the Energy Monitor clone exploded behind them, its final alert echoing across the guild's network:
"Cascade threshold breached. Agent Aria Voss en route."
Status Update:
Level: 10
Experience Points: 40,000/45,000
Energy: 1/25 (Critical)
Resonance Upgrade: Echo Immunity (briefly nullifies psychic attacks tied to personal trauma).
In the rift's void, Symbol glimpsed the Symphony's core—and Victor Hale's silhouette fused within it.
"You're running out of moves, composer," Victor's voice echoed.
Lila tightened her grip on Symbol's arm. "Then we'll make new ones."
Behind them, the guild airship descended through the rift, its engines silent. Aria Voss stood at the helm, her cybernetic eye scanning the chaos.
"Tick-tock, heroes," she called. "The encore's about to start."
Outside the void, Neo-Noctis burned. But in the heart of the rift, the final act began.