It was crazy. Andrew couldn't make head nor tail of this plan. Humanity hadn't even finished exploring what was known about Nadira, and these people wanted to go even further. It wasn't logical, at least not to Andrew.
"What's wrong? Are you scared?"
Obel asked with a smile. Andrew's face was pale, his hands were shaking. Maybe he was overreacting, but he was sure of one thing: this mission was, logically, a sure death for someone like him. He had no combat experience; he was too easy to kill.
Andrew was sure he liked this world. Well, maybe not, but at least he didn't want to die.
He wanted to live a quiet life. How had he ended up in this mess?
"Couldn't you have just stayed working at the silk factory, you idiot?"
Andrew looked at Isabel's mocking gaze and sighed.
"Okay, how are we going to do this?"
Andrew knew he didn't have many options. The only one left was simple: adapt and find a way to escape. Accepting what they asked of him seemed the most logical thing to do in this situation.
"You will strengthen one of our ships with your skills, as I said."
"I understand that, but how?"
Obel, the little woman with glasses, and Isabel looked at each other.
"You still don't know how to sing?"
"No."
Andrew was clear, he didn't beat around the bush. Right now, he needed to be clearer than ever and speed things up. He needed to get more information, and standing here wouldn't get him anywhere.
"Well, that complicates things," said Obel, rubbing his beard.
Andrew just frowned.
'This is going to be tedious.'
***
Andrew was eating a bowl of instant soup in his new room. As he slurped the noodles, he saw a cockroach come out of the fans. Seeing this, Andrew just sighed and continued eating.
He hadn't thought about his diet for days due to the pressure of everything that was happening, and now more than ever he had to take care of his diet. He had to stay strong.
The smell of dampness seeped through the pipes in the room, and at the same time, Andrew wiped the sweat sliding down his forehead.
"This place is too hot!"
Andrew fanned his face with his hand and looked at his bowl of noodles.
'Ugh, I lost my appetite.'
The heat combined with the smell of dampness did not create a comfortable environment for Andrew.
Andrew got up from the table and looked out the skylight in the room. He wanted to leave, but these people were clear: they wanted to keep him in a controlled place. For Andrew, being stripped of his freedom was one of his greatest fears; he felt imprisoned.
Andrew sighed and walked over to his new bed. As he lay down, the springs made it difficult for him to get comfortable, so Andrew rolled over a couple of times until he found the perfect position.
'Ahh...'
It was one of the first breaks Andrew had taken. Andrew stared anxiously at the ceiling. For him, lying down was too peaceful for his situation.
'What does it matter?'
Andrew simply closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
***
A sweaty Andrew jumped out of bed, breathing at an unusual rate, his face filled with terror.
'What the hell was that?'
He had just had the strangest dream of his life.
Andrew saw himself in the dream dying on the shores of Nadira before setting sail.
'If this isn't a bad omen...'
Andrew was very superstitious in these kinds of situations, and the fact that it had appeared so clearly to him felt like the work of fate.
After calming down and taking a more logical approach to the situation, Andrew reasoned that this dream had been born out of his own fear.
Even so, he was not at ease. If he hadn't been before, he was even less so now.
The dream had come to him at just the right moment, right before this started.
It was as if fate itself was giving him a warning!
Andrew stood up and the bed springs creaked. Barefoot, he walked across the cold stone floor and approached the door of the room. Once there, Andrew tried to force the door handle, but, as expected, it didn't work.
Andrew even believed that they had locked the door from the outside to prevent any escape attempts.
A chill from the cold in the room made Andrew shiver. Cuping his hands together, Andrew exhaled into them, seeking warmth. They hadn't left him a single blanket, and waves of cold seeped in through the half-closed skylight.
Andrew walked back to his bed and lay down in the fetal position. The springs still bothered him, but he didn't care anymore; he was just looking for more warmth.
"I hope tomorrow isn't as bad."
***
An emergency alarm woke Andrew with a start. Already awake, he instinctively stood up and rubbed his eyes, clearing them as quickly as possible. He blinked continuously until he could see clearly. Worried, he walked to the door and banged on it while shouting.
"Hey! What's going on?"
'There's no choice.'
Andrew took a step back and closed his eyes. He focused on himself, the air flowing, the constant alarm, the desperate footsteps of people, the screams of the crowd, the loud noises coming from outside, the beating of his heart, and his breathing. He felt it, deep down inside, the melody that formed him, the melody his heart sang, the melody his organs wrote. When he found it, he turned up the volume.
A huge green pentagon destroyed the door (and the entire wall) of Andrew's room. Andrew was breathing heavily from exhaustion, but he didn't take the time to rest. Andrew ran through the dust from the collapse and followed the crowd.
As he left the room area, Andrew came across hundreds of people boarding trucks and leaving through the dark tunnel. Everyone was rushing out of the barracks. Andrew didn't hesitate; he couldn't. He ran through the crowd and headed for the nearest truck. Andrew bumped into a woman on his way, and Andrew was startled to see who it was. Andrew had just bumped into the woman who had put the tracker on him in the library yesterday. Andrew looked down and kept running.
When he reached the van he had his eye on, one of the workers was already getting in to leave, so Andrew made a quick decision. Andrew quickly approached the man before he drove off.
"They need me at the front, will you take me?" Andrew said with feigned authority.
"A musician! Of course, please get in."
Andrew didn't hesitate and got into the passenger seat. As he got in, he saw how nervous the man was and sighed before continuing with his plan.
"I'm sorry, humble person."
Andrew pushed the man out of the vehicle as he had not yet closed his door. Andrew moved to the driver's seat and started the car. The man had already inserted the key, which made Andrew's escape easier. Andrew adjusted the car's rearview mirror and looked back at the figure of the man lying on the ground. How cruel!
'It was this or death.'
Andrew still had no idea what was going on, but for this place to have become such a mess, something important must be happening out there. Andrew followed the line of cars into the tunnel. Andrew bit his lip and kept looking in the rearview mirror, wanting to know what was happening every second.
After a minute, Andrew saw sunlight filtering through the tunnel and breathed a sigh of relief.
A relief that did not last long. As he exited, he could discern a situation in the big city that was not at all reassuring.
Andrew could see a man at least a hundred meters tall fighting a creature with a melody that was familiar to him. It was the creature Andrew had seen sleeping inside that abandoned football stadium.
The man was clearly a musician, perhaps of the third rank, a harmonic.
But the creature felt even more powerful than the third rank, at least it was of the fourth, a Devil.
A devil was a threat capable of destroying an entire continent at least, if it weren't for the musicians, a single one of these creatures could wipe out humanity.
A scream of fear snapped Andrew out of his state of surprise. Following the scream, he saw a woman looking up in fear. Following her gaze, Andrew could see a melody creature with a strange tiger and snake-like form lunging toward the caravan of trucks.
Andrew quickly opened his car door and jumped out. The enormous creature fell onto the trucks, and an explosion of blood completely stained Andrew. He didn't even have time to be scared, as the creature had seen him and was coming for him.
Andrew ran towards the area where the musicians were fighting. It was dangerous, but it was the largest concentration of musicians right now.
Andrew ran in a zigzag pattern as the creature instinctively lunged at him. There was no reasoning or strategy in its movements; clearly, this creature must be of the first rank or the second at most.
Andrew turned among the nearby trees and picked up the pace even more. He could feel the creature's breath behind him; it was about to catch up to him. When Andrew felt this, he could see a group of musicians fighting a couple of melody creatures in the distance. Andrew was glad to see them.
"HELP!"
It was the only thing Andrew said as the creature was hot on his heels. One of the members of the musicians' defense team noticed Andrew's situation and pointed his maracas at Andrew.
"Get down!"
The young musician shouted. Andrew obeyed without hesitation and threw himself to the ground. The musician shook his maracas, creating an aggressive and powerful melody. When the melody hit it head-on, the feline creature chasing Andrew was met with brutal violence. The melody impacted and pierced the creature's body, destroying it completely. Andrew was even more covered in blood, this time from the creature's melody.
"Are you okay?" asked the young man as he approached Andrew.
"Yes, I'm perfect" replied Andrew as he stood up with some difficulty.
His legs were injured from the sudden fall; he hadn't practiced for these specific scenarios.
"Okay, come with me."
Andrew was only looking for protection in this situation, so he decided to follow the young man without thinking twice. The two ran until they were completely inside the city, running between the now deserted buildings. There was no one here; everyone had been evacuated in an emergency. The only people left in the city were musicians. As they walked, a dog stuck in the rubble barked, catching the attention of the young musician escorting Andrew.
The young man veered off the path and ran toward the dog. Using his superhuman strength, he lifted the rubble and freed the dog. He petted it and checked it for injuries. Seeing no fatal wounds, he returned to Andrew.
"Let's keep going,"
said the young man, and he continued running down the street ahead. Andrew thought for a moment and followed him.
'Could he have seen me as that dog?'
***
After traveling through the desolate and destroyed city, Andrew and the young man, whose name he still did not know, had reached the war zone, specifically the great wall that protected the city. The young man and Andrew walked until they reached their commander. Andrew was not very happy to see who his commander was.
"Oh, Andrew? What are you doing here?"
Obel, in the flesh.
'Tsk, this old man keeps showing up.'
"I had to escape on my own because they locked me up," Andrew said with annoyance.
"Oh, I'm sorry. As you can see, we didn't have time to worry about the civilians. But now that you're here, we can protect you better."
Andrew rolled his eyes and ignored the old man's annoying behavior. Hearing the shouts and orders of the other commanders, Andrew approached the edge of the great wall and looked out over the expanse of the domain's outskirts. Standing at the edge, he understood why this was so serious. Except for the harmonic's battle against the great devil-ranked melody creature, outside, at least fifty musicians were fighting hard against hundreds of melody creatures ranked two and above. It was a brutal war.
"What happened to the cursed singers?" Andrew asked, concerned about the situation.
In a way, he wasn't so concerned about what happened to these people; they had been captured and stripped of their freedom. What really concerned him was his own safety. If this place was destroyed, Andrew would be destroyed with it.
"They betrayed us," Obel replied without hesitation.
"What?"
"Just as you heard."
For Andrew, it wasn't hard to believe such a situation, it just seemed like a strange thing to do. It didn't seem logical that the cursed singers would betray their own people. Why would they do that?
'The Orchestra...'
The Orchestra, the largest association in Europe and the organization that completely controlled Barsical, was above La Sinfonía. Andrew was sure it had been them. For several years, there had been rumors that La Sinfonía had managed to eliminate some nascent organizations that opposed the European regime. Most likely, this was what was happening.
"Do you know why?" Andrew asked, hesitating to share his theory.
"No, we'll investigate that after we win this."
Andrew raised his eyebrows in surprise.
'How arrogant.'
Andrew watched the massacre unfolding below him.
"Let's see how right your arrogance is..."