Aenaris burned in sound and screams.
The sand, once pale, was now mixed with blood and ashes.
The sacred drums had fallen silent, and the only sound left was the violin —
steady, soft, merciless.
Each note echoed like a command.
Each pause was a breath.
Each vibration, a thread pulling on a soul.
The puppets from the ship advanced through the village — blank faces, agile bodies, moving with terrifying precision.
They weren't dead.
They weren't alive.
They were instruments.
Kael took two steps back, measuring the field ahead.
'He moves them like an army… each one in perfect rhythm.'
Energy arrows sliced through the air in quick succession.
Each shot found its mark — yet every fallen body stood up again.
Kael frowned, his bow glowing with a golden aura.
"Don't hesitate," he muttered. "They're already lost."
He activated Echo Mark.
A thin wave of Nen rippled outward with the shot. The reverberations came back quickly — but distorted.
The violin's sound interfered with his reading, bending the air as if the world itself was breathing out of rhythm.
'He's masking the field… using the sound as camouflage.'
Kael took a deep breath, closing one eye.
The world slowed.
His heartbeat softened.
Noise faded away.
Hunter's Focus.
Time folded around him.
The puppets came in waves, and he fired with mathematical precision —
a strike, a fall, a retreat, a new shot.
But behind the sound of the arrows, the violin answered.
Each death seemed to shift the melody; every note adjusted to his resistance.
"He's learning my rhythm…" Kael realized.
---
On the hill, Lucian Noir smiled.
His eyes were half-covered by the glow of the fire below,
and his bow moved with elegance — unhurried, deliberate.
He wasn't playing music anymore.
He was writing it.
'Attack. Defend. Capture.' The notes flowed beneath his fingers.
The bodies moved to the rhythm,
and the melody grew richer, more complex.
He divided the symphony into two movements:
The first — the rhythm of war.
The passengers attacked with near-military precision, creating a human wall that stopped Kael from approaching.
Each step was synchronized; each strike followed the beat.
The second — the expansion of the orchestra.
Amid screams and smoke, the controlled bodies grabbed the villagers, holding them still and exposing them to the sound.
Lucian played slow variations — long, deep notes — and one by one, the new bodies began to move with the music.
Each time a villager fell, a new instrument was born.
'Yes,' Lucian thought, his smile widening.
'This is what perfection sounds like.'
---
Lyra could feel the melody cutting through the air.
The sound entered her ears and vibrated deep within her soul.
It was sweet and painful at the same time.
She held Orion close to her chest — the baby calm, eyes half-closed,
perhaps feeling something of the madness around them.
Lyra closed her eyes and took a slow breath.
The air was thick with corrupted Nen, dense like invisible smoke.
"How disgusting… it's as if his very presence is poison."
The blue light of Vital Essence, her ability, began to glow around her hands.
She touched the wounded, purifying their broken flows,
but with each healing, the sound of the violin grew louder.
Lucian increased the tempo — for every wound she healed, he created two more.
For every soul she calmed, he claimed another.
Lyra bit her lip.
'I can't keep up with him.'
She spread her arms and activated Harmonic Flow.
Her aura pulsed outward through the village — a blue heartbeat spreading among the villagers,
synchronizing their breaths, uniting their hearts,
forcing harmony back into the air.
For a few seconds, the sacred fire burned bright again.
The puppets hesitated, trembling as if the strings that bound them had loosened.
The sound of the violin faltered.
And Kael saw his chance.
---
"Now!"
He fired a triple sequence — three arrows of pure energy, each marked with Echo Mark.
The first shot cut through the air and pierced a puppet.
The second hit another, embedding itself in a post.
The third flew straight toward the hill.
Lucian dodged by instinct — the first arrow grazed his face,
the second tore through his shoulder.
Dark blood fell across the violin — and the sound changed.
The Maestro staggered for a moment, his eyes widening.
Then… he laughed.
"Blood composes better than notes," he murmured.
The bow rose again.
And the sound returned — lower, deeper, more alive.
The puppets reacted instantly.
Now, beyond fighting, they grabbed the living,
holding arms and necks, dragging them back toward the Maestro.
Lucian played short, whispered phrases,
and the newly captured bodies began to vibrate — veins darkening, eyes hollowing.
Kael's stomach twisted.
"He's using the villagers to make more puppets."
'A symphony of flesh,' he thought, horrified.
'Every person he captures becomes another string in his instrument.'
With only him and Lyra as Nen users on the island, facing a Manipulator was a nightmare.
He tried to advance — but the bodies blocked every path.
The puppets reacted to his every move, shifting with unnatural precision.
It was like fighting an army with a single mind.
---
Lyra felt the spiritual web she had woven begin to tear apart.
Every new soul taken was a thread ripped from her fabric.
Aenaris' Nen — once balanced and alive — was fracturing.
She knew the flow wouldn't hold.
The only way to resist was to merge their auras,
to create a connection stronger than Lucian's melody.
"Kael!" — she shouted, her voice trembling.
"If I link with you, I can… stabilize the rhythm. But the cost—"
"Do it."
Kael didn't hesitate.
She raised her hand — her blue aura meeting his gold.
The contact was immediate, almost violent.
Their energies clashed, then fused.
Nen reacted.
Gold and blue became white.
A deep sound echoed — not a note, but a heartbeat.
His core, his very soul, vibrated.
Lucian felt the vibration and turned his eyes toward Kael.
The Kurosonata screamed inside him.
'Futile resistance.'
He pressed harder, forcing the bow with more strength.
Life itself fought against dead music.
For a heartbeat, the world was divided into two melodies —
a stubborn pulse and a macabre orchestra.
And Kael saw his chance.
He poured every drop of Nen into his bow —
"Rupture Arc!"
The golden arrow crossed the night like a silent lightning bolt,
piercing through the sound, tearing through the wind,
and striking the violin dead center.
The instrument cracked.
Lucian stumbled, blood spilling down his chest.
The music stopped.
For a moment, silence ruled.
---
But then, a soft laugh broke it.
Lucian lifted his gaze.
His blue eyes glimmered between pain and ecstasy.
His cracked skin split open in black veins — but his smile was almost… grateful.
"This is what I needed," he whispered.
He gripped the broken violin tightly.
The Kurosonata still vibrated inside him, a faint echo demanding continuation.
Lucian dragged the bow across the shattered strings.
The sound that came out wasn't a note.
It was a scream.
The still bodies began to convulse — puppets trembling in spasms,
newly controlled villagers weeping without tears —
their souls crying out in pain and despair.
And then, a baby's cry rose above the chaos.
"Wah… wah… wah!"
The cursed music spread again,
affecting everyone who couldn't protect themselves with Nen.
Lyra fell to her knees, the connection of the Sacred Bond faltering.
She looked at her son with fear and helplessness —
even giving everything, she couldn't protect him.
Her body trembled, blood dripping from her nose,
but the light was still there — blue and firm.
Even if she couldn't save the child directly, she had to maintain the link with Kael.
It was their only way out.
Kael held her.
"Lyra, stop, you'll—"
"If I stop… he wins."
She poured more energy into the bond.
The light surrounded not only Kael, but Orion as well.
For a moment, the three of them seemed made of pure aura.
Lucian watched, fascinated.
"Even now… you still play together."
He raised the bow once more.
The air itself seemed to stop moving.
All of Aenaris held its breath.
The Maestro smiled.
"The harmony is over," he said softly.
"Now… the true music begins."
The bow descended.
And t returned — not as a s a song, but as a caa catastrophe.
---