*The Rhythm That Should Not Exist***
The Monarch's roar shattered the Memoryfire.
Not literally—
but the world of light rippled like water struck by a meteor.
Aru stood alone on the trembling mirror-plain, the strange **silver-black rhythm** flickering around him like living smoke.
Kairo scrambled to his feet behind him.
"BRO—WHAT DID YOU *EAT* DOWN HERE!?"
Solace didn't even speak.
He stared at Aru with the expression of a scholar watching every law of Aural Arts being rewritten in real time.
The Monarch's ten golden rings spun faster, clashing against each other like grinding gears.
The child within its palm blinked in stunned confusion.
"Aru… that rhythm… it's impossible."
Aru took a breath.
The silver-black pulse answered him in perfect harmony, flowing through his bones.
His voice was quiet, but unwavering.
"I'm done living by what's possible."
The Monarch's colossal form straightened, towering into the sky until it blocked out everything—every memory, every light, every horizon.
Its voice struck like thunder:
**—UNIDENTIFIED RHYTHM—
—CORRUPTED PATTERN—
—SOURCE: UNKNOWN—**
Solace flinched.
"It thinks your rhythm is a threat," he muttered.
Kairo clapped.
"GOOD! HIT IT, ARU!"
Aru didn't move.
He closed his eyes.
Inside the pounding world of light, he heard something familiar—
A phantom drum.
A rhythm he knew better than his heartbeat.
**Kairo.**
Even here, in memory, in danger, in a god's shadow…
Kairo's beat still reached him.
The silver-black pulse synced instantly.
Aru opened his eyes.
And the Monarch struck.
A beam of pure golden rhythm crashed down, wide as a building and bright enough to blind.
Kairo shouted—
Solace threw up a shield—
And Aru stepped forward.
One step.
Just one.
But the moment his foot touched the Memoryfire, the world exploded.
A ripple of silver-black shattered the golden beam like glass, fragments of light scattering into constellations.
Kairo's jaw dropped.
Solace whispered, horrified:
"That wasn't defense… that was **erasure**. His rhythm canceled the Monarch's attack."
The Monarch froze.
Even the child inside its palm looked afraid now.
"Aru… stop."
But Aru couldn't stop.
Because the rhythm inside him wasn't wrath—
wasn't destiny—
wasn't the Crown.
It was something far simpler.
**It was choice.**
The one thing the Aural Crown had never allowed him.
He lifted his hand—
—and the Memoryfire warped.
Silver-black coiled around his arm, swirling like smoke and lightning combined.
The Monarch recoiled.
**—CEASE—
—IDENTITY BREAK—
—UNAUTHORIZED ASCENSION—**
The ten rings shot outward, orbiting Aru like sawblades.
Aru stepped through them.
Every ring that touched his rhythm flickered—
glitched—
split apart like wet ink dissolving.
Kairo whistled.
"Bro's deleting halos. That's crazy."
Aru stopped only when he was directly in front of the Monarch's chest—
a massive, swirling nexus of golden rhythm.
The child's voice trembled.
"Please… don't."
Aru looked up at him.
"You're not my enemy."
The child blinked.
Aru lifted his hand toward the Monarch again.
"My enemy is the thing that made us both suffer."
The child's breath hitched.
"Aru…"
The Monarch slammed its remaining rings down like anchors, cracking the whole plane.
**—RETURN—
—OBEY—
—YOU ARE OUR DESIGN—**
Aru whispered back:
"I'm not your design."
He placed his palm on the Monarch's chest.
The silver-black rhythm surged—
And the Monarch screamed.
For the first time, it sounded alive.
Afraid.
Wounded.
The golden body convulsed, fracturing into shards of light.
The child inside it reached toward Aru—
"Don't kill him! That's—THAT'S *you*, Aru! The part you left! The part you sealed!"
Aru's eyes widened.
The Monarch's core buckled.
Aru clenched his fist.
"I'm not killing him."
Silver-black flickered violently.
"I'm freeing him."
The Monarch exploded.
A hurricane of gold spiraled upward, tearing the sky into ribbons.
Memory after memory shattered into light.
The child screamed as the golden rings broke apart—
—and the Chapter ends with the child falling from the Monarch's collapsing form…
straight toward the glowing ocean below.
Aru dives after him.