Ashwood was behind them.
The forest, once warped by resonance, now lay quiet as Aeren and Lyssa moved eastward. The Codex pulsed against Aeren's back like a living heart, reacting to something—something distant, something ancient.
> Codex Notification: Harmonic Distress Detected
Location: Choir Sanctum – Second Choir (The Silent Choir)
Status: Collapsing.
Aeren hadn't expected to visit any of the Choirs this soon. Especially that one.
Lyssa frowned as she scanned the Codex.
"The Silent Choir?" she asked. "I thought they were neutral."
"They were," Aeren said. "They were the Archivists—keepers of the oldest Verses. They didn't fight. They remembered."
"And now they're screaming."
---
They reached the outskirts of the sanctum by nightfall.
What should have been a mountain monastery carved from crystal and living harmony was now a ruin—frozen mid-collapse. Entire sections hovered in place, shards of stone and stave-light suspended in unnatural stillness.
It was like time had paused—then forgotten to restart.
> "Temporal fracture," Lyssa murmured. "But it's localized."
Aeren stepped forward, his Codex humming wildly. As they crossed into the broken courtyard, they saw them.
The Choir members.
Dozens of them, trapped mid-song. Mouths open. Hands raised. Eyes wide with horror.
None moved.
They were statues of song, frozen in the moment of their final Verse.
Aeren's throat tightened. "What could do this?"
> Codex Response: Harmonic Silence Entity Detected. Codename: Nullcantor
Status: Active. Location: Inner Sanctum.
"A Nullcantor?" Lyssa asked. "That's a myth."
"Not anymore," Aeren muttered. "Come on."
---
The Inner Sanctum doors were torn open—shattered by something powerful and wordless. A dark silence bled from the chamber, thick and tangible, like it had weight.
Inside, a figure waited.
No face. No song. No motion.
Just absence.
The Nullcantor stood in the center of the chamber, the remains of the High Cantor of the Silent Choir collapsed at its feet.
It turned slowly toward Aeren—no eyes, yet it saw. Its presence unmade sound. Even thought felt thinner near it.
The Codex in Aeren's hand went silent.
No alerts. No defenses.
Just void.
> "Aeren—" Lyssa whispered, hand on her blade, "I don't think this one plays by our rules."
He nodded slowly.
"Then I'll make my own."
He stepped forward, eyes closed.
And sang.
No Codex. No Verse.
Just his voice.
The chamber rippled. The Nullcantor hesitated.
It was not built to fight melody born without instruction.
And Aeren was no longer following the Codex—he was composing as he breathed.
> "Verse Two – Silent Requiem."
(Effect: Harmonizes with Null Fields. Converts absence into rhythm.)
The Codex flared back to life—feeding off Aeren's improvised song.
The chamber pulsed. The frozen Choir members gasped—air flooding into their lungs as time resumed for just a second.
The Nullcantor screamed—not with sound, but with the collapse of sound.
And for a brief moment, the Second Choir sang once more.