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Chapter 117 – The Gate of Echoed Rebellion
The gate loomed ahead—towering, radiant, woven from intertwined staves of ancient music and forbidden memory. Notes spun through its structure like veins of light, pulsing in rhythm with Erevan's breath.
Behind him, Ranya remained silent.
Before him, the Gate waited.
It was not just a portal. It was a threshold into everything the Tower had tried to seal away. A requiem for rebels. The birthplace of the forgotten Refrain.
Erevan stepped closer, and the Sequence hummed in warning.
[SYSTEM: ACCESSING LOST HARMONIC—"ECHOED REBELLION"]
[WARNING: Subject approaching Singularity Layer of Memory Integrity. Proceeding will fragment current Identity Shell.]
Erevan smirked. "Then let it fragment. I'll rebuild it myself."
He reached out—and touched the Gate.
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Flash.
Reality folded. The Gate unspooled into sound and memory, enveloping Erevan in blinding white.
And suddenly—
He stood in the middle of a war zone.
Smoke and screaming harmonies echoed across a broken field. Tower sentries—pristine, silver-clad things of steel and control—battled against figures cloaked in dissonance.
Not rebels. Not yet.
These were musicians.
They wielded song as sword, rhythm as shield. Every movement spilled pure defiance into the air, composing weapons from fury and loss.
At the center of it all—himself.
Not Erevan as he was now. But First-Erevan—a version of him untouched by the Tyrant's title. A rebel unshackled by regret, eyes burning with hope and fire.
Erevan's heart skipped. This wasn't memory playback.
This was echoed resonance.
The Tower had preserved even his original betrayal as a warning.
First-Erevan raised a hand. The sky answered with red lightning.
"Strike down the Songcage!" he roared. "Let the Tower taste silence for once!"
The battlefield trembled. Instruments burst into chaos. A female voice behind him screamed—Veyra's. Not as a killer. But as his composer.
She fought beside him.
Another voice joined in—Nyara. Younger. Laughing as she hurled melodies like bombs.
They were a symphony.
The original rebellion.
And then—something cracked.
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A shadow fell across the battlefield.
A Tower protocol emerged from the heavens—monolithic, faceless, etched in divine code.
The Conductor.
Its voice was pure order.
"This Refrain ends now."
It lifted its baton—and silence surged forward like a tidal wave, ripping through rebels, nullifying sound, erasing souls.
Erevan—First-Erevan—shouted, but his voice broke.
Veyra collapsed. Nyara's melody was swallowed.
The rebellion shattered.
And Erevan remembered—
This was the moment he had fled.
The moment he had activated the failsafe.
The one that rewrote memory.
The one that erased the truth.
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Present-day Erevan stood frozen in the memory echo.
The Gate pulsed again.
[REMEMBRANCE TRIGGERED – HIDDEN STAT +1]
[New Passive: Fractured Refrain – You retain melody even in silence. Effects scale with Remembrance.]
The battlefield dissolved into golden mist.
And standing in its center was the First-Erevan.
Or rather, a ghost of him—formed from unresolved sound and failure.
"You feared this," the ghost said, stepping forward. "The moment you chose survival over truth. You buried us. You let the Tower win."
Erevan clenched his fists. "I had to live. To rebuild. To find a better way."
"You forgot us."
"No," Erevan whispered. "I've finally remembered."
The ghost paused.
And then, smiled.
"You're ready then. To reclaim the Refrain. To lead them again."
The mist behind him coalesced—into a single, massive chamber of resonance. A chamber sealed by every failure Erevan had ever known.
The Harmonic Vault.
Inside it, the last surviving fragment of the Rebellion's original song waited.
The Key of Discord.
The Tower's ultimate fear.
Erevan stepped toward it.
No hesitation.
No silence.
Only resolve.
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Author's Note:
Chapter 117 brings us to the Echoed Rebellion, where the truth of Erevan's first stand against the Tower begins to unfold. His past self, the fractured bonds, and the forgotten power of the Refrain are all coming back with a vengeance.
This is still part of our bonus arc—thanks to your 10 stones = 2 chapters support and the incredible reviews rolling in!
Next up: Chapter 118 – The Key of Discord where Erevan finally confronts the Conductor… and the cost of defiance.
Stay with me. Comment, review, and toss stones for more!
– Dorian Blackthorn
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