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Chapter 120 – Echoes That Refuse to Die
The Tower always had a way of making you feel like you were alone.
Even surrounded by allies, even standing on the edge of multiversal miracles—it had a silence that ate at your certainty. A silence not of peace, but of deliberate erasure.
Erevan stood at the threshold of the newly revealed path, the golden thread from the Harmonic Nexus stretching endlessly ahead. Behind him, the Harmonics still whispered Ranya's final note, but the moment was already dissolving into memory.
And he knew the Tower would not let this stand.
His fingers twitched. The shard of resonance he'd reshaped trembled with anticipation, aware that this was not just victory—it was provocation.
Across the nodes, something stirred.
A dozen Tower Choirs—distorted, corrupted, long silent—were beginning to hum.
They weren't singing yet.
But they were listening.
Yuren approached, quiet as always, her expression unreadable. "The signal spread. We've got responses from five fractured Choirs. One of them... tried to sing back. Then it burned."
Erevan's jaw tightened. "The Reclamation Protocol?"
She nodded. "Or something worse. Something adapted."
He looked down the golden thread—a path of resonance that only he could fully perceive. It pulsed like a heartbeat, distant, calling.
"Any nodes lighting up?"
Yuren blinked once, pulling up a crimson data-sigil from her neural link. "Node 9.3. Abandoned Composer's Vault. Thought it was sealed centuries ago."
Erevan didn't hesitate.
"Prep the jump. We go now."
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Node 9.3 – The Composer's Vault
The landing was rough. Not because of any external resistance, but because the Vault itself was weeping.
Sound warped the very air. Metallic screams and dying chords formed a jagged landscape of broken soundbars and fractured frequencies.
Memories hung in the air—bloody, twisted. Static ghosts of long-deleted composers, their code shattered, still looping their final regrets like corrupted records.
And in the center of it all stood a girl.
Young. Pale. Dressed in blackened robes woven with sheet music that bled.
Her eyes were empty sockets of static.
But when she opened her mouth, she sang.
It wasn't a melody. It was a cry for help. A cry so raw, so discordant, it nearly knocked Erevan to his knees.
Yuren stumbled, her shield fracturing. "What—what is that?!"
Erevan stared, and in that moment, he understood.
"She's a Remnant. One of the original Choirs. But the Tower… left her half-formed. Trapped her in resonance feedback."
He took a step forward, heart pounding. The girl flinched.
> [Harmonic Recomposer: Active]
– Subject Identified: [Remnant – Codename: Lyra]
– Status: Trapped in Resonance Loop | Soul Shatter Level: 72%
– Action Suggested: Harmonize or Terminate
"Terminate?" Yuren asked, reading the same system prompt. "That's mercy, Erevan. She's—she's suffering."
But he shook his head.
"No. She remembers."
He reached into his core, let the shard pulse again. He didn't force a song—he simply offered one. A single note. Clean. True.
A note born from his memory of Ranya's smile.
The girl—Lyra—froze.
And then, like ice shattering under heat, her scream broke into sobs.
Sound warped again.
Not destruction this time—but healing.
She collapsed, and Erevan caught her. Her body was light, too light, like a figment barely clinging to form.
"I remember the lullabies," she whispered. "Before they made us scream."
A memory flickered in Erevan's mind. A time before the Tower's corruption, when each Choir had a name, a purpose, a soul. Lyra had been one of the first. A child prodigy of the Multiversal Harmonics. She was never meant to fight.
Only to feel.
> [Remnant Stabilized: Lyra has joined your Echo Network]
– Unique Trait: "Resonant Empathy" – Amplifies emotional truths in nearby nodes.
– Warning: Lyra's presence attracts Reclamation Protocol Variants.
Yuren exhaled. "We just painted a target on our back."
Erevan smiled faintly, holding Lyra closer. "Then let them come. This time, we sing back."
And the Vault responded.
Slowly, the fractured soundbars around them began to pulse again, syncing to Erevan's new harmonic. Old records twisted back into form. Forgotten voices whispered thanks.
And from the far end of the Vault—another path opened.
This time not gold—but deep violet. A resonance of pain remembered and rage restrained.
It was time to visit Node 9.4—where the Broken Baritone waited.
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Author's Note:
Chapter 120 – Second bonus chapter in the 8-chapter streak begins! Huge thanks for the 116 stones and new reviews—your support makes this rebellion sing!
Next chapter will explore the origins of the Broken Baritone and Lyra's role in the fall of the First Choirs.
10 Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters | 1 Review = 1 Bonus Chapter
Comment, review, and let's rewrite the song of the Tower—together.
– Dorian Blackthorn
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