blueteamnovel 129. Assault on the City of Vocals
129. Assault on the City of Vocals
129. Assault on the City of Vocals
The City of Vocals sung with the voices of countless thousands.
The beat of the music synchronized with the beat of a certain man’s heart. The highs and lows of the vocals; the cadences and the beating drums played in the rhythm of a resounding heartbeat.
Two, four – six hands wagged in tune to the music, mockingly conducting the grand symphony that reverberated beyond his vast, emerald marble stage.
Empty seats of beating hearts applauded him with invisible hands as he took center stage; the light of the benevolent spire blessing him with its glorious light.
The six-armed man wore a green exoskeleton, appearing like an Insectid. Yet at various joints one could find evidence of vulnerable human flesh. Each white-gloved hand eventually fell as he brushed off his black and green coattail suit.
His eyes were hidden behind the grills of his carapace skin as he soundlessly bowed at his audience of hearts, and their bodies which they had freshly removed themselves from. The auditorium housed an incredible 10,000 seats, all of which were brimming with restless hearts.Fịndd new updates at novelhall.com
“Fibrillate. Beautiful quivering. We must beat as one harmonious voice. But it is unfortunate. The hearts looked better inside of you, my beloved audience.” He monologued in what sounded like two conjoined voices.
One was the voice of a melodic human man, and the other was like the chirping of a cicada.
Then, someone applauded him.
A young, terrified girl clapped as she moved from body to body across the audience’s seats, horrified at the sight of countless deaths. This girl was Sana; the healer who was brought along with the Train Core thanks to the aid of the Bloody Herring and the impeccable calculations of fate made by their friends; the Sect of Gears.
“Heal... Heal. Please heal... I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Sana hobbled around, tripping over bodies as she fidgeted over her Serums in sorrow.
“It is disrespectful to speak as an audience member, little dove.” The man, Leitmotif, reminded, causing the girl to jolt into a fit of nods before she suddenly gripped onto her throat and screamed at the top of her lungs.
He inflicted her with heart-wrenching pain. Her body contorted against her will. She was no more than an instrument to him. A small piece in the greater whole that was his marvelous symphony.
“Good instrument.” He dismissed her as something splattered along his beautiful stage. He did not need to turn to see who this person was. “Herring, Herring, Herring. You’ve overstepped your boundaries.”
“There is no overstepping when we can crush the Amalgam right here! HEALER! HEAAAAALER! FIX ME!” The mass of mangled flesh spoke from a mouth that was ripped into a hundred pieces.
His body hardly resembled one anymore. He was a lump of flesh no different from their... less intelligent partners, the Crimson Hunger. The agonized Bloody Herring bounced in a fit of fury as Sana spontaneously rushed down the countless flights of stairs to help from the goodness in her precious heart.
However, Sana was hardly a proficient healer. When she knelt beside him and tried to heal him nothing happened, aside from recovering miniscule amounts of HP. He lashed out at the healer, cursing her for she was from the same flock of the Amalgam that had reduced him to such a pitiful state.
“Unbecoming of people that pride themselves on themselves. Shall I destroy your body and return you to them?” Leitmotif approached him, his leather soles clapping with each step before he loomed over the sack of flesh, awaiting his response.
“DON’T! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!? YOU NEED ME TO KILL THE AMALGAM! Sending me back there to them will be a waste!” The Bloody Herring shouted abruptly. “The Monkey Brothers have already forwarded the messages after their death. With us two and that Corrupted; we can kill the Amalgam!”
“Need I remind you that I am in no position to ad lib my performance? We merely required the Train Core and the pieces of the Moons. But you and those chimpanzees managed to delay us!” Leitmotif was impassioned by their failure, causing his chest to swell as the surrounding hearts began to quiver uncontrollably.
“Calm... calm yourself. This Corrupted would kill us all if my desires fell out of rhythm.” He managed to calm himself as he clicked his fingers six times.
At each click a piece of the Bloody Herring’s body was blasted by a thunderous hum. All that was left of him was his upper torso, head and one arm.
And yet he still could not die.
“Even after being embraced by your golden Heart that Beholder’s power still latches onto you. What a dangerous power.” Leitmotif kicked him away as Sana could only watch the body crash into the rising audience stands. “Leave him be. Let him witness our song. The stands welcome his tuneless cadaver. This Corrupted must not burst forth until we surface.”
“... The Amalgam is the source of everything. You’ve heard him. That star’s warnings. Think about the power we’d be granted from that Sacred Garden if we turned in the head of the Amalgam!” There was a plan they needed to follow.
A set of guidelines that could not be diverted from.
But the Bloody Herring was insistent to break these rules.
“Carpalis is weak enough. Have you seen that pitiful Demon in person? Fools... Our uncouth masters are all afraid of that thing more than the Amalgam!?” The Herring hoarsely cried again as Leitmotif simply hummed to himself.
He strolled away, leaving Sana to stand idly behind, not knowing what to do anymore.
“Is there anything you know other than to sate your need for immediate satisfaction? You Festivals are worthless. But necessary to weaken her. As little as your writhing instills pain onto that Beholder.” Leitmotif answered before his tone suddenly deepened “Carpalis is dangerous. Unless you have been believing the fabricated nonsense?”
“And the Amalgam is not...? Who will destroy our world!? TELL ME LEITMOTIF!?”
“The Amalgam, my impassioned friend.”
“So why –!?”
“Because there exists a libretto to follow. A steady, predictive flow of events. Please refrain from being an unexpected syncope.”
Leitmotif rebutted, his voice now only an echo as he approached an exit which led to a perch that oversaw the entire city from above.
“It works better in this arrangement. The troublesome Moons and the Amalgam are away from the Nex Megalopolis. The Beholders are stuck within the Nexus. Have some degree of mental flexibility, will you? The Piece of the Fallen Star, when we inevitably find it, will take care of the Amalgam. He must make sure of it.”
“... You won’t... utilize that Big Red Heart?” The Bloody Herring uttered one last time before Leitmotif disappeared into the bleeding lights of the city.
“It’s reserved to obliterate the Golden Index. So won’t you be a good friend and destabilize that Train Core? You must not have any more coins from that lowly appearance. However long it takes will not matter. We just need to keep them away.”
Before Leitmotif could disappear, he then asked one last question.
LEVEL : 5 ORIGIN : XATT : 5MAG ATT : 5ATT DEF : 0 MAG DEF : 0RESIST : 5AGI : 5 LEVEL : 120ORIGIN : TraumaATT : 2,200MAG ATT : 3,200ATT DEF : 1,500MAG DEF : 0RESIST : 150AGI : 40
Frost did not share a single word and checked if there was any feasible way to save them. There, on their necks, she found a thin tendon-like strand that connected them to their masters.
Their title transformed into the ‘Denizen of the Singing City’ upon severing them.
Slaughtering them was unnecessary much to her relief. However, she envisioned that not all would be spared. With how compact the city truly was; and how destructive their powers were – the number of casualties could easily number in the tens of thousands.
These people needed to get out of the city if they wished to live.
And so, she screamed out at the top of her lungs:
“GET OUT OF HERE IF YOU WANT TO LIIIIIVE!”
Songs began to resonate from every direction as they navigated through a sea of climbing termite mounds; built to house upwards of hundreds of people at once. The screaming tunes muted her voice as they briskly followed the sounds, all the while Frost and Res sent waves of attacks at the walls to create as many routes of escape as possible.
Suppressors infested this crowded layer like roaches. At every conceivable mound there were at least several of them, each with a collection of Instruments whose very music inflicted 3,200 MAG damage at every 5 second interval.
The Triplets would have found themselves at the mercy of this Corrupted if it weren’t for Frost. That being said, if they were swift enough to kill the Suppressors and neutralize the Instruments in short order then they’d be fine.
Because as soon as the immediate proximity was cleared, and the innocent souls scurried away in horror – They immediately ceased taking all forms of damage.
< “Unsanctioned desires are a poison. We shouldn’t reach for the stars when they only exist as bedtime lullabies. Instead, let us reach for the tangible things around us while we still can.” >
“So what’s the deal with music and a heart!?” Cer shouted as they navigated further into the city; Frost’s tentacles scraping against the maze of termite mounds as Ponea reveled:
“It’s paradise! It’s paradise! So many injured. So many to heal!” Poena and Frost’s tentacles were used to touch people and heal them along the way.
The light of her one hundred glowing tentacles rivalled the star’s. While devastation followed her visage like a shadow; few realized that this enigmatic being was not as manevolent as they appeared.
The few that stood by, and the even fewer that peered through the safety of their hollow homes clasped at the place the tentacle had touched and watched on yearningly.
“Hell if I know! The Corrupted voice isn’t saying anything about music! It’s all about how desires are a poison!” Frost yelled, swerving them into a minor city square where beautiful pillars draped in green cloth rose.
People gathered by these pillars unwillingly as if herded by the shepherds that were the Suppressors. Frost could not even begin to connect the dots regarding this Corrupted. Bass as the people? Suppressors as the players of those living Instruments? Desires?
The full picture was still yet to be unveiled.
“Poison!? It does look like it, doesn’t it huh!?” Cer cried as electrical explosions tore the square apart. At the same time, Jury swooped in to rescue and sever their ties.
“Focus Little Wolf! You can’t bite and talk at the same time!” Jury scolded.
The bodies of the Suppressors and their hearts were then devoured by Frost remotely using Punch with her tentacles. They acted like an external mouth, devouring their bodies at a mere touch. Some were swiftly transformed into coins, whilst others were made into the Etched Coins.
In a way, their strength was as frightening as the Corrupted. Every single one of the Suppressors could pass as a Monsoon Corrupted. To kill them like they were nothing spoke volumes of their power.
< Etched Coin >
Heart of Ours
ACTIVE : Beaten Desires
EFFECT : Strengthen those in tune with your heart. The higher your desires, the stronger they become. Inflict 20 stacks of Heart Wrench to those whose desires oppose the great majority.
Fizzled into oblivion; merged with the great hearts of civilization; and we still found ourselves reaching for the phantom lights above.
There was no mistaking it. Frost was able to steal the skills from the Corrupted minions! Even though the Suppressors could use other skills, this was the one she gathered from their corpses.
Additionally, she gained a unique ability.
< Stats from the Suppressor Gained >
< Unique Ability Gained >
< ABILITY : Heart of Suppression >
< EFFECT : Know what can vanquish the flames in their heart >
< Only one desire matters >
< “They gagged on their aspirations, realizing the futility of it all in the face of a greater strive.” >