Chapter 39: Dissonant Arrival

The skyline of Aerilon darkened unnaturally.

Storm clouds formed without meteorological cause—thick, swirling, and humming with soundless static. The Song in Yun Xi's chest trembled, like a harp string drawn too tight.

Yue Lan's bracelet began to flash warnings. "Distortion alert. Level… undefined?"

"No," Yun Xi murmured, staring at the sky. "It's not distortion. It's arrival."

A moment later, the clouds tore open—not with lightning, but with silence. A void opened in the sky, and from it descended a figure unlike any Harvester they had seen before.

Its presence didn't crackle or hiss like the others. It didn't shimmer like the Echo-born. It simply existed, absolute and immovable. A man-shaped figure in a suit of echo-black armor, its surface layered with swirling lines of faded memories. In its left hand, it held a violin-shaped weapon; in its right, a tether that hung limp, like a leash without a beast.

"Another Harvester?" Yue Lan whispered.

Yun Xi shook his head. "Worse. That's not a Harvester."

As the figure touched the ground, the space around him warped. Trees wilted. Lights blinked out. The soundscape around them turned to pure dissonance—like notes being crushed into each other until meaning collapsed.

The figure raised its head, and though it wore no face, its voice carved itself into their minds.

"ECHO: DESIGNATION — UNAUTHORIZED COMPOSER."

Yun Xi instinctively stepped in front of Yue Lan. "It's targeting me."

The figure moved—not fast, not slow, just inevitable. It raised the violin, placed its bow in position, and drew the first note.

The world trembled.

A sonic wave ripped through the platform, tearing stone from steel and hurling both of them backward. Yun Xi grunted, slamming into a barrier. Yue Lan was caught midair by a flicker of his Song before she hit the wall.

"It's using an inverted composition," she gasped. "It's unraveling the Song!"

Yun Xi stood. "Then I'll rewrite it."

The Regret Blade pulsed from within his back. With a flick of his hand, it appeared in full—glowing with a spectral light tinged with sorrow.

He moved forward.

Note met note.

The Composer struck again, launching a second ripple of sonic destruction, but this time Yun Xi was ready. He swung his blade, slicing through the sound. A shockwave exploded outward, neutralizing the incoming wave, shattering glass in a five-mile radius.

"Impressive," the figure said again, though its voice was no longer machine-like. It was… human. Calm. Tired.

"You remember how to sing," it said. "But not why."

Yun Xi narrowed his eyes. "Then remind me."

They clashed.

Blades of light and memory met arcs of discord and entropy. Every step of their duel rewrote the space around them—buildings flickered between ruined and whole, trees bloomed and died in seconds, and ghostly echoes of Aerilon's past wept through the shifting air.

The Composer was precise, unyielding, a master of rhythm.

Yun Xi was raw, unchained—but growing with each strike.

He heard the fragments of other songs stirring within him. Aria's laughter. His father's lessons. The whispers of timelines where he had died, but someone had remembered him.

He turned those memories into power.

And then—he broke rhythm.

The Composer faltered for a fraction of a second. Yun Xi's blade surged forward, striking the tether in its hand.

It snapped.

The figure staggered back, its form flickering.

"You are not ready."

Yun Xi raised the Regret Blade, breathing hard. "I'm never going to be ready. But I'll still stand."

The Composer looked down at the broken tether.

Then, to Yun Xi's surprise—it bowed.

"Then stand tall, Yun Xi," it said. "Because the Song remembers you."

And in the next instant, it vanished—leaving behind a ripple that spread across the sky like an unseen chorus awakening.

Yue Lan ran to him. "You okay?"

"No," he admitted. "But I'm still here."

Above them, the void in the sky slowly closed—but the dissonance remained in the air like a warning.

Something ancient had taken notice.

And it was only the beginning