The "Dormitory of the Muse" was not a room of wood and mortar, but a hollow within the living crystal of the Grotto, lined with feathers that Liora had shed during her trance and blankets of woven silver-moss. It was a place of unnatural stillness, yet Julian could not sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the flickering runes of the NOVA-GEN system, their archaic script etched into the back of his eyelids like brandings on a beast.
[QUEST ACTIVE: THE DRUMMER IN THE DEEP]
[LOCATION: THE IRON-ROOT MINES]
[RECRUITMENT CRITERIA: A HEART THAT BEATS AGAINST THE EARTH]
Julian sat on the edge of the obsidian stage, watching the dawn light fail to penetrate the ravine's depths. He felt the phantom ache in his palms where the flints had cut him. The blood was gone, consumed by the stage, but the bond it had forged remained. He could feel Liora's presence—a soft, rhythmic thrumming in the back of his mind, like the distant vibration of a plucked string.
A shadow fell across the obsidian. Liora was there, her wings half-spread, capturing the dim bioluminescence of the moss. She did not approach with the shyness of the village girl she had once been. She moved with a predatory grace, her talons clicking softly against the stone.
"You are leaving the Grotto," she stated. It was not a question. Her voice was lower now, resonant with the "Vocal Manifestation" they had practiced.
"The system requires more than one voice to shake the foundations of this world, Liora," Julian replied, standing up. He wiped the dust from his linen trousers. "A melody without a pulse is a ghost. We need the thunder."
Liora's feathers hissed as they brushed against one another, a sound like dry leaves in a graveyard. She stepped into his personal space, her emerald eyes narrowed. "I was enough yesterday. I sang until the stone bled for you. Why must you seek out another? Is my devotion... insufficient?"
"It is a matter of business, not devotion," Julian said, his voice turning to ice. He had dealt with divas before, but none whose jealousy could literally shatter the air. "If you wish to be a Queen, you must have a throne. And a throne requires a base of iron and drumbeat. Stay here. Practice the staccato. If I return and find your pitch has slipped, there will be no festival."
He pushed past her, but her wing flared out, blocking his path. The feathers were sharp as razors, their edges shimmering with a faint, violet mana.
"I will go with you," she whispered, her face inches from his. "I will not have you wandering among the unwashed and the unworthy without your Muse. If you seek a drummer, I will be the one to judge if their heart is fit to beat alongside mine."
Julian saw the flicker of madness in her gaze—the Yandere seed blooming into a dark, thorny flower. He realized that leaving her behind would likely result in her razing the ravine in a fit of pique. "Fine. But you wear the cloak. If the villagers see you, they will bring the iron-bells again."
The Iron-Root Mines lay three leagues to the north, where the Iberian sun scorched a landscape of jagged red clay and stunted cork trees. This was the domain of the Earth-Bound, a race of diminutive, broad-shouldered beings—not quite dwarves, but creatures of stone and muscle who had been enslaved by the Empire of Albion to extract the mana-crystals buried in the crust.
Julian and the cloaked Liora walked the dusty path, avoiding the main roads. The heat was oppressive, but Liora seemed unaffected, her gaze constantly darting toward Julian, her hand occasionally brushing his arm to ensure he was still there, a physical tether to her obsession.
As they reached the lip of the mine, a rhythmic thumping began to vibrate through the soles of Julian's feet. It wasn't the chaotic clatter of picks. It was a heavy, deliberate boom-thud, boom-thud.
"There," Julian whispered.
They descended into the darkness of the shaft, the air growing cool and smelling of sulfur and ancient damp. Deep within the third gallery, they found him.
He was a Gargant-Kin, a hulking youth with skin like cracked basalt and arms the size of tree trunks. He wasn't mining. He was standing before a massive, cracked slab of resonance-quartz, striking it with two heavy hammers made of solid iron.
BOOM-THUD. BOOM-THUD.
Every strike sent a shockwave through the tunnel that made Julian's teeth ache. The guards—men in the red livery of Albion—stood at a distance, laughing and throwing scraps of moldy bread at the giant.
"Look at the beast!" one guard mocked. "He thinks he's making music. Hey, Krog! Hit it harder! Maybe the mountain will answer your stupidity!"
Krog didn't look at them. His eyes were milky white, blind to the world but focused on the vibration. He was searching for a frequency, a heartbeat in the stone that the Empire wanted to extract for their war-machines.
Julian stepped out of the shadows. Liora hissed, her talons unsheathing beneath her cloak, but he signaled her to stay back.
"The tempo is dragging," Julian said, his voice cutting through the heavy air of the mine.
The guards turned, their hands going to their swords. "Who goes there? This is a restricted excavation, peasant!"
Julian ignored them. He walked straight up to the Gargant-Kin. Up close, Krog was terrifying—a mountain of flesh and stone. Julian reached out and placed his hand on the quartz slab. He felt the residual vibration.
"You're hitting the earth, but you aren't listening to its response," Julian said to the blind giant. "You're fighting the stone. You should be seducing it."
Krog stopped. The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. He turned his massive head toward Julian, his nostrils flaring. "Small voice... speaks of the stone's heart?"
"I speak of the Rhythm of the Abyss," Julian replied.
[SYSTEM ALERT: POTENTIAL DRUMMER DETECTED]
[RACE: GARGANT-KIN (EARTH ELEMENT)]
[TRAIT: BLIND RESONANCE]
[QUEST REQUIREMENT: OVERPOWER THE GUARDS TO CLAIM THE TALENT]
"Enough of this madness!" the lead guard shouted, stepping forward with his sword drawn. "Arrest the boy! Kill the Windswept if she interferes!"
The guard lunged, his blade aimed at Julian's throat.
Julian didn't flinch. "Liora. Show them the bridge of the song."
Liora didn't need a second command. She shed her cloak in a flurry of emerald feathers. She didn't fly; she danced. Her voice erupted in a high-frequency shriek that didn't just hurt the ears—it shattered the iron buckles on the guards' armor. The men fell to their knees, clutching their heads as their helmets rang like bells struck by lightning.
"The beat, Krog!" Julian yelled over the sonic chaos. "Now! Four-four time! Give me the foundation!"
The blind giant, sensing the sudden surge of mana in the air, raised his iron hammers. He didn't strike the quartz randomly this time. He felt the resonance of Liora's voice and struck in the empty spaces she left behind.
CRACK-BOOM! CRACK-BOOM!
The combination was apocalyptic. The high, ethereal piercing of the Harpie and the tectonic weight of the Gargant-Kin created a "Mortal Harmony." The guards' swords shattered into dust. The tunnel walls began to glow with a fierce, amber light.
Julian stood in the center of the storm, his arms spread wide, laughing. This was it. The alchemy of the band. The fusion of air and earth.
As the guards lay unconscious, bleeding from their ears, Krog dropped his hammers. He turned to Julian and knelt, the ground cracking beneath his knees. "The stone... it sang back. You... you are the Master of the Song?"
"I am the one who will make the world hear you," Julian said.
Liora landed beside him, her wings heaving. She looked at the giant Krog with a mixture of disgust and wary respect. Then, she turned her gaze to Julian, her eyes burning with a dark intensity. She grabbed Julian's arm, her talons piercing the skin just enough to draw a single drop of blood.
"He is loud, Julian," she whispered, her voice a possessive growl. "He may provide the pulse. But remember... he is but the floor. I am the sky. You belong in the sky with me."
She leaned in, licking the drop of blood from his arm, her emerald eyes never leaving his. "If you ever look at another with the pride you just showed for this beast... I will tear the rhythm from his chest and eat it."
Julian felt the chill of the Yandere obsession settling over him. He had his drummer. He had his lead singer. But he was realizing that his "Harem" was less a collection of lovers and more a cage of beautiful, singing monsters.
[MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: THE BEAT IS FOUND]
[REWARD: 3000 EP / PLAN UNLOCKED — THE STAGE OF THE SHATTERED MOUNTAIN]
[NEW THREAT: THE EMPIRE OF ALBION HAS NOTICED THE DISCORD]
"Let's go," Julian said, his voice steady despite the madness. "We have an Empire to build. And a world to deafen."
As they emerged from the mine, Julian noticed a familiar scent in the air—wildflowers and burnt incense. Mina had been here. She had watched the slaughter. And in the dust near the entrance, she had left a single, crushed cherry blossom.
The stage was set for a tragedy, played out in the key of obsession.