The village was silent.
Too silent.
The kind where your heartbeat feels like thunder.Raen gripped his blade tighter as all of Ellerin slept — dozens of villagers crumpled in the grass, eyes fluttering in nightmare-filled slumber.
Only he remained standing.
Only he could resist the song.
And the girl in white?
She hadn't stopped humming.
"You shouldn't be awake," she said calmly, the chains around her arms glowing with celestial script."Even kings fall to the First Choir."
Raen stepped forward.
"I'm not a king."
The girl tilted her head, blindfold fluttering in the breeze.
"No. You're worse."
The ground cracked beneath her bare feet.
Sound warped.
Every breath Raen took felt heavy, like his lungs were drowning in honey. The air pulsed like it had rhythm — and Raen realized it wasn't the song affecting him…
It was the silence between the notes.
"They're weaponizing the gaps in sound…"
The First Choir's magic didn't cast.It rewrote reality with unspoken harmonies.
The girl lifted her hand.
A single word formed on her tongue:
"Bind."
Chains of light exploded from her wrists, aiming to wrap Raen in silence — not to kill, but to remove his will.
Raen's eyes flashed.
"Return."
The sword dropped from the sky once again — but this time, it didn't hum.
It sang.
A single note.
Clear. Violent. Defiant.
The chains cracked.The song wavered.
And for the first time, the girl gasped.
"That… that melody…""Why does your blade know the Forbidden Key?"
Raen didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
But the sword did.
And it moved for him.
He dashed forward, cutting through the sonic pressure, slicing through invisible harmonics like mist. The girl raised both hands, voice rising, dozens of sleep-locked spells spinning around her like stars.
Raen whispered:
"Silence."
And slashed.
BOOM.
A pulse erupted — not of magic, not of power — but of nothing.Perfect quiet.
The spells vanished.The music stopped.And the girl collapsed to her knees, chains broken, blindfold singed.
Her lips trembled.
"Y-you're not Unarchived…""You're… Unwritten…"
Raen stood over her.
"Tell your Choir... I'm not coming.""Tell your Crown… they're too late."
The sword faded again, turning into mist.
The villagers slowly woke.
And Raen walked away, leaving the girl trembling in the grass, whispering one word over and over:
"Unwritten… Unwritten… Unwritten…"