It struck like a silent meteor.
No thunder. No boom. Just pressure—a soul-deep vibration that made the buildings tilt, the people stumble, and the leylines themselves shiver.
The black glyph tore through the sky like a sheet of paper catching fire in reverse. It hovered above Harmonica Heights, pulsing. A twisted musical rune, jagged and ink-black, made of mana so warped that it repelled harmony itself.
Every note it emitted wasn't a song—it was a cancellation.
Whole chords dropped dead in the throats of singers. Magical instruments unraveled mid-spell. Children cried without sound.
Cadencia raised her voice, but nothing came out.
Ren stepped forward, loop pedal throbbing like a heartbeat against his chest. It absorbed the silence, distorted it, replayed it in reverse.
A ripple pushed out from him.
The black glyph paused.
Cadencia's voice returned. "What did you just do?"
Ren blinked. "I… don't know? I just thought about how wrong this all felt, and the pedal reacted."
The glyph turned.
It saw him.
It didn't have eyes. Or a face. Or a mind in any way a person might understand. But Ren could feel its attention like cold ink dripping down his spine.
Then it sang.
Not with melody. Not with rhythm.
With absence.
A spell of absolute negation—sound, color, light, memory—it swept over the plaza in a pulse of void.
And Ren did the only thing he could.
He hit record.
◇
The loop pedal flashed red. The negation spell slammed into him like a freight train of quiet—but instead of disintegrating, it bent. He caught it.
He didn't block the spell.
He recorded it.
And for a moment, the glyph stuttered. Like a corrupted file realizing it had been duplicated.
The pedal blinked again.
PLAYBACK:
NEGATION.
INVERTED.
TEMPO SHIFT: +110%.
MODE: DORIAN.
LYRICAL CONVERSION: ACTIVE.
Ren slammed his foot down.
A pulse of anti-silence exploded from the pedal.
The glyph screamed.
Cadencia's eyes widened as music—the real kind—burst back into the city. Ren wasn't conducting. He wasn't leading a band. He was just a guy with weird mana and an even weirder artifact, yelling through feedback and throwing magical spaghetti at the wall.
But it worked.
The glyph twitched.
Cracked.
And for a single shining moment, the city's harmony flared to life again—chaotic, wild, and beautifully off-script.
◇
The black note tried to flee.
But Ren wasn't done.
He aimed the pedal, twisted the tuning dial—and reversed the playback.
The corrupted spell folded back on itself, dragging the glyph into a whirling loop of its own magic. It shrank, then shattered into a thousand scattered rests—each dissolving like black snow into the wind.
The silence was gone.
Not completely—but the city had breath again.
Cadencia landed beside him, her hair windswept, her voice barely audible above the cheers from the recovering crowd.
"What… are you?"
Ren wiped his forehead. "Still figuring that out."
She stared at the loop pedal. "You just countered a Harrowed Verse."
Ren shrugged. "Is that good?"
"That's impossible."
◇
But the pedal wasn't done.
It displayed a new glyph on its surface.
UNLOCKED: CHORDCRAFT – LEVEL 1
You may now shape raw mana into harmonized constructs.
Sub-skill granted: Counterpoint – clash and resolve opposing spells.
Sub-skill granted: Cadenza – insert spontaneous variations during combat sequences.
New title obtained: Impromptu Virtuoso.
Ren blinked.
"…Okay. That sounds extremely cool."
Then he passed out.