Path of the Deathless

185 (II) Rhetorical [II]

185 (II)Rhetorical [II]

Despite his shock, he questioned the Composer's request no more and made to reach his friend. Before Adam could ask him what he was doing, Shiv laid a hand on his shoulder, and a rush of divinity surged out from Shiv's soul into Adam. Shiv felt his Blessing come afire, felt a new song erupt from his insides. But it wasn’t just his Blessing. Something new was happening inside Adam as well, and the musical notes that spilled out from Shiv were outlined with the same color as the Gate Lord’s Unique Skill.

Shiv's Song of the Vigilant spread out around him, and the resonating waves it painted across the world in Shiv's vision became suddenly . They flashed into existence within the oppressive interior of the reactor core chamber, coating every surface and constricting every Pathbearer present with their strings—strings that danced, strings that vibrated, strings that one and all flowed to a central point; a lyre that shivered to the flicking fingers of someone divine.

the Composer cried out, her voice high with scorn and offense.

In that moment, the wounds lining Adam's body molted away, and a massive figure rose, hatching out from Adam's azure sun. Her body loomed high in the vast chamber, and her eight legs were pressed against every corner of the room. Her contours were painted by that radiant blue, and her inner core resonated, oscillating with the colors of sunrise and sunset. She wasn't truly here, but there was an extension of her presence, an extension of her mana, that reached across from Weave, up from the Abyss, and into this prison at the heart of the Republic.

With her intrusion, the battle suddenly came to a total halt. Her song continued on, growing louder and louder, and it was only then that Shiv realized her resonating webs were coiled around the Avatars and their wardens, around the very Dimensionality that Veronica projected. The black static strained, but before the Composer’s magic—further bolstered by Adam’s Unique Skill—it was like an animal trapped in a net.

"Break! Scatter apart!" Veronica shouted at the webs, but they didn't obey her so easily. A few shuddering strands frayed along the edges, but the others endured, even growing thicker with every passing second the song continued.

"Composer!" Veronica bellowed. "You have no right to be here. Think about what you are doing.”

Her words were echoed by her grandmother, and Katherine’s form appeared once more. Yet she was barely there, nothing more than a ghost, quivering like a dying candle before the Composer's golden, glowing glory. Dıscover more novels at N0velFire.ɴet

Kathereine began.

the Composer shot back. The song suddenly stopped as she ceased her strumming in pure outrage. Shiv could not recall ever seeing the Composer so hateful, so aggrieved.

Kathereine echoed, voice between outrage and wry amusement.

demigoddess of Weave pulled at the strings on her lyre again, and all around them the webs began to shiver once more. Just then, a counter-chorus came from Kathereine as a battle of rising hymns began, the Composer's countless fingers flicking across her harp, matching the Ascendant beat for beat.

Kathereine’s voice rose, and the webs surrounding the Avatars and the wardens were drawn taut.

The webs surrounding them began to scream, the sound of parting iron paired with the straining strings of countless instruments.

the Composer's voice drilled off with its own snarl,

Kathereine sang, her voice rising high as tides of divinity clashed between them. The webs began to buckle and strain.

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For the briefest moment, Shiv saw the Composer flinch, and a pang of sympathy went through him. He'd noticed things about Weave during his time there as well. It was a good city, perhaps the safest and kindest city he'd ever been in. But there were flaws under the surface, and there were slips in the Composer's facade. Her sorrow at sacrificing so many of her people on a raid against the First Blood, her admission of weakness when the Dragon-Knights made flight for Gate Theborn, her inability to offer more than a few Sisters and Weaveresses when the gate was captured, and the rampant inequalities at the base of her home as well.

Weavers suffering; Weaveresses favored more than others, while plagues chewed through the fabric of her precious society…

Shiv barely managed to shake off the building loathing he felt for the Composer. Kathereine’s music was as all hell.

Kathereine continued. "

the Composer snarled.

Kathereine sneered,

The Composer's webs were screaming at the breaking point, more than a few snapped, and just as Shiv thought the goddess was about to collapse before the Songbringer’s proclamation, she brought her hand down upon all strings of her lyre at once.

Just then, Shiv caught sight of a larger shadow looming behind her—the face of another deity. Where the Composer might not have been able to break Kathereine’s power alone, another force intervened.

The Challenger’s illusory, war-scarred visage grinned at the Ascendants from behind the spider goddess.

An explosive reverberation swept out from her core, gliding along every web. They struck the Songbringer like lashing whips, and Kathereine cried out, releasing a note of genuine pain. The melody she was humming broke, and suddenly the Composer was the dominant force once more.

Kathereine shot back. Dulcet tones rose as she struck, but the balance had been tipped. The webs around her and the other Ascendants were tightening.

the Composer cried out, near-hysterical with offense. A disbelieving chorus of laughter escaped from her, and her stringing notes grew somber.

Kathereine was cut off by the Composer.

Kathereine cried aloud, and this time her voice was joined by Veronica's.

And at that, the Composer suddenly stopped playing, as if obeying their orders, and her strings untangled from the Pathbearers within the chamber. She detached from Adam's spirit as well. The Gate Lord staggered, and Shiv caught him before he could fall. He shook his head as if just awakening from a deep sleep. As he looked up, he blinked. "Composer, you… you came."

"You called," she said, her voice suddenly gentle and sorrowful. "I'm sorry I could not offer more."

"No," Adam gasped. He shook his head, and something almost akin to a song escaped him. "No, it's more than I expected. You... you came. You came when no one else did. I prayed. The Starhawk was silent. But you weren’t. It was… Your music was beautiful.”

Kathereine and Veronica spoke in unison. A glowing incandescence was spreading out from them now, out from the other Avatars as well. They had recovered, and they were pushing back against the mana-stilling field emitted by the nuclear reactor.

Shiv felt his insides plummet once more.

"You might have delayed us for a moment," Veronica said, "but there is nowhere to go. Not for them, and not for you, eventually. We will claim what is ours. We will claim the Great One. Ours is ambition. Ours is strength. And ours is the ability to protect these two from the world.”

the Composer said coldly.

Kathereine asked, incredulous.

“For me,” a deep and sonorous voice intoned.

The Songbringer released a choked, disbelieving gasp.

Shiv and the Ascendants turned with surprise, but before any of them could react, a lance of pale-blue Animancy tore through the chest of the young Avatar clad in radiant armor.

And once more, Shiv heard an Ascendant scream in agony.