Veridian Blood Score: Conducting the Apocalypse

Chapter 5: Requiem for the Executioners

The ten white-robed figures stepped into the Great Hall with terrifying synchronization. Each movement was soundless, as if their feet never touched the cracked marble floor. They were the Silent Choir, the Veridian Empire’s most feared instruments of annihilation. In their hands, musical instruments were not mere tools, but devices of execution capable of erasing a person from existence entirely.

Valten felt every nerve in his body throb with pain. He had just poured his last ounce of strength into trapping the Siphon Void entity, and now, he had to face an enemy even more organized and lethal.

Conductor Valten, the voice of one of the Choir members echoed, though not through the air. The voice appeared directly inside Valten’s head, cold and emotionless. The notes you played have violated the laws of the palace’s silence. The penalty for dissonance is total erasure.

Valten laughed. It was a raspy laugh, choked with the blood drying in his throat. He stood tall, despite his legs trembling violently. He glanced at Elara beside him, then at Elias and the other students who remained slumped and helpless.

Total erasure? Valten spat on the floor. You are slaves to a forced rhythm. You call yourselves keepers of the silence, yet you are nothing more than a pack of dogs afraid of the sound of your own heartbeats.

The Silent Choir members in the front row raised their instruments, devices resembling lutes with strings made of pure light. Without a signal, they plucked the strings in unison.

Silence.

Not ordinary silence, but a silence that felt like a sharp blade slicing through skin. Valten felt his left shoulder suddenly lose all sensation. He looked over to find that part of his left arm, along with his black coat, had vanished, wiped from reality as if someone had erased a sketch with a rubber.

Argh! Valten growled, suppressing the unimaginable pain. This was not a physical wound; it was an existential erasure. If they attacked again, he wouldn't just die, he would simply cease to exist.

Valten! Elara screamed. She lunged forward, swinging her dagger at one of the executioners. But before her blade could reach its target, the air around Elara solidified, pinning her body in place so she couldn't move an inch.

Do not interfere with this symphony, informant, the Choir member said in that same icy tone.

Valten knew he couldn't win this fight with raw power. He looked toward the magic circuit still glowing faintly on the floor, the remnant of the entity he had just imprisoned. The energy from the entity was still trapped there, waiting to be unleashed. It was raw, chaotic, and destructive.

Valten dragged his feet toward the center of the circuit. He knew that if he touched that point now, his body might be torn apart by the weight of the unstable energy. But he had no other choice.

Elias, Valten whispered, his voice barely audible. If I die, make sure your students get out of this academy. Take them to the Forbidden Territory. Don’t stop playing until this world hears your voices.

Elias, tears streaming down his cheeks, nodded weakly. Master, what are you going to do?

I am going to play a farewell song that will make them remember my name even after they erase it, Valten replied with a harrowing smile.

Valten lunged into the center of the magic circuit. His bloodied hand touched the core of the resonance pattern he had created. Instantly, the dark energy that had been contained exploded outward, enveloping Valten. He was no longer a conductor; he had become a vessel for chaos itself.

Valten’s eyes turned pitch black, the whites completely gone. His hair stood on end from the electrical current of the resonance surging through his body. He didn't need an instrument anymore. His own body had become one.

You want silence? Valten shouted, his voice now sounding like thousands of voices screaming in unison. Then enjoy this Requiem from the abyss!

Valten stomped his foot. The resulting sound wave was no longer a low frequency, but an existential shockwave. The academy floor beneath them collapsed, swallowing the hall into the deeper dungeons below.

The Silent Choir recoiled. Their light instruments began to flicker, unable to withstand such a massive wave of resonance. They started to lose their stability. Their white robes were shredded by the air pressure generated by Valten’s energy.

One executioner was thrown against a pillar, his body beginning to distort. He... he is using body resonance! He is sacrificing his own existence to become a note that cannot be erased!

Valten laughed, his voice filling every inch of the room, vibrating the ribcages of everyone present. He stepped forward, and every stride created a small explosion that destroyed the members of the Silent Choir one by one.

You erase others! Valten screamed, gripping the neck of a helpless executioner. Now, feel what it’s like when your own existence is torn apart by a sound you cannot control!

With a sharp jerk of his hand, Valten released the remaining energy he had absorbed into the executioner’s body.

BOOM!

It wasn't just that executioner who vanished; the explosion created a vacuum that pulled the other members of the Choir into it. In a matter of seconds, the ten legendary executioners crumbled into white dust that scattered into the air.

Once everything was still, Valten collapsed to his knees. His body now appeared transparent in some parts, a sign that he had paid a heavy price for that power. He was nearly wiped from existence.

Elara ran to him, her tears soaking the ruined floor. She hugged him, but she felt his body was as cold as ice, and his energy was paper-thin.

Valten... please, don’t go, Elara sobbed.

Valten looked at Elara with eyes that were slowly returning to their original color. He touched her cheek with his nearly intangible hand. This symphony isn't finished, Elara. They will send more. The Imperial Conductor will not let this failure go unpunished.

Valten looked toward the entrance of the academy, which had been completely destroyed. Behind the dust and rubble, a tall figure in golden robes stood watching them. It was the Grand Architect, the man who led the imperial orchestra. He didn't attack; he only stared at them with the disappointment of an architect watching his building burn.

You have shown extraordinary talent, Valten, the man’s voice echoed, deadly and calm. However, you are merely a sour note that needs to be retuned. We shall meet at the grand concert later. Prepare your students for the final act.

The figure turned and vanished into the mist, leaving behind a fear far greater than death.

Valten closed his eyes, letting his body lean against Elara. He knew his time was running out. He had to get his students to safety before the empire deployed its full strength.

Elias, Valten whispered with his remaining strength. Gather everyone. We are leaving this place. We head for the ruins of the Old City. There, we will rebuild our orchestra.

Amidst the ruins of the academy, Valten had won the battle, but he had lost the war to save himself. He was now but a shadow of the man he once aspired to be.

Yet, deep within her wounded heart, the fires of vengeance only burned brighter.

If the world wanted her to be a discordant note, then she would be the one to bring the entire opera house crashing down to its very foundations. The grand concert promised by the Emperor would not be a performance of glory; it would be a funeral dirge for the entire Veridian Empire.

As they stepped out from the burning academy, the sun began to rise, but its light was choked by the thick, black clouds that followed in their wake. A portent that the symphony of destruction had just entered its darkest movement.