SWNOVELXO Chapter 387: War III
The dust hadn't yet settled when Aris dropped to one knee, chest heaving, knuckles white around her baton. The floor beneath her hummed—faintly, unevenly—but this time, it didn't resist her. It had heard her. Felt her pulse. And for one fleeting instant, the Obliette had acknowledged something foreign:
Belonging.
Leon stepped up beside her and offered a gloved hand.
She didn't hesitate this time.
As he helped her to her feet, the others slowly gathered around the fading echo of the shattered Form-Eater. It was gone, reduced to nothing but a hovering glyph, spinning gently above the cracked ground like an old memory refusing to leave.
"You've done something we didn't think possible," Roselia murmured, watching the black sigil trace lazy loops through the air.
"Let the Tower remember this," Liliana whispered.
Milim stretched her arms overhead, grinning. "Told you she'd do something loud."
Leon simply stared at the glyph, then to Aris. His tone was steady, but his words carried weight like stone over water.
"This… is only the beginning."
Aris didn't know what to say. Her heartbeat had steadied, but the feeling hadn't left her. That sense that she had touched something old, something deeper than the Sovereign Floor or the Tower itself.
Then, she felt it.
A flicker—not in the air around her, but inside.
A cold sensation that slid under her skin, like ink soaking through cloth.
She turned her head sharply.
Far beyond the battle-wrecked clearing, past the reclaimed tempo zone, the space around the ruined corridor shimmered.
And opened.
It wasn't a rift, not like before.
It was a fold—like reality had blinked.
Something emerged.
No, not something. Someone.
A figure wrapped in flowing black tempo bands, each etched with broken glyphs—Sovereign sigils twisted into jagged, dissonant shapes. His face was hidden beneath a fractured silver mask. Behind him, a trail of silent, kneeling constructs followed—none of them moving, none breathing, as if held still by a song only they could hear.
Leon's eyes narrowed.
Roman stopped mid-stroke.
Roselia muttered a curse under her breath. "I thought he was gone."
"He was," Liliana said softly.
Aris whispered, "Who is that?"
The man lifted his hand.
And the Tower whispered back.
[Identity Fragment Detected: Sovereign Name – Redacted]
[Former Title: The Dissonant King]
The constructs rose.
The man spoke.
No echo. No breath. Just sound, unwritten.
"You beat once. I beat forever."
Leon's blade was already drawn.
Roman's ink turned pitch black.
Even Milim's grin faded.
"Get ready," Leon said without looking away. "That's not a rhythm we can outpace."
The Dissonant King raised a single finger.
The glyph Aris had awakened snapped in half, the reclaimed floor stuttering beneath her feet.
Then he said one word.
A command.
"Unwrite."
The world shook.
Not exploded. Not burned.
It shook.
Tempo bled from the sky like oil in water. The ground began unraveling—folds of reality pulling apart like ripped canvas. The Sovereign team stood their ground, glyphs flaring, layers of Shell Pulse and Reverb colliding to anchor the sector.
Leon's voice rang out over the storm.
"Hold the breach! Do not let him retake the mark!"
Aris stared at the man across the ruined space—the Dissonant King watching her, not Leon, not the others. Her.
He raised his hand again. A note rang out.
Not a melody.
A threat.
Her baton trembled.
Not in fear.
In response.
Because somewhere inside her, something answered back.
A second beat.
Not her own.
Not the Sovereigns'.
But older.
And the floor under her feet whispered again:
Write it louder.
The world shook like something had gone wrong in the core of the Tower.
The ground beneath Aris cracked. Not from impact—but from loss. As if the rhythm holding it together was being pulled out, note by note.
Leon reacted immediately.
"Roselia, reinforce the floor glyphs! Roman, draw tempo anchors—now!"
Roselia slammed her palm to the ground. A pulse of light spread outward, fighting against the unraveling. Roman's brush was already moving, sketching glowing circles midair that dropped and locked into the crumbling floor like bolts.
Liliana stood behind Aris, both hands raised as she sang a soft, steady note—one that helped everyone hold on. Even Milim, usually playful, looked serious now. Her tempo bracelets spun faster, glowing a deep violet.
Aris stared at the figure across the broken space. He didn't move, but the pressure around him kept growing.
"The Dissonant King," Leon said, stepping beside her. "He used to be one of us. Before he lost his rhythm… and started stealing everyone else's."
Aris didn't respond. She couldn't take her eyes off the man in the cracked silver mask. His presence made the air feel heavier. Wrong. Like the world wanted to reject him—but couldn't.
"Why's he looking at me?" she asked.
"Because you're not written into the system," Roman said, his voice calm but quick. "He doesn't know what you are. And that makes you dangerous to him."
The King raised one hand again.
A wave of black energy rushed forward—fast and wide.
Leon stepped in front, slashing his blade through the air. A wave of golden light cut the attack in half, breaking it into harmless static. But the ground still shook from the impact.
"Fall back," Leon ordered. "We regroup at the anchor ring!"
"No," Aris said suddenly. "If we run, we lose this floor again."
"Aris—" Liliana started.
"I can stop him," she said. Her voice was shaking, but not with fear—more like something inside her wanted to move.
Leon looked at her carefully. "You feel it again, don't you?"
She nodded. The second beat inside her had returned. Faint. Slow. But growing louder.
"I don't know what it is," she said, gripping her baton. "But it's reacting to him."
Leon exhaled. "Then use it. Just don't lose yourself."
Aris stepped forward. The Dissonant King didn't move.
The floor around him was dead—silent, blank.
But hers still hummed with energy.
He lifted both hands.
So did she.
The baton came alive, humming with power. Not from the Tower. Not from the Sovereigns.
From her.