"The situation in your City wouldn't have been this bad," Orien said, looking at the City Lord skeptically. "If you had just put out an announcement telling your citizens to ignore strangers or anyone at all asking them to listen to some song."
He narrowed his eyes. "So why the fuck didn't you do just that?! Have you and your advisors gone senile with old age, huh?"
The City Lord sighed, looking at the outline of Verion from above the skies where both he and Whispering Blade floated midair, as a drifting melody seemed to echo around them.
Numerous soldiers had already laid siege to the borders, stopping anyone from leaving or getting inside. They seemed to be successful in containing the plague within the city, although one couldn't be too sure considering the kind of monster they were dealing with.
The City Lord turned to Whispering Blade, shaking his head with a troubled expression while the younger man glared at him.
"If we did just that, the monster would give up on killing anyone and just straight up start a round of infection by contaminating their minds. It seems to be able to do that far more easily than it can kill people with its song, and the last thing we want to do is frustrate the monster enough to take that route."
He looked at Whispering Blade, his face grim. "If that happened, perhaps by the time you reached the city, a lot more would have become its thralls, making them as good as dead."
Whispering Blade tilted his head at him, not knowing how to argue with that kind of logic. He clicked his tongue, his voice ringing out mockingly.
"At the end, this happened because you were too weak to protect your city."
The City Lord clenched his fists but didn't react to his jabbing words, his face turning to the outline of his city below him.
"When are you going to act, Whispering Blade?"
Orien scoffed, then moved his head away, cracking his neck.
Then…
BOOM
The Hero advanced through the night sky like a bolt of lightning till he stood in the sky right at the center of the city.
His lips curled as he began to speak, his voice carrying across the city in waves as people below looked upwards at his barely distinct visage in the skies.
"Dear people of Verion," he started, his voice gentle and compassionate. "You have been infiltrated by a monster that hides very well, wearing the faces of humans just like you. Some of them are your children. Some of them are your loved ones."
A vast and mighty Echofield began to spread outward from him, stretching from one horizon to the next as it swallowed the city in its depths, the dark skies replaced by a sky that shone with crimson sharpness, like the cutting edge of a bloody blade.
A song began to sweep across the city, making those who heard feel like their hearts were palpitating. It sounded like a series of whispers singing out with sharp voices, evoking the distinct feeling of being cut in a thousand places.
"Those who are infected by this monster are as good as dead, their souls already claimed by its vile hands. To stop it from claiming more, the infected must perish. The infected must die!"
His eyes shone with cutting radiance as he narrowed them at the city, mouthing out two words that dropped into the city like a bomb.
"Sonic Severance."
It was a judgment.
Phantom Blades shining red, like illuminating shards of glass, shot down from the skies in their thousands, the scene strangely poetic and beautiful as the song of cutting whispers increased in startling intensity.
The wind blowing across the city stopped, then dissolved into nothingness.
Then the Phantom Blades fell, cutting across thousands of people in the city. No limbs fell, no dying screams sounded when the impact hit them.
They simply fell to the ground, each of them dead, as if their souls had been cleaved in half.
Cheers resounded across Verion in waves, the sound of it even rising above the cutting whispers still singing.
Orien felt a presence behind him.
"Is that all of them? The plague is finally gone?" the City Lord asked, his voice betraying how relieved he probably felt.
Orien looked at the outline of the city, his eyes still shining with cutting radiance. "How can a mere Luminous Echoform hope to escape from my 'Eyes of Sever'? The thing is finally gone, and hopefully this will be the last time we hear of it ever again," he said, as if irritated that the City Lord had even bothered asking.
The Echofield that swallowed the city began to drift into glowing crimson moths, the cutting whispers settling into silence.
"If you will excuse me, my Jacuzzi awaits," Orien said, already about to step into the boundless darkness of the night sky.
The City Lord bowed. "Whispering Blade, allow me to properly thank you. You—"
"Oh, shut up!" Orien snapped, shooting forward into the darkness of the night before the City Lord could finish speaking, his face annoyed.
The City Lord looked at the spot he disappeared from, his eyes turning back to the outline of the city as he asked again, more to himself as his voice echoed uneasily.
"Is that really all?"
***
A girl of fifteen stood in front of the train at the underground station, waiting for her turn to be scanned by the two guards in front of the doors.
She looked a little strange. Her eyes were apathetic and lacked all emotion, and her hair was a frizzled mess.
Soon however, a grin swept across her expressionless face. But it felt rather strange and without substance, like she was mimicking the real thing.
"Finally. Things are easier now that the humans think I am dead."
She stretched her neck, licking her lips, her mismatched voice coming out in another whisper. "Hehehehe… I can't wait. I hear the food at that place is so delicious."
She was already standing in front of the two guards, both of them narrowing their eyes at her before the first collected her ID while the second began to scan her.
She stood there, resisting the urge to ask them her favorite question.
"All clear," the second guard said. The first gave back her ID while nodding at her with a smile.
"Have a great ride to the Resonance Academy. Hope you enjoy your time there, Aspirant."
She nodded with a smile, her mind ringing with a few words.
'Oh I will… hehehe… I sure will!'