Elias slid his hand down her raven black hair.
"Lizzy, you won't be able to see Mum or Dad for a while. They—"
He stopped, watching as she began to tremble and her eyes turned glassy, a dry whimper tearing from her throat.
He embraced her, feeling the little girl already starting to sob on his shoulders.
"Hey, I said that you won't see them for a while, not that you will never see them again—"
She began to cry harder, making him sigh helplessly.
He felt a little stupid for underestimating just how much of the situation she seemed to understand. Maybe she had long realized it when she saw him alone back at the cafeteria, or maybe she already had an idea of it long before.
In the end, being told what she might have already known seemed to have been the breaking point, bringing in all the tears she had been holding back.
Elias embraced her tightly, his heart tightening as she sobbed on his shoulders.
They stood like that without moving, her childish voice crying bitterly against his ears.
***
Valerie carried a sobbing Lizzy in her arms, her face anxious as she stood on her hoverboard, which floated just above the ground, ringing out with a bell-like chime that sent sparks of gold fanning outward.
Elias felt his heart ache watching his little sister like this, but he had enough self-awareness to know that she needed to be left alone right now.
"Please take good care of her, Valerie."
Valerie nodded, her hoverboard shifting in the direction of the expanse outside the balcony.
"Yeah, of course. Right, Junior Brother, you should get ready before 8 AM in the morning. Master will take you to the Harmonic Council Unit, where you will be updating your ID. Bye!"
She waved, winking at him before shooting into the night sky.
Elias watched her figure grow less and less visible, his mind stuck on her words. He knew this moment was inevitable, but even now he still had no idea what to do.
The process of updating an ID in case of an awakening followed a long set of procedures, but the most notable was the fact that you get scanned and tested, and the capabilities and name of your Class are registered and stored in the Harmonic Council database.
It was impossible to hide this information, because it was going to be read straight from your System Interface. There existed Chordbearers with the ability to peek into your Strings, a frightful bunch known as Fate Singers.
These Fate Singers were the ones hired by the Harmonic Council to test newly awakened individuals, because more often than not, no one would feel comfortable mouthing off their abilities and what they can do, knowing that it could be used against them—especially their drawbacks.
This was mostly why the Harmonic Council had such an iron grip on Chordbearers and kept them in control. After all, they had the one true weakness of every Chordbearer alive, and that information gave them power.
Now, don't even get started on him.
For one, he didn't seem to have just one, but two classes with ranks way above what was known or ever recorded. After all, Elias had never heard of a Class of Mythic or Transcendent rank.
Second, the fact that he was the new Songborn was only going to get exposed, making his already unique position even more… distinct.
And lastly, and most importantly, were the heaven-defying abilities of his classes. Silent Thread devoured Broken Songs—like, literally ate the damn thing. Threadweaver converted whatever it devoured into weaves that could form temporal abilities, something totally far-fetched and ridiculous.
Forget all this—he was going to end up in a lab getting dissected by some greedy old fogies for his secrets!
Behind him, Elyndra fluttered her wings, leaving behind a trail of purple sparks as she floated in front of him, sitting midair.
Elias looked at her quizzically.
She snapped her fingers.
The familiar blue interface lit up in front of Elias, lines of text appearing across its surface.
[System Store: Unlocked.]
[System Inventory: Open]
[Mission Points: 10,760]
[Click open to view the store]
His eyes widened, making him almost slap his face.
"Right, how could I have forgotten about this."
"Berrot alone gave you five hundred mission points, and you earned a little more than ten thousand from killing the rest of those disgusting monsters," she yawned, stretching her tiny arms as if she was already getting bored.
"Are you going to click on it or what?" she asked, her voice annoyed.
Elias rolled his eyes. Oh come on, he was simply taking his time and trying not to rush this moment, okay!
Taking a deep, nervous breath, he clicked on the interface.
The screen flashed, then expanded midair, stretching upward until it towered just a little above him.
[Sonic Skills]
[Laments]
[Dreamscape]
Elias looked curiously at the Dreamscape section, but decided to take his time and explore each one step by step.
He clicked on Sonic Skills.
[Sonic Skills]
|Melody of the Wanderer|
Grade: Note
Ability: For 30 seconds, your footsteps produce no sound and leave no trace.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Mission Points: 1050
Elias let his eyes hover over the rest.
|Last Applause|
Grade: Note
Ability: Instantly dispels minor fear and hesitation affecting the user.
Mission Points: 1200
|Borrowed Breath|
Grade: Score
Ability: Removes exhaustion and restores stamina briefly for 2 minutes.
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Mission Points: 8300
Elias felt his eyebrow twitch.
"What the hell, how is there such a wide gap in mission points between a Score and a Note ranked skill? Isn't that a little too ridiculous?!"
Elyndra scoffed at him.
"Do you think skills of Score grade and above grow on trees? The fact you already possess a Requiem Skill from your new Class is already very lucky, so don't push it!"
Elias gritted his teeth, looking at the rest of the skills thoughtfully. Skills of Score Grade were the highest rank appearing on the interface, with most of them so expensive that just getting a hold of one would leave him without any Mission Points to spare.
From this, it was obvious that if he wanted to see skills higher than Score Grade, or even the more expensive ones within it, he would need far more Mission Points than he currently had.
He clicked his tongue, turning back to the Note-ranked section. Although there were tons of them, |Last Applause| and another had already caught his interest.
|Steady Tempo|
Grade: Note
Ability: Improves concentration. Mental attacks, fear effects, and distractions become less effective.
Mission Points: 1300
Since he already had the Dark Cloak, he didn't exactly need another stealth-type skill, but protection against mental attacks was something he couldn't pass up.
He bought the two skills, watching his Mission Points dwindle.
[Mission Points: 8260]
At the same time, he felt a rush of something exhilarating enter his being.
"Hmm… how exactly do I test this out?"
Normally, one needed their Resonance Strings to bring about the effect of whatever Sonic Skill they had acquired. But he didn't exactly have Resonance Strings… or did he?
"Use the Pyre Weave," Elyndra said.
Elias spread out his hands, those familiar burning red threads appearing above them, causing the cool air to warm as waves of heat blasted outward.
Then Elias activated |Last Applause|, twisting the weave.
Unlike before, it didn't ring out with that rage-filled, blood-pumping sound. What resounded instead was the sound of multiple people clapping—almost like he was being cheered on.
It gave Elias the distinct feeling of being at the center of attention, as though so many people were hoping for him and were assured of his victory.
Of course, it was all an illusion meant to suppress fear, and none of it was real, but Elias couldn't deny how surreal it felt.
He activated the next skill, |Steady Tempo|. The Pyre Weave began to emanate a sound like consistent drumbeats.
DUM DUM DUM
Elias groaned, feeling his mind sharpen as numerous stray, distracting thoughts vanished, leaving behind a strange clarity—and an equally strange emptiness.
He deactivated the skill, letting the weave drift into faint crimson moths as he took in deep, hurried breaths.
"I'm using this damn skill if I'm left without a choice. Like seriously."
Elyndra clicked her tongue.
"Always knew you were spineless."
He ignored her, choosing not to go into another argument with the tiny gremlin from his past and less-than-gentle hair-dragging experiences. His mind instead drifted to other matters.
Sonic Skills could only be used by people who possessed Resonance Strings, but in his case, he had weaves instead, making things a little complicated.
Resonance Strings normally appeared in front of or behind a person, never being grasped by hand like a mesh of wires the way his weaves worked.
Elias sighed, feeling his head throb.
Most of his abilities were too eye-catching and strange, making him limited in what he could do or show others if he didn't want to end up as lab material.
So didn't this mean he was effectively nerfed against any human opponent?
He shook his head.
"Dammit."
He clicked on the next tab, watching as the section for Laments opened.
And it was… it was…
Elias felt his eyebrow twitch.
[Laments]
|Cool Shades|
Description: What's an inheritor of the Silent God without some insane rizz.
Grade: Common
Ability: Looking cool
Mission Points: 2000
|Canticle of Comfort (Single Use)|
Description: Tsk…
Grade: Uncommon
Ability: Singing this poem to any girl will make her feel comfortable in your presence.
Mission Points: 8200
And after those two, there was simply… nothing else.
Elias took a deep breath, trying not to explode.
"This… this… are you kidding me?!"
Laments were ranked just like Classes people awakened with, with grades ranging from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary—and at the very top, Divine.
As it turned out, there were only two Laments at the Common and Uncommon ranks, with the rest far too expensive for him to even access.
And the two that were available were such horrendous, absolute pieces of trash.
He was sure the Silent God must be having fun pulling this trick out of his sleeve, but if he thought this would make him squirm, then he picked the wrong man for the job.
"Whatever. Let's head to the last section then."
This was the one that made him the most curious, and Elias hoped it wouldn't be a bust like the Lament section.
He clicked on the [Dreamscape] tab.
What opened up in front of him made his eyes widen.