—— ? ——
Melodian stood in his divine realm, his eyes moving from construct to construct.
This event had been a disaster.
He watched the mortals he had blessed deal with the aftermath of the battles. The vast majority of them were now under Varrax’s thumb.
556 system hubs had fallen to this ploy. Only 81 had succeeded in repelling the armies of the Martial God.
So many losses. In Melodian’s long memory and vast knowledge of the countless realms, he couldn’t find an example of an interference of this magnitude.
But Varrax had done it. He had accomplished the impossible.
Even now, Melodian had been sent request after request to meet. Old alliances had been rekindled, and the gods all scrambled to figure out the best course of action.
He sighed, mellow notes echoing on light strings, copying his mood.
His eyes turned to the city where one of his favorite mortals resided. Daniel Holt, the bard from the world known as Earth. The fused city had rallied and defended against a human army from a realm facing extinction by a magical frost.
They had even counterattacked, sending a squad of elites back into the portal after defeating the invaders.
The mortal sat among the wounded and wove a song that blended melancholy notes with undertones of accomplishment.
He wasn’t the most talented of musicians, but Melodian couldn’t resist listening in. The soul and truth Daniel wove into his art were inspiring.
An unexpected depth from a mortal.
“Although he's not the only exception now,” Melodian muttered to himself, a strange, disconcerting construct moving into view.
He sighed.
Nothing interesting was shown now. Just a meeting of mortals.
Melodian muted the sound from the construct, cringing as he had to interact with Sylira’s construct. Every time he did, it felt like she took the tiniest bit of something from him.
It seemed to stick to his will as he made it deafen the angry yelling of the proud frostkin.
Melodian recalled the scene the follower of Sylira had watched. The mad mortal in his ridiculous outfit. The discordant notes that reverberated through the valley.
Despite all of his reservations, Melodian had to admit that Simon Starfall had surpassed all of his expectations.
He had even tried to save the damned fool from the wrath of Varrax. Sylira had read between the lines and come up with a ploy to get him banished from Varnholt.
It was the best Melodian could do to get revenge. His hand touched his throat as he remembered the Martial God holding him against the wall, threatening to slay him.
Melodian had assumed Varrax would send agents to Varnholt. He had assumed they were already on the way.
What better way to punish him than to deny him the satisfaction of killing the one he cursed?
But then the event happened.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
And everything went wrong.
Still.. Melodian grinned at the memory of Simon moving across the mountainside in the distance.
The damned fool had returned. Melodian was sure he was going to die.
Instead?
He single-handedly dismantled Varrax’s army. In a spectacular fashion as well.
What a… performance.
Melodian cringed at the memories of the mortal playing. Who would have thought he could use his horrific lack of talent to accomplish this?
Not Melodian.
Not in a thousand years would he have guessed this outcome.
“Honestly,” Melodian spoke to his realm, “the blasphemous fool is almost starting to grow on me.”
Melodian paused.
“Almost.”
He glanced among his constructs. Had the fool even lived?
“Maybe not. If he didn’t…” Melodian paused as he thought. “As far as final performance goes… acceptable.”
He nodded to himself, turning back to the performance of Daniel Holt. The mortal had just started another verse, and it was even more powerful than the first.
*Ding!*
Melodian blinked.
The system sent him a notice? Interesting.
He absentmindedly scanned the first lines, his focus still on absorbing and experiencing the mortal's song.
Ah. A follower of his had claimed something for their growth.
Daniels' lyrics were filled with emotion, and Melodian felt himself moved by the mortal.
Notices like these were rare, but not unexpected. Especially with all the battles and…
Melodian’s mind processed the notice.
He froze.
His eyes shifted to it.
“No…”
“No… no, no!”
His divine realm exploded in discordant notes as Melodian screamed.
“HOW!?”
—— ? ——
Simon lay against a stone wall, his gaze focused on the picturesque scenes in the distance. He had found himself in an antechamber with two exits. He had dragged himself across the floor and barely been able to shift to a sitting position.
His eyes had frantically searched the chamber, but found no threats.
Instead, warm air softly blew from the open landing surrounded by railings.
The chamber was a mixture of green and white stone. Complex and beautiful designs adorned the walls and made the entire room feel ornate and expensive.
Simon had calmed his ragged breaths and looked out into the endless expanse.
Far in the distance, he could see what looked like a glass marble halfway filled.
Despite his injured state, Simon started to laugh. He tried to stifle it, but it was just too goddamned funny.
His wheezing laughter brought him pain.
Yet at this moment, Simon barely felt it.
The room was quiet except for the warm breeze that flowed into it.
A breeze that carried notes of a song.
Simon recognised them. he almost joined in with the lyrics as they softly played on the wind. But a chime interrupted him
*Ding!*
—- SYSTEM NOTICE—-
> NEW QUEST
> Name: Trial - Conquer The Prison of Havoc
> Conditions: Trial begins when the challenger leaves the antechamber. Make your way through the interlinked realm and find the guardian of the system anchor. Defeat or subdue the guardian to complete the quest.
> Description: The Prison of Havoc is a mysterious subrealm created by Melodian, the God of Bards and Performance. The prison acts as a power source and anchor for multiple projects that the god has built. None but Melodian knows of the traps and various measures he has created to protect this prison.
> Note: As this prison acts as an anchor for multiple realms, all connected realms will fall under the ownership of the challenger on completion of the quest.
> Time limit: None.
Harmony is offered.
——————————
As Simon finished reading, he heard the faint song end. Then it started again.
Simon grinned as he looked out towards the marble in the distance. Melodian’s Zero to Hero Training Realm.
Where Realm Rocker Radio proudly played stayed on air.
The glorious words echoed across the expanse, and Simon joined in with his voice hoarse.
“What’s new, pussycat! Whoaaaa whoaa ha ha ha ha!”
Simon laughed, and laughed.
—— ? ——
— AUTHOR NOTICE —-
Just the Epilogue left! That will release on Monday.
When I started writing this story, I honestly never even considered that people would read it.
But then, all of you appeared, read, commented, and engaged. I cannot thank you enough.
Backstory time! A bit about me, and how this story came to be. Heads up, this is a bit long, but what the hell.
My name's Ben. When I was a kid, I devoured books. I would run around the woods and imagine the ferns were actually orcs, and I, the sole defender of the forest, must trash them.
Then I started spewing the stories from my head onto paper. I put together my first novel years later and printed it off at a local library. Sent off to a publisher, and I anxiously waited for the good news that my story was going to print and I would be on the shelves of Barnes and Noble the next year.
And another. And another. And another.
During this, I was dealing with one of the hardest classes I had ever attempted. Differential Equations and Linear Algebra... gah.
It was the last class I needed to graduate, and it was basically an academic final boss.
If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it. It's a VRMMO LitRPG that was first published in 2007. It follows the story of a guy named Lee Hyun.
Down on his luck and stuck with enormous debt from his deceased parents, he decides to auction off his account from the MMO "The Continent of Magic". His avatar "Weed" is the strongest account that ever played the game and ends up going for an enormous price. Unfortunately, the loan sharks that hold his debt step in and steal the money, leaving him right where he started.
Royal Road.
The writathon was finished, but I was determined to finish the 55k goal.
