Chapter 342: The Bell Rang Backward

The second relay rang backward.

Its bronze tongue swung toward Martin, but the impact sounded behind him. The note crossed the chamber in the wrong direction, passing through stone, bodies, and armor before returning from the open galleries below.

Every dark stain along those galleries opened at once.

"The route-song folded inward," Cassandra said. Her crimson eyes tracked silver currents no one else could see. "It is calling the monsters toward Mireva."

Mireva spread her wings beside the relay. "Then hold them here. I can correct the pattern if I reach all three tuning pins."

Martin raised the Breakwater Aegis and stepped between her and the first gallery. "You chose my protection. Stay where I can give it."

Her silver-ringed eyes met his. After one short nod, she turned her back on the monsters and climbed the relay frame.

Black bodies poured into the chamber.

Muteclaw Stalkers came first, racing across walls and bell chains without making a sound. Bellhide Brutes followed through the lower arches, each step driving warped bronze deeper into the stone. Echojaw Carrion circled above them and opened mouths filled with vibrating darkness.

Martin caught the first Brute on his shield.

The impact shoved him toward Mireva. Stand Against the Current awakened through the Breakwater Aegis and resisted the second blow before it could move him as far. Martin turned the shield, guided the bronze fist past his shoulder, and drew the Rainwarden Sword.

Measured Answer sharpened the counter.

His blade cut through the joint beneath the Brute’s arm. Rias entered the opening before the monster recovered and drove Gloamneedle into the exposed seam. Cassandra’s arrow arrived beside the blade and pierced the Dark Force core beneath it.

The Brute collapsed.

Three Stalkers leaped over its dissolving body.

One crossed behind a Sairren defender before Martin could swing. He stopped the Rainwarden Sword rather than risk cutting through both bodies. The restraint cost him the opening, but Rias changed angles, passed beneath the defender’s wing, and drove Gloamneedle through the Stalker’s core without touching the Sairren. No friendly damage warning appeared.

Alexandra and Kumoe met the second. The curious head caught the monster’s wrist, the right snapped at its throat, and the sleepy middle washed restoration across the shallow cut along Alexandra’s side. Pack Rhythm flashed as Alexandra crossed both swords through the trapped core.

Angel intercepted the third Stalker with the edge of her crystal shell. The collision launched it into a stone pillar hard enough to fold its body around the impact.

Above them, Mireva reached the first tuning pin. She hooked her spear beneath a silver lever and forced it upward.

The relay screamed.

Sound struck Martin from inside his armor. Worldshell tightened across his ribs, but the pressure did not behave like the aura he had already endured. This one pulled at every vibration around him, consuming the scrape of boots, the ring of weapons, and even the air leaving his lungs.

[Distinct Monster Aura Detected: Famine Toll]

[Famine Toll devours nearby resonance and converts it into pressure against protected targets.]

One Echojaw Carrion descended toward Mireva.

Martin threw Galehook Trident through its lower jaw. Cast the Line marked the hit, and pursuit speed carried him beneath the falling monster before it reached the relay.

He planted the shield over Mireva’s back.

The Carrion crashed onto the Breakwater Aegis. Famine Toll drove the stolen sound through Martin’s arms, shoulders, and knees, but Mireva remained untouched beneath him.

[Worldshell Arm Stage Trial]

[Distinct Monster Auras Endured: 2/3]

Martin shoved the Carrion aside and replaced the trident with the Riftbell Warhammer. His first swing only turned the creature’s plated head. He followed through, reset his feet, and committed his entire body to the second.

Faultnote rang through the monster’s skull.

[Fractured Guard]

"Encore!"

NukEncore already had the spell prepared. Silent Stage spread as a thin orange-white boundary around Martin, Mireva, and the relay. The field contained the party’s spell sounds while bending Famine Toll away from its center.

Fire Bolt crossed the bounded space and struck the fractured skull. The Carrion burst apart above Martin’s shield without touching Mireva.

"Second pin!" Mireva called.

She glided to the opposite side of the frame. Katherine followed along the lower platform with her tome open, while Kinnami raced ahead and laid golden barriers beneath Mireva’s path.

A Stalker dropped between them.

Cassandra fired from the floor. Her arrow entered beneath its shoulder, but the monster twisted and kept falling toward Katherine. Kinnami’s barrier caught one claw. The other tore through the platform beside Katherine’s foot.

Stone gave way beneath her.

Cassandra lunged, caught Katherine around the waist, and pulled her back against the relay frame. Katherine’s free arm closed around Cassandra’s shoulders as broken stone disappeared into the galleries below.

For one breath, they remained pressed together.

"You may thank me after we survive," Cassandra said.

Katherine smiled despite the monster above them. "I was hoping for a less formal reward."

Cassandra released her, drew again, and sent an arrow through the seam beneath the Stalker’s core. The monster jerked sideways, missing Katherine. Elisebeth’s Fire Bolt followed the shaft and burned the core out. Cassandra lowered her bow. "That can also wait."

Katherine carried that smile into her next cast.

The second tuning pin rose. Half the silver light around the relay corrected itself, but the backward note called another wave from the lower arches.

Rias marked the left gallery. Alexandra and Kumoe blocked the right. Angel filled the center passage so completely that the next Bellhide Brute had to climb over her shell or turn around.

It chose badly.

Angel surged forward and drove it into the wall. Martin met its exposed flank with the Riftbell Warhammer, while NukEncore threaded Arcane Bolt through Katherine’s barrier and into the crack his heavy strike created.

Mireva reached the final pin.

Three Sairren above the chamber answered her with a low route-song. Silent Stage kept their voices from feeding Famine Toll while letting the correct resonance reach the relay.

Mireva pulled.

The backward note broke.

Silver light swept through the chamber, closed every dark stain along the upper galleries, and stripped the remaining monsters of the direction guiding them. The party destroyed the exposed Dark Force cores before the creatures could choose new targets.

[Failing Upper Belfry Relays Restored: 2/2]

Martin lowered his shield. Mireva descended beside him, breathing hard but uninjured.

Before anyone could celebrate, an enormous bell somewhere above the chamber began to move.

Mireva looked up. All color left her face.

"That is an original bell," she whispered. "No relay can command it."

The unseen bell rang backward.

Its note entered the chamber through every wall. When it faded, Cassandra’s voice spoke from behind the sealed bronze door ahead.

"Open the way."

The real Cassandra stood beside Katherine with her bow already raised.