CHAPTER 504: SHADES V

The throne room groaned as if a thousand hidden strings had been plucked at once. Leon’s resonance rolled out like a tidal wave, invisible yet undeniable, reshaping the cadence of battle.

Every strike, every falling chain now obeyed a new law—a tempo that was not Kar’veth’s.

The chains staggered mid-flight, snapping sideways or clashing into each other with grinding shrieks of iron against iron. The air itself seemed caught in syncopation, breathing to Leon’s rhythm rather than the Sovereign’s.

Kar’veth leaned forward slightly on his throne, one clawed finger tapping against the armrest. His eyes glittered with something between hunger and recognition."...Conductor."

Leon didn’t answer. His Shell Reverb surged higher, Tripart Echo splitting his pulse into layered reverberations, Absolute Return folding Kar’veth’s assaults back toward him, Karmic Loop snaring each rhythm into a cycle that pulled tighter and tighter around the Sovereign’s throne.

The battlefield shivered.

Naval’s water wall stabilized, the currents now flowing smoother under Leon’s tempo. Milim darted forward again, this time striking between beats Leon had woven into the battlefield, each blow exploding precisely where chains faltered.

Roselia gasped as her barrier mended in harmonic alignment, less effort needed as Leon’s resonance bore part of the burden.

Even Roman, crawling out of shattered stone, clenched his gauntlets with a grin. "Heh... guess I’m not the only hammer around here."

Kar’veth raised one hand. A thousand chains uncoiled behind him like a sea of metallic serpents, their movements chaotic, discordant—an attempt to drown Leon’s rhythm.

"Do you believe you can bind me with a song, mortal?" His voice echoed like grinding stone. "I am Kar’veth, the Shackled Sovereign. Every rhythm breaks upon my will!"

He brought his hand down.

The entire throne chamber screamed as all thousand chains came crashing down at once, a storm of annihilation that threatened to erase melody, flesh, and will alike.

Leon’s pulse tightened. His body shook from the strain. Blood ran from his nose, his ears. But he didn’t falter.

The Fifth Echo trembled at the edge of him—Fracture Requiem.The shard inside his chest demanded it.

If he unleashed it here, it could break everything. Maybe even them.

But if he didn’t—

The storm of chains closed in, the throne room darkening under their descent.

Leon drew a breath, every nerve screaming, every rhythm screaming louder still—

And stepped into the crescendo.

The battlefield lurched.

Leon’s Shell Pulse expanded like a living storm, its resonance clawing through the air and rewriting momentum itself. The ground quaked, fissures groaned, and the chains raining from above suddenly bent sideways, their rhythm stolen. They no longer struck where Kar’veth commanded—they staggered, clashed with each other, knotted into snarled collisions as if his own domain turned traitor.

The team felt the shift immediately. Naval’s water wall stabilized, the pressure easing as the chains faltered. Roselia’s barrier hardened with renewed strength, her breath coming easier. Milim’s wings flared, her smile wicked as she sensed an opening.

Kar’veth rose halfway from his throne, the grin gone now, replaced with a thin line of irritation. His eyes glowed like lanterns burning through fog. "So... you think to take the Sovereign’s rhythm from him? Insolent child."

He slammed both hands down on the arms of his throne.

The arena shuddered, and for the first time the throne itself moved. It rose, stone folding and shifting like the Tower’s architecture obeyed his will. Chains surged upward, knitting into a massive lattice around him until he loomed as though wearing a crown of spears, a king encased in a cathedral of shackles.

Leon’s Shell Pulse pressed harder, but this new manifestation fought back, every link in the cathedral vibrating in counter-tempo to his Echo.

Karmic Loop spun within him, threads of consequence tightening like blades ready to bite. Absolute Return flexed, threatening to hurl Kar’veth’s will back at him. Tripart Echo hummed on the edge of collapse, seeking release.

His chest burned; his veins felt like molten wire. This was no longer just resonance. It was war—two laws colliding, each trying to make the other irrelevant.

Milim dove again, her tiny hand shattering dozens of chains as if swatting gnats. "Leon! Keep pushing! He’s cracking!"

Naval thrust his trident into the ground, sending geysers upward to entangle the lattice. Roselia’s chants grew desperate, layering healing and strengthening sigils over her comrades. Roman tore himself from the rubble with blood on his lips, body-force raging hotter than before as he rejoined the fight.

Kar’veth’s laughter returned, low and thunderous. "Cracking? You don’t see. The more you fight me, the deeper you sink. My throne is made of every failed ascent before you. Their echoes sing louder than your little tricks."

And suddenly, the cathedral of chains began to sing. Each vibrating link let out a metallic moan, fusing into a dirge that pressed against Leon’s Shell Pulse like a drowning tide.

Leon staggered. His own resonance wavered.

But in the falter, he felt it—that hunger, the shard within him not just demanding, but answering.

A new layer trembled at the edge of his grasp. The Fifth Echo. The one that nearly tore him apart before.

Fracture Requiem.

If he called it now, he knew there would be no restraint. It would break everything—Kar’veth, the battlefield, maybe even him.

But the throne’s song was devouring them, and without it... his friends wouldn’t last another minute.

Leon’s fist tightened. His Shell layers screamed in unison, a harmony on the verge of rupture.

Kar’veth’s eyes flared as if sensing his decision. His grin returned, sharper, hungry. "Yes... show me, shard-bearer. Show me what destroys even the wielder."

The battlefield stilled for a single heartbeat.

Then Leon exhaled, letting the Fifth Echo rise.

The battlefield no longer belonged to Kar’veth.

Every echo Leon unleashed spiraled outward, not just warping the chains but bending the entire tempo of their descent. What should have struck in one heartbeat was delayed, fractured across three, then thrown back on themselves in a recursive stutter. Chains that had been falling like meteors suddenly recoiled, jerking violently as if rejecting their own existence under Leon’s imposed cadence.

The air itself throbbed with the rhythm of Shell Reverb, every heartbeat becoming a drum that carried power.

Kar’veth’s throne shuddered under the counterforce. The sovereign’s grin was gone now, replaced by something sharper—curiosity tinged with recognition. His chains recoiled, then snapped forward again, weaving into thicker braids that surged down in patterns meant to strangle the battlefield whole.

Leon’s eyes burned with clarity. Tripart Echo. Absolute Return. Karmic Loop. Echo of Origin. They layered together like the overlapping chords of an unfinished song. Each chain that struck him reverberated back, looping endlessly until the pressure began to turn on Kar’veth himself.

Naval staggered back to his feet, his water wall stabilizing under Leon’s imposed tempo.

"Leon... you’re—"

"Conductor," Liliana finished, her voice low but brimming with awe. "He’s taken the rhythm from Kar’veth."

But Kar’veth was not cowed. His laugh boomed, shaking the throne’s foundations.

"Conductor, yes! But the song you lead is not yet whole!"

The ground ruptured as an ocean of chains poured forth, no longer just falling from above—they tore from beneath the soil, from the air itself, fracturing into the dimensions around them. Each one was saturated in sovereign force, dragging the battlefield toward a singular cage.

Roselia’s eyes widened. "He’s binding the arena itself—he means to erase every tempo but his!"

Leon grit his teeth, sweat burning down his temple. His Shell layers screamed under the strain, each beat threatening to tear apart his body. But the shard pulsed within his chest, feeding resonance into him, daring him to cross the line.

For a split second, Leon saw it—a glimmer at the edge of his mastery, a Fifth Pulse waiting to be claimed. A note not yet written, but demanded by the song.

Kar’veth’s voice rolled out, chains striking in unison like the toll of a hundred war bells.

"Break, conductor. Show me if your song can shatter a Sovereign’s reign!"

Leon spread his arms, Shell Reverb bursting into a storm of golden-white echoes, the battlefield collapsing into his rhythm and his alone.

The confrontation of tempos began.