Crystalverse: Book 2 - Crystal’s Journey

The sky had no stars.

Only shadows that moved in time with a beat no one heard... except those who had forgotten how to forget.

They reached the ruins of the Velthren Aria Hall, the first stage ever built in Kronic Kingdom, now half-swallowed by the earth like a song devoured mid-note.

Here, according to the legends, Maestro Nocturne once conducted a symphony so perfect… it broke the veil between sound and silence.

Here… the Curse first began.

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The entrance was guarded by no one...

only a score carved in stone above the archway:

"𝄞 Only they who remember what should not be sung may pass unbroken."

Crystal's heart thudded.

This was not a threat.

It was a warning.

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Inside was not ruin, but stillness.

Time didn't move.

Chandeliers hung mid-fall. Dust swirled in patterns that never settled. Shadows cast by fireless sconces danced in silence—never pausing.

They had entered a dreamscape.

"Nocturne's subconscious," Echo whispered. "This isn't memory… it's belief."

Lyric gasped.

The grand stage was lit.

And on it... frozen in the act of performance... was a younger version of Nocturne, arms raised, baton extended toward a ghostly orchestra.

At the center, chained in silver clefs...

...was Liora.

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But it wasn't her.

It was a memory of her.

The puppet she used to be.

Porcelain. Silent. Motionless.

A doll without a soul.

Liora's voice caught. Her threads pulsed golden in agitation.

"This is what he wanted me to stay. Forever. Just a tool."

Crystal stepped toward the stage.

And then...

... the performance resumed.

Without warning.

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The lights blazed.

The dream audience clapped, silent and mechanical.

The orchestra began to play a dissonant, haunting reversal of Crystal's signature melody... like hope turned inside out.

And the puppet Liora sang.

But not words.

Wails.

Soundless, voiceless screams.

Lyric fell to her knees, covering her ears. "It's not music. It's punishment."

Crystal tried to stop it.

But her feet sank into the stage. The dream accepted her.

She became part of the cast.

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Nocturne's apparition turned to her.

His voice layered with ten thousand harmonies of nothing.

"Ah… the Melody Incarnate.

You've arrived for your solo."

And with a flick of his baton...

... Crystal began to sing.

Not by choice.

By compulsion.

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But she fought back.

Each note that left her lips twisted... turning from sorrow to defiance.

She took control of the melody.

Twisting it.

Reclaiming it.

And from the dream-audience, a ripple of sound rose...

...real applause.

The real Liora leapt to the stage, her golden threads slicing through the illusion-puppet.

It shattered into glittering fragments.

Echo's mirror flared, ripping the dream open.

And Lyric...

...sang the first true note she had ever composed.

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The dream shattered.

The audience turned to ash.

And Nocturne's dream self...

... smiled.

"She composes…"

Then he vanished into echo.

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Outside, the sun finally rose on the ruins of Velthren Aria Hall.

Crystal fell to her knees, exhausted.

But smiling.

They had not only reclaimed the stage.

They had rewritten the first curse.

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In the sky above, unseen but felt, the Conductor stirred.

This was not his finale.

But it was the first time in an age…

that he was unsure of the ending.

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Next Chapter: "The Hymn of the Hollow King"