The calm over Neo-Noctis lasted precisely three days.
Symbol Westwood stood atop the rusted scaffolding of the Iron Veil Bridge, staring down at the river below. The water, usually choked with neon reflections, now rippled with oily black streaks. His Resonance attribute prickled like static—a warning. The Symphony wasn't just listening anymore. It was learning.
"You seeing this?" Lila's voice crackled through his earpiece. She was crouched on a rooftop half a mile away, binoculars trained on the Chronos District. "Whole block's glitching. Buildings phasing in and out like bad holograms."
Symbol's Creative Synthesis translated the distortion into a warped piano loop. "Ley lines?"
"Deeper," Evie cut in, her holographic interface flickering in his peripheral vision. "The Symphony's rewriting the city's code. It's… mutating reality."
A crash echoed from the bridge's underbelly. Symbol dropped to the lower level, his enhanced Body (25) cushioning the fall. The air here was thick with the stench of burnt copper. A homeless man huddled against a pillar, his eyes wide as he pointed at the wall. "Th-they're here! The shadows!"
Symbol followed his gaze. The concrete pulsed, veins of crimson light spreading like cracks. Then, the wall dissolved.
The Hollow Market materialized in its place—a sprawling bazaar that hadn't existed seconds ago. Stalls lined the bridge, selling jagged crystal shards, bottled whispers, and weapons forged from solidified shadow. Crowds of spectral vendors and shoppers buzzed, their forms flickering between corporeal and translucent.
"Oh, this isn't creepy at all," Lila said, landing beside him.
A vendor with too many teeth grinned, holding up a mirror that reflected Symbol's face—but with hollow, glowing eyes. "Looking for answers, composer? The Symphony's got a discount today."
Symbol's guitar hummed on his back, its strings vibrating in time with the market's dissonant chatter. "We're here to close the sale."
The vendor's smile vanished. "Suit yourself."
The market convulsed. Stalls folded into themselves, the crowd melting into a single, towering figure—a silhouette woven from static and shattered glass. Its voice was a chorus of screams. "YOU DISRUPT THE SONG. NOW YOU BECOME IT."
Symbol activated Frequency Scramble, the air around him warping into jagged soundwaves. The entity staggered, its form destabilizing. Lila lunged, her knife carving through its core. Black ichor sprayed, burning holes in the concrete.
"Evie, we need an exit!" Symbol shouted.
"Working on it!" Static drowned her voice. "The market's a pocket dimension—find the anchor!"
Symbol's Creative Synthesis flared, translating the chaos into a map of discordant notes. There—a stall selling vinyl records, its turntable spinning a blood-red disk. He smashed the record, and the market shattered like glass.
They landed back on the bridge, the homeless man gone. The wall was solid again.
"What the hell was that?" Lila panted.
"A preview," Symbol said, wiping ichor from his guitar. "The Symphony's not just attacking the city. It's replacing it."
Evie's lab smelled of burnt circuitry. She'd rigged the holograms to display the city's new "layers"—overlapping realities where Neo-Noctis warped into the Symphony's twisted visions.
"It's building a parallel world," Evie said, zooming in on the Chronos District. "And it's recruiting."
The hologram showed civilians—people Symbol recognized from the streets—wandering into glitching zones. They returned hours later, eyes vacant, humming the Symphony's dissonant tune.
"It's assimilating them," Lila muttered. "Turning them into… what? Backup singers?"
Symbol's fists clenched. "We need to hit the source. Harder."
"The source is everywhere," Evie said. "But there's a pattern. The mutations cluster near Obelisk Tower—the old energy spire. If the Symphony's got a brain, it's there."
Obelisk Tower loomed over the city, its obsidian surface now crawling with luminous veins. The air buzzed with a subsonic drone, and Symbol's Energy (25) drained rapidly, siphoned by the structure.
"Charging station for a god complex," Lila said, eyeing the tower's pulsating apex.
They breached the lower levels, fighting through waves of corrupted civilians. Their attacks were unnervingly coordinated—a hive mind guided by the Symphony's rhythm. Symbol's Frequency Scramble disrupted their synchronicity, but each use cost him Energy.
At the tower's core, they found the Conduit—a massive, pulsing orb of light suspended over a fractured ley line nexus. Inside floated Victor Hale's silhouette, his body fused with wires of pure sound.
"You're too late," Victor's voice boomed, layered with the Symphony's roar. "I am the instrument. The Symphony is the composer."
"And I'm the critic," Symbol said, slamming his guitar into the orb.
The feedback scream shattered the core. Victor's form disintegrated, and the tower trembled. Symbol channeled his remaining Energy into a Resonance pulse, overloading the Symphony's frequency. Reality snapped back—the tower's veins dimmed, the drone fading to silence.
Level Up: 6
Experience Points: 22,000/25,000
Resonance Upgrade: Phase Anchor (temporarily stabilizes reality in glitch zones).
Lila leaned against a crumbling wall, blood trickling from a cut on her temple. "We won?"
"We delayed it," Symbol said, staring at the dormant core.
Far below, a streetlamp flickered—and in its light, a shadow waved.
The Symphony wasn't finished. But neither were they.