Unbroken

Stone and rock shifted as the earth came alive. There were no houses or grand buildings. They did not need shelter from the elements. They were elemental.

Jagged shards of living stone rose from the ground and stabbed from above. Being within the enormous cave felt like being within the great mouth of an ancient titan. Mist hung in the air as humidity filled the cavern with damp anticipation. Hundreds rose and marched forward towards the obelisk of polished black and blue. It was hexagonal and smooth- a testament to the arrival of life that first rose from the coursing energetic stones that had existed before time. It rose from the cave floor and stretched to the cave ceiling, supporting the massive space like a single pillar of strength.

It was the Great Harmony Shard of Epochan. It was silent, towering, intimidating, and imprisoned. At its base were ten grotesque columns decorated in screaming faces. Red beams of Dissonance raged and spewed from the tops of the columns as red ooze dripped down the columns like putrid blood from a poisoned beast.

Screams and wails could be heard whispering in the air as the hordes of stone bodies moved closer to the Dissonance. Everything in the air felt sinister and unwelcoming. Yet onward they marched, until a host of rock and stone stood in growling pause before the massive Shard.

The Shard’s base was elevated in tiered steps. Each step was as tall as a body and as wide as a ship. At the top of those steps were dozens of long-forgotten devices. Sacred instruments thought to be lost forever, but now waiting for the songstress to appear. Word of her wonder and power had rushed through the land, sending chills of excitement through every being who heard tale of her song and the shattering of the Dissonance.

Soon, she would be there before them. Soon, perhaps their distant ancestor would be freed. Soon, their Dissonant curse would be gone.

Far away, in distant lands, dozens of Voice Carrier crystals activated, sending messages from the ancient cave out to all who listened. Thousands upon thousands lent their ears to the waiting. Everyone who sat in anticipation knew that the songstress would soon be singing once more.

Stone fists rose, then slammed the ground in unison like earthen drums that called her forth. Again and again, they slammed with slow, methodical precision. Everything went dark, save for the glowing red Dissonance. A small creature made of fluff stepped before them and bellowed out a welcome.

“Children of stone! I greet you!!!” Attis shouted as his voice echoed across the stone walls.

“THOU ART GREETED!!!” the horde chanted back.

“You have heard story and tale of a great and powerful songstress! A priestess from the realms beyond, whose might and fury is matched only by her grace and gentility! I am here to tell you that those stories are true!!”

Deep, grating roars burst forth from the crowd below. Attis raised his paws.

“On this night, you will see your world shifted! For the songstress has come to destroy the dissonance and silence that has plagued this world for too long! By her voice and deeds, a new world is being born! We shall not return to the way things were. Join us! Join her song, and we shall build a new world where none are forsaken or forgotten!!!”

Slams of stony fists shook the very earth as roars built into a near frenzy. Red veins of hateful screeches exploded in defiance, but Attis was unfazed.

Quiet notes of somber strings appeared in the air.

Everything fell silent as the lost sounds returned to the great cave for the first time in a century.

Tragic horns echoed.

Angelic, mournful voices of unseen choirs sang out in unknown languages.

Black sparks crackled from within the sleeping obsidian obelisk as it registered the calls of ancient friends.

“Behold! Sayane the Songstress has come!! The days of reckoning are here!!!” Attis roared as he held up his hands.

Every sound built into a commanding cry. Powerful drums crashed with lamentation, sending shockwaves of black out as the tragic harmonies of the unseen voices wept. Electric hisses pierced every stone as empowered guitars howled to match the strings. The sound built and built, until she appeared.

Covered in black and grey, with stitched, hardened fabric spikes jutting up from her shoulders and spine, adorned with a crown of jagged barbs, wreathed in a billowing gown of black and metal, she stepped forward, illuminated in red. Her clawed hands rose like a necromancer summoning the dead from the ground.

At her feet, thousands of stone fingers reached up in prayerful wonder as roars harmonized with the choirs. Her clawed fingers bent inwards as she pulled the notes into crescendo, and the Obsidian Shard began to spew sparks of black all around.

She inhaled with a snarl and paused, then wretched forward and let out a roar of terrifying power.

“BRRRRRRRRUUUURRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Sayane screamed from deep in her bones.

Bass, double drums, drop-tuned guitars, unholy voices, and exploding symphonic wrath joined her in cataclysmic power as red and black fought to the death behind her.

“PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!! RAGE WITH ME!!!” Sayane screamed into the Voice Carrier she held like a microphone.

As she roared, she held out her hand in beckoning, urging the erupting crowd to join her chant.

“PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!!!!”

Every jagged stalagmite and stalactite shook with power as the thousands of voices screamed in unison.

Her hair flailed like whips all around her as she threw her head back and forth in a violent flash. The instruments shifted in tune and tempo, sending her into the first verse as she felt her stomach and throat seizing in strain. The verses would be defined by her singing in a deeper, angrier voice. It was different from her normal voice. Something brutal welled in her vocal cords, as though all of her own rage and sorrow was culminating in this moment.

“We were born in the fault lines

Expelled from the earth

Forever stepped upon

But we never forgot our worth!”

Moshes of stone spun and threw and struck like gunshots as Sayane’s head tilted back and her claws tensed from effort. But she didn’t stop. Instead, she felt the chaos before her and behind her as the Dissonance tried to stop her. Blood red streaks stabbed into her, sending cold, fretting dread into her mind, but she carried on, standing in place so that they could try and fail before the crowd.

“Bonds of strength through words unspoken

Even though your empires prayed for our collapse

Our souls will always evade your grasp

FOR WE WILL NEVER BE BROKEN!!”

Her thin arms locked across her chest as she fought from screaming in pain from the challenge of holding the notes, but she never stopped. Every shot of pain she felt seemed to embolden the obsidian Shard, which was firing sparks and blasts in sync with her instruments. Now it was time to scream once more.

“Cracked!

Chipped!

Crushed!

Desecrated!

Desimated!

Obsidian!

Oblivion!!!”

Her voice had turned animalistic. The crown and sacred instruments were helping her sound shift into her vision. Sayane felt the shift and realized she was growing in power, so she repeated the roars as she threw her hands to her side in defiance.

“CRACKED!!

CHIPPED!!

CRUSHED!!

DESECRATED!!

DESIMATED!!

OBSIDIAN!!

OBLIVION!!!”

Behind her, Azag and Attis were too stunned to move or speak. Seeing her at this power felt like seeing the birth of an ancient demigod. The Shard’s sparks ignited and pitch black, heatless fires erupted all around them. Sayane shifted and snarled as her words accelerated.

“This oblivion where you stowed away our obsidian

Hear our screams haunt you from your walls!!

For through it all

We held our song

Because we will never fall.

Let your halls come crashing down

We will bury your dreams deep within the ground!!

Feel the weight of the stones

Crushing down on your chests

Meet your end at the hands of the ones

You used to detest!!

MOVE WITH ME!!!”

The breakdown began and earsplitting chords mixed with rapidfiring drums as the black blazes built in power. Every being in the cave roared out and began to rush side to side in a wave of rock and rage. Dissonance poured out in challenge, sending arcs of red across the hall as the bloody ooze spewed down in torrents that bled out across the floor and into the crowd.

“Bonds of strength through words unspoken

Even though your empires prayed for our collapse

Our souls will always evade your grasp

For we will never be broken

A thousand shattered ruins line the skies

Arrogant faith they’d always survive

Nothing remains of their glory

Just another page in this world’s story

But we are the very book and we shall forever remain

For we were there when the foundations were lain!!!”

She was winning. She could feel the Dissonance weakening. Their energy was fortifying her spirit and the Shard was gaining its power once more. Even though the red had bled across the whole of the ground, none stopped in their chaotic dance of release. Sayane finally opened her eyes to see millions of tiny flecks of black dust rising into the air and she knew that was the weight of sorrow that had coated these people for far too long.

That would be how she destroyed the Dissonance. The music tapered and only rattling metallic drums sounded as the final explosion built its delivery.

“I need you to do something! I need your despair!!! Give me your sorrow! Your grief!! I want you to release that to me, so that I may banish it into the oblivion until nothing remains but obsidian!!!” Sayane commanded.

“Sayane!!!” Azag screamed from behind her.

The crowd seemed nervous.

“I can do it! I can take it! Trust me!!!” Sayane shouted, both to Azag and to the crowd.

“I CAN DO THIS! GIVE ME YOUR PAIN THEN HELP ME SHATTER THIS DISSONANCE ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!”

Her command reached the audience, and they dared to trust her. Black fires were as tall as towers now.

“PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!!!!”

“PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!!!!”

The audience was chanting with Sayane as she held out her hands in summoning. Across the cavern, spines of microscopic stone rose like fingers. Millions of pieces of shattered hopes and dreams lifted high into the air until a curtain of despair hung in the air before Sayane. Fear for what was to come drenched her in a cold sweat, but she knew she could endure.

“PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!!!!”

Blood red energy stabbed the obsidian Shard but could not penetrate.

“PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!! PAIN! SORROW! LOSS! NO TOMORROW!!!!!”

“GIVE ME YOUR SUFFERING NOW!!!” Sayane commanded as she closed her eyes and held her arms open.

Roars of support sounded out and the wave of sorrowful shards shot from the crowd and into Sayane. Her scream of suffering rose above the sounds as the torrent of agony poured into her small body. Azag wanted to rush forward and help but Echo stopped him.

“She can take it! Believe in her!!” he screamed to his comrade.

Bells chimed from within the obsidian shard as Sayane screamed out once more. When every tiny shard had disappeared into her body, her eyes turned black before flickering neon purple. A guttural, beastly growly rose from the depths of her soul and built into a tyrannical screech.

“Rurrccchh. Bleghhh. GRAAGGGGHHH. MRRRAAAAAAAAHHHH. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”

Muscles seized, and Sayane’s body twisted in strain as her back arched her chest up to the heavens. A geyser of cleansed black energy tore from her throat and cut through the air until it snaked with life and slammed down onto the Dissonance with murderous intent. Sayane nearly buckled as the burst of black ripped from her soul and devoured the Dissonance. Everything went black, and the inferno of night consumed the room but harmed none.

The Dissonance vanished, and the last drops of black dripped from Sayane’s mouth before streaking down her throat.

The outro began, and the Shard sent out flames of unleashed force. Sayane’s thoughts returned as she held herself upright on her bent knees. Strings and choir voices rose to join her as she held out her fist.

“We will rise evermore

Like the mountains at a fault line

We will rise evermore

Like jagged mountains for all time

We will rise evermore

SING WITH ME!!

We will rise evermore

We will rise evermore

WE WILL RISE EVERMORE

WE WILL RISE EVERMORE

WE WILL RISE EVERMORE

WE WILL RISE EVERMORE

And. You. Will. FALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!”

Fires exploded out and vanished into nothingness. No red glow remained. Sayane collapsed in success and her companions were there to catch her. All around her, roars of alliance filled the air. Above them, the Great Harmony Shard was unleashed and burning free. The Dissonance plague of the Psephos was gone.