Crunch—Swish—Crunch—Swish—
The luscious grass let out crisp, satisfying crunches beneath their feet as Rover, Yangyang, and Chixia made their way toward the entrance of the Gorge. Just one final uphill stretch remained.
"We're almost there," Yangyang said, her voice light as she ran with the breeze. Her long feathered hair fluttered behind her like trailing ribbons of silk.
"Once we are out, there will be a descent," she added, glancing over her shoulder. "But if your Terminal's Glider Module still works, it'll make things a lot easier."
Rover instinctively touched the gourd-shaped Terminal secured to his back.
Yangyang slowed her pace and walked beside him, offering a reassuring smile. "I'll show you how to use it," she said, her voice calm and warm against the entrance's whispering wind.
Rover gave a thankful nod, moved by her kindness.
"Don't be a slowpoke now, you two!" Chixia called over her shoulder, already nearing the entrance of the gorge.
Once at the mouth, she turned slightly, beaming, "Once we're outta here, it's just a short walk to Jinzhou!"
She stepped out into the open, the wind catching her hair as sunlight poured down in golden streams as Rover and Yangyang followed closely behind. The moment they stepped into the light, Rover's eyes widened.
Before him stretched a fortified city, its walls proud and unyielding, shaped by resilience and history. Great stone towers marked the city's edges, and shimmering faintly above it all was a translucent dome, like a second sky hugging Jinzhou in a protective embrace.
Chixia swept an arm forward with pride. "Jinzhou—the safest place around here!"
She pointed at the Resonance Nexus, "The Nexus provides coverage for the whole city. And if that's not enough..." She pointed at the barrier, "...We've got a reinforced barrier and some of the strongest fortifications!"
"Sounds impressive," Rover admitted, though a strange sense lingered—like he had seen grander cities before. The memory hovered just out of reach, veiled behind the fog in his amnesic mind.
Chixia beamed, clearly pleased. "Hehe, right?" she said, mistaking his polite tone for genuine awe.
Yangyang chimed in, explaining the geographical location of Jinzhou—nestled between the Desorock Highlands and the Norfall Barrens.
She spoke of its strategic significance as a fortress city, serving as a crucial defensive stronghold for all of Huanglong.
In the midst of the discussion, Chixia abruptly interjected, "Wait..." Her expression shifted as a thought struck her. She glanced around, scanning the area. "Where's Baizhi? We were supposed to meet her here."
But it wasn't just Chixia who came to a sudden stop—Yangyang halted too, her expression shifting. Not because Baizhi was missing, but because something had changed in the air.
She raised her right hand. Motes of Resonance shimmered faintly around it.
"This is the center of the Etheric Sea…" she said, her gaze growing troubled.
Suddenly, a deep, resonant gong hummed through the air, slightly shaking the earth.
A Tacet Field bloomed into existence below the cliff where the three stood, shimmering with unnatural light.
Surprised by the sudden emergence, they quickly scanned the area as Rover noticed someone. It was the friend who Chixia and Yangyang have been mentioning—Baizhi.
Chixia tried calling out. "BAIZHI!"
But from their elevated position, their voices couldn't reach her.
With no other option, they deployed their gliders and descended. Chixia was the first to land and rushed toward Baizhi.
"Baizhi!" she called out. "This is a dormant Tacet Field, right? Why did you come here alone?" Her tone was laced with worry.
Baizhi looked over at her friends—and at the new face among them, who was wincing slightly from the ambient pressure of the Tacet Field.
As Chixia opened her mouth to speak again—"Baizhi, you know, we…"—Baizhi walked right past her without a word.
"...Huh?" Chixia blinked, scratching her head, caught off guard by the cold shoulder while Baizhi stepped closer to examine Rover's condition.
With a fluid gesture, she summoned a strange creature—a white being that looked like a hybrid of a snail and a peacock. It shimmered softly as it circled Rover, then signaled to Baizhi with a gentle pulse of light.
"He's stable," Baizhi murmured, satisfied with its reading.
She turned to the others, suggesting. "We should move elsewhere to talk."
But before they could leave, everything changed.
A sharp, dissonant frequency tore through the air like a scream from another world. The very ground trembled beneath their feet. The sound stabbed through the ears of the three women, causing them to grunt in pain as their Resonance faltered.
Rover, however, remained upright. Despite the haunting screech and the pressure that tried to crush his senses, he stood firm.
Then he felt it.
Something was behind him.
He turned.
There—forming from thin air like a nightmare unraveling—was a skeletal Tacet Discord. Its hollow eye sockets burned with eerie light as it whispered in a voice that echoed into the soul: "Have you seen my crown?"
Instinct took over. Rover unfastened the sword at his back. The moment steel met air, the creature lunged. Metal and bone clashed with a deafening impact.
A dome of force surged outward from the collision—BOOM—encapsulating Rover and Yangyang in a sphere of isolation.
Outside, Chixia shouted, "Yangyang! Rover! Where are you? We're blocked out here!"
She struck the barrier with her fists and weapons, but the shimmering dome held firm. Gritting her teeth, she cried in frustration, "We can't get in! Are you two alright?"
Yangyang's voice echoed faintly from within, muffled yet urgent. "Rover is with me! And... that strange Tacet Discord is here too!"
Baizhi warned the two. "Be careful! That might be the Discord's ability—it's isolating you!"
Inside, however, the battle had already begun in full force.
Steel clashed against hardened exoskeleton as Rover held his ground. Despite the fog of his lost memories, his body moved with natural, trained instinct—parrying each blow with the calm, lethal grace of a seasoned warrior.
The Discord snarled, sensing the tide turning. Its grotesque form began to shift—wings tore free from its back, and a spear of warped bone materialized in its clawed hand.
But even that wasn't enough.
Yangyang raised her hand, her Resonance flaring. A miniature tornado formed and anchored itself beneath the Discord's feet, halting its erratic movements and rooting it in place.
"Now, Rover!" she shouted.
Rover answered with swiftness—a flash of deadly dance of his sword.
His sword rose in a clean upswing, followed by a sweeping strike, then a circular slash that blurred with speed. With a final flick of his wrist, a spinning disk-like sword flew from his hand, carving through the Discord's flank.
Yet even that wasn't enough.
The Discord screamed, barely weakened, when suddenly—Rover's Tacet Mark ignited across his skin, golden lines flaring to life.
He raised his hand and whispered, voice calm but filled with power: "The end has come."
The world froze. Time seemed to suspend, the air itself holding its breath.
Then—BOOM—a temporal explosion rippled outward, warping space as if tearing through the veil of reality.
The Discord staggered back, shrieking in distorted tones as its Resonance unraveled. It flared one last time, then collapsed—disintegrating into a golden holographic projection.
Upon the TD's defeat, the dome faded. Silence returned, broken only by the startled gasps of Chixia and a composed Baizhi as they rushed in. The fight was over.
"Are you two alright?" Chixia asked, concern in her eyes.
Yangyang and Rover both nodded. Chixia and Baizhi quickly double-checked them for injuries before shifting their focus to the golden hologram—an Echo, faintly shimmering where the Tacet Discord had fallen.
"Echo?" Rover murmured, unfamiliar with the term.
Yangyang explained, "When a Tacet Discord is defeated, and its Resonance disperses, sometimes—if you're lucky—an Echo remains. It's a kind of residual imprint. A trace of the Discord's strength."
As the group examined the projection, Chixia perked up. "Rover, why don't you try absorbing it with your Terminal?"
Rover raised his Terminal toward the Echo. A soft pulse emitted from the device—but nothing happened.
Chixia tilted her head, frowning. "...Oh. So it doesn't work?"
Rover glanced down at his screen. "It says I'm level 0."
Chixia waved it off with a smile. "No worries! Everyone starts somewhere. You can build up with smaller ones before taking on elites like this guy."
She scanned the surrounding area, eyes gleaming with renewed energy. "There should be some sweet Baby Roseshrooms 'round here—tiny Discords, perfect for starters. Let's go hunt some down, shall we?"
Before they moved, Rover asked, "What happens if I don't absorb it?"
Baizhi answered calmly, "The Echo will eventually fade. Once the Etheric Sea recedes, the Resonance in the area will dissipate as well."
She added, "And when that happens, our Terminals will regain signal—communication will be restored. The Tacet Field will disappear… until it resurfaces again."
Her eyes then moved to the Tacet Field as she muttered, "We'll need to report the unusual phenomena here to the City Hall and the Academy."
Turning to the group she implored, "Let's make our exit."
Nodding to Baizhi's suggestion, they were just about to head toward the city when—suddenly—Rover's hand moved on its own.
A faint voice echoed from within him, barely a whisper: "Ughh... Hungry..."
Without warning, his hand was drawn toward the golden Echo, fingers trembling as if pulled by some unseen force.
"I'm starving..." uttered the unknown voice.
The three girls turned toward him, alarmed by the sudden change in demeanor. His Tacet Mark lit ablaze while he struggled to gain control over it.
His fingers curled, assimilating the Echo as a gust of air billowed, passing through the space and clearing the dark heavens.
A flurry of questions erupted as the three tried to process what had just happened. Chixia, ever the excitable one, leaned in with eyes wide and sparkling. "What kinda of power is that?!"
"Rover, you..." She squinted at him suspiciously, stepping closer as if trying to sniff out a secret. "You been playin' the fool this whole time?"
Without waiting for a response, she started circling him, poking around with exaggerated theatrics. "You got any other tricks up your sleeve? Like, eating a whole Tacet Discord? Grilling Echoes alive?"
Her voice rose with each guess, enthusiasm bubbling over. Her wild imagination was almost infectious—almost.
Yangyang, however, looked more serious. She had noticed something that troubled her.
"Baizhi," she turned to the more composed woman, "when Rover absorbed the Echo... he didn't use his Terminal. His body absorbed it directly."
Concerned, she added, "Can you run a deeper analysis on him once we return to Jinzhou?"
Baizhi stood quiet, lost in thought. Seeing her contemplative expression, Yangyang pressed gently, "Baizhi?"
Baizhi finally answered, her tone measured as she pointed, "Absorbing Echoes with the human body is not entirely unprecedented.."
Yangyang blinked. "With the human body...? You mean..."
Baizhi nodded slowly. "In ancient records, there are whispers of such a power—rare, but not mythical."
Yangyang's eyes widened as she recalled a story from her old history lessons. "I remember now..."
Yangyang recited the ancient texts from history lessons about a celestial being once descended from the void, wielding the boundless might of the Qiankun Universe.
They shed their divine form to walk among mortals and, in doing so, condensed the primordial essence itself... giving birth to Pangu.
She continued reverently, "With a single swing, Pangu cleaved heaven and earth apart, aligning the celestial and terrestrial realms. Their brilliance illuminated the four directions. That was the beginning of the illustrious era of Huanglong."
The weight of the tale settled over the group. Chixia broke the silence with a thoughtful hum. "So you're saying... Rover might be the great-great-great-great-great-granddaddy of us all?"
A/N: KURO thought they were slick with this voice line in game.
Rover nearly choked, almost spitting blood at Chixia's wild claims. Before he could protest, Baizhi stepped in with a calm but firm voice.
"Let's not jump to conclusions without sufficient data and proper analysis," she said, cutting through the chaos with her usual clarity.
Just then, a soft chime echoed from their Terminals—signal restored. Yangyang blinked in surprise as a shared system notification popped up, flashing with importance: Citywide Broadcast from Jinzhou Hall.
To be continued...
***
A/N: I have taken a more summarizing approach rather than recounting events line by line. However, do readers prefer a more in-depth, detailed storytelling style over a summary?