The rain fell heavily over Modernia.
Melody stood barefoot on the wet sand while her white dress fluttered in the wind. Across from her, Veneri exhaled slowly as sapphire energy pulsed around his towering frame.
He was glad she lowered her rank.
If Melody fought him at her true strength, there would not even be a battle to speak of. Her God Form alone of her Pinnacle Tether was enough to make him understand why she had once stood among the strongest figures of the Destras Era. Even at the Fifth Enlightenment, the thought of fighting her made him feel nervous.
The moment she finished speaking, Veneri disappeared.
The shoreline broke beneath his feet as the Plenituse Technique amplified his movement to terrifying levels. Rainwater burst apart behind him while sapphire streaks of energy emerged through the storm. In less than an instant, he already stood behind Melody with one hand raised.
"Physical Rune, Binding," he said in Nepenthes.
Thanks to him inventing the language, he was now not worried about the backlash of using Runes in combat. A geometric sapphire rune manifested behind her.
Unlike Xinoraci, Nepenthes looked better, composed of elegant geometric symbols. The rune pulsed once before chains of sapphire shot upward from the wet sand, twisting towards Melody from every direction.
Melody sang.
"Ah—"
The single note shattered everything.
Her voice resonated through the air. The soundwave hit the area with terrifying force, destroying the sapphire chains before they could even touch her. Ocean water rose violently in the air as trees deep in the tropical forest shook from the pressure.
Veneri's eyes widened. Even after forty-five years, That Pinnacle Tether still felt ridiculous.
Opera Singer was horrifying.
Unlike normal Rune Speaking, Melody did not require symbols, circles, preparation, or incantations. Every musical word she spoke became an invocation. Every note carried intent. Every melody bent power to her will.
Music itself obeyed her.
"You hesitate too much."
The moment she sang again—
"Aaah—"
Her Essentia Form activated.
The amplified sound erupted into a devastating shockwave, compressing the air itself before firing towards him like an invisible tsunami. The coastline shattered behind him while massive waves split apart from the sheer force.
Veneri immediately moved. His body blurred.
Sapphire barriers formed around him in tiny layers, each appearing and disappearing in fractions of seconds. Rather than blocking the shockwave directly, he redirected it with precision, using dozens of pinpoint barriers to divert the pressure around himself.
The beach behind him shattered anyway.
Melody's eyebrow twitched. Forty-five years ago, he would have died from that. Veneri extended both hands.
"Conceptual Rune, Momentum."
The geometric rune shimmered beneath him. Suddenly, his speed multiplied.
He moved again, this time too fast for ordinary Fifth Enlightenment perception. Rainwater froze around him as he began running through their current battlefield unpredictably. His Plenituse Technique synchronized with Rune Manipulation so naturally that even Melody looked impressed.
He had finally learned.
"Elemental Rune, Water Pressure."
"Physical Rune, Acceleration."
"Spiritual Rune, Interference."
Multiple runes manifested simultaneously.
The atmosphere grew heavier as the rain itself beginning to distort unnaturally. Melody's movements slowed down while spiritual interference disrupted the flow of energy around her.
For a moment, she stopped singing. Veneri took advantage immediately..The massive Peony Mystic Circle appeared beneath the ocean.
Sapphire light spread across kilometers of shoreline as enormous geometric mandalas unfolded beneath the water, glowing beautifully against the darkness. Then countless sapphire peonies bloomed across the battlefield, floating softly through the storm while their sweet scent spread through the rain.
The flowers covered everything.
"You really made this because you love someone."
Veneri did not deny it. She already understood why this Mystic Circle existed. Every flower became an eye. He knew where she stood. The surveillance radius activated completely in seconds.
Melody nodded slowly.
"Good."
She sang in vocalisations again. This time, her voice changed. A second Melody appeared.
The Divine Form activated.
A clone made entirely of music manifested beside her. The original Melody smiled while the clone opened its mouth first.
"Aaah—"
Shockwaves came out of the clone's lips. The real Melody followed immediately.
"Aaah—"
Another wave was stacked atop the first. Veneri's eyes widened. Soundwaves tore through the coastline, ripping apart trees, shattering rocks and turning the beach into a war zone. Veneri vanished upwards and activated his barriers instantly. Sapphire constructs appeared around him while Nepenthes runes rotated violently beneath his feet.
Forty-five years ago, this fight would have terrified him. Now, he finally understood why she trained him like hell.
Melody's Pinnacle Tether, Opera Singer, was one of the most terrifying abilities Veneri had ever encountered because it ignored one of the greatest weaknesses of Magecraft, which was preparation.
The most powerful abilities required time, focus, circles, runes, activation conditions or concentration. Even beings at the Divine Rank had moments of vulnerability while casting large-scale attacks. Opera Singer completely erased that weakness.
At its core, Opera Singer was musical invocation. Anything Melody sang became power. Anything spoken through melody transformed into an effect.
Unlike ordinary speech-based abilities, she did not simply command reality with words. Her voice itself became the medium through which power manifested. Every note, rhythm, harmony, pitch and emotional inflection carried meaning and intent. In simpler terms, Opera Singer functioned similarly to Rune Speaking, except instead of runes or languages, music itself became the language.
This was what made the Tether absurd.
For Veneri, Rune Speaking required understanding, structure, language precision, pronunciation and intent. Nepenthes worked because he personally created meaning behind every symbol and sound. Melody bypassed all of that through music. Her singing naturally translated emotion, meaning and power into reality because her Music Divinity amplified the Tether itself.
If she wanted destruction, she sang destruction. If she wanted amplification, she sang amplification. If she wanted emotional interference, she sang emotion itself. The stronger the emotional intent behind her voice, the stronger the invocation became. Since music naturally carried emotion, her Tether worked very well with her Divinity.
Her Essentia Form enhanced this to an extreme degree.
At the Essentia level, Opera Singer became physically destructive. Her voice amplified to horrifying levels, creating concentrated sound pressure capable of producing massive shockwaves. A simple vocalization could split oceans, destroy mountains, rupture barriers, or flatten armies.
When Melody sang at high output, the surrounding atmosphere vibrated violently and even energy became unstable. The terrifying part was that she did not need to scream. Even soft singing carried overwhelming force if enough energy was placed into it.
A whisper from her could still kill weaker beings. A full operatic performance could erase landscapes.
Her Ascender Form made things even worse. Rather than attacking the body, it attacked the soul.
Music carried directly into spiritual existence itself, bypassing ordinary defenses. This was especially terrifying because souls naturally reacted to rhythm and resonance. Melody's voice could force instability within someone's spiritual structure, weaken soul integrity, disrupt energy flow or directly damage spiritual existence. The stronger Melody became, the stronger this effect turned. Against weaker enemies, a single song could collapse their soul immediately.
Against stronger enemies, prolonged exposure slowly destroyed spiritual resistance until the opponent simply stopped functioning. Even immortals feared soul attacks. Fortunately for Veneri, he was immune to this Form since his Aeterium soul is immune to soul damage.
Her Divine Form fixed her biggest weakness.
Normally, abilities like Opera Singer could be interrupted. One attack to the throat, one disruption of concentration or one successful interruption could stop the invocation process entirely.
The Divine Form removed that problem. It created a musical clone.
This clone acted independently, capable of using Opera Singer exactly as Melody could. While the clone performed, Melody herself remained free to move, evade or attack. If someone attempted to interrupt one singer, the other continued uninterrupted.
This made fighting her extremely difficult.
One Melody attacked and the other prepared. This was why Veneri struggled so much during training. There were almost no openings against that. Her God Form was what truly pushed Opera Singer into the category of terrifying.
At this level, the musical clone evolved further. Rather than merely singing, the clone gained the ability to recreate musical notes from any instrument.
Every instrument carried effects.
Violins could sharpen precision or weaken concentration. Drums amplified momentum and physical output. Pianos destabilized emotional states. Wind instruments altered battlefield rhythm. String instruments interfered with movement timing. Percussion could disrupt energy flow.
Entire orchestras could be recreated.
Those notes acted as either buffs or debuffs, strengthening Melody while weakening her enemies. Because music naturally had flow and can be stacked upon each other with the right rhythm, effects could stack together in horrifying ways.
An enemy could suddenly become slower all while Melody herself became faster, stronger and more precise. At her true strength, Opera Singer was less of a Pinnacle Tether and more of a battlefield domination system.
This was why Veneri was relieved she lowered herself to the Fifth Enlightenment.
At full power, Melody could overwhelm battlefields before combat even properly began. The God Form alone would have reduced his chances of victory to nearly zero because he simply did not possess enough resistance to musical manipulation.