Aria Voss stepped off her airship and into the smoldering ruins of Neo-Noctis like she owned the ashes. Her boots crunched over glass and debris, her crimson trench coat flaring in the wind. The guild's emblem—a serpent coiled around a tuning fork—gleamed on her lapel. Her cybernetic eye whirred, scanning Symbol, Lila, and Evie with clinical detachment.
"So," she said, tossing a holographic dossier onto a scorched lab table. "Which one of you broke reality?"
Symbol leaned against his guitar, the Veilbreaker Lens still fused to its body. His Energy gauge flickered at 1/25, but his glare was steady. "We unplugged a nightmare. What's it to the guild?"
Aria smirked. "The Energy Monitor flagged this place as a 'cascade risk.' Means your little symphony could've popped half the continent like a soap bubble." She tapped her eye, its lens projecting a hologram of Neo-Noctis's ley lines—now blackened and frayed. "Guild's job is to clean up messes like this. And recruit idiots talented enough to make them."
Lila crossed her arms. "Recruit?"
Aria flipped open the dossier, revealing profiles of cities plagued by supernatural disasters: Eldritch Reach drowning under a cult's nightmares, Ironhaven choking on rogue AI spirits, Vermillion Veil haunted by living forests. "The Monitor's clones are lighting up worldwide. You stabilized Neo-Noctis? Great. Now help us do it elsewhere."
Evie stood abruptly, her chair clattering to the floor. "My father died fixing this city. We're not your mercenaries."
Aria's gaze softened, just for a breath. "Thomas Westwood's sacrifice bought you time. Not peace. Stay here, and Neo-Noctis gets quarantined—walled off, forgotten. Or come with me, and maybe save the next city before it becomes a graveyard."
Symbol stared at the holograms. Eldritch Reach's bioluminescent coral towers pulsed with tentacled shadows. Ironhaven's clockwork dragons spiraled in the smog. Each city sang a dissonant note in his mind, his Creative Synthesis itching to harmonize them.
Lila nudged him. "You're thinking too loud."
"We can't save Neo-Noctis," he said quietly. "But we can keep it from happening again."
Evie turned away, her reflection warped in the Energy Monitor's clone. "Dad would've wanted us to try."
Aria tossed Symbol a guild insignia—a small, cold weight in his palm. "Welcome to the Adventure Guild. Don't lose that. It's keyed to your biometrics and worth more than your life."
The guild vessel loomed at the city's edge, a sleek obsidian hull ribbed with glowing ley line conduits. Its design was neither machine nor organism—a fusion of steampunk gears and bioluminescent fungal growths. The gangplank lowered with a hiss, revealing a cockpit where shadows moved like liquid.
"Meet the Iron Lullaby," Aria said. "She's got a personality. Try not to annoy her."
As they boarded, Symbol glimpsed a flicker in the airship's walls—a sentient haze that hummed in harmony with his guitar. Lila whistled. "Fancy haunted house."
Aria punched coordinates into the console. "First stop: Eldritch Reach. Coastal city. Cultists there are tearing reality to summon something… big. Local guild squad vanished last week. You'll fit right in."
Status Update:
Level: 11
Experience Points: 45,000/50,000
New Affiliation: Adventure Guild (Rank: Novice)
Guild Perk: Ley Line Navigation (grants immunity to dimensional drift).
As the Iron Lullaby ascended, Symbol looked down at Neo-Noctis—its neon lights dimming, its wounds still raw. A shadow waved from a flickering streetlamp, Victor's final sneer etched in the gloom.
Lila slung an arm over his shoulder. "Regrets?"
"Just one," he said, strumming a minor chord. "Didn't grab more synth-donuts."
The airship pierced the clouds, leaving the city to its silence. Ahead, the horizon curved into a seascape of writhing storms and jagged spires. Somewhere below, the Energy Monitor's true body pulsed, its next alert already brewing.
Aria tossed Symbol a dossier labeled ELDRITCH REACH: STAR-SPAWN AND YOU.
"Homework," she said. "Try not to die before we land."
Far beneath the waves, something ancient opened its eyes.