Chapter 343: The Voices It Ate

The sealed bronze door opened to Cassandra’s stolen command.

Nothing waited immediately beyond it. A narrow bridge crossed a cylindrical chamber whose upper and lower limits vanished into darkness. Hundreds of bell ropes hung around the bridge, all perfectly still.

At the far end, an original bell rested inside a silver frame.

Black flesh clung to its outer surface.

The mass uncoiled when Martin stepped onto the bridge. Long limbs unfolded from beneath the bell, each ending in fingers shaped like narrow clappers. Smaller bronze mouths opened along its body. Some carried human lips. Others had the fanged mouths of Sairren.

The original bell lifted inside the creature like a stolen head.

[Bell-Eater Cantor (Epic Monster) Lv. 60]

[Upper Belfry Guardian: Corrupted]

"Open the way," it repeated in Cassandra’s voice.

Cassandra’s expression hardened. "It copied me without taking my voice. It must have heard us through the relays."

The Cantor’s bronze mouths opened together.

"Shield Mireva!" Martin’s voice ordered.

The command came from ahead, behind, and directly beside every member of the party.

Martin had not spoken.

The Cantor struck the bridge before anyone could answer. Sound traveled through the metal and erupted beneath Mireva’s feet. Martin caught her with one arm and raised the Breakwater Aegis with the other as the bridge bucked beneath them.

"Spread out!" he shouted.

The Bell-Eater swallowed the words.

"Spread out!" Martin’s stolen voice called again, this time as black limbs swept across both sides of the chamber.

Alexandra moved left while Rias moved right. The command repeated with different timing, trying to pull them back into the attacks they had just avoided.

Rias crossed two fingers before her throat.

Silence.

Mireva understood first. Her free hand flashed through a sequence of Sairren signs while she kept the hooked spear ready. The wardens above answered without speaking and began moving along the hanging ropes.

Martin opened the private party channel.

[Emperoar: No spoken commands. Trust only the channel or a signal you can see.]

[NukEncore: It stole your voice after one sentence.]

[Chaosgraphy: Then stop giving it material.]

Elisebeth glared across the bridge but obeyed.

The party moved again.

The companions could not read the party channel, so their partners turned the plan into motion. Alexandra tapped Kumoe’s right shoulder twice and pointed left. Katherine drew a circle in the air for Kinnami, then closed her fist around the section she wanted protected.

Martin struck the flat of his sword against Angel’s shell and pointed beneath the bridge.

All three understood. Kumoe divided the approaching limbs between her heads, Kinnami began laying barriers along the marked section, and Angel lowered herself beneath the central span to catch anyone the Cantor knocked from it. The party no longer needed a voice for every choice.

Martin pointed Rainwarden Sword toward the left limbs. Alexandra and Kumoe went there together. Two fingers toward his own eyes sent Rias up the nearest rope to search the creature’s back. Cassandra remained beside Katherine, following the silver resonance around each false mouth.

NukEncore cast Silent Stage.

The bounded field spread around the central bridge. Sounds created by allied magic remained trapped inside its thin orange-white edge, while the Cantor’s hostile resonance bent away from the people standing within it.

Katherine opened her tome. Kinnami crossed the field in a streak of gold, and barriers appeared around Martin, Mireva, and Cassandra without giving the monster another voice to steal.

The Cantor drove six limbs into Silent Stage.

Martin guarded the first two strikes. Stand Against the Current strengthened his footing before the third and fourth arrived. The fifth limb slid off the shield, opening a seam in its plated wrist.

Measured Answer carried his sword through the exposed joint.

Alexandra followed the cut. Kumoe’s curious head dragged one limb down, the right caught another, and the middle washed restoration across the scratches along Kumoe’s forelegs. Alexandra severed the bronze mouth between them, exploiting the holds Kumoe had created.

Pack Rhythm flashed.

The mouth dissolved into darkness.

Rias signaled from above. Three fingers, then a point toward the Cantor’s back.

Three anchors.

Cassandra saw them when the creature turned. Silver route-song entered through three black growths attached to the original bell. The monster had not merely wrapped itself around the Sairren’s resonance. It had bitten into the source.

She drew Nightglass Longbow and waited at full draw.

Patient Draw sharpened the shot while the Cantor twisted around the bridge. Cassandra did not release when the first anchor appeared. She held until the movement exposed the black channel beneath it.

Her arrow severed the anchor and the black channel beneath it.

The Cantor convulsed.

Every remaining mouth spoke at once.

Martin heard Alexandra order Kumoe to release her target. Katherine told Kinnami to leave Cassandra. Rias called for everyone to attack Mireva. Beneath those stolen commands, Cassandra’s voice whispered his name with the same quiet intimacy it had carried in the penthouse.

He ignored all of them.

The voices collapsed into a single aura.

[Distinct Monster Aura Detected: Stolen Chorus]

[Stolen Chorus turns consumed voices into hunger directed at the protected target.]

Every bronze mouth faced Mireva.

The sound struck without crossing the space between them.

Martin planted the Breakwater Aegis over Mireva and took the chorus through both arms. Worldshell tightened across his chest. The unfinished patterns beneath his skin burned from shoulder to wrist as the stolen voices tried to tear his grip from the shield.

Mireva remained behind it by choice.

The shield stayed raised.

[Worldshell Arm Stage Trial]

[Distinct Monster Auras Endured: 3/3]

[Restriction Satisfied: No party member harmed an intelligent beast.]

The chorus ended. Martin’s hands remained numb around the shield straps, but Mireva was still standing.

NukEncore pointed through Silent Stage and shaped a compact Shepherd’s Crown around the second anchor.

Mana Shield formed around the growth. Fireball spread through the inside edge, and Arcane Bolt gave the trapped power one path forward. The controlled blast tore the growth from the original bell without striking its bronze.

Angel struck one of the Cantor’s supporting limbs beneath the bridge with her shell. The impact wrenched the creature sideways and forced two other limbs to brace against the chamber wall.

Rias dropped onto its exposed back. Gloamneedle cut across the final black channel, and Cassandra’s next arrow passed beside the blade to finish the anchor.

All three growths broke.

The Bell-Eater released the original bell and fell into the darkness beneath the bridge.

For one breath, nobody moved.

Then dozens of stolen voices laughed from below.

A second health bar appeared beneath the first.

[Bell-Eater Cantor has entered its Devouring Chorus phase.]

At the same moment, golden light traced the unfinished patterns beneath Martin’s skin.

[Worldshell Arm Stage Trial Complete.]

[Arm Stage is eligible to awaken.]