CHAPTER 215: VOICE OF THE END [PART 1]

It had been a long time since Professor Arienna last entered a training room to do a challenge herself.

In fact, the last time she did, she was still a student at the academy.

She was now a Professor and the head of the Music Department to boot.

The Battle Choir Challenge had many stages—the amphitheater, the colosseum, a deserted island, on top of a mountain... The list went on and on.

It really depended on the master of the domain, whom the challenger would challenge.

"Let’s do it like this," Professor Arienna said as she looked around the plain white world, where nothing existed. "I will be the challenger, and you will be the owner of this domain. I will let you choose the battlefield."

"Interesting." Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had assumed that he would be the challenger. "I’ll take you up on that offer, professor."

An orb flew toward Alex, and he grabbed it. Soon, the domain transformed into an indoor stadium, decorated like a concert hall familiar to him.

A moment later, everyone saw something that made their eyes widen in shock.

They were inside an open-air colosseum, surrounded by tens of thousands of people who were all cheering them on.

But this colosseum was quite different from the other stages that Professor Arienna had seen in the past.

They were currently standing on a magical floating arena under a starry sky.

Spotlights crisscrossed the arena, cutting through the air with sharp beams of light. Even the floor glowed with vivid shapes and colors, as if to highlight the ones standing atop it.

The audience all held blue glow sticks that shone within the darkness, setting up the mood for the battle.

"This..." Professor Arienna couldn’t help but gawk at this incredible scene. She had never seen anything quite like this before.

Professor Arienna’s teaching assistant, the fairies, and Dim Dim found themselves on top of a floating platform that hovered around the arena. Like the other spectators, they were now also holding glow sticks.

After taking in the sights of the battlefield, Professor Arienna smiled.

"I think we should create something like this for our cultural festival," Professor Arienna said. "I’m sure it will be a hit."

"Great," Alex replied. "I’m looking forward to it, Professor."

As if on cue, two orbs flew towards both of them, indicating that it was now time for them to start their Battle Choir.

"Alex, I won’t be holding back," Professor Arienna declared. "I’m doing this for the honor of the Music Department, so don’t hate me after this, okay?"

"I won’t, Professor," Alex promised. "Let’s dance."

Both combatants seized their respective orbs and channelled the song that they wanted to play.

Suddenly, the familiar opening of the musical masterpiece Canon in D by Pachelbel started to play from Professor Arienna’s side.

It was a song famous for its perfect simplicity that allowed it to be played continuously.

However, Professor Arienna added her own twist to it by infusing it with a vivacity that made it sound like it was truly meant for battle.

Holding a magical guitar in her hand, Professor Arienna demonstrated why she was the Head Professor of the Musical Department.

(A/N: Search for Canon Rock - Sungha Jung - 2022 Ver.)

Countless musical notes flew towards Alex like missiles as her teaching assistant and the fairies waved their magical glow sticks to cheer for her.

On the other hand, Dim Dim smirked as it held two glow sticks and performed the glow stick dance to support Alex.

(A/N: Refer to the babies in Oshi No Ko for reference.)

Suddenly, a music that was very different from the Professor’s lively and upbeat performance emerged from Alex’s side of the arena.

The young man had summoned a full orchestra. Dim lights softly veiled them, perfectly matching the mood of his song, Music of the Night.

"Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation.

Darkness stirs and wakes imagination.

Silently the senses abandon their defenses..."

The young man’s voice was equally memorable, but in a different way. It spread through the colosseum like a plague, slowly but steadily stripping the will to live from the audience.

The beautifully haunting song retained its horror feels, but with a big change in its core. The original version would make one feel like a beautiful ghost was after their soul, gently coaxing them to give it up.

But Alex’s version...

It was pure horror. The kind where the protagonist would run and run and run for hours while screaming their lungs out, snot and tears dripping on the floor, but the ugly, deformed ghost would still be energetically running after them with a bloodied machete.

The teaching assistant, the fairies, and Dim Dim all shuddered uncontrollably as Alex shrieked like a banshee that had stubbed its toe on a Lego brick.

Somewhere in the distance, glass cracked, and a pitiful flock of birds plummeted from the sky, never to feel the wind under their wings again.

The lights on the arena flickered. Countless glow sticks fell to the ground as their owners started convulsing after hearing the haunting tone of the phantom himself, singing passionately.

It was as if a broken trumpet had mated with a haunted accordion, and their child had learned to scream operatic ballads while being throttled by a goose mid-honk.

Every note wobbled between keys like a drunken tightrope walker trying to do ballet.

The orchestra tried to keep up diligently, valiantly, even desperately. But professionalism could only get them so far. Several violinists looked visibly pale.

One flutist wept silently.

But Alex sang on with unwavering passion, eyes ablaze with emotion.

He reached out with trembling fingers, trying to channel the Phantom’s allure, the seduction of shadows, and the music of dreams.

The flying magical notes that had shot in his direction like missiles were intercepted by dark notes, resulting in magical explosions.

One of Professor Arienna’s guitar strings snapped because she had strummed it too hard after hearing Alex’s impassioned singing voice, a voice she wished she could forget.

Gritting her teeth to stop herself from losing consciousness, she bravely continued to play. This time, the lights around her shone so brightly that the magical notes turned into magical comets, imbued with the power to fight evil!

Alex, on the other hand, was now lost in his singing, oblivious to the Professor’s determination to beat him in this musical battle.

"Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world

Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before

Let your soul take you where you long to be!"

"Only then... can you belooooooong to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—!!"

The sound that erupted was not of this world.

The machete of the ugly, deformed ghost had certainly stabbed through the protagonist’s ears. As for the soul... it was gone.

Alex’s note was so high, so flat, so unstable, and so shrill that several nearby glow sticks crumbled, coating the fairies’ hands in glow-in-the-dark dust.

Dim Dim simply stared into emptiness.

[E/N: And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.]

Sue lightly waved her hand in front of the little bun’s eyes. She couldn’t get a reaction, so she assumed that Dim Dim had already fainted just a few seconds ago and that the shock had simply caused it to forget about closing its eyes.

The flying comets met dark meteors, resulting in violent collisions that turned the starry skies into a war zone.

Professor Arienna staggered back, sweat dripping down her face.

Alex’s voice was so overwhelming that another string of her guitar broke.

The stinging pain from the guitar string hitting her arm snapped her out of her daze, allowing her to regain some semblance of clarity.

It was at that moment when she saw countless evil spirits flying towards her, each intending to drag her into the pits of suffering that they called home.

Their faces were twisted in agony.

Their mouths hung open in silent screams.

One of them even held up a sign that read: "JOIN US, PROFESSOR. IT’S QUIET DOWN HERE!"

"No... I refuse..." Professor Arienna gritted her teeth as she raised her guitar and strummed a defiant chord.

A golden shockwave erupted from her, blasting the phantoms back into the abyss from whence they crawled out of.

The shattered strings of her guitar mended briefly through sheer musical willpower as her aura flared with raw, elegant fury.

She refused to bend her knees and lose in the competition where the pride of the Academy, as well as the Music Department, were at stake.