“Bzzt. The Towers are no longer under our control. Bzzt. How problematic. Bzzt.”

The Sins left behind by the Red Wing slaughtered Impuritas messengers at the entrance of Beethoven’s frozen auditorium. No words needed to be conveyed to him. Their deaths alone were enough for him to recognize the severity of the situation.

“Bzzt. We have lost our guarantee to survive this. Bzzt.” A part of him wished to curse at the Red Wing, but he held his tongue, less he wished to be targeted by the Vexed Consanguinities.

One of the master plans revolved around the Major Luminescences located in each of the 5 Major Arcane Towers. It would have granted the Impuritas immortality to weather the apocalypse.

However, something had gone terribly wrong.

Not even the Agonized Messengers of Sect of Gears could deliver to him his promised predictions or news of the situation beyond his secret auditorium.

He could only speculate as he paced around the auditorium, preparing his living Instruments in preparation for Ara’s awakening.

“Bzzt. Now that it has come down to this… Bzzt. My own grandniece will be required to at least protect the north from the Red Wing’s influence. Bzzt.”

The knees of his shivering Instruments were cleaned with a damp cloth before their heads were drenched with a bowl of cold water. Trembling murmurs left their frozen lips, creating a sound that delighted him.

“Bzzt. It must sound like a lullaby to you, Ara. Bzzt. S7 was a wonderful choice. Bzzt. You must be dreaming of the time spent in that marvelous place. Bzzt.”

Beethoven saw S5 and S7 as beautiful.

Both Sectors illustrated the art of the Maestros of Flesh naturally in a world untainted by the laws of civility. If one desired it, then they could have it no matter the cost.

“Bzzt. Music, O’ Ara… Bzzt.”

“Mmmph!?”

He latched on the frozen gags of six different Instruments. With a single, swift tear –

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

– Their gags were torn apart with the sound of ripping cloth. Frostbitten flesh was carried with it and discarded whimsically before their feet.

Beethoven was deaf to their suffering.

“Bzzt. … Music is an artform that has no limit to how it can be expressed. Bzzt. It must come from the flesh. Bzzt. Morality must be challenged, so that the most perfect symphony can be made. Bzzt. Your grandfather was one of us, but he saw music in a different light. Bzzt.”

Finally, Beethoven moved to Ara’s unresponsive body. She laid atop a platform held up by hands from a deep pit. He clasped her cheeks with a single hand, squeezing her face so that her mouth could part open.

“Bzzt. ‘Music is an expression of the soul’. Bzzt. He came from the Subderma Layer like all of us. Bzzt. But he ascended. Bzzt. Up past the suffocating veils and layers of the Subderma. Bzzt. Then, he ascended further into this plane… Bzzt.”

Ara’s appearance was astonishing. With a bit more effort, Ara could become something great. Beethoven already intended to transform his grandniece into an Impuritas. He stared at Ara, opening her eyelids to see her emerald eyes. Then, his compound eyes moved to her green hair.

“Bzzt. … Leaving behind such beautiful offspring. Bzzt. Your hair is so much like Hellen’s. Bzzt. Nothing like that disgusting Alice. Bzzt. I always lamented on why it was only him who could leave our hell Bzzt.”

* * *

Beethoven was the brother of the Green Composer. Seeing Ara’s human form reminded him of his old self: a human man with blonde hair and blue eyes. Aside from this, there was nothing spectacular about him than perhaps his origins from the Subderma Layer.

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He was always at odds with his brother ever since they were young. As the youngest brother, he always felt like he was elapsed by his eldest brother. The Green Composer… Haydn, was celebrated whereas Beethoven was seen as thorn on his side.

Regardless of this, Beethoven never envied him. He admired Haydn’s abilities for music. The Subderma Layer was a world deprived of light. Stars were but lullabies told by civilizations that were exiled beneath the world by those same stars.

But in some places, one could see the night sky far above their world devoid of the skies. This was the kind of place that Beethoven and Haydn lived in. A type of hell where civilizations sunk to, all because they were banished by the stars.

Haydn brought people joy with his music. Stories were told through his symphonies that touched their souls.

But one day, he disappeared from the Subderma Layer.

What filled the void were people who sought to create music like him, but they did not have the same abilities. What could move people if their music couldn’t? How could they share their pain through their music?

The flesh.

If it was tickled, then it would make one laugh.

If it was pinched, then it would make one cry.

If it was stabbed, then it would make one grimace.

And if it was ripped apart at the climax, then it would make one scream at the top of their lungs.

This was how the Maestros of Flesh were born.

All it took was the realization of this fact, and before Beethoven knew it, his flesh transformed into a form most befitting of his newfound role.

Beethoven was reborn that day, all so that he too could become a Star like his brother.

It all began with a single desire from the bottom of his heart.

* * *

“Bzzt. He ascended and left us in this hell. Bzzt. But you, Ara… Bzzt. You know what hell is like. Bzzt. You know the melody of what it’s like to be fallen. Bzzt. S7 would have taught you the expression of flesh well. Bzzt.”

Beethoven retrieved a golden Seed of light from an interior pocket. The murmurs of his Instruments grew louder as one his six arms stroked the air with a conducting wand. Dozens of hands from beneath the platform pushed up as high as they could, rocking it like a raft in the sea.

“Bzzt. Become reborn anew. Bzzt. Learn the truth, Ara. Bzzt. Awaken and become our hope. Bzzt.”

The Seed hovered just inches away from Ara’s mouth. She’d become an Impuritas the moment she devoured it, and with Haydn’s blood, she would undoubtedly belong to the Maestros of Flesh.

“Bzzt. You’ll come to thank us for your life in S7. Bzzt.”

But the Seed never reached her lips. A blast of wind suddenly crashed through the auditorium. It threw Ara from the platform as Beethoven shielded himself from the unexpected attack.

The Seed rolled away. He attempted to retrieve it, but he was forced to block another attack.

This time, a frozen boulder was sent his way.

“Bzzt! Who dares intrude!? Bzzt!” He blocked it again, this time by conjuring a green, circular barrier.

A figure walked past the Sins defending the corridor into his auditorium. It was an old, human woman with greying, green hair and an eyepatch. The fact that the Sins did not attack her immediately alarmed him.

Not only that, but he recognized this old woman’s face.

“Intrude? Did they send me somewhere I’m not supposed to be?” The old woman uttered, rubbing her right hand.

An unidentifiable mark glowed with a colorless hue. It caused the Sins to tremble as they backed away. Beethoven could not tell if it was out of reverence, restraint…

… or fear.

“Bzzt… You’re… Haydn’s wife? Bzzt.”

“You must be his brother.”

The two instantly recognized one another. This woman was Autumn’s Teacher – a Grand Magician that had somehow found her way into Beethoven’s auditorium. Her naturally composed face was twisted with confusion, as she herself did not know how she appeared here.

“… and that person… over there. Who might that be?” The woman asked, grimacing in pain as the light on her hand intensified.

“Bzzt. That does not concern you. Bzzt. To think I’d see your face here of all places. Bzzt. Did you come knowing?”

“Knowing? Such a broad term. I came looking for what I needed. Thanks to ‘them’… I could have sworn I was lost in a desert.” The woman looked around her, as though she was dreaming.

Neither of them knew why the woman was here.

However, Beethoven did not let his guard down. Teleporting here could only be done through an Etched Coin, but ordinary people could not use them.

Somehow, this woman was teleported here through an entirely different method. This combined with the mark she bared caused him to deploy multiple magical barriers.

A second hand drew a conducting wand to join the first.

“Bzzt. A desert…? Bzzt.”

“A desert with so many endless dunes and ruins that I thought I was in another world. Steel spires so tall that it puts our Major Arcane Towers to shame. Oh what they must have looked like in their prime.”

“Bzzt… Which Region are you talking about? Bzzt.”

“Does it look like I know? You and I know that I didn’t come here to talk.” Icicles rose from the ground like thorns.

They surrounded the woman defensively as she eyed Ara’s body with yearning eyes.

“… my wish was granted after all, for the small price of this ‘mark’. I’ve been wandering the world for a long time looking for Ara.”

“Do you even know what that mark entails?” Beethoven hastened the pace of his symphony, causing their hoarse voices to produce bloody musical notes.

They hovered in the air, surrounding the woman like drawn arrows.

“I doubt you do yourself. Oh Thoven, the light I saw in my dream inside of the sandy dunes led me here straight to what I wanted. Now I must ask you –

She too drew frozen projectiles of her own. Floating icicles each a meter thick surrounded her like the arms of a clock.

“– What were you planning to do to my grandson!?”

Though she was famous for being able to manipulate boulders, she could manipulate ice with just as much proficiency. Her eyes brimmed with sudden fury. In that moment Beethoven knew that he would be locked in combat.

The Maestros of Flesh desperately needed another musician to replace Ara now that another hurdle had arrived.