Inside the Sonoro Sphere, one person's mood could only be described as exasperated.
Changli had intended to serve as witness, to capture every earth-shaking second of the battle between Jué, Rover, and Jinhsi with her own eyes. Not a single moment missed.
Even her legendary composure couldn't stop the twitch at the corner of her lips.
"Honestly... I can't see a thing."
Three wielders of time, clashing in a world where time itself had stopped. No matter how wide she forced her eyes, she couldn't track a single frame of what was happening inside that frozen space. All she could do was laugh bitterly at her own helplessness.
Then the shockwaves hit, and laughter became a luxury. She threw everything she had into shielding herself from the aftershocks of their apocalyptic exchange, not daring to let her attention wander for even a heartbeat.
On the battlefield proper, Rover and Jinhsi shared the same stunned thought: Jué stood at death's door, her life burning down to embers, and yet the power she wielded still dwarfed anything a Calamity Class Tacet Discord could produce.
Makes sense, though. Above Calamity Class, the only enemies are Threnodians. The two I know of, the Ovathrax and the Leviathan, can both create Calamity Class Tacet Discords on their own. Sentinels exist on that same tier. Strength beyond Calamity Class is the baseline for them.
Rover watched a sphere of golden lightning condense in the sky above. Jué coiled around it, pouring power into the orb until it swelled to monstrous proportions, a dragon cradling a pearl of destruction. Then it detonated, raining indiscriminate annihilation across the entire domain.
He and Jinhsi unleashed their Fortes at full force to endure it.
And in that instant of pushing past their limits, the final Resonance began.
"Time, bend to my will!"
The golden light within him blazed brighter than ever. The mark on the back of his right hand pulsed violently, devouring the Temporal Mandate woven into Jué's attack. Because this power shared the same origin as his own, he could absorb it without Abby's help for the first time.
"Arbiter, you're almost there!"
Jué's claws tightened with anticipation. But when her gaze shifted to the other side, the breath caught in her ancient throat.
Jinhsi's body was fracturing. Golden cracks spread across her skin like fault lines through porcelain. The girl pressed a hand over her mouth, strangling every sound before it could escape, refusing to let even a cry of pain disturb Rover's concentration.
One step from the edge.
"Jinhsi!"
"I'm sorry, Jué... Rover..."
The cracks multiplied. This was the prelude to annihilation, the sign that failed Resonance would let the timestream tear her apart. But she hadn't made a single mistake. Every step of this battle, she'd executed flawlessly. Breaking through Overclocking to her absolute limit, trading blows with a being infinitely stronger than herself, never once letting her resolve waver.
The failure wasn't hers. It was luck. Nothing more.
...So I couldn't make it after all. Maybe that's how it was always going to be. A second Resonance... even if I do everything right... the final step still comes down to fate.
This had always been an impossible challenge. One wrong step meant certain failure. Every step right, and fate still had the final say. She'd given everything, and it wasn't enough. Reality didn't work like a game where following the right sequence guaranteed a perfect ending.
But at least... he made it.
A peaceful smile settled on Jinhsi's face. She forced open eyes already blurring at the edges, wanting one last glimpse of that dark silhouette. And then...
The dream she'd had that day came true.
"I told you. I don't leave anyone behind."
Arms closed around her. Black hair, golden eyes, holding her tight.
"Ro... ver...?"
"What you're missing, I'll fill in."
He took her hand and channeled his own Temporal Mandate into her, forcing a direct Resonance with the girl in his arms.
The Frequencies inside her, fractured and guttering from Overclocking and failed Resonance, surged back to life under the flood of his power. Exactly as he'd promised: where luck fell short, he would make up the difference.
"Jinhsi, you already did everything right. You think I'm going to let something as petty as bad luck erase all of that? Tuning, start!"
"That's...!"
Jué watched with barely contained awe. Jinhsi's chaotic Frequencies found an anchor, like a drowning person seizing a lifeline. Slowly, impossibly, they stabilized.
That anchor was Rover.
What he was doing bordered on suicidal. Forcibly linking with an Overclocking Resonator meant their destabilized Frequencies would drag the other's into chaos too. Both would Overclock. Both would die.
But...
"Of course! The Arbiter is a Resonator who cannot Overclock!"
As a Vessel of Sound, his Frequency stability was absolute. He and the female Rover were the only Resonators in existence with zero risk of Overclocking, an immovable pillar in a raging sea.
And Jué knew well that among the countless titles her Arbiter held, one stood apart: Astral Modulator. In Solaris-3, where everything was composed of Frequency, the power to Tune meant the power to reshape the essence of all things. Jinhsi's shattered Frequencies sang back into harmony under his hands.
She entered Triple Resonance once more.
And this time, she would not fail.
Because...
"Jinhsi, I'm with you."
"Yes." Her voice was steady now, unshakeable. "With you here... I'm not afraid of anything."
A few silver-white scales flushed crimson behind her ears. Not from power spiraling out of control this time.
She looked at him, close enough to count his eyelashes.
Her heartbeat quickened.
Something nameless and undeniable took root in her chest, and as it bloomed, they completed the final Resonance together. Power answered.
"A miracle the likes of which has never existed!" Jué's voice rang through the Sphere.
Triple Resonance, achieved.
When the Sentinel released her hold on time, color flooded back into the grey world like dawn breaking. Changli stared, speechless. From her perspective, the entire process had been invisible; she'd skipped straight from the beginning to the ending.
But the ending needed no context to steal her breath.
All three hung suspended in the air. The ancient dragon, sacred and sovereign, coiled around the silver-haired girl and the dark-haired boy like a constellation taking shape.
Golden dragon horns crowned both Jinhsi and Rover.
With every gesture, the heavens shifted. Stars wheeled. Flowers bloomed and withered in the span of a breath. Rivers reversed course. Time itself had become their Authority.
A dragon's cry, long and luminous, erupted from the Sentinel's throat. Not a battle roar. A hymn of celebration.
In that moment, the three completed a cycle of renewal. Jinhsi fed the power gained from Triple Resonance back to Rover, who channeled it into the Sentinel, who returned it to Jinhsi. Their spent reserves flooded back in an instant. Jué's wounds, the damage of centuries, knit themselves shut.
"It... it really worked?!" Changli whispered.
"It did." Rover's voice carried the calm of someone who'd already moved on to the next step. "The time is right. Let's move."
Both he and Jinhsi now carried power on an entirely different scale. The Sentinel's Authority was restored, her fading strength replenished through the feedback loop in a single heartbeat.
Time to give the Ovathrax a surprise.
"Shorie, prepare for transport. Open a path for us!"