The pedal was stepped on for the last time tonight.
The intro began with clear, sorrowful keyboard notes, but was immediately followed by a dominant and sharp guitar riff. The violin and Bass entered in perfect sync, creating a grand wall of sound as the drums began to provide a pounding mid-tempo beat.
Eillya opened her voice.
"Let my voice pierce through despair..."
This song was the culmination of all the determination she had reclaimed lately. Her vocals were no longer just melodic; they were incredibly varied. Eillya played with seamless transitions between soft low notes and fragile falsettos, then slipped into an intimate whisper before soaring high into a grand soprano range.
To her back right, Eva wasn't just holding down the rhythm. She leaned into the mic stand in front of her, joining in as a backing vocalist.
"(In silent dawns) I stake my name,"
Eva's backing vocals harmonized beautifully with Eillya's powerful voice.
"(Through storms untamed) I rise aflame~!"
Entering the Chorus, the song felt like a declaration of war against despair. The intensity sat between the aggressiveness of Oath and the depth of Vow, determined, fast, yet remaining elegant.
"This is the voice I forged from falling," Eillya sang with full strength, her eyes ablaze under the stage spotlights.
"(I will sing) though all may fall," Eva replied, her fingers still dancing nimbly over the strings of her Crimson Bass, followed again by Eillya.
Alia, still standing frozen in the back corner, felt as if her soul were being pulled out. She saw an Eillya who was now truly "alive"—every note was a healing wound, every line was proof that a broken soul could be reborn through melody.
When the Breakdown arrived, the instruments subsided for a moment, giving space for Eillya to proclaim the truth she had just discovered.
"The soul within, I now proclaim."
"This truth, once hidden, lights the way (Ha~ aa~~)"
Then, the Final Chorus exploded in majesty, bringing the audience's emotions to their highest culmination. Eillya gave everything, pushing her vocal cords to their absolute limit while remaining stable, as if she were screaming her existence to the whole world.
"This is our Versprechen ~ never lost!"
The final notes of the violin and the thrum of the Bass faded slowly, leaving a long, suffocating silence inside Live House Horizon. Eillya stood with her chest heaving, sweat trickling down her temples, her eyes gazing into the distance with a look far clearer than ever before.
She turned toward Eva. They didn't speak, but Eillya's faint, sincere smile provided the answer to the Vow bound in the resolve of Seele's Aria.
The echoes of the last note of Seele's Aria still vibrated against the wooden walls of Live House Horizon, leaving a resonance that seemed to freeze time. For several seconds, a gripping silence enveloped the 450 pairs of eyes fixed on the stage. However, as soon as Eillya lowered her microphone, that silence shattered into a deafening explosion of sound.
Applause thundered like a storm, mixed with cheers that incessantly called out their names. "Eva! Eva!" shouted some of the crowd, mesmerized by her aggressive bass playing and captivating stage charisma. On the other side, shouts rang out, "Vocalist! Hey! Your voice is insane!" Some audience members even began to chant Eillya's name, though they had only just learned it from the brief conversation on stage.
Eillya stood frozen for a moment, her chest still rising and falling, her lungs trying to scoop up as much oxygen as possible. She saw the crowd, faces that were strangers moments ago, now looking at her with pure admiration. With movements that were stiff yet sincere, Eillya bowed deeply before the microphone.
"Thank you... for listening until the end," she said softly, but her voice was caught by the speakers and sounded incredibly intimate in the ears of the audience.
Eva, on the other hand, laughed out loud. She waved her hand enthusiastically, blowing kisses toward the audience with her signature playful style, before finally signaling Eillya to leave the stage. They walked side by side toward the backstage area, leaving a stage that now felt empty without their presence.
Behind the curtain, an operational staff member greeted them with an impressed look. "Great work, you guys really rocked this place. I didn't expect a two-person performance to be that deep," he praised, giving a thumbs-up.
"Thank you very much for the help," Eillya replied briefly with a polite nod, returning to her usual calm mode.
Meanwhile, in the still-rowdy back area of the audience, Alia Adelaide remained standing like a statue. Her mind felt as if it had been hit by a tidal wave. She felt small, yet at the same time, she felt she had just been given a key to open a door that had been locked inside her for so long.
"They were quite good. Not bad for a group calling itself 'Nameless'."
Alia startled. The raspy, casual voice came from beside her. She turned and found Eris Carlsey leaning against a steel pillar, wearing a dark hoodie with her hands hidden in the pockets. Eris had apparently been there the whole time, observing in silence without being noticed by Alia, who was too focused on the stage.
Alia didn't answer. Her tongue felt tied. Eris's use of "quite good" felt like a massive simplification of the emotional storm she had just witnessed. Without paying Eris any further mind, Alia turned around. She didn't head for the exit. Instead, her feet moved quickly toward the corridor leading to the contestants' preparation room. There was a drive in her heart commanding her to see them one more time, to make sure what she saw on stage was real.
Alia arrived in front of the slightly ajar preparation room door. Her breath was a bit labored. With a hand that trembled slightly, she pushed the door open slowly.
Creeak...
The sight inside the room was the last thing Alia expected to see.
Instead of finding two formidable, dignified musicians like on stage, Alia saw Eva hugging Eillya so tightly she was nearly choking her friend. Eva's face was pale, her eyes were glassy, and she was whining in a very spoiled voice, completely shattering the cool image she had built earlier.
"Illyaaaa! That was so scary! It felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of ghosts staring at me hungrily! I was so terrified, my hands were literally shaking while holding the bass! Hwaaa, don't leave me!" Eva complained at length while hiding her face in Eillya's shoulder, as if she were a child who had just gotten lost in a haunted house.
Alia froze in the doorway. Her eyes blinked in disbelief.
"Who is this girl? Where is the bassist who was doing slap techniques with a predator's gaze on stage?" she thought in bewilderment.
Noticing a change in the room's atmosphere, Eva slowly raised her head. Once her eyes caught Alia standing there with a confused expression, Eva's pupils dilated completely. An incredibly awkward silence enveloped the room for three seconds.
Zip!
In a reflex movement of extraordinary speed, Eva released her hug, sat up straight in her chair, and smoothed out her messy blouse in an instant. She cleared her throat loudly, trying to regain control over her face, which was turning beet red from embarrassment.
"Ah... y-you... Alia...?" Eva spoke in a voice she intentionally made professional and calm, though the tremor of embarrassment at the edge of her words couldn't be hidden. "Sorry, what you just saw... wasn't what it looked like. That was just... a muscle relaxation technique after performing. Yes, something like that."
Eillya, who had been silent the whole time letting herself be hugged, turned slowly toward Eva with her legendary flat gaze.
"Weird," Eillya murmured shortly.
That short sentence from Eillya felt like the final blow to Eva's pride, which was now in pieces. Eva could only cover her face with one hand, while Alia still stood there, not knowing whether to respond with laughter or the respect she had just pieced back together.
"So..." Alia finally spoke, her voice quiet but stable. "You guys... really did that just now? All of it?"
Eva looked at Alia, and then slowly her genuine smile returned, this time without the stage mask. "Yes. That's us, Alia. And what you heard earlier... that was the honesty we talked about at the cafe."
Alia was silent for a moment, then she gave a small nod. For the first time, she felt that she wouldn't mind being dragged further into the world of these two strange girls.
The neon lights of Live House Horizon slowly receded behind them, replaced by the dim streetlights of the Keiya district, which still held the remnants of the night's bustle. Eillya walked in front, her steps calm and measured, as if she were reorganizing the emotions that had just exploded on stage. Without turning, she spoke in a clear yet firm tone.
"If we want to talk at length and seriously, we should find a place more human than this stuffy corridor," Eillya said.
Eva, who was back to carrying the GigBag containing her red bass, nodded in agreement. Though the blush on her cheeks from the embarrassing incident in the prep room hadn't fully faded, she had managed to regain her natural charisma. Behind them, Alia followed in silence. Her eyes occasionally flickered between Eillya's and Eva's backs, trying to reconcile the "stage monsters" she had just seen with the two girls now walking casually in front of her.
A few minutes down the sidewalk, they arrived at a 24-hour cafe where the atmosphere was much quieter. The scent of roasted coffee beans and cinnamon welcomed them as the glass door opened. Eillya chose a corner seat that was quite private, out of earshot from other patrons.
Before the conversation began, Eva as usual, taking the role of the group's caretaker, went to the counter. Without needing to ask, she already knew what Eillya wanted, and with her sharp social instincts, she ordered a drink she felt would suit Alia, who still looked a bit tense.
While waiting for the order to arrive, silence enveloped the wooden table. The warm yellow light of the hanging lamp reflected on the table's surface, creating long shadows between them. Eva leaned back, gazing at Alia with eyes full of curiosity.