musicians of old

Chapter 978 In the Name of "Original Light" (Grand Finale, Part 2)

This night.

The Symphony Hall at the headquarters of Turner Theatres.

In the first few rows of the audience, more than a hundred musicians from the former symphony orchestra stood silently in front of the empty stage.

The air was eerily quiet; you could hear the faint breathing of the people around you.

"Notify other theater chains that the altar can be shut down."

After a long pause, Walter spoke in a hoarse voice, but only issued this one order.

One person got up and ran towards the passage, almost tripping and falling on the flat ground along the way.

The others remained seated, saying nothing.

The last scene
What was the last thing we saw?
The further you go, the less you can actually "see" anything. The background is either glaring white or some exquisite but meaningless iterative patterns. The outlines of Fanning and the other person are visible, but there is no sound or texture details. Only the silhouette movements and some transcendent emotions can be perceived.

But towards the end, the background inexplicably dimmed, and in the middle area of ​​the image, it gradually took on a dark amber-colored solidity.

The two stood for a while in a spot that looked like it had formed a scab, making some minor, small movements.

Then the observers suddenly felt a chilling sensation burst forth from the fur on their backs, their hearts felt like they were about to explode for a moment, and their eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets!

Then, they saw that the silhouette of another person had been erased and disappeared into thin air!

Finally, Fanning's aura became slightly clearer for about half a breath, and it was clear that she was smiling easily. Then she said something that was the only thing they could actually hear in the entire room.

“It’s nice here.”

The chilling feeling and the bulging sensation in my eyes suddenly disappeared, replaced by a sense of relief, a feeling of basic peace of mind.

It seems that a sense of "perfect connection" has finally been experienced.

The scene ends there, and the stage returns to its empty state.

It seems that everything Master Fanning arranged is going smoothly?
There was no evidence or physical sensation to suggest that things "didn't go well," but that unsettling, brief, and terrifying moment during the process was...
For some reason, everyone remained silent and continued to sit in their seats.

"Let's go to the rehearsal hall, everyone."

Finally, Roy stood up, his voice calm.

Everyone got up and moved around quietly, their movements starting slowly and then speeding up.

Five minutes later, the door to the secret rehearsal room was locked, and more than a hundred musicians and chorus members from the old symphony orchestra took their seats in their respective sections.

They were all people who had previously climbed the tower to participate in the "Sixth" performance and the "Genesis Concert".

However, it's only a little past three in the morning.

There was still some time before Fan Ning's parting instructions for "noon the next day".

The group began to secretly discuss the metaphor they had just seen. The atmosphere was not exactly heavy or serious, but it was by no means relaxed.

From the premiere of "Song of the Earth" to the full observation through the "Witnessing Passage" just now, everyone has found that their memories have begun to loosen to varying degrees.

The discussion was led by Sheeran, Roy, and Joan, with Walter, Anne, and Luna, Fanning's three students, playing secondary roles, and the rest of the musicians and singers participating.

The three chiefs who have integrated the Key of Time have seen their strength increase rapidly in recent days. Joan has stabilized at the fifth level of the Order, Roy has broken through to the fourth level of the Order, and Shilan has also risen to the third level of the Profound Understanding. Their advancement to the Order Master should not be far off.

The three of them recovered their previous "frosted glass" memories the fastest, and they also understood the images of Fanning and Mr. F in the observation channel the clearest among all of them, "seeing" many details that others had not noticed.

The discussion concluded that the subsidized housing unit had definitely been moved up.

Fanning should have already witnessed the glow, and it probably didn't happen at the very end, but rather in the "middle or later stages".

He has probably ascended to a higher level than the person of the Witness.

then
The "path of the three disregarded" has crossed the "radiance" and reached the final "gathering point." Everyone's opinion on this point is quite consistent.

But what about Fanning's comment, "This place is great"?
The near-explosive horror of a heart attack, the subtle tremor in Fanning's figure, the relieved smile on her face as she turned away, the dangerous element incinerated into nothingness.
"The door of Haustorium?" Shiran suddenly blurted out a phrase.

“The Gate of Suction.” Roy’s pupils contracted for a moment.

There will definitely be problems in the end.

Especially considering Hiran's inexplicable nightmare earlier.
Fanning, He must have seen something in the end, something even He couldn't understand.
What exactly is that?
Was "this place is wonderful" just a lie He told us?
The "Gathering Point" is already the highest point in the entire world, the highest point to which countless "noons" have submitted, the place where the world's first batch of forms and concepts were thrown out. Why are there still "things" outside that end?
If you were to ask what the great terror from the outside world truly is, or what exactly the "former gathering point" refers to, even someone like Fanning nearly collapsed at the mere glance of that question.
Does the premise that we are all sitting here discussing or describing it still hold true?
"The Upper Realm".

The three principals exchanged ideas in hushed tones, and finally offered this term to the musicians who were lost in thought.

The upper realm, or the upper world.

They had just made up a very inaccurate pronoun, but they couldn't come up with a better solution.

Joan's voice still trembled slightly as she presented the conjecture formed by the three of them in a cool tone: "The Upper Realm" does not refer to the dwellings above, nor to other "noon" realms, but rather to an upper world that is far superior to the entire world of "noon" known to everyone.

Or perhaps the world we live in now is itself a "defective product," and what exactly that previous "gathering point" was remains unknown; it may have been a chance event that led to its entry.

It might be a single hair that some higher being accidentally stuck in, or it might just be a "lower-level creature" wandering in the higher realm, or even just a pile of "excrement from a lower-level creature wandering in the higher realm"!
“Similar to bird droppings that infect snails,” Shiran added.

At this point in the discussion, everyone was extremely shocked by Fanning's current situation and felt extremely desperate and terrified about the future of the entire world!
Miss Nightingale forced a smile of optimism: "Our teacher...he...is very powerful. At least we haven't been defeated yet. Perhaps our teacher is currently fighting against those things; that creature is just...if this continues..."

"Calling it 'living things' is just wishful thinking on everyone's part," Joan shook her head gravely. "What kind of place that is, whether 'living things' exist in the conventional sense, is unknown. Its essential attributes are completely unknowable to everyone. Moreover, I doubt that imagining one day being able to contend with it using the mindset of 'ascending to higher places' is even meaningful—"

She voiced a conjecture among the three that was even more devastating and despairing.

Since even the "creatures" of the upper realm might just be "lower beings" or "the excrement of lower beings," it's highly likely that even higher "levels" exist above the upper realm! This is a logical deduction and reasoning from the mystical, and it's also what Fan Ning hinted at in the final scene. In other words, the three now suspect that the truth at the top of this world might be—

“There is also a higher realm above the higher realm,” Qiong said.

"This is the true essence of 'agnosticism'."

"In other words, outside that 'gathering point' location, or the outside world that Fanning is currently facing, there may be an infinite number of 'levels'." "Then what do we do?" Luna asked at this moment.

Everyone present wanted to ask that question.

They felt dizzy.

Suffocating from the inability to think, dizzying from despair.

Is there still any hope?

If one day they "rise higher," it's possible that everyone can help Fanning achieve a countermeasure, or completely "guard" the gap that could be breached by great terror at any time, that's a "hope." But what if there are infinitely many "levels"?
In this agnostic world of despair, is there still a possibility of striving for hope?
“I don’t know,” Joan gasped and shook her head.

Her biggest worry right now is Fan Ning.

I wonder how He is doing now.

I don't know if I can still contact Him or pray to Him.

"Everyone, one minute left." Finally, Roy looked up from his worries and spoke up to remind them.

The musicians glanced at the wall clock in the rehearsal room.

This difficult and terrifying secret discussion had already lasted for almost nine hours in the blink of an eye.

11 points.

Yes, rehearsals.

Everyone is here to wait for rehearsal.

Director Walter stood on the podium without a baton. He had been mostly silent, occasionally offering his opinion. In front of him was the score of Symphony No. 9 in D major. The musicians had actually been in place when they came in, but they had forgotten that their instruments were still in their hands while discussing this topic.

Everyone looked at Walter, at the sheet music.

The lights cut sharp spots of light on the dark wooden floor, and the air was filled with the scent of pine, old wood, and an indescribable tension and sense of unease, like an arrow on a bowstring, ready to be released.

Walter took a deep breath.

He raised his hands just as the clock hands fell to the twelve o'clock mark.

There was no pre-shooting, no signal; it just landed.

The D note, permeated by shadows, slowly rises. The first movement is surprisingly a slow andante. The opening harp pizzicato and French horn motif are like the heartbeat of a dying person, uneven and intermittent, bidding farewell, stretching, and lengthening into a continuous diffuse state. The theme is not "developed" but "dissolved," like a piece of ice slowly melting in warm water.

This is not a symphony at all; it is a description of a vast world slowly disintegrating. It has no lyrics; all the words are buried in the gaps between the notes.

Fanning, it seems, had foreseen what would happen in a philosophical way, a kind of voyeurism and gaze, beginning with fear but gradually turning into a focused, almost calm look. The second movement is a rough Leander in C major, but twisted into a grotesque form, each part accelerating, accelerating to the point of being out of control, finally stopping abruptly with a dry chord. The third movement is a rondo-scherzo in A minor, angry, dark, hysterical, where counterpoint becomes a weapon, the voices tearing at each other, never reaching a consensus, divinity laughing wildly in despair, and then, everything collapses.
However, in the fourth movement, the longest and gentlest finale, the tonality drops by an unprecedented semitone to the tonic, reaching D-flat major. This is not a "resolution," but a "sinking," sinking into a softer, more ambiguous realm.
The structure is extremely simple: one theme, five variations, and then it disappears. There is no climax, no redemption, only layers of fading, the texture becoming thinner and thinner until finally only a long note gradually blends into the silence remains.

The "presence" of everything was forcibly unified to the same frequency. The musicians felt their breathing, heartbeat, and even thoughts were synchronized with the vibration of that sound. Everything was like a giant whale slowly sinking into the deep sea, taking all the sounds, all the light and shadow, and all the sense of existence with it as it sank downwards.

The moment the last lingering sound disappeared—

"Bang!" "Crash—"

Suddenly, a crashing and shattering sound came from the rehearsal room!
Sheeran, Joan, and Roy, who were already in tears from their performance, looked up in surprise upon hearing this, hurriedly put down their instruments, and rushed to a desk piled with miscellaneous items in the corner of the rehearsal room.

A candlestick had somehow fallen over.

Then, it was "flattened".

On the wooden surface of this office desk, there is a silhouette of an extinguished classical candlestick, tilted over, without a flame, yet sharp geometric lines burst forth from it!

Staring at those lines for too long, I vaguely heard the melody of a new symphony, a further step in the numbering. But everything was in an unfinished state of creation, and even the concept of time was misplaced. The creation might not have even begun yet. I could only vaguely hear that it was a continuation of the ending of the Ninth Symphony that we had just rehearsed—the key was set in F-sharp major. It started with a viola solo, a dark, exploratory andante melody, which quickly intertwined with the comforting adagio of the strings and trombone, like a shaky temporary harbor. Later, I vaguely heard a burst of A-flat minor, leading to a terrifying chord with nine notes, casting a shadow over the entire inner revelation. But in the later sections, the music seemed to be trying to comfort and dispel the gloom.

When I came to my senses, I looked at the table again, and there it was still a classical candlestick symbol, tilted over, without a candle flame, and cracked with sharp geometric lines.

这 是
A witness symbol!?

Their trembling hands touched the symbol one by one.

Someone traced the name of a god with their fingertip.

Urlicht.

"We beseech 'Yuan Guang'."

Hilan's tears flowed uncontrollably again, and the syllables she uttered at first were broken into sobs.

“We beseech ‘Original Light,’ the musician of old, the first cause of creation.” She sobbed twice, trying her best to remain calm.

"Silent lovers, the price of witnessing, the chords that have passed, the invitations that have not been fulfilled." Joan's thin shoulders trembled slightly.

“The foundation upon which the three are insignificant, the beacon of stars, the echo that never ceases, the solitary glimmer of light in the polar night,” Roy murmured softly.

Light streamed into the secret rehearsal room through an invisible gap.

It swallowed the silhouette of the classical candlestick, swallowed everyone's figures, and swallowed the entire space.

This anomaly occurred very quickly.

In a flash, the rehearsal room returned to the intensity of the electric lights.

"What is that?!" someone suddenly asked from Dan Le's hand.

Everyone turned to look, and saw that not far from the conductor's platform, where the grand piano had been, the piano was gone, and countless tiny, shimmering cracks appeared in the air.

There appeared a huge mirror!

The mirror looked as if it had been gently cracked, with cracks spreading slightly in all directions from its center, extending beyond the walls, beyond the streets, beyond the city, and beyond the world.

In the name of "Original Light",
Here, a hall that runs through the "noon" area has been opened up!