—— ? ——

  Melodian stared into the distance, deep in thought. It had been an hour since his outburst, and he had meditated and centered himself. Melodian watched the phase moths flitter across his multi-colored realm. They were among the most fascinating creatures the bardic god had come across in his many travels.

  To Melodian, the moths represented one of the many truths of artistic endeavors. There are pursuits or artistic pieces that are better observed passively and in their entirety. Far too many times, Melodian had watched mortals and gods observe and criticize artistic works through careful, excruciating observation. But those same beings would stare in wonder at a sunset, waterfall, or other natural wonder.

  Why didn’t they search the waterfall to find the rock that was off color? The cloud that was just out of position? No, they would just watch nature’s beauty in its entirety, not nitpicking over the smallest details. Could these beings not follow the same pattern when listening to a song, viewing a painting, or reading a poet’s words?

  That was why Melodian found the phase moths to be so striking. Their very nature prevented even the gods from observing them directly. Of course, you could capture their essence in the background, at the edge of your vision, but that was the extent.

  What an extraordinary creature. He thought to himself.

  Melodian continued to examine his realm. The rolling hills and spectacular sunset soothed his mind.

  His mind sorely needed it.

  He turned his gaze to the glowing energy that was barely visible to the naked eye. Melodian knew he had been hasty in his maddened choice.

  But the mortal had just been… so… awful…

  Maybe he should have just banished the untalented man, but it felt like such a waste. The mortal named Simon hadn’t complained, hadn’t broken; He had just pushed forward. If Melodian could guide that powerful will into a compatible art, then the mortal had a bright future.

  If I hadn’t been able to feel his sincerity, I would have assumed he was just trying to mock me. Melodian mused while studying the crackling energies of the time realm.

  The green and white energy was still stable. This meant his training realm was at its peak form.

  Which was concerning.

  It had been fourteen hours.

  “I knew he was horrible,” Melodian said, voicing his thoughts. “I guessed it would take at least three hours for him to succeed…”

  He looked closer at the energies, wishing desperately that he could peer into the realm hidden beyond the rift in time and energy.

  It was impossible to artificially extend the realm’s time during integration. Nor was there a way to shorten it. Once the student reached the bare minimum of requirements to satisfy the gods, the realm would open and expel its occupants.

  However,

  Fourteen.

  Hours.

  Over six years in relative time.

  “What is happening?” Melodian muttered in disbelief.

  —— ? ——

  Simon wiped his forehead, swiping away the dripping sweat that poured down his face.

  Whew… That’s it! What a great workout… can’t argue with the results either, he thought to himself, swelling with pride.

  He had completed his great masterpiece. Simon turned from his work and shouted at the realm’s central tower.

  “Hey, Mr. Rapunzel! What do you think of the remodel? Took a while, but you have got to agree this has been a monumental project, don’t you think?”

  A thought struck the tired and sweaty mortal.

  “Wait, could this be used as a performance? Hold up, Mr. Rapunzel, do you think we should try that? Let me go see the stage and … oh…” Simon said, taking exaggerated steps toward the Stage of Eternal Auditions.

  “Well… crap. Mr. Rapunzel, do you think this may cause a bit of a technical issue with putting on a performance?” Simon asked with a convincing look of mock concern as he observed the Stage of Eternal Auditions.

  You know… It’s more the rubble heap of temporary auditions, huh? Simon thought with a huge smirk on his face.

  This realm once housed a place called The Stage of Eternal Auditions.

  The structure had been an architectural tribute to bardic aspirations. Smooth marble-like jade columns spiraled upwards, polished wooden interiors glowing under enchanted lights, rows of velvet-cushioned seats arranged in perfect arcs. Etched into every surface were intricate carvings of artistic achievement, fantastical instruments, and scenes of wonder. The walls had resonated with the echoes of thousands of performances, and magical effects would slowly leak those wonderful sounds while you waited in the building’s enormous lobby.

  Unfortunately, someone had scheduled the structure for remodeling.

  The Stage of Eternal Auditions was no more. It was a wide, empty slab of divine stone, surrounded by towering piles of dismantled luxury.

  Velvet cushions, drapes, and other soft cloth objects were piled in a heap.

  Splintered wood stacked into crude lumber piles, broken jade marble chunks carefully laid like a stone cutter’s inventory. The roof, walls, and anything remotely resembling a building were gone.

  Everywhere, thin tendrils of green and white residual energy would still flicker faintly, clinging to the materials like ghostly vines. In the silence, while standing in the building turned materials yard, the echoes of past performances would just barely whisper their echoes.

  As if the building itself had yet to accept its fate.

  Simon looked over his work, proud and satisfied.

  Now, why wasn’t the other cute little member of his home acknowledging his grand achievement?

  Must still be sleeping… Hmmm… Well, I know just the thing.

  Simon whistled as he walked to the Chambers of Sound and Silence. He really nailed the renovation of that building; It was one of his greatest feats.

  He paused at the door and looked fondly at the wooden sign fashioned from a chunk of piano. The lettering was crude but glowed with a flashing psychedelic pattern.

  He smiled as he remembered coming up with the building’s new name.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Realm Rocker Radio.

  —— ? ——

  Simon wandered the realm, coming up with his plan. He trashed every instrument he could get his hands on and drove Melodian to his tower. Now he had all the time he could want. He considered what he would do over the next few years.

  His plan was simple.

  Destroy. All. The. Things.

  He would start with the Gallery of Growth and then move his way around the entire realm.

  His first problem had been how, or if, it was possible.

  After several well-placed kicks to the gallery’s door, the issue of possibility was solved.

  Kicking was probably not a great long-term solution.

  However, Simon was a simple man. He would kick until kicking was no longer useful in his quest to break things.

  Then he would think.

  Following a long sequence of kicks at anything kickable—worthy of a karate kid montage—Simon had to stop.

  His calves were on fire. It felt like he had dragged them through a pool of molten steel.

  This raised an additional concern: fitness.

  Now he had been playing instruments, dancing, and a whole menagerie of other physical activities. But these were not sufficient for the task ahead.

  He needed muscles; he needed stamina. This place would not destroy itself.

  Simon could run easily enough; The outer pathway of the realm was a perfect running track. Lifting would be a bit more complicated.

  Simon decided the first thing he would need was a list. Its first section would be about what needed to become piles of rubble.

  He also needed a list of everything he had access to here: materials, items, and other things.

  Simon went to the Ballad Forge and gained all the writing material he might need.

  He was excited to find a magical version of a whiteboard. It resembled an advanced tech board, but with the ability to copy thoughts he directed at it.

  Crazy useful.

  After a frenzied hour, he sat back on his bed at his Floor of Flowing Time home.

  The list was coming together. At the top of his newly gained massive whiteboard, it read.

  — Realm Remodeling Plan?—

  Part I: Buildings

  1. Destroy with prejudice.

  Gallery of Torture. (Formerly known as the Gallery of Growth)

  Stage of Eternal Auditions. (Name change pending)

  Creepy Voices Garden. (I have enough voices in my head, thanks)

  Laughing Steps. (Who even names a building this?)

  Theater of ‘Truths’. (Yeah, this one can go too.)

  2. Modify:

  The Chambers of Sound and Silence (Great place to ignore an annoying god)

  Note: Is it possible to expand this? Make it so the silence can cover everything? Or maybe just on a certain god’s tower.

  3. Leave as is:

  The Floor of Flowing Time. (Rename to Zumba Hall?)

  Note: This place is so nice, I might leave it untouched.

  The Bardic Armory. (Maybe it will restock with more stress relief?)

  Harmonic library. (I will DEFINITELY go nuts if I don’t have something to read.)

  Ballad Forge. (Where else would I get great list and doodling supplies?)

  4. Investigate further:

  Vibrant Voice. (Need to explore possibilities.)

  Part II: Training and Equipment.

  Current problems:

  1. I am strong, but not strong enough to maximize damage to this stupid place.

  2. My endurance is decent, but I need even more stamina for optimal destruction pace.

  Solutions:

  Lift heavy things to gain muscle.

  Run, do weighted movements, etc, for stamina.

  Use the Floor of Flowing Time A LOT for balance. It’s for training. Totally not because I like that place.

  Breaking down buildings will be a great overall body workout.

  Equipment on hand:

  Big ole running track around the realm.

  That’s it. This is a problem.

  Potential ideas:

  Build weights and resistance items from available destroyed items.

  Hook a piano chunk with heavy things on it to be like a sled? CrossFit people do that, I think.

  Find something to use as a pull-up bar.

  Maybe use bricks or other large objects from buildings as weights? Break the things, use the things.

  — — —

  Simon wondered if mimicking the system’s format could be considered blasphemy.

  Eh, it’s probably fine. If that is the reason the system gets mad at me, I’ll just add it to my growing list of cosmic beings that hate me.

  He nodded to himself.

  This would work.

  For the first time since he had entered this realm, he felt a bit of excitement about the future. Time to have some fun with this place.

  —— ? ——

  Simon’s days fell into a new pattern. He would wake up and then go get clean.

  He was really enjoying the facilities of the place, especially in the shower department. His shower had magical runes that worked like touch controls on extravagant showers from Earth. The best part was that it seemed that the water was just there; there was no waiting period or warming needed. You twisted the runes for temperature, pressure, and volume and then hit the central one. The water would just appear at the top of the shower. Simon got it just how he liked it and never had to think about it again.

  Next, he would run until he couldn’t run anymore. He was unsure of how long the loop was in the realm, but he knew how much he could do. Roughly three to four loops in the early days.

  Of course, an irritated god would yell down from his balcony some days. Melodian had started by attempting to reason with him, which Simon ignored. Then he pleaded. Then he just yelled.

  Simon made a point of adding an essential part to his running routine. He dubbed his added exercise “The Central Tower Flip Off”. Whenever the tower was in view, and Melodian was on a balcony, he would hold up his hands in an emphatic middle-finger salute to his ex-teacher.

  Following his runs, he would get to work dismantling one of his many projects. Simon was going to train his strength, but for the first few months, he figured the best training would be enthusiastic destruction.

  At first, Melodian would come to stop him.

  “Please, mortal, let’s be reasonable. We are so close, and you obviously don’t want to be here. What do you have to gain by hurting the very places that may be your salvation from here?” The god would plead.

  Simon had discovered that silence was the best response to Melodian. He had also found that if the god got in his way while he was breaking the realm, the god would phase out of his way. It seemed the realm had strict rules to keep Melodian from obstructing him.

  It was a great feature. Simon didn’t question it; he just loved it.

  Simon had found a really great wrecking bar, a metallic bassoon. The fragile bits and things to make it function had all been bent and broken, but the main body was still mostly intact. Simon used it to great effect.

  Which is why he was extremely pissed off when Melodian stole it.

  “Give it back, you tower diva!” Simon yelled, shaking his fists at the god. He had kept the bassoon with him in his home and had woken to find it missing.

  The god smirked at him. “Why would I do that, mortal? One must always remember to take dangerous toys away from disobedient children.” Melodian chuckled, clearly enjoying Simon’s frustration.

  Simon stomped off and went back to searching through the heaps of broken instruments. He found a similar metal piece and went back to his demolition of the gallery.

  The next morning, he was back yelling at the god.

  “I swear to… Well, I swear to something. I am going to make you pay, you insane, useless sack!” he raged.

  The stupid god had confiscated everything that could serve as a wrecking tool.

  That tower has got to be almost completely full by this point, he mused grumpily.

  The god just smiled down at him, seeming to mentally pat his own useless back.

  Simon needed a solution; He would not achieve his list with the god’s active meddling.

  He sighed and decided today would be a day of exploration. He went through every building, deep in thought.

  What could he do?

  It wasn’t helping that whenever he came out of a building, the god would jeer at him from high on his tower.

  “Oh, did the poor mortal lose his toys for breaking things? Well, I guess the only option is to practice! Why not spend the next few years attempting to remove the dying goat that is birthed from your vocal cords every shower?” Melodian shouted at him later that day.

  Simon had pretty much ignored every taunt the stupid being had said today, but he froze at this last one.

  He stared up at the god, his mind filled with inspiration. He even came up with a new name for the stupid divine being.

  “Hey, Mr. Rapunzel. How do you know what I sound like in the shower?” He asked, shouting up at Melodian.

  “How could I not! Also, Mr. Rapunzel? Really? You need to get creative with your pathetic mortal insults.” Mr. Rapunzel replied with disdain.

  “On earth, Rapunzel, a damsel in distress, lived trapped in a tower and couldn’t escape. I think the name fits,” Simon said while thinking.

  He could hear me in the shower? How?

  Was the god constantly watching him?

  Simon grinned. He had a new theory to test.

  He whirled around and trotted over to a building he had little experience with.

  The Vibrant Voice.

  It took days of tinkering, but Simon was proud of the settings he had discovered.

  The structure had been built to help students work on their voices. Tone, projection, harmony, breath control, the whole works.

  Simon was interested in only one of those aspects.

  Projection.

  Days went by as he ramped up the building’s features.

  Who would have guessed that the place’s ability to replay someone’s voice could be used as a megaphone?

  Not Melodian, that’s for sure.

  Also, it turned out that the building’s soundproofing required walls.

  Simon changed his daily focus, and within two weeks, he had knocked out one wall.

  It was painful and slow, as the god would take any object Simon showed any interest in.

  But nothing could stop him. If he had to rip the wall apart using fingernails, he would do it.

  As soon as it was done, Simon decided his only passion was singing. He would sing until he passed out.

  However, Melodian was also stubborn.

  “I don’t CARE, mortal. Sing all you want. I am a god; my mind is so beyond your comprehension. “

  Melodian yelled at Simon one evening. Simon had just finished his fifth rendition of Smash Mouth’s All-Star.

  Simon was growing increasingly frustrated. The god would laugh and shout back, trying to goad him into anger.

  He spent most days either running, singing, or doing things like pushups in the chambers of sound and silence. At least there, the god couldn’t yell at him.

  He was in the middle of a sound-dampened pushup when new inspiration hit him. Simon looked at the chambers, then quickly thought to pull up its features.

  After mentally flipping through what the building could do, an uncontrollable grin spread to his face.

  The chambers of sound and silence had recordings of so many songs from Earth. The volume could be ramped up to a level that Simon was sure would have hurt him physically before the system.

  What was horrible singing without annoying music to accompany it?

  Several days of deconstruction later, and he had the perfect duo for divine torture.

  Realm Rocker Radio was born.

  Years after its founding, Melodian would still have nightmares of the mortal-conceived disaster.

  —— ? ——

  — AUTHOR NOTICE —

  > Thanks for reading!

  ~TheBusyBard

  Harmony is offered, growth is earned, Limits are unknown.

  ——————————