[This chapter serves as an introduction for the novel. Please do not skip.]
In 2030, while the world was embroiled in several wars, the Earth was shaken by a phenomenal energy never seen before. These energies started causing drastic environmental changes and later violent earthquakes, later dubbed "Calamities," which caused entire continents to tear apart from one another.
At first scientists believed that these were happening because of seismic activities on earths core. However they were proven wrong as they discovered this energy emitted sound waves that could be recognized as a melody. It was later named "Frequency Waves."
The earths habitat had changed in such a short time that many major human settlements had become unrecognizable. Meanwhile, humanity was too busy fighting amongst itself to react in time when the calamity struck, the damage was catastrophic, as everything happened too suddenly. Many new forests had formed and many new landscapes had been born some of which seemed to defy common logic, one of the many was the Floating City. Previously known as New York, the city had suddenly started elevating from its surface and formed flying islands.
In history this would be recorded as "First Overclock," also known as the "Hymn of Awakening." It was described as serene melody that echoed through radios across the world.
Just after humans were struck with several calamities, what came next hit them even harder. These so called "frequency waves" started to reanimate the dead, being it a plant, an animal or a human. Although rather than turning them into walking corpses, it gave them a new life. A violent one. The dead were now turning into grotesque creatures that looked like they had crawled to the face of the earth from the depths of hell.
It was very hard for the common military to deal with these new types of lifeforms. These creatures varied in strength and durability. Most importantly they were not affected by usual weapons the humanity used.
This was written in records as the "Second Overclock", described as having a chaotic melody. During these times the frequency waves had emanated a rather violent melody while reanimating the dead. Human population decreased drastically due to the military's failures and the sudden appearance of these monsters, which were later called the "Echoborns."
At first the mutated monsters were simple, they were physically very strong and that was all there is to it, however as a few years passed these creatures started to evolve and certain creatures who were ranked higher started to develop unusual abilities other than their physical strength.
All of this unfolded in just two years.
Right after these incidents came the "Third Overclock." Frequency waves started affecting living beings, animals, plants and finally humans. Its melody was described as sorrowful.
As frequency waves infected humans, they started to display fatigue and cracks all over their body. The age which the FW infected the humans varied between 16 and 20. The ways of getting infected were simple, being close to an Echoborn. Although not everyone got it. The side-effects of it were that the infected strongly resonated with the frequency waves, they would hear various melodies that kept plaguing their mind.
This infection was both a blessing and a curse. The curse was that humans slowly turned into echoborns if they couldn't handle the fatigue and the pain. Usually these echoborns were weaker than the ones who were born from the dead, however they still posed a challenge to the already struggling government as people hid their infection since they did not want to die.
These infected were the governments first hit list, they hunted them down and killed all of them. However this changed in 2033, in the middle of Ankara a 16 year old girl tore through an Echoborn with her bare hands while displaying nothing but a stoic expression on her face.
This was the blessing: some humans survived these infections and gained a way to manipulate frequency waves that lived in their body to a certain level. These people were called Harmonics. Harmonics were more powerful than a normal human, they were stronger, faster and much more durable. Like the echoborns, Harmonics also had different power levels, however unlike them, humans grew stronger as they trained.
First Harmonics were spotted in the Middle East, and soon the information was spread that if you could resist the infection, which was named "Dissonance", you could become a superhuman. However resisting the Dissonance was not easy.
The first generation of Harmonics were called "Deities". These people contained powers comparable to that of gods, however they were never seen again after 40 years of their existence. Each and every one of the Deities disappeared and took the knowledge of ascension to divinity with them to their graves. To this day, no human has managed to reach divinity.
The Deities created the united government that would help humans all over the world, and created strongholds on several places for people to live in harmony. These ancestors of ours are still being worshipped till this day.
***
-General Knowledge:
Harmonics
Harmonics are humans who have evolved after resisting the dissonance. These people now can connect with the Frequency Waves around the world. They are divided into seven ranks:
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si.
Do is the very beginning of a harmonics journey while Si is the point they reach godhood. If a Harmonic wants to evolve there are some ways to train yourself. Most common is hunting for Echoborns. By killing echoborns you can also absorb the FW they had while they were alive, absorption process can be achieved if you simply hum a melody near it.
The other way is to play an instrument. Although this process takes a lot of time and is not as efficient as hunting Echoborns. So it is not widely used. By playing an instrument you emit very thin FW, you can absorb this FW by focusing on it.
When a Harmonic awakens they receive an FW Technique and a Soul Energy. FW Techniques vary from person to person as they are unique to their affinities, it is also divided into seven ranks and each technique is unlocked when a Harmonic evolves.
Soul energy is a manifestation of their affinities. Most commonly they are tied to elements, however a Harmonic cannot manipulate their soul energy if their rank is low.
Pathways
Harmonics can also manifest Pathways, unlike soul energy and FW abilities these pathways can be chosen and are not random:
Strikers: Strikers are Harmonics who act in the front lines, mainly their weapons are different kinds of swords, spears.
Brawlers: Brawlers are Harmonics who master different kinds of martial arts. They imbue their arts into FW's to fight. Their choice of fighting is hand-to-hand focused or grounded combat.
Tankers: Tankers are Harmonics that emit heavy toned FW's. These people have improved their resilience and act in the frontlines as the shields of strikers. Their main choices are heavy weapons combined with a heavy shield.
Assassins: Assassins are Harmonics that emit silent FW's. Assassins are specialized in stealth and quick strikes designed to kill the opponent quickly.
Sharp Shooters: These are Harmonics who imbue their FW with modern day tech-guns powered by FW. These FW guns are made by Harmonic Professors, these guns have ammos that are able to be enhanced by the Harmonics Soul energy so they actually damage Echoborns.
Sub-Pathways:
Sub-Pathways are paths anyone can take along with their main one.
Echo Tamers: These Harmonics use FW to communicate with Echoborns and tame them. It is a very hard pathway to acquire as it requires a strong understanding of FW.
As Dissonance infects living beings, it is also capable of infecting animals. Animals who survive it are called Sonarts. Most of them have special powers such as the Harmonics and Echoborns. They are usually tamed by Echo Tamers to support them in battle.
Professors: These Harmonics use FW to research and create equipment.
Echoborns
Echoborns are also divided by ranks and also have FW abilities:
Od, Er, Im, Af, Los, Al, Is.
[The story shall continue on the next chapters. Thank you for reading this.]