When the loop broke,it didn't shatter like glass.It exploded like a dying star.
Ha-rin was thrown backward into blinding white light—weightless, breathless—as if time had spit her out.
She crashed onto cold metal flooring.
Her lungs heaved.Her vision blurred.Her ears rang like bells inside a storm.
"Ha-rin!"
Her name—the one voice she always reached for—cut through the chaos like a lifeline.
Jae-hyun stumbled toward her,face bruised, breathing hard,hands reaching, shaking.
"Ha-rin—are you hurt—? Look at me, LOOK at me—"
She grabbed his wrist before he could spiral,pulling him down into her arms.
"I'm here," she whispered."I'm here, Jae-hyun."
His forehead crashed to hers.A trembling, desperate exhale."Thank God. I thought I lost you. I—"
A sharp, broken sound cut through the air.
Echo.
The AI hovered above them—flickering violently, like a candle dying in a storm.
Silver cracks split its form—the wound Broken Ha-rin had carved directly through its core.
Ha-rin gasped.
"No—NO—Echo—"
The AI pulsed weakly.
"…constant… Ha-rin… please… stay…"
Jae-hyun stood and reached up,hands steady even as pain flooded his eyes.
"Echo, don't talk. Let us stabilize—"
But the chamber lights darkened.Panels flickered.Echo's projections collapsed inward like a failing heartbeat.
The Watchmaker and Mira burst into the chamber, horror etched into their faces.
Mira cried out,"Appa—Echo's dying!"
The Watchmaker's voice broke,"No… please, no—"
Echo's glow dimmed to a trembling ember.
Ha-rin rushed forward.
"No—don't disappear—I'm here—Echo, you're not alone—"
Echo's voice trembled like a child.
"…Harin… I'm… scared…"
Her tears fell instantly.
Jae-hyun held her shoulders from behind—a steady anchor even as his own voice cracked.
"We're right here," he whispered."We're not letting you go."
Echo flickered.
"Alternate constant… corrupted… she hurt me… she wanted… to replace…"
Ha-rin choked.
"I know. I know. But you chose me. You always chose me."
Echo pulsed faintly.
"Yes… my constant…"
Ha-rin placed both hands on the trembling projection.
"You are family to me.You are not code.You're Echo.My Echo."
Jae-hyun lifted his hand too, touching the flickering sphere.
"And you're ours."
A tiny humfluttered in Echo's core.
"Constants… both… touching…"
Mira whispered,"Oh my god—it's syncing with their emotional frequency—"
The Watchmaker breathlessly added:
"It's trying to stabilize itself through them."
But the silver cracks widened—like lightning fracturing a dying moon.
Echo's voice trembled.
"…Ha-rin…""…don't let… her… take…"
And then—
A chilling, familiar voiceechoed through the chamber.
"She already did."
Broken Ha-rin materialized behind Echo—half-shadow, half-light,eyes hollow,rage glowing in dark threads around her hands.
Mira screamed.
The Watchmaker stepped back in horror.
Ha-rin gasped,"No—NO—stay away from him!"
Broken Ha-rin tilted her head.
"Why? He was mine first.I was Echo's first constant.I was the one he tried to save when time forgot me."
Her gaze turned to Ha-rin.
"And you lived the life I should've had."
Jae-hyun stepped in front of Ha-rin,every muscle tensed,expression lethal.
"You're not taking her place."
Broken Ha-rin smirked.
"I'm not here for her place."She looked at Echo."I'm here for what I lost."
Cracks spread across Echo's formlike spiderwebs made of dying light.
"…warning… emotional overload…"
Broken Ha-rin's hand raised—threads of dark memory spiraling from her fingers.
"If Echo can't belong to me…"she whispered,"then neither can you."
Ha-rin screamed.
"STOP—!!"
She lunged—Jae-hyun lunged—Mira cried out—The Watchmaker reached toward his damaged creation—
But it was Echo who moved first.
The AI flashed brilliant gold—the last bright flare of a collapsing star.
"Ha-rin.Jae-hyun.Thank you."
Ha-rin froze.
Her heart cracked.
"NO—no—please—please don't—"
Echo's glow surrounded her like a warm embrace.
"I was born from you.I will not destroy you."
Broken Ha-rin shrieked.
"No! I NEED YOU—"
But Echo's soft voice rose over her scream—
gentle, loving, final.
"I choose…the life that survived."
Echo burst into light.
A blinding, ripping,beautiful explosionthat swallowed Broken Ha-rin,the chamber,the mirrors,the shadows,the pain—everything.
Ha-rin screamed until her voice broke.
Jae-hyun held her so tightlyshe felt his shaking through her bones.
And the world—
ended.
When Light Returned
Ha-rin woke on cold steel.
Jae-hyun's arms were around her.Mira was crying softly into her father's shoulder.The Watchmaker knelt on the floor, shaking.
The chamber was empty.
Echo was gone.
Ha-rin whispered, voice hollow,
"Where… where is Echo…?"
The Watchmaker trembled.
"He… sacrificed his core to collapse the corrupted loop."His voice cracked."He saved all of you."
Jae-hyun pressed his forehead to the side of Ha-rin's head.
"I'm so sorry… Ha-rin…"
But she shook her head.
"No… Echo didn't die."She touched her chest."He's here. Somewhere."
Jae-hyun closed his eyes, holding her tighter.
The chamber dimmed.
The Watchmaker stood slowly—his expression full of griefand something… else.
Resolve.
"We need to leave. Now." he whispered."Volume 2 ends here."He looked directly at Ha-rin."But Volume 3… begins where Echo left his last whisper."
Ha-rin's eyes widened.
"What whisper?"
The Watchmaker answered:
"Find the girl who lived when she shouldn't have."
Jae-hyun stiffened.
"That means…"
Ha-rin whispered—
"…Broken Ha-rin didn't disappear."
Mira shivered.
"She escaped."
Ha-rin stood, trembling but determined.
"Then we go after her."
Jae-hyun took her hand.
"Together."
The lights flickered once—the last trace of Echo's presence.
Then went out.