When Stark's eyes adjusted, the chamber smelled of ozone and old iron.
Lira's grip on his arm tightened. Aiden kept his spear raised, muscles coiled like springs. Vale's face was pale but steady—her hands still traced protective sigils in the air.
Around them, echoes writhed. Where moments ago hundreds of proto-Summoners had surged like puppets, many now lay quiet—breathing as if waking from a dream. The change was subtle: the hollow stare of memory softened into blinked awareness. Threads of faint light curled from their chests like sighs.
The lost Summoner stood at the center, broken mark pulsing in sympathy with Stark's new stitch. He watched them like a careful gardener watching tender shoots.
[System Notice]
Trial Result: Echo Trial — Phase One Passed
New Trait Active: Echo Empathy Lv.1 — Can stabilize proto-echoes for limited duration.
Cooldown: 12h.
"Can you feel it?" Lira whispered. "They're…almost human."
Stark's throat tightened. Each proto-figure gave off a thin melody—snatches of songs, names, commands. When he concentrated, those shards braided into a broader pattern, a chorus with holes where someone had ripped the lines away.
He stepped forward. The mark on his wrist warm, steady. He remembered the First Summoner's instruction: Offer, don't command. He breathed and let the harmonize tone flow—small, an echo of what he had used in the trial, softer than a shout.
A dozen idle lights along the arena's rim brightened. Threads that had been stiffened into enemy binds loosened. A young proto-summoner—a boy maybe sixteen in echo-form—looked up, confusion clearing into recognition.
"My name… is Jalen," the echo said, voice fragile.
A chorus of other names followed: Mira. Horth. Saye. Names like anchors.
Vale exhaled a long breath she had been holding. "Stark, focus on the core. If you can stabilize the anchor point, we can extract them."
He nodded. The lost Summoner moved to help, placing his cracked hand against the central core. The broken mark glowed a dull, steady red. Where it touched, a lattice of light formed—gentle, binding not in chains but in warmth.
Aiden moved among the rows, spear tapping out rhythm to steady nervous hearts. Lira's wolf padded the aisles, nudging frozen ones awake with a careless, living nudge. Students and researchers who had been thrown back by the initial surge now aided, their spells and seals held steady beneath Vale's control.
[Containment Report]
Proto-Echoes Stabilized: 34/68
Estimated Extraction Time: 22 minutes (current pace)
Risk: High — Architect interference possible
Stark felt the mark's pull again—a whisper at the edge of his mind. Not a call now, but a question: What will you do with them? He shut that part of himself away and worked.
Memory by memory, he sang small chords that rewrote demand into memory: Remember you were more than obedience. Remember you had a name. The effect was painfully slow. Each harmonized line cost him focus and energy, but each success bred a ripple; the chamber's hum softened into an actual melody.
Halfway through, the chamber convulsed. A low vibration rolled through the floor.
[System Alert]
Network Disturbance: External Spike Detected — Source: Void Cradle Influence
Effect: Proto-Echo Aggression +12%
The stabilized ones shuddered. A dozen reflexively lashed out, eyes rolling into empty white. Their hands became claws. The lost Summoner cursed and staggered; his fractured form nearly unraveled.
Aiden barked an order. "Push them back! Vale, reinforce the wards!"
Vale's hands blurred, sealing circles and throwing suppression glyphs that pulsed like shields. Lira's wolf leapt, teeth tearing pale bindings. Stark felt panic rise—if the anchors broke, the echoes would not return to sleep. They would flood the Academy with fragments of the Architect's command.
He dug deeper, pulling a larger chord from memory—the First Summoner's lullaby transposed for dozens. It cost more; the mark flared brighter, pain lancing up his arm like cold fire. The Ash Phantom lent its strength, pouring stabilized SE into him, steadying his mind.
[Resource Update]
SE Transfer: Ash Phantom → Stark: +48 SE
Stark — Current SE: Stable
The chord wrapped the chamber in a blanket of sound. The proto-figures fell quiet. Their faces calmed, tears forming in those who could weep, metallic clinks of chain-echoes unwinding into soft sighs.
When the last echo settled, Stark sank to one knee, panting. Sweat salted his lips. The lost Summoner crouched beside him, eyes heavy.
"You did what I could not," the man said, voice raw with gratitude. "They remember because you gave them the right song."
Stark tried to stand but his knees trembled. The mark on his wrist pulsed slowly, like a heart finding a new rhythm.
"Extraction protocol?" Vale asked.
"We move them to the recovery wing," Aiden said. "Get them out before the Council decides to burn them all."
They formed a quiet procession. The proto-echoes—thirty-four now more person than program—moved like the newly born, awkward and ancient. Stark watched Jalen, who clung to a tattered sleeve, looking at him with raw trust.
As they reached the extraction lift, a cold wind blew through the chamber. The lattice of containment light shivered. A dark voice rolled under the floor, almost playful.
"You mend the broken, and he grows bold."
The hair on Stark's arms rose. The lost Summoner's eyes narrowed.
"Architect," he breathed. "It's aware."
Above them, alarms screamed. The dome's network nodes registered a spike: an avatar—smaller than the Herald but sharper—was approaching. The Void Cradle had sent a sentinel to test reaction times.
[System Notice]
Avatar Detected — Type: Sentry
Approach Vector: Academy Perimeter — ETA: 3 minutes
Recommendation: Evacuate non-essential personnel; prepare combat teams.
Vale's jaw worked. "We must evacuate now. Split teams—take the recovered to the infirmary wing. Stark, you and I will secure the rear. Aiden, take point outside."
They moved fast—students running, researchers hauling mobile wards, Lira and her wolf shepherding the fragile echoes. Stark's mind buzzed with the loss—those still needing help—and the rush of urgency.
At the infirmary, medics set to work. Veins that wore chains like scars tightened as technicians slowly unhooked old bindings from the proto-echoes' spirits. Stark watched, hollow and fierce. He had given them a chance; the next moments decided whether that chance would survive the Architect's strike.
Outside, the sentinel arrived like a blade through fog. Its form shimmered—quick, sharp, edges like shattered runes. It split the air with cold that burned.
Aiden's squad met it. Sparks flew. Light cracked. The sentinel tested barriers and shrugged them off, like a scout probing a wall's seams.
Stark felt the mark hum—different now, not only reactive but radiant, as if the echoes' recovery fed it a small, steady warmth. He took a breath, feeling Echo Empathy's comfort linger like an afterglow.
The sentinel's attention shifted. It bounced toward the infirmary, sensors focused where the rescued echoes now lay.
Vale's hands tightened around a staff. She looked at Stark, eyes a cliff's edge. "We will not lose them," she said.
Stark nodded. "Then we hold the door."
He rose, feeling the weight of the chain and the small, stitched light inside his wrist. Outside, the sentinel crashed into steel and song.
[Mission Update]
Fractured Echoes — Phase Two Initiated
Objective: Hold the infirmary and repel the sentinel long enough for containment to stabilize.
Warning: Architect response escalating.
As alarms flared and the night bent to the sound of battle, Stark felt a terrible, stubborn clarity.
He had learned to sing.
Now he would have to fight to keep the world from learning the wrong song.