The moment Ethan took the Writ, the Guardian convulsed. Light exploded from its core, folding space around them. The temple warped into a battlefield made from thought—scars of every memory Kaelen ever buried rising like monuments.
An Origin Beast's Echo began to form—no body, just angles that didn't belong in this dimension, eyes that blinked inside your skull.
Aelira screamed, caught in a temporal loop. Her past—the burning of her family's enclave—replayed around her. She dropped to her knees, trembling.
Ethan activated Echo Armament again. This time, he summoned Kaelen's Ninth Cycle—a brutal tactician who laughed at pain. He ignored the Echo's arrogance and instead sang.
The throne's lullaby.
The melody wove through the psionic space like a tether. He sang softly, but clearly, calling her back.
Aelira's eyes cleared. She joined him.
Together, they shattered the loop.