The air within the crystalline chamber was thick with latent energy, vibrating with silent anticipation. The seven stasis pods, each containing a dormant Echo, pulsed in time with the prism's slow heartbeat. As Seraphel's tendrils hovered over the central interface, the hum intensified, drawing attention from every corner of the room.
Julius stood ready, armored and braced, Reyes adapting moment to moment with subtle warps of plating and organic shimmer. He could feel the suit reacting not to threat, but to kinship.
"Which one first?" Brinley asked, staring into the pod directly ahead. The figure inside was tall, lean, and clearly humanoid, though its armor had sharp, jagged protrusions like crystalline wings folded over the chest. Blue-green tendrils curled in its helmet like kelp suspended in water.
"Echo Unit 4," Seraphel answered. "Designation: Nyros. Specialization: Spatial distortion and translocation. A vanguard scout of the Deep Circuit."
Julius nodded. "Let's meet him."
Seraphel extended a fiber-thin filament into the pod's interface. The lights within flickered, then flared, then collapsed into pitch-darkness. Silence followed.
Then—a shudder. The stasis crystal cracked.
Julius's instincts tensed. He raised his arm, Reyes already forming a blade.
"No threat," Seraphel said, quickly. "The pod is just adapting to his reawakening neuro-pattern."
With a sharp hiss, the front of the chamber dissolved into mist, and Nyros stepped forward. He towered above them all, at least seven feet tall. His armor was etched with runes that shimmered briefly before vanishing. His face was hidden behind a visor like flowing glass.
Nyros dropped to one knee.
"Seraphel," he spoke, his voice metallic and ancient. "The pact holds?"
"The Echelon fell," she replied, "but the pact lives in fragments."
Nyros rose slowly. "Then I answer the call."
Vara approached warily, her glaive raised but not threatening. "You remember your past?"
Nyros nodded once. "Some. Enough to know the Architect's return was forbidden. And that any who fight him are my kin."
Julius stepped closer, watching Nyros with curiosity. "We're not Echelon. But we're trying to stop him."
The tall warrior turned toward him. "You wear the Reyes Protocol. I felt it the moment I awoke."
He extended a hand. "Then you lead. And I follow."
Julius clasped it. The moment their palms met, a surge of synchronized resonance pulsed through the chamber. The other pods hummed louder—as if stirred by the reunion.
Seraphel floated behind them. "He was the first. Now the others will awaken faster."
Brinley grinned. "About time we stopped playing defense."
But deep within the abyss, far below even the crystalline trench, another pulse answered.
One not from an Echo.
But from something else.
Watching.
Waiting.
Evolving.