The Echo of the Scar's Pain drifted through the narrow tunnel, its silent scream continuing to resonate in Einar's spiritual core.
The wave of pure anguish it emitted felt like a physical blow, momentarily staggering him. Lyra, however, remained resolute, her white lightblade crackling with renewed intensity. She shifted her stance, her movements becoming more fluid and deliberate.
"These echoes… they feed on emotional resonance," Lyra projected, her gaze fixed on the dust figure. "Direct force alone may not be enough. We need to disrupt its connection to the Scar's pain."
She unleashed a focused beam of pure Soul Society energy, not as a direct attack, but as a wave of calming, soothing light.
The beam washed over the Echo, and for a fleeting moment, its malevolent yellow eyes flickered with confusion.
The swirling dust that composed its form seemed to hesitate, its silent scream momentarily muted.
Einar, recovering from the initial wave of anguish, focused his Void sense on the Echo.
He could feel the chaotic swirl of fragmented emotions within its core – pain, loss, resentment, all intertwined and amplified.
It wasn't a sentient being in the traditional sense, but more like a raw embodiment of the suffering the Obsidian Scar had endured.
He instinctively reached out with his Void sense, not to nullify or destroy, but to… understand.
He focused on the strongest threads of anguish, trying to trace them back to their source within the Echo's fractured form. It felt like touching an open wound, a raw, festering core of pure suffering.
As Einar probed deeper, he saw fleeting images within the Echo's swirling dust – flashes of vibrant energy being torn apart, figures of light falling into shadow, the very landscape fracturing and breaking.
These were echoes of the "great tear" the Obsidian Weaver had mentioned, the cataclysm that had scarred this land.
The Echo wasn't just feeling the pain; it was the pain, given form.
An idea sparked within Einar. If the Echo was a manifestation of the Scar's suffering, perhaps the key wasn't to destroy it, but to… soothe it.
He focused his Void energy, not as a weapon, but as a conduit, trying to draw some of the raw anguish away from the Echo, to create a space of temporary calm within its turbulent core.
It was a risky move. The Void was a force of absence, of nothingness. Could it truly absorb and contain such potent emotional energy without being corrupted? He had to try.
With focused intent, he extended tendrils of Void energy towards the Echo, carefully reaching for the swirling core of anguish.
The dust figure reacted violently, its yellow eyes burning brighter, its silent scream intensifying.
But Einar held firm, gently guiding the Void tendrils into the heart of the Echo's pain.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, a change began to occur.
The swirling dust within the Echo seemed to calm slightly, the malevolent yellow in its eyes softening to a muted amber. The wave of anguish emanating from it lessened, becoming a gentle sorrow rather than a piercing scream.
The Echo drifted silently, no longer radiating the same aggressive hostility. It seemed… subdued, its pain partially unbound.
Lyra, observing the change, lowered her lightblade slightly, a look of understanding dawning on her luminous features.
Einar's approach, using the Void not for destruction but for a form of spiritual release, had proven surprisingly effective.
The path deeper into the Shadowed Veins now lay open, the anguished guardian pacified, at least for now.