The cracked pavement yawned open with a groan that sounded like the earth itself was screaming.A second tremor pulsed through the courtyard, stronger than the first. The hybrids froze, twitching violently as if reacting to a frequency none of the team could hear. One dropped to its knees, head jerking side to side.Vivian narrowed her eyes. “What the hell is—?”From the gaping crevice beneath the courtyard, a monolithic arm clawed its way into the moonlight—mechanical, yes, but impossibly old. Its surface was etched with strange symbols pulsing a sickly blue. A long-dormant titan, half-machine, half-fossilized bone, began to pull itself into the world.Caleb’s face went pale. “That’s not Umbra tech.”Dylan took a step back, lowering his railgun for the first time. “That thing isn’t new. It’s… pre-Umbra.”Vivian swore under her breath. “Hale didn’t build this.”Mendez, still bleeding and barely upright, growled through the comms. “No. But he’s trying to wake it up. I saw the files whi

The ground shuddered as Vivian stepped forward, her glowing eyes locked onto the monstrosity in Hale’s image. The molten-bone creature flexed its claws, and the very air around it warped with heat and gravity.“Vivian, wait!” Caleb called out, but she didn’t pause.Eidolon’s chassis hummed behind her, syncing in real-time. Its massive frame moved with her, as though mirroring her thoughts—its core pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat.Mendez stumbled back from the console, sweat beading down his brow. “She’s fully linked—neural lock confirmed. She is Eidolon now.”The creature stepped forward, its grotesque grin widening. “You think you can kill me, Key? I made you.”Vivian’s jaw tightened. “No. You corrupted what we made. But I remember now. I remember everything.”Dylan raised his weapon, eyes darting to Caleb. “What do we do? We can’t shoot that thing—it’s barely even matter.”Caleb shook his head, voice grim. “We stall. Long enough for her to finish the sync.”The creature lunged—

A low hum filled the room as Eidolon’s armory unfolded from the chamber’s base. Racks of advanced weaponry, nanoweave suits, and augmentation rigs slid into place. The once-calm command center now pulsed like a war heart preparing for its final beat.Vivian ran her fingers along the smooth alloy of the Eidolon interface. The metal was warm—responsive. As if the machine still remembered her touch.Dylan strapped on his vest with a grunt, checking his pulse rifle’s calibration.“This thing better not jam again. I nearly lost my face to a plasma surge last time.”Mendez didn’t look up from the terminal. “That’s because you overloaded it while screaming ‘For the Republic’ like an idiot.”Dylan fired back with a grin. “It was dramatic. And effective.”Caleb, already in his combat gear, moved toward Vivian. His brows were drawn tight. “We have maybe forty-five minutes before those things hit Sector Twelve. If they breach containment, it won’t be a fight—it’ll be a massacre.”Vivian nodded,

The burst of light slowly dimmed, the clearing now bathed in a strange, pulsating glow that seemed to pulse in time with Vivian’s own heartbeat. She stumbled back, her knees nearly buckling, but she caught herself on a nearby piece of shattered metal. Her eyes, wide and unblinking, glowed faintly with an electric blue hue — brighter and more intense than before.Dylan was the first to recover, lowering his rifle with a mixture of relief and apprehension. “Vivian? Are you—okay? Talk to me.”She blinked, focusing on him as if she was seeing him for the first time. Then, a slow, small smile spread across her lips. “I’m… more than okay. I’m connected now. Connected to something I never thought I would be.”Caleb stepped closer, his brow furrowed, his gaze sharp. “What did you see? What happened in there?”Vivian’s hands trembled slightly as she raised them, watching the glowing, circuit-like patterns ripple across her skin. The symbols and lines of light traced intricate paths along her f

A soundless shockwave rippled outward — light and energy erupting in an orb that expanded to the chamber’s edge, pressing against the walls, refracting through the crystal-like shards that spun around the plinth. Dylan stumbled back, shielding his eyes as the very air seemed to fracture into kaleidoscopic fragments.Vivian and the Echo floated above the void now, suspended by unseen currents. Their bodies began to blur, their forms merging in a dance of shimmering particles — one glowing with the hues of memory, the other dark with the essence of forgotten things.The Echo’s voice echoed, layered and resonant, speaking not aloud, but directly into the minds of everyone linked to the tether grid.“Balance is not destruction. Balance is return.”Mendez’s voice came over the comms, ragged with tension. “Tether’s stabilizing. Spike in dimensional resonance — it’s climbing fast. Breach containment is… it’s working!”Dylan staggered to the console, watching the readings. “The Core is syncin