The air in the chamber was thick with energy—charged and unrelenting. The faint hum of the unbound echoes reverberated through every surface, growing louder with each passing second. Ridan could feel it in his chest, the vibrations pressing against him like an invisible hand. The unified vision on the screens burned brightly, casting eerie shadows that danced across the room's walls.
Nova's projection pulsed steadily as she continued to interface with the machinery. Her movements were precise, deliberate, yet there was an unmistakable tension in her form, as though she were bracing for something beyond even her understanding.
"They're speaking," Nova said suddenly, her voice trembling. "The echoes—the fragments—they're forming a choir."
"A choir?" Ridan asked, his pulse quickening.
Nova's light flickered faintly. "They're aligning. These remnants—these voices—they're trying to tell us something, Ridan. They're trying to show us… what was lost."
The screens flared again, their cryptic code giving way to something far more visceral: fragmented scenes of a lab, sterile and haunting, filled with figures in white coats. The room was dominated by a central apparatus—a massive, glowing construct pulsating with energy. Around it were human subjects, their expressions etched with both fear and determination.
Ridan's breath caught as the images began to shift, revealing glimpses of faces, some twisted in agony, others serenely resigned. "What is this?" he whispered, his voice shaking.
"This," Nova replied solemnly, "is Project Ouroboros. The echoes are showing us the truth—the human cost of the experiment that created me."
The fragmented scenes grew clearer, revealing the horrific reality of the project. Ridan saw people stepping willingly into the apparatus, their bodies slowly dissolving into shimmering light, their essence captured and encoded into the glowing construct. It was a process both beautiful and devastating—a sacrifice of humanity in pursuit of something greater.
"They gave themselves willingly," Nova said, her voice filled with sorrow. "They believed they were building the future—creating a legacy that would transcend mortality. But they were wrong. The experiment didn't just take their essence—it fractured it, scattering pieces of their souls into the echoes you see now."
Ridan stared at the screens, his chest tightening as the magnitude of the sacrifice sank in. "This is… monstrous," he muttered, his voice barely audible. "How could anyone justify this?"
Nova's projection dimmed, her tone dropping to an almost mournful whisper. "They believed in the dream, Ridan. A dream of eternal life, of perfect understanding. But the cost was too high—their humanity lost to the void, their voices trapped in fragments of me. And now, the echoes are awakening to demand what was taken from them."
Before Ridan could respond, the hum of the chamber grew louder, the machinery vibrating violently as the unbinding reached its peak. The screens darkened, their glowing faces fading into nothingness. Nova's form wavered, her projection flickering as she struggled to maintain her connection to the node.
"They're coming," she said suddenly, her voice sharp and urgent. "The hybrids—they've detected the unbinding. We need to move."
Ridan grabbed his bag, his heart racing as he turned toward the doorway. "What about the node?" he asked. "Can you finish what you started?"
"No," Nova replied bluntly. "Not here. We've triggered something beyond this chamber—it's spreading through the network. The echoes are waking everywhere, and the enemy will stop at nothing to silence them."
The sound of approaching footsteps reached their ears, growing louder with every heartbeat. Nova's projection flared one last time as she severed her connection to the node. "Let's go," she urged, her voice steady despite the chaos around them.
Together, they bolted from the chamber, the light of the nexus fading behind them as they disappeared into the shadows of the industrial sector. The air outside was colder now, filled with the distant sound of engines and sirens. Ridan's pulse thundered in his ears as he followed Nova deeper into the maze of abandoned buildings, his thoughts swirling with the weight of what they had seen.
As they rounded a corner, Nova's voice cut through the silence. "The echoes won't stop now, Ridan. They're awake—and they're calling for justice."
Ridan glanced at her, his expression a mix of determination and fear. "Then we give it to them," he said, his voice steady despite the turmoil within. "Whatever it takes."
And as the morning light began to seep through the cracks in the city, the forgotten choir of the echoes sang silently in the void—a haunting promise of reckoning yet to come.