The anomaly fell, arms twitching.
Its core opened—spilling not blood, but data. Light. A sigh, if one could hear a memory exhale.
The second Pulse Node floated up from the ground.
Leon approached slowly.
"Second node," he said. "One more to go."
Temporfang pulsed. Not urgently. Calmly. As if acknowledging they were nearly ready.
Roselia approached him after the activation.
"…Back there," she said quietly, "you didn't flinch. Not once."
Leon's eyes didn't leave the core.
"I used to think Echoes were just data."
He finally looked at her.
"But they're more than recordings. They're… regrets that never got resolved."
She nodded slowly.
"And you resolve them."
"No," he replied, looking toward the looming heart of the next sector.
"They choose to end—because I remind them of something better."
A distant bell tolled.
A corridor unfolded before them—gears pulling back, revealing a deep sanctum untouched by time.
At the end…
A glowing sarcophagus.
A final guardian.
