The moment they stepped through the weeping doorway, silence fell like a tombstone. The data storm ceased. No hum of electricity, no pulsing light, no holographic illusions. Just stillness, like the breath between heartbeats.
They stood in what seemed like the hollowed heart of the spire. The architecture was unlike anything they'd seen before no visible circuitry, no crystalline servers, no flashing conduits. It was organic, almost skeletal. The walls breathed, slow and deliberate, as though the entire chamber was alive.
"What... is this place?" Cole whispered.
"Not where," Echo murmured, their voice low and strained. "When."
Orion scanned the room with her pulse-scanner, but it emitted only a low whine before dying in her hand. "Dead. No signal, no readings."
