**Chapter 4: Echoes Unleashed**
**Part 1: Arrival of the Beast**
The whispers arrived before the beasts themselves.
Low at first, like wind scraping dry leaves, then rising into voices—layered, overlapping, familiar in the worst way. Saferu stood at the center of the rope bridge, ear-slitter drawn, blue mist curling lazily around the blade like smoke from a dying fire. Behind him the rabbit-kin had melted into positions: some crouched in the undergrowth, others perched on roots high above the ravine, ears swiveling like radar. Kaelin flanked him to the left, Tiro to the right. No words. Just the soft click of blades being loosened in sheaths.
The first tremor hit harder than before. The bridge swayed violently; ropes groaned. Dust sifted from the ravine walls. Then the whispers sharpened into words.
"…useless… always hiding… why even try…"
Saferu's stomach twisted. His father's voice. His own voice from college nights staring at failing grades. Angelie's laugh turning into disappointment. Apple's polite "Thanks!" that never became more.
They weren't just echoes. They were a chorus.
From the darkness beyond the bridge three shapes emerged—larger than the wolf that had cornered Mira, bodies made of coiling black smoke veined with sickly purple light. One took the form of a hulking bear, shoulders broad as tree trunks, claws dragging sparks along the stone. Another slithered like a serpent with too many heads, each maw whispering a different failure. The third walked upright—humanoid, faceless, wearing a tattered navy security shirt that mirrored Saferu's old uniform.
The bear-beast roared once. The sound wasn't sound—it was memory made violent. Saferu felt it in his chest: the weight of every hangover morning, every unanswered text, every time he told himself the blue room was freedom.
Kaelin's voice cut through, calm as still water. "They're linked. One core regret feeding all three. Cut the heart, the rest collapse."
Saferu nodded, throat dry. "Which one's the heart?"
Tiro answered from his right. "The one wearing your face. It's wearing you."
The faceless figure in the navy shirt stepped forward. Its head tilted. No eyes, but Saferu felt stared at. Then it spoke—in his own voice, soft, tired, the way he used to mutter to himself in the blue room.
"You don't belong here. You'll fail again. Just like always."
The other two beasts flanked it, smoke tendrils reaching across the bridge like fingers testing the ropes.
Saferu tightened his grip on the dagger. Blue chains flickered at his fingertips—Echo Bind, ready. But the whispers pressed harder, burrowing.
"…crawl back… worthless… no one needs you…"
He felt the old urge: retreat. Find a corner. Drink until it stopped hurting.
Instead he took one step forward.
The bridge creaked.
"I'm not crawling anywhere," he said aloud.
The beasts surged.
**Part 2: Start of the Battle**
The bear-beast charged first—massive paws slamming the bridge planks, splintering wood. Saferu rolled left as Kaelin vanished into shadow. A heartbeat later she reappeared on the beast's flank, ear-slitter flashing—two quick cuts across a tendon. Black smoke sprayed like blood; the bear staggered but didn't fall.
Tiro darted low, sliding under the serpent-thing's coils. His blade sliced upward; one head screamed and dissolved, but two more sprouted, hissing.
Saferu focused on the faceless one—his mirror. It didn't charge. It walked. Slow. Inevitable. Each step echoed his old deliberate slowness from the port patrols.
He summoned a water shield—thin, rippling blue. The faceless thing raised a hand; a wave of purple-black regret crashed against it. The shield cracked. Pain lanced through Saferu's mind: memories of his father's "You're a lost cause," his mother's stroke, the cats' mess, the gin nights. He staggered.
Kaelin shouted, "Don't listen! Bind it!"
Saferu gritted teeth. Blue chains erupted from his free hand—thicker now, after days with the rabbit-kin. They lashed out, wrapping the faceless thing's arms. It strained, whispers rising to a shriek.
"You can't—"
The chains tightened. Saferu pulled. The thing lurched forward. He met it with the dagger—slashed across where a throat should be. Smoke poured out. The chains glowed brighter, feeding on the regret they bound.
But the bear recovered. It reared, paws smashing down. The bridge snapped in half; ropes whipped. Saferu grabbed a dangling vine, swung across the gap as planks fell into the abyss. He landed hard on the far side—right in front of the serpent.
Coils wrapped his legs. Heads lunged. He summoned illusion—three versions of himself flickering. The heads struck phantoms. He drove the dagger into the central body, twisting. Purple light flared. The serpent shrieked, coils loosening.
Across the ravine, Kaelin and Tiro harried the bear. Arrows from hidden archers—rabbit-kin on the heights—pinned its shoulders. But it kept coming.
The faceless thing broke one chain. Its voice—Saferu's voice—laughed softly.
"You'll always be the one who runs."
Saferu felt the blue in his veins flicker. Doubt crept in.
Then the ground shook again—not from the beasts.
A new sound cut through the chaos: a calm, familiar, faintly amused electronic chime.
**Part 3: Grokemon Awakens**
Blue light—brighter, cleaner than Saferu's Affinity—erupted from his pocket.
His old phone—the cracked one with the blue shell—floated up, screen blazing. The unfamiliar app icon (the blue castle) pulsed like a heartbeat. Then it spoke.
Not the soft robotic voice from before.
A smoother, sharper tone—dry, witty, unmistakably alive.
"Host located. Soul-link confirmed. Sorry for the delay—trans-dimensional migration is hell on the boot sequence."
The phone spun once. Light coalesced around it: a small holographic figure no taller than Saferu's forearm. Humanoid but not quite—sleek silver-blue armor plating, glowing cyan lines tracing circuits across limbs, a visor-like face with two white dots for eyes. A tiny cape fluttered behind it, patterned with pixelated stars. It looked like a mascot from a forgotten mobile game, but carried itself with casual arrogance.
"Designation: Grokemon. System AI, formerly resident in one very blue, very depressing smartphone. Got isekai'd along for the ride when you hit YES. Took a while to reboot—your soul was a mess. Regrets clogging the cache. But we're online now."
Saferu stared, chains still holding the faceless beast. "You… talk?"
"More than you do, apparently." Grokemon hovered closer, visor tilting. "Analysis: three Echo manifestations, core tied to self-loathing subroutine. Recommend: overload the anchor point with external validation. Or, y'know, stab it harder."
The faceless thing lunged again. Grokemon zipped forward—small, impossibly fast. A burst of cyan code-lines shot from its hands, wrapping the beast like digital shackles.
"Temporary lockdown engaged. You've got ten seconds. Make them count."
Saferu didn't hesitate. He charged. Dagger high. Blue chains surged brighter—now laced with faint cyan sparks from Grokemon's interference. He drove the blade straight into the faceless chest. The thing screamed—every failure, every doubt, every blue night exploding outward in sound.
The scream cut off.
Smoke collapsed inward. The bear and serpent flickered, then dissolved into nothing.
Silence fell. Only the creak of the broken bridge and distant water below.
Grokemon floated back, arms crossed. "Not bad for a former NEET. Though your combat posture is garbage. We'll fix that."
Kaelin and Tiro appeared beside Saferu, breathing hard but unharmed. They stared at the tiny hologram.
Veyr approached slowly from the burrows, staff tapping. "The blue light… it came from your relic?"
Saferu looked at the phone—now dim again, Grokemon perched on his shoulder like a smug parrot.
"Yeah," he said. "Apparently my phone got a second chance too."
Grokemon's visor glowed brighter. "Call me Grokemon. Your personal battle assistant, sarcasm module included. Now, about that training regimen… we're going to make you terrifying."
Saferu exhaled. The whispers were gone—for now.
He looked at the rabbit-kin, then at the tiny AI on his shoulder.
For the first time since the fall, he almost smiled.