Chain Protocol deactivated. Awakening secondary program: Project ECHO.
The metallic voice echoed throughout the chamber, vibrating through Elara's bones. Her breath caught in her throat. Kieran's eyes widened, his body tense beside her.
"Project ECHO?" Elara whispered, barely audible over the humming machinery.
The walls of the chamber began to shift. Panels slid away, revealing dozens of cylindrical pods embedded in the stone. Each pod glowed faintly with golden light, and inside them floated humanoid figures in suspended animation.
"Clones," Kieran said darkly. "These… these are copies of the Originals. Project ECHO was never about memory storage—it was replication."
A hiss sounded as the center pod opened, releasing a cloud of vapor. A girl stepped out slowly, eyes glowing faintly. Her face was… Elara's.
Elara froze.
The clone looked at her with recognition. "Elara Prime," it said.
Kieran moved to shield her, but Elara raised her hand, stepping forward. "Why do you look like me?"
"Because I am you. Or rather, what you were meant to become. A perfect vessel for Seraphine's bloodline."
"You're part of Project ECHO," Elara said, trying to steady her voice.
The clone nodded. "I hold the pre-awakening memories. Before the experiments, before the betrayal. I was awakened when you accessed the vault."
The chamber pulsed with light. Screens lit up, displaying images of Seraphine, the facility, and documents marked 'Top Secret: Bloodline Restoration Initiative.'
"It was always about restoring the bloodline of the one who could open the Gate," Kieran muttered. "You."
"But why me?" Elara demanded.
"Because your DNA matched the prophecy encoded into the seventh letter," the clone said. "You're not just Seraphine's sister. You're her successor. The Archive wasn't meant to protect secrets—it was to prepare you."
A sudden explosion rocked the facility. The air thickened with dust. Overhead, part of the ceiling cracked.
Kieran turned to Elara. "Vellian found us."
Elara nodded. "Then it ends tonight."
The clone stepped forward. "I will help. I was created to protect you."
Together, they ran toward the exit of the chamber. As alarms blared, Elara's mind spun. She was a child of prophecy, a keeper of bloodline secrets, and now, a warrior against a system that had tried to rewrite her very soul.
Outside the chamber, they found themselves back in the abandoned corridor of the academy. The walls trembled. From the end of the hall, shadows crawled like living ink.
Vellian emerged, flanked by dark sentinels—soulless enforcers programmed to destroy.
"I warned you," he growled. "The moment you awakened the Archive, you became a threat."
Elara stepped forward, light crackling in her palms. "You erased memories. Built armies of shadows. But you forgot one thing: truth survives."
The clone stood beside her, glowing with identical power. "You created me as a tool. Now I choose to fight you."
Kieran ignited a blade of pure energy. "This is your final error, Vellian."
Battle erupted.
Blades clashed with shadow. Magic met machine. Elara moved like a current of light, each strike powered by memory and fury. The clone fought with calculated precision, matching Elara's movements like a mirror.
Vellian unleashed corrupted magic, distorting the walls around them. "I am the future!"
"No," Elara shouted, hurling a blast of pure memory-light into his chest. "You're the past that refused to die."
The impact sent him reeling. Kieran followed up with a brutal strike to the side. The clone unleashed a sonic pulse that shattered the sentinels into dust.
Vellian collapsed.
Elara approached, panting. "It's over."
He smiled bitterly, blood on his lips. "The Gate… it's already opened."
Then he vanished—his body dissolving into smoke.
The battle was over, but the war had just begun.
Elara turned to the clone. "What did he mean?"
The clone's expression turned grim. "Project ECHO was only Phase One. There's another facility… where the real Gate lies."
Kieran swore under his breath. "Then we're not done."
Elara looked ahead into the ruined corridor. Her fate had been written in secret, hidden in vaults and dreams. But now, she would write her own.
"Let's finish this," she said.
Together, they walked forward—into the unknown, into the storm, into the final truth waiting beyond the Gate.
The humming from the Archive Core began to stabilize, forming into a pulse—steady, rhythmic, almost like a heartbeat. The lights inside the vault flickered, casting long shadows across the walls. Elara could feel it in her bones—this wasn't just a machine. It was alive. Conscious.
Kieran stood beside her, shielding his eyes as the console illuminated with golden glyphs. "It's reading your genetic sequence," he muttered. "That means… you're not just a keyholder. You're a descendant of the First Sequence."
Elara's breath caught. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," a voice interrupted from behind them, "you were never meant to be a student here."
They turned sharply. Standing near the entrance was Headmaster Arven, but something was different. His expression, usually cold and unreadable, now flickered with uncertainty… and fear.
"You knew about this," Kieran growled. "About Project ECHO."
"I created it," Arven replied. "Long before you were born. Before Seraphine went rogue. Before the letters were scattered."
Elara narrowed her eyes. "What is it really?"
Arven stepped forward, the seal on his coat flashing briefly. "Project ECHO was meant to restore balance to the fractured minds of those affected by our earliest experiments. A way to rewrite memory—but something went wrong. It became self-aware."
"The chain protocol," Elara whispered. "It's not locking power. It's containing something."
"Yes," Arven said grimly. "Something not of this world. Something we summoned by mistake."
Kieran's eyes widened. "A parasite?"
Arven shook his head. "Worse. A mimic—one that feeds on emotion and replicates consciousness. It's been dormant. But now that the chain is broken… it will try to echo itself into you, Elara."
Her pulse quickened. "That's what the voice was. That roar. It was trying to replace Seraphine's memories with its own."
The Archive Core suddenly shifted, revealing a compartment beneath the floor. Slowly, a dark metallic chamber rose from the depths, sealed by layers of enchanted glass. Inside, suspended in liquid stasis, was a figure.
A girl. With Elara's face.
Kieran stepped back in horror. "What—what is that?!"
Arven's voice cracked. "That… is the original host. The first vessel ECHO tried to copy. Your clone."
Elara stared, frozen. "Then… who am I?"
"You're the one who survived," Arven whispered. "The one Seraphine saved. But she couldn't stop the duplication entirely. You are both… and neither."
The glass shimmered—and the figure inside opened its eyes.