The pain throbbed in his leg, yet Echo couldn't look away from the faint glow flickering beneath the table. A soft pulse, like a heartbeat. Irregular. Alive.
He shifted on the couch, trying to sit up. A sharp sting shot up his side, but curiosity gnawed harder than the injury. He groaned, slid down the sofa, and crawled toward the light.
His fingers touched the edge of the tablecloth—and suddenly, a piece of the floor gave way.
There was no time to scream. The wooden panel beneath him snapped, and he was pulled down into a tunnel, the smooth walls of it glowing the same eerie blue as the light. His body slid helplessly, limbs scraping against the sides as he spiraled downward into the unknown.
Then—stillness.
Echo landed with a soft thud on damp stone. The air here was colder. Ancient. A low hum vibrated through the ground, like a beast asleep beneath the earth.
He slowly pushed himself up and blinked.
A cave. Vast and hollow, with jagged walls shimmering faintly in the light of a single object.
At the far end of the chamber, embedded within the stone, was a circular panel. It pulsed with a quiet majesty. Four glowing shades ran across its surface in swirling rings—orange-red like molten fire, deep blue like ocean tides, vivid green like the breath of a forest, and earthy brown like hardened soil. The elements themselves, dancing in a sacred wheel.
Echo's breath caught.
It wasn't fear that gripped him. It was familiarity.
Like something lost had finally been found.
Drawn in, he limped forward. With every step, the pain faded—forgotten in the overwhelming sense of this is mine. Like the panel had waited for him his entire life.
He raised his hand. His fingers hovered over the swirling colors, and without knowing why, he placed his palm directly at the center.
The moment contact was made, the cave flared with brilliant white light.
Meanwhile, Zayden sliced through the last spider of the third wave. Acid hissed against the walls. The final portal closed with a sucking sound, and silence returned to the rooftop.
Cassian wiped sweat from his brow. "Everyone okay?"
Thorne nodded. "Barely. That was insane."
Then Lior looked toward the door.
"Echo," he murmured.
They rushed down to Apartment 806. The door creaked open to reveal their friend lying unconscious near the center of the room.
"What the—" Jarek moved first, kneeling beside him. "He's... healed?"
"He was bitten—bad," Lior added. "I carried him myself."
"He's breathing," said Cassian, pressing his fingers to Echo's neck. "And his leg's fine."
At that moment, they noticed something else: their own injuries—bruises, scratches, acid burns—were gone.
"I feel... reset," Zayden muttered. "Like I just logged out of a game."
Lior frowned. "But it's been hours. We were gone at least six—"
"Seven and a half," Thorne confirmed.
Jarek blinked. "But when we left... it felt like less than a minute."
Echo stirred. His eyes fluttered open. "Ugh... What... happened?"
They helped him sit up. His head ached, and a dull memory of colors and light pulsed behind his eyes.
"What happened here?" asked Cassian.
"Yeah," Zayden added.
Echo hesitated. The memory of the panel, the four elemental lights—it felt personal. Sacred.
"I blacked out, I think," he said quietly. "But I'm okay."
None of them pushed further. The exhaustion from the waves had drained them. One by one, they left the apartment, agreeing to reconvene the next day.
That night, Echo lay in bed, the room dimly lit by the moonlight streaming through the window. He couldn't sleep. Not because of pain—his body felt lighter than ever—but because of the whisper.
A child's voice.
Faint. Feminine.
"Come find me."
He sat up with a gasp. The voice had echoed not just in his ears, but in his very bones.
He was no longer just a spectator.
Something—someone—was calling him.