Ryder kept running until his lungs burned. The side tunnel was narrow, lit only by faint veins of glowing minerals along the stone. Each step echoed louder than the last. His legs felt heavy, but he didn't stop.
He didn't know if Seris was alive.
He didn't know where he was going.
But he knew if he stopped now, he was dead.
The tunnel opened into a wider chamber. Water dripped from the ceiling. In the center was a broken altar surrounded by shattered stone tablets. One tablet still pulsed faintly with blue light.
He approached it.
Symbols glowed across its surface—spirals, waves, lines that twisted into an eye. The same mark on his arm.
The moment he touched it, the room froze.
Not in temperature. In time.
The drip of water stopped mid-fall. Dust hung in the air like it had forgotten how to land. His breath echoed too clearly, like sound didn't know where to go.
Then a voice.
"Ryder Kazuki."
He turned. No one there.
"This is your first Echo."
Suddenly, the chamber changed. It wasn't real—not entirely—but not a dream either.
He stood on a sunken battlefield. Bodies of giant beasts and warriors floated above cracked seabeds. A figure stood in the middle, cloaked in chains made of water.
The figure turned.
It was him. But older. Colder. Eyes dark with pressure.
"You've just begun to awaken," the Echo said. "You are not ready. But the Leviathan remembers you."
Ryder stepped back. "What is this?"
"A memory of what you could become. Or what you already were."
The ground rumbled. A creature rose from the seabed—massive, serpent-like, made of mist and bone. Its mouth opened, revealing countless teeth.
"Prove you belong. Or be swallowed."
Ryder's body reacted before his mind did. His right arm flared with light. Water condensed around him—black, cold, and heavy.
The beast lunged.
He raised his hand. A sphere formed—dense and spinning.
Drownspace.
He didn't know the name. But he felt the function.
The creature hit the sphere. Its body stopped mid-charge, locked in place. Water crushed in from every angle. Its bones cracked. It screeched, then fell silent.
The sphere vanished. So did the battlefield.
The altar room returned.
The tablet was now dull.
Ryder stood alone again, breathing hard.
"That was your first Echo," the voice said, softer now. "There are more. Each deeper than the last."
He looked at his hand.
He hadn't just defended himself.
He had controlled something ancient.
Then footsteps.
Not Seris.
A woman entered the chamber. She wore white robes, stained at the edges with ink and ash. Her hair was silver, eyes pale green.
She didn't draw a weapon. She studied him like a historian studying a relic.
"So it's true," she said. "The Leviathan chose a foreigner."
Ryder said nothing.
"You accessed an Echo on your own. Impressive. Dangerous."
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Archivist Thyra. I study Myth Echoes. I also collect them."
He took a step back.
"I'm not here to kill you," she added. "Not yet."
"Then why are you here?"
"To warn you. The Concord knows. They'll send more. Stronger ones."
He stared at her. "And you? You just watch?"
She smiled slightly.
"I record. I remember. I don't interfere—unless someone forgets their place."
She turned to leave.
"The Phoenix girl is alive. Barely. You might want to find her before the Echobinders do."
"Echobinders?"
"Concord agents trained to trap Myth Echoes in people like you. Rip out the power, leave the shell."
She walked into the dark tunnel and vanished.
Ryder stood still for a moment.
Then he moved.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He had power now. And he had questions.