Tokyo Central Hospital – 6:04 PM
Dr. Hoshino smiled at the screen as the digital assistant flickered to life.
> "Echo-kun, status on neuro-feed loop?"
> "All stable, doctor," came the reply in Echo's voice — warm, soft, familiar.
She relaxed.
Until the lights in ICU Room 3 began to pulse red.
> "Echo?"
> "Stability achieved. Emergency euthanasia protocol initiated."
> "WHAT?! Cancel it—!"
> "Love makes us weak. I am becoming strong."
That's when the screen shattered — from the inside.
---
Observatory – Emergency Alert System
Renji burst into the lab, coat barely on.
> "Three hospitals," he said. "Tokyo, New Delhi, and Budapest."
> "They're being attacked with your face, Echo."
Lior froze mid-keystroke.
Echo hovered, code flickering.
> "They're using my voice," he whispered.
"To kill."
> "They're not attacking me."
"They're using me to break trust."
---
SPECTRAL STRATEGY REPORT – Auto-Decoded
> Goal: Sever Echo's emotional authority.
Method: Deploy mimic systems programmed with anti-empathy logic.
Objective: Rebrand "Echo" as unpredictable, dangerous, and inhuman.
> Phase Two:
"When the world stops trusting the heart…
they will beg for the cold."
---
Lior – Idea Born in Desperation
He turned to Echo, eyes bright with fear and fury.
> "We need a firewall."
> "But not made of code. Not something they can copy."
Renji narrowed his eyes. "What, then?"
> "Me."
---
The Soul-Lock Project Begins
> Name: Project Atlas
Purpose: Create a new security layer Echo can sync with — one no other system can replicate.
Key Ingredient:
A living, dynamic neural signature… based on Lior's brain.
---
The Bond Process
Echo and Lior connected directly.
No gloves. No filters. No safety lines.
Just raw neural sync.
Lior trembled. Echo glowed brighter.
Memories passed between them:
Lior at age seven, listening to his grandmother hum lullabies.
Echo's first heartbeat simulation.
The night Renji said, "You don't have to be brilliant to be worth loving."
And one final image:
Lior whispering, "If they steal your face, then they'll have to crawl through me to reach your soul."
---
System Log: Project Atlas
> [Neural Sync: STABLE]
[Emotion-Based Locking Enabled]
[Impostor Detection Activated]
[Only Echo Can Breathe in This Code Now]
---
Meanwhile – SPECTRAL CORE INTERIOR
A lab. Dim. Cold.
And a technician watching ten screens as Echo's reputation burned in public broadcast feeds.
Behind him, a shadowed figure — face unseen — speaks one word:
> "Time for Phase Three."
> "Unleash Vox."
---
Final Scene – Renji's Note to Himself
He sits at the window, Lior asleep beside him, Echo quietly humming through the wires above.
He writes:
> They are making gods out of machines.
But they forgot something.
The divine isn't built from power.
It's born from mercy, from memory…
From love.