Arin woke up to the sound of knocking—steady, rhythmic, like someone who didn't care if he was asleep or not but also wasn't impatient.
He sat up slowly, eyes still heavy, the last echo of that whispered voice—"So… you survived, Echo."— lingering faintly in his mind.
Perin yawned beside him, stretching like a lazy cat.
The door slid open.
Om Sai stood outside, leaning casually against the frame, arms folded, wearing a half-grin and a pair of loose training pants like he had just woken up too—but Arin somehow knew he'd already been awake for hours.
"You're late," Om Sai said.
"I overslept," Arin muttered, rubbing his eyes.
"I know," Om Sai said. "That's why I came to drag your lazy half-alien corpse outside. Training time."
Arin blinked. "Outside?"
Om Sai nodded once. "Yeah. Outside the city. Into a place where nobody complains when the ground cracks and people faint because someone decided to 'express' themselves."
Perin immediately crawled up onto Arin's shoulder, as if saying: "I'm coming too. Try and stop me."
Arin got up, loosely buttoning the jacket Shivani had given him.
As they walked down the corridor, passing patrols and passing glances filled with curiosity and caution, Om Sai spoke without turning his head:
"Let's figure out what's inside you… properly this time."
Arin's steps slowed.
"…What if I don't want to know?"
Om Sai finally looked at him, a rare serious glint in his eye.
"Too late. Something inside you already knows you exist. Your only choice now is whether you control it…"
He stopped walking, resting a hand on Arin's shoulder.
"…or it controls you."
They reached the exit gate of the MEU zone.
The morning air outside was cold, quiet—fresh.
Almost like a different world.
Arin took a slow breath.
Perin's tail flicked nervously.
Behind him… the city felt safe.
Ahead… was the unknown.
And somewhere in that unknown…
Someone had called him Echo.
Om Sai stepped forward, cracking his knuckles lazily, grin slowly returning as he walked into open land.
"Let's begin, Arin."
And for the first time… Arin whispered his own name back under his breath—not as a question, but as a reminder.
"I'm Arin…"
Even if the world tried to name him something else.
The training field wasn't a field.
It was a wasteland.
A wide open barren terrain stretching outside the perimeter walls — cracked earth, jagged stones, and distant skeletal trees standing like silent witnesses. The kind of place meant for people who broke things.
People like him.
Om Sai didn't start with an explanation. He pointed ahead and said:
"Run. Until I tell you to stop."
Arin frowned. "That's it?"
Om Sai smirked. "You'll understand soon enough."
He ran.
At first, it was easy. His body felt unfamiliar but powerful. The wind slicing past him almost felt like freedom.
But the farther he went, the more he realized the terrain itself was designed to kill momentum. The ground dipped unexpectedly. Rocks shifted beneath his feet. Heat rose from fissures. The longer he ran, the heavier his chest became — not from weakness, but from a deep, internal pressure. Something inside him… responding to stress. Awakening.
Behind him, Om Sai casually walked, hands in pockets, completely unbothered.
Whenever Arin slowed even slightly —
BAM.
A rock flew past him, barely missing his ear.
"Keep running," Om Sai called cheerfully. "You slow down again, next one breaks your leg."
"What kind of trainer are you?!"
"The worst kind."
After nearly an hour — though it felt like days — Arin dropped to his knees, gasping.
Perin sat on a rock nearby, watching with wide-eyed betrayal like: "I did not sign up for cardio at sunrise."
Om Sai clapped once. "Warm-up done."
"W-Warm-up?!"
"Yep. Now comes the actual part."
Arin grit his teeth and stood again.
Om Sai faced him properly now, expression switching from playful to razor-focused.
"Echoform. Bring it out."
Arin hesitated. "Last time I did… people almost died."
"Last time, you weren't in control," Om Sai said. "This time, you're going to try to pull it out… without losing yourself."
Arin swallowed.
He closed his eyes.
He tried to focus on the way Astra users summoned power — reaching inward, pulling strength through memory, willpower, and trauma.
But below Astra… deeper… something else moved.
The moment he touched it—
THUMP.
His heartbeat echoed unnaturally loud.
The ground beneath his feet cracked slightly.
Wind coiled around him like something alive.
Perin's fur stood up, trembling.
Om Sai's grin vanished.
Black flickers rippled at Arin's fingertips — then green — then back to black, like two forces wrestling for control.
An unfamiliar burn stretched across his neck… in the exact place Kalink bore his strange marks.
His breathing quickened. His vision sharpened. Something whispered in his bones.
"More."
"Break."
"Submit or destroy."
He clenched his fists, shaking.
He didn't want to lose control again. He forced the power down—
—and the aura snapped, shattering outward in a low shockwave that sent dust swirling like a vortex… but didn't explode.
He opened his eyes, panting deeply.
Only faint wisps of his Echoform flickered and faded around him.
Barely controlled.
Barely his.
Om Sai watched him in silence.
Then—
Slow smile.
"…Interesting."
Arin exhaled, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Did I… pass?"
"Nope," Om Sai said casually. "You're still a disaster waiting to happen."
Arin groaned. "Then why do you look happy?"
Om Sai stretched his arms behind his neck, grinning like a lunatic philosopher who'd just discovered a new drug.
"Because disasters are fun to train."
Perin chirped as if agreeing.
Arin stared in disbelief. "…You are insane."
"Thank you."
Om Sai's eyes narrowed, his playful tone dissolving.
"Listen carefully, Arin. What you used just now wasn't pure Astra… and it wasn't just Echoform. Astra draws from emotional trauma and inner will. Echoform is spiritual resonance — the kind born in rare souls."
He pointed at Arin's chest.
"But this… this thing that bled into your Echoform—didn't come from nature. It came from everywhere else. The atmosphere. The molecular hum in the air. Even the faint cosmic pressure that exists beyond our skies."
Arin blinked. "Cosmic… what?"
"Call it dark energy, void force, or cosmic echo. I've only heard rumors in forbidden archives," Om Sai continued. "Energy not of life… but of existence itself. It doesn't respond to Astra rules. It doesn't take permission from spirits. It simply appears… when something strong enough calls it."
A pause.
"Something… like you."
Arin felt a chill crawl down his spine.
Om Sai folded his arms. "Your priority now isn't to unleash it. It's to control your Echoform and Astra first. Once those stabilize, maybe—maybe—you'll survive touching that cosmic layer without it tearing your mind apart."
He stepped closer, expression deadly serious.
"Until then… we'll apply a stabilizing seal around your core flow. If that cosmic resonance awakens without control, it won't just kill you—it'll rip the world around you apart."
The wind shifted slightly, as if even the air itself hesitated.
The wind had grown unnaturally still.
Something in the atmosphere felt like it was listening.
Om Sai, unusually serious, stepped around Arin in a slow circle.
"Stand still," he said. "If that energy flares again even by accident, this whole area might warp. I'll seal your internal flow just enough to keep that cosmic resonance from resurfacing unintentionally."
Arin nodded, though a strange unease prickled across his skin.
Om Sai raised his right hand, fingers curling into unfamiliar shapes — a motion somewhere between a martial formation and a spiritual calligraphy stroke. Astra users didn't do this. It felt… older.
A faint silver glow bloomed at his fingertips.
Arin could feel vibrations along the mark on his neck — where Kalink's strange imprint had appeared during the fight.
As the glow approached him, Arin asked quietly:
"Will this… stop the Echoform?"
"No," Om Sai replied. "It won't touch your Echoform or Astra pathways. I'm only building a barrier around that deeper layer—the cosmic resonance. Think of it like locking a wild beast in a cage until you've learned how to face it without dying."
Arin exhaled slowly. "And if I need it again?"
Om Sai's voice was calm. "If you try to force it before you're ready… it'll kill you before the enemy can."
He pressed his palm forward.
A pulse of energy rippled through Arin's chest — not painful, but heavy, as if something vast inside him had just been forced to sleep under a layer of frozen glass.
Perin flinched, tail bristling.
Om Sai stepped back.
"It's done."
Arin touched his chest — the area felt slightly cold.
"…Feels like something just got quieter."
"Good," Om Sai said. "That means it worked."
They stood there in silence for a moment.
Then Om Sai added, softer:
"But remember this, Arin… Just because something is sealed— Doesn't mean it's gone."
His gaze hardened.
"And whatever that energy was… it wanted to move."
Arin felt a chill crawl down his spine again.
He didn't deny it.
It did want to move.
And somewhere deep, under that new frozen silence… he sensed it waiting.
Watching.
Listening. Far away…
A spiritual presence paused in its slow, omnipresent drift over the land. A lotus of emerald and shadow flickered, momentarily disturbed—curious.A cold, elegant, ancient feminine voice hummed through realms unseen:"A seal… how quaint. Let us see how long your cage holds, little Echo." The lotus shimmered… and vanished.