1. Between the Ruins
The ruins blur—a symphony of twisted steel and decaying echoes.
No time to stop.
No breath to waste.
The ground quakes again. Behind us, the Echo Leviathan howls, dragging its grotesque mass through the remnants of memory and war.
"Kara—left!" I shout.
She leads us into a half-buried underpass. Darkness swallows us as the Leviathan barrels past, the air warping in its wake.
Silence follows.
A silence too fragile to trust.
I slump against the cold concrete, lungs burning. Navi grins like he just cheated death for sport. Kara doesn't lower her blade.
"We're not dead," Navi mutters. "That's progress."
I try to smile. But I can't.
Not when Liora's voice still echoes in my mind.
Find me.
2. Haunted Ground
The Codex sputters to life—map data flickering across my wrist.
A route.
Barely functional.
Barely real.
"This way," I say.
We move wordlessly, deeper into the maze of fallen monuments and forgotten ideals. The past lives here, rotting quietly in the cracks.
Kara walks close. I catch her watching me.
"You good?"
"No," I answer.
"None of us are," Navi adds, voice light but hollow. "Not anymore."
The further we go, the louder the Architect's corruption hums in my blood. Like a virus. Like a curse.
But I hold onto one truth.
Liora is still out there.
3. The Edge of the Heart
The path narrows into a slit between two leaning towers.
Beyond it: the abyss.
And far below, suspended in endless dark—
A crimson heartbeat.
The Heart Sector.
Kara exhales sharply. "Looks friendly."
Navi shakes his head. "Looks fatal."
I step to the edge.
The fall is more than distance. It's surrender.
I dive.
The others follow.
Time distorts. Space folds. Gravity forgets how to behave.
And then—
We land.
4. Living Memory
The platform pulses underfoot—alive.
Veins of light thread across broken floors, pulsing like blood through stone.
Above: massive rings spin slowly, carved in glyphs older than memory.
The Codex fails.
No signals. No data.
Just raw possibility—and danger.
"This isn't real," Kara whispers.
"It is," Navi replies. "Just not ours."
The Heart Sector is a system with no rules.
No boundaries.
A dream turned predator.
It feels us.
Knows us.
Twists us.
Somewhere inside—Liora.
Or what's left of her.
5. The False Dream
Three steps.
Then it hits.
Suddenly, I'm back at the Observer Academy. Young. Clean. Safe.
Liora beside me, laughing. No war. No pain.
It feels right.
Until Kara's voice slices through.
"Eran. Now."
I tear free.
The illusion shatters like glass.
Navi appears, grim.
"Memory traps," he says. "Won't be the last."
Let them come.
I'm not here to dream.
I'm here to end this.
6. Echoes of the Architect
We move again.
The air thickens.
The whispers grow.
You were made to kneel.
You were made to fail.
I grit my teeth. "No."
Kara stands at my side.
Navi cracks his knuckles. "Time to punch a god."
Ahead: a bridge of light stretches to a citadel carved from fractured timelines.
And waiting at its gates—
Liora.
Alive.
Changed.
Smiling.
But her eyes are no longer hers.
End of Chapter 13