Chapter 4 - Chapter 4: The Hunger Beneath

Einstein Voss's breath burned in his chest, the subway platform's air thick with the stench of damp concrete and something worse—something metallic, alive, like blood but not. The crimson ooze pooling at his feet wasn't natural; it was aetheric ichor, leaking from cracks in the ground where Echo-13 and Echo-17 had been contained. His hands still glowed, faint threads of aetheric plasma trembling under his skin, but the effort of weaving them into a barrier had left him dizzy, his heart pounding like it might crack his ribs. I'm not built for this, he thought, leaning against a tiled pillar, the cold seeping through his jacket.Zara Kade stood a few feet away, her Containment Prism humming as she scanned the platform. Her face was all sharp edges in the flickering fluorescent light, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of fear. "It's not over," she said, voice low. "Echo-13's sealed, but Echo-17's still active. And something's… pulling.""Pulling?" Einstein rasped, wiping sweat from his brow. His palm's cut pulsed, the plasma inside it restless, like it knew something he didn't. That voice—Izarael. She's still out there.Talen Vey crouched by the ichor, his tablet glowing with fractal patterns that made Einstein's head hurt. "It's not just Echo-17," Talen said, his voice tight, glasses reflecting the red glow. "There's a new signature—Echo-29. Nonexistent Physiology, Type 2, maybe worse. It's feeding off the rift."Kaelith drifted nearby, her form flickering like a dying signal, her void-like eyes fixed on the cracks. "The hunger grows," she whispered, her voice a shiver in Einstein's skull. "The Cascade stirs."Einstein's stomach twisted. "English, please," he said, pushing off the pillar. "What's Echo-29? And what's this Cascade you keep talking about?"Zara shot him a look, half annoyed, half pitying. "The Eidolon Cascade is everything—worlds like Earth-Alpha, Earth-Noir, Earth-Aether, all linked in a web. It's alive, Voss, and it's breaking. Echoes are the cracks—things that shouldn't exist, like Echo-13 with no physical form, or Echo-17 with no concept behind it. Echo-29? It's… deeper. It's eating reality to make itself real.""Eating reality?" Einstein echoed, his voice cracking. This is way above my paygrade.Talen stood, pocketing his tablet. "Think of it like a virus," he said. "Echo-29's using the rift to pull void-essence—raw nothingness—into our world. If it stabilizes, it could tear a hole to the Noetic Shroud or worse.""Worse?" Einstein asked, dreading the answer.Kaelith's form flickered, her voice a hiss: "The Nullpoint. The source. She watches."Einstein's cut burned, and he heard it again—Weave, or break—the voice of Izarael, cold and commanding, like a knife in his mind. He shook his head, trying to focus. "So, what do we do? Seal it like the others?"Zara's prism beeped, a red alert flashing. "Not that simple," she said. "Echo-29's in the tunnels. We need to find it before it spreads. Talen, get me a path. Kaelith, scout ahead."Talen nodded, his fingers flying over the tablet, while Kaelith dissolved into mist, vanishing into the dark. Einstein gripped his toolbag, the weight of his wrench grounding him. "And me?" he asked, voice steadier than he felt."You're with me," Zara said, starting down the platform stairs. "Your aetheric weaving saved our asses back there. Don't screw it up now."Einstein followed, his boots echoing in the empty station. The tunnels were a maze of shadows, the air heavy with damp and the faint hum of aetheric plasma. His palm glowed, casting a faint light, but every step felt like walking into a trap. I'm a mechanic, not a ghostbuster, he thought, but the plasma in his veins had other ideas, pulling him forward like a compass.Zara's prism guided them, its glow cutting through the dark. "The Concord's been tracking Echo-29 for weeks," she said, voice low. "It's not like the others. It's… deliberate. Like it's being steered.""Steered by what?" Einstein asked, ducking under a rusted pipe."Echo Prime," Zara said, her tone grim. "The big one. It's not just an anomaly—it's a force, rewriting the Cascade's threads. If it's using Echo-29, we're in deep."The tunnel shook, a low rumble that sent dust raining down. Einstein's cut flared, and the air shimmered, a flicker of void-essence curling from the walls like smoke. "Zara," he whispered, pointing. "That's not normal, right?"She cursed, raising her prism. "Rift forming. Stay back."But the shimmer grew, splitting into a shape—Echo-29. It wasn't like Echo-13's knot or Echo-17's claws. It was a void, a hole in the world, its edges pulsing with aetheric ichor. Faces flickered in its depths—not human, not anything—aetheric wraiths, their screams a silent wail. Its voice hit Einstein's mind, not words but a hunger: "I am the end."Zara fired her prism, a cage of light forming, but Echo-29 swallowed it, the light vanishing like water down a drain. Einstein's plasma surged, and he wove, threads snapping into a barrier, but the effort was worse than before—his vision blurred, his knees buckled, and blood trickled from his nose. It's killing me, he thought, but he held the weave, the void thrashing.Kaelith materialized, her mist wrapping around Echo-29. "Dreams bind," she hissed, her form fraying as she pulled the void inward. Talen appeared, tablet glowing, shouting, "Coordinates locked! Zara, now!"Zara slammed a new prism into the ground, a pulse of light sealing Echo-29 in a shimmering cage. The tunnel stabilized, but aetheric ichor oozed, pooling at Einstein's feet. He collapsed, gasping, the plasma fading. "Did we get it?" he rasped."For now," Zara said, helping him up. "But Echo Prime's still out there."Kaelith's eyes met Einstein's, her voice a whisper: "The weaver sees you. The spark burns."Einstein's cut pulsed, Izarael's voice echoing: "The hunger grows. Weave, or break." He didn't know what was coming, but the Eidolon Cascade was alive, and he was its pawn. The tunnels felt heavier now, the dark watching. I'm not ready, he thought, but he stood, ready or not.