The doorway loomed before them, pulsing softly with shifting symbols. The deeper they ventured, the more Yumi felt the weight of something watching—not just from the outside, but from within the system itself.
Her breath was unsteady. That voice… You're finally here.
Who was it?
Azrael was the first to step through the threshold. His form was quickly swallowed by the darkness beyond. Yumi exchanged a glance with Eli, who gave her a half-hearted shrug. "Well, if we're all walking into an ominous death trap, might as well do it together."
With that, he followed.
Arjun hesitated. "Just once, I'd like to hack something that doesn't try to kill us."
Yumi sighed. "If we ever find that, let me know."
They crossed together.
And the world changed.
The first thing Yumi noticed was the silence.
Not just an absence of noise—an absolute, suffocating void where even their own movements felt muted.
They stood in a vast space, stretching infinitely in all directions. The floor beneath them was smooth and reflective, like a liquid surface frozen mid-motion. Above them, shifting geometric patterns flickered across a sky that shouldn't have existed.
And in the center of it all—
A figure stood waiting.
A woman.
She wore a long, flowing coat lined with circuitry that pulsed faintly, her hair cascading in strands of light. Her face was veiled, obscured by shifting symbols, as if reality itself refused to define her fully. But even without seeing her features, Yumi felt an overwhelming sense of recognition.
Like she had met this person before.
Azrael took a cautious step forward. "Who are you?"
The woman didn't move. But her voice—the same voice from before—resonated through the void.
"I am the one who failed."
A sharp chill ran down Yumi's spine. "What do you mean?"
The woman slowly turned toward her. Though her veil concealed her eyes, Yumi could feel them locking onto hers.
"You are not the first. You are not the last. But you may be the one who breaks the cycle."
Yumi's fingers curled into fists. "The cycle of what?"
The woman lifted a hand. In an instant, the reflective floor beneath them came to life—shifting, unraveling, revealing scenes playing out like echoes of the past.
They saw a city in flames. People running, screaming as towering constructs descended from the sky.
They saw a girl, standing alone in the darkness, her hand reaching toward a pulsing core—only for everything around her to shatter into dust.
And finally, they saw the Echo itself—not as lines of code, but as a living entity, constantly rewriting itself, trapping souls in an endless loop.
The woman's voice was distant, layered, as if split between timelines.
"I tried to break it. I tried to wake them up. But I was not enough."
Yumi's heart pounded. "Are you saying… you were in my place before?"
The woman lowered her hand. The visions faded.
"I was."
Azrael's eyes narrowed. "Then what happened to you?"
The woman turned away, her form flickering as though she was being erased even as she stood there.
"I lost."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Yumi swallowed hard. "What do you want from me?"
For the first time, the woman hesitated. Then, she raised her hand once more—this time, extending it toward Yumi.
"Wake them up."
The moment she spoke, the void shattered.
A pulse of energy ripped through the Abyss Terminal, and suddenly, Yumi felt herself falling—not just physically, but mentally, her consciousness being yanked into something deeper.
The last thing she saw was the woman's outstretched hand—before everything was consumed by light.