The moment my fingertips brushed the Echo's core, the world fractured.
A shockwave of energy surged through me, raw and untamed, burning like wildfire beneath my skin.
My vision blurred.
The chamber vanished.
And then—
I was somewhere else.
The world around me warped, twisting into an unfamiliar landscape.
Dark mountains. A crimson sky.
A battlefield, no, a graveyard of shattered weapons and broken bodies.
And standing amidst the carnage was it.
The beast.
It was nothing like the corpse I had seen in the Pit. Here, it was alive, breathing, its obsidian fur slick with blood, its six burning eyes locked onto something unseen.
The air trembled as the ground beneath it cracked.
Something was wrong.
This wasn't a mere animal.
This thing… understood.
And it was afraid.
Then, a voice, low, guttural, like reality itself was being peeled apart.
"Kneel."
A presence loomed over the battlefield, its form obscured in the shadows of the mountains. Indistinct. Unknowable.
The beast snarled, defiant—but even I could feel the fear in its stance.
And then—
A sigil ignited in the sky.
Violet light burned through the clouds, twisting into a spiraling abyss.
The Echo—the very essence of the beast—began to tear away from its body, dragged toward the abyss.
It fought.
It screamed.
But in the end—
It vanished.
I gasped, my lungs burning as if I'd been drowning.
The chamber rushed back into view, but something was wrong.
The Echo hadn't just entered me—it was fighting me.
I could feel it, coiling inside my veins, clawing at my mind.
Not a clean absorption.
Not like before.
This was different.
Aiden's voice barely reached me through the haze.
"Damien! What the hell is happening?!"
I tried to answer, but my lungs seized. The energy inside me expanded, warping, spreading beyond my control.
A dark shape flickered at the edges of my vision—not the beast, but something else.
A whisper, low, amused.
"Ah. You weren't meant to see that, were you?"
Pain lanced through my skull.
And then—
BOOM!
A shockwave erupted from my body, sending cracks splintering through the stone walls.
Aiden was already moving, reappearing in a blur, his hands slamming onto my shoulders to hold me steady.
"Damien, focus. Snap out of it!"
I tried. I really tried.
But the Echo wouldn't stop shifting.
I could feel something mutating inside me.
Twisting. Changing.
Not an Echo I had planned for.
Not an ability I understood.
And as the violet energy burned along my arms, coiling into something alien, something wrong—
I realized one thing with absolute certainty.
I wasn't in control anymore.
***
Aiden's grip on Damien's shoulders tightened.
"This isn't normal."
He muttered under his breath.
It wasn't just the fact that the Echo was resisting—it was fighting back. Damien's body wasn't rejecting it like some unstable absorption. It was merging, twisting into something else entirely.
Aiden's eyes narrowed as he watched the violet energy coil and pulse along Damien's arms.
"Damien, I need you to breathe. Now."
Damien's head snapped up, his pupils dilating, his breathing ragged. The mark on his wrist flared, flickering in and out of focus, almost as if reality itself was trying to correct something.
And Aiden… recognized that look.
He had seen it before.
He had seen it in himself.
He exhaled slowly, pressing his fingers harder into Damien's shoulders. If this kept going, Damien was going to lose himself, and Aiden wasn't going to let that happen.
"Focus on my voice. You're here, you're not in that vision. Whatever that thing was, it's gone."
Damien's breathing hitched. His body jerked, his fingers clawing into the ground as if trying to stabilize himself.
Aiden's gaze flicked to the shifting energy curling around Damien's arms. Unstable. Powerful.
And then, just for a second, his usual smirk vanished.
His expression darkened.
"If you lose yourself to this, I'll drag you back myself."
His voice was quieter, but there was no mockery in it. No playfulness.
Just something… colder.
Aiden's grip tightened as Damien's breathing grew more erratic.
The violet energy writhing along his arms pulsed like a living thing, twisting, expanding—hungry. The chamber around them creaked, the fractured stone walls groaning under the weight of unseen pressure.
Damien's eyes flickered—not human anymore, not fully his own.
Aiden had seen this before.
Echo corruption. Power overload. The moment where something stops being yours and starts becoming something else.
"Damien!"
His voice was sharp now, commanding.
"You need to pull it back—before it pulls you under!"
But Damien didn't answer.
Because Damien wasn't there anymore.
His head snapped up, and for just a moment, just a fraction of a second, Aiden saw something else staring back at him.
A presence. A will.
And then—
BOOM!
The air detonated as Damien lunged, faster than Aiden expected.
A wave of violet energy exploded outward, the sheer force sending Aiden skidding back as Damien came down on him like a feral beast.
Instinct.
Aiden barely had time to dodge as Damien's fist slammed into the stone, carving a deep crater where his head had been just seconds before.
Aiden's body moved on reflex.
A sharp pivot, twisting around Damien's next strike, too wild, too unrestrained.
He's not thinking. He's reacting.
Aiden gritted his teeth, ducking under another vicious swipe of Damien's arm.
"Tch—well, this is annoying."
WHAM!
Damien's knee shot up, aiming for his ribs. Aiden twisted just in time, catching the impact with his forearm. The shockwave rattled his bones, but he absorbed the force, rolling with it instead of resisting.
He knew better than to fight raw power head-on.
And right now?
Damien was nothing but raw power.
Aiden planted his feet, sliding back slightly, eyes sharp.
"Alright, kid."
He exhaled slowly.
"I get it. You're losing your mind right now. But if you think I'm just gonna sit here and let you tear me apart—"
His smirk returned, razor-sharp.
"—then you really don't know me."
CRACK!
Aiden vanished in a blur of motion.
Before Damien could react, Aiden reappeared behind him, twisting his body into a brutal roundhouse kick aimed straight for Damien's head.
WHAM!
The impact sent Damien crashing into the far wall, debris raining down as the entire chamber shuddered.
Aiden didn't stop.
He followed through, dashing forward before Damien could recover, his fist slamming into Damien's gut, driving him deeper into the cracked stone.
BOOM!
Damien coughed, violet energy surging violently around him as his body tried to resist, tried to keep fighting.
"Yeah, yeah, I know—you're not done yet."
Aiden muttered.
He moved again, faster than Damien could process, his arm snaking around Damien's neck in a tight chokehold.
"But I'm not letting you lose yourself to this damn thing."
Damien struggled, snarling, the Echo fighting to keep control.
Aiden tightened his grip.
"Sleep."
Damien thrashed once—twice—then his body finally gave out.
The violet glow flickered.
The unnatural energy began to recede.
And just like that—
Damien collapsed.
Silence.
Aiden exhaled, slowly lowering him to the ground.
"Damn it, kid."
He muttered, rubbing his neck.
"You really don't make things easy, do you?"
He let out a breath, shaking out his arms as he glanced at the still-faintly-glowing mark on Damien's wrist.
Even unconscious, the Echo was still there.
Still alive inside him.
Aiden clicked his tongue.
"Yeah. This is gonna be a problem."
***
I winced, trying to sit up.
The memory of the surge still pulsed in my veins—a chaotic reminder of something far bigger than me.
Aiden didn't push further.
He just kept staring, his gaze unreadable, like he was holding back some secret I wasn't meant to know.
There was a hard edge behind his eyes—something that made me uneasy.
"Tell me."
I pressed, my voice rough.
"Why the hell did you let me live?"
For a second, I thought he might just shrug it off, make some joke, pretend like it wasn't even a question worth answering.
But then, his smirk faltered.
Just slightly.
His fingers tapped once against his arm before going still. A small hesitation, barely noticeable, but it was there.
"Tch."
He exhaled through his nose, shaking his head.
"You're not dead because I didn't want you to be."
"That doesn't explain why."
Aiden leaned his head back against the pillar, gaze shifting up toward the cracked ceiling. For a moment, he said nothing, just sat there, as if weighing his words.
"I've got my reasons."
That was all he gave me.
A vague, dismissive line meant to shut the conversation down.
But there was something beneath it—something just out of reach.
He wasn't helping me out of kindness. That much was clear.
That was all.
I glared at him, frustration bubbling inside.
'Not now? Then when, huh?'
But the answer stayed locked behind his silence.
I couldn't tell if his reasons were for my sake or his own.
The room was quiet except for my ragged breathing.
I could still feel the wild energy shifting under my skin, a stubborn reminder that I wasn't in control anymore.
I stared at him, trying to read between the lines.
But all I got was that cold, distant look that hinted at something personal—something dark.
'Damn, he doesn't give a damn, does he?'
I thought bitterly.
For now, I had two choices.
Trust him.
Or let the chaos inside me consume everything.
I wasn't ready to decide yet.
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the pain and confusion settle.
Wondering if clinging to Aiden—even with his vague, selfish reasons—was my only chance to keep a grip on what was left of me.