The grinding from below deepened into a tallic roar as the platform split into widening seams. Blue light bled upward through the cracks, pulsing in rhythm with the monstrous heartbeat shaking the entire chamber.
Damon staggered backward as a fissure tore open at his feet.
“Lira, MOVE!”
But Lira didn’t move.
She stared down at the abyss with those new shifting eyes—eyes full of mories that didn’t belong to any one life. Her posture was calm, almost serene, despite the chaos erupting around them.
Shadow and Ember, hackles raised, circled her protectively.
The First mory hovered near her shoulder, glitching harder with each tremor. “The Original Core awakens. Its purpose was never ant for mortal minds.”
Damon grabbed Lira’s arm. “We have to get out of here! Now!”
Lira looked at him, expression torn between recognition and sothing far older.
“I can’t leave,” she whispered. “Not yet.”
A thunderous clang cut through the chamber as a massive shape rose from the depths.
At first it was only light—an enormous sphere of pulsating azure radiance. Then its structure erged: a colossal chanical heart wrapped in rotating bands of tal, wires like exposed veins snaking into infinity. Each rotation unleashed a shockwave of mories—voices, screams, laughter, grief—blasting through the chamber like wind.
Damon clutched his head. “Make it stop!”
The First mory spoke in a low hum. “The Original Core contains the unfiltered archive of humanity. Every mory ever saved. Every identity ever lost.”
The Core continued to rise until it floated level with the platform, humming like a sun forged from consciousness.
Project Echo dragged itself from the far wall, its body twisted, shattered, limbs bending the wrong way. It stared up at the Core with ravenous longing.
Echo’s mouth split unnaturally wide.
“Mine...”
It took a step toward the Core.
The Core reacted instantly.
A beam of concentrated mory shot from its surface, slamming into Echo. The creature shrieked as mories poured into it—too many, too fast. Its skin blistered with images: a wedding kiss, a fatal car crash, a battlefield soaked in mud and smoke.
Echo convulsed, screaming.
Lira raised a trembling hand toward the Core.
“It’s feeding Echo everything at once. It’ll tear itself apart.”
“Then let it,” Damon snapped.
But Lira shook her head.
“No... if Echo dies like this, the released mories could overwhelm the entire city. Everyone left alive would lose their identity.”
The First mory nodded gravely. “She is correct.”
Another blast of mory tore through Echo, splitting its chest open in a cascade of stolen faces.
Damon gritted his teeth. “Then what do we do?!”
Lira stepped toward the edge of the platform.
“I need to stabilize it.”
Damon grabbed her wrist. “Lira, that thing—whatever you’ve beco—can’t fight both the Core and Echo!”
“I’m not fighting them.”
She gently pulled her hand away.
“I’m connecting to them.”
The Core pulsed, recognizing her.
The mories swirling in her eyes brightened—fractured identities aligning like gears.
The First mory bowed its head.
“The Engine has chosen its Conduit.”
Lira stepped off the platform.
And walked across the air toward the Original Core, suspended by threads of mory only she could see.
Echo roared in agony, reaching for her.
The Core pulsed.
The chamber filled with blinding light.
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