Chapter 18: The Echoes of Tomorrow
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The air inside the fracture crackled with the static of dying timelines. Lila, Elara, Zara, and Jax stepped through the gateway Kael had left behind, their boots sinking into ash that whispered of forgotten cities. Above them, a skyline of jagged obsidian spires loomed—Neo-Pandora Prime, the Core's perfected dystopia.
"Cheery place," Jax muttered, his makeshift plasma cutter sputtering in the toxic air.
Zara's neural implant flared, Elias's voice fraying at the edges. "They're here. The ones who've been watching."
Before she could warn the others, figures materialized from the haze—silhouettes clad in armor forged from chrono-shards, their faces obscured by helmets glowing with spiral sigils. The leader stepped forward, removing his helmet to reveal a face that froze Lila's breath.
Elias Voss.
But older. Harder. A scar split his brow, and his eyes burned with the cold light of a man who'd outlived hope.
"You're late," Future Elias said. "The Core's already won here. But you can still save what's left of your world."
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The Echoes of Tomorrow's base was a fortress carved into the ribs of a dead leviathan—a chrono-beast frozen mid-collapse. Future Elias led them past cells holding twisted hybrids of human and machine, their eyes hollow.
"We salvage what we can from dying timelines," he explained coldly. "Fuel. Weapons. Sacrifices."
Lila recoiled as a cell flickered, revealing a younger version of Kael, his hands pressed to the glass. "You keep prisoners?"
"Volunteers," Future Elias corrected. "They donate their timelines to starve the Core. A necessary trade."
Elara gripped his arm. "This isn't the way. The Elias I knew would never—"
"The Elias you knew died when the Core took his family," he snapped, pulling free. "You want to save your world? Give me the Hourglass."
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Zara retreated to a corner, her implant syncing with Elias's fading consciousness. "He's lying," the ghost of her Elias whispered. "The Hourglass isn't a weapon to him—it's a key. He wants to collapse all timelines into one, purging the Core… and us."
Jax crouched beside her, eyeing the Echoes' tech. "These guys make Nyx look friendly. We need an exit plan."
"No," Zara said, standing. "We need the Hourglass back."
She confronted Future Elias, her implant projecting a hologram of the Fractured Hourglass. "You think merging timelines will kill the Core? It'll make it a god."
Future Elias's hand drifted to his scar. "You think I haven't tried every other path? I watched my Lila die. My Kael. My child. The Core takes everything. Unless we end it."
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Lila and Elara hacked into the Echoes' archives, uncovering logs of failed rebellions. A hologram showed Future Elias standing over the corpse of a chrono-twisted Elara, the Core's spiral in her eyes.
"He's not wrong," Elara whispered. "The Core corrupts everything it touches."
"But genocide isn't the answer," Lila said. "There has to be another—"
Alarms blared. The fortress shook as the Core's tendrils speared through the walls, drawn by the Hourglass's resonance.
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Future Elias rallied his Echoes, their armor flaring as they charged into the storm. "This is our chance! While it's distracted!"
Zara and Jax fought toward the armory, Elias's consciousness guiding them to a vault holding Chrono-Lances—weapons that could sever the Core's anchors.
"Take them!" Jax tossed Zara a lance, its blade humming with unstable energy.
"Careful," Elias warned. "One wrong cut, and you'll erase more than the Core."
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Lila faced Future Elias on the battlefield, the Hourglass clutched between them. "There's another way. We can trap the Core, not destroy it."
"Traps fail," he snarled, grabbing her wrist. "I've seen it."
Elara intervened, her hybrid form flaring. "Then see this." She channeled the Core's energy into the Hourglass, its light revealing a fracture within the Core itself—a vulnerability.
Future Elias hesitated. "…A prison. Not a grave."
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The team unleashed the Chrono-Lances, severing the Core's tendrils. As it recoiled, Future Elias plunged the Hourglass into the fracture, sealing the Core inside a timeloop.
But as the dust settled, Zara's implant flatlined—Elias's consciousness gone.
And Future Elias turned to Lila, his scar bleeding spiral light. "It's not over. The Core always escapes. Always."
Behind him, the vault flickered open. Inside, hundreds of Hourglasses glowed, each holding a trapped Core.
"How many times have we done this?" he whispered. "How many times have you forgotten?"
To Be Continued…
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