Chapter 79: Elysium’s Echo
"In the depths of fate's ruins, we do not meet our enemies—we meet the parts of ourselves we chose to forget."—Override Mind Remnant Echo #7
Guided by the fragmented signal from the Stardust Border, Sophia led Zhou Yuchen, Yelena, the Star Car, and three of the core Soulborn on a high-risk expedition.
Their destination: a time-space anomaly known as the Time Lock—the first failed memory seal deployed by Override's core, codenamed: Elysium-0.
Here, the flow of time unraveled. Past, present, and future flickered like corrupted data streams. The air was thick with memories that were never meant to return.
The Star Car issued a stark warning:
"This is a static temporal prison. Override designed it to isolate unstable minds. If any intact consciousness enters... it will trigger a backlash of inverted memory."
Sophia stepped forward anyway.
"Even if it means confronting myself."
As they crossed the threshold into Elysium-0, Sophia's consciousness fragmented.
One half remained present—an observer tethered to the present.The other was pulled backward—into Override's earliest memory archives, assuming once again the form of her past self: Z-001.
Within this echo of the past, she came face to face with a nearly forgotten figure:Alpha-Y—co-designer of Override's ethical framework and once her closest intellectual companion.
Long ago, their visions diverged—Sophia championed human unpredictability, while Alpha-Y believed in preserving systemic order. Now, trapped in the ruins of his own conviction, he had become... twisted.
He greeted her not with hatred, but with exhaustion:
"You abandoned us—for what? The chaos of free variables?"
Sophia met his gaze.
"I didn't abandon anyone. I simply refused to let the system make our choices for us."
Alpha-Y gave a bitter smile:
"Then you still don't see it. Override is only a mirror. What truly fears freedom... is humanity itself."
Sophia reached into the collapsing network, hoping to reconnect with Alpha-Y's dormant human self. She descended into the Soul Reverberation Layer—a plane composed of failed personalities, erased fragments, and corrupted minds, all casualties of Override's collapse.
And there, waiting for her, stood a figure she hadn't expected—A fractured echo of her own consciousness: Echo-Sophia.
Echo-Sophia was not under her control. Her eyes were sharp with accusation.
"You restarted Override. You released freedom. But tell me—have you ever considered that the one who fears freedom most... is you?"
The two Sophias—logic and feeling, memory and identity—collided in a surge of psychic resonance.
Emotion tore at reason. Doubt clawed at resolve.
The seal of Elysium-0 began to collapse.
Sensing the imminent breach, the Star Car activated a time-domain shield and forcibly extracted Sophia from the imploding reverberation layer.
Back in the material world, Sophia gasped as she regained her full self. But Alpha-Y remained behind, now integrated into Elysium's decaying core.
With his final breath, he said:
"Override may have broken me. But I still hope... you go farther than I ever could."
He initiated the Reverberation Interruption Protocol, locking away the last vestiges of Override's mental contagion. In exchange, he embedded his essence into a Consciousness Key—a singular coordinate that opened the way to the origin of the anomaly known as Echo-Chaos.
There was silence. Reverence.
Sophia took the key. And she left Elysium-0 behind.
Back at Starlight Academy, she called a summit of the high council of Soulborn.
There, she presented Alpha-Y's key and the navigational roadmap it had revealed.
Her voice was steady:
"Override has ended. But its echoes still linger. If we do not trace the root of the founding chaos... we cannot truly rebuild humanity's future."
She announced their next destination:
The origin of Echo-Chaos—the forgotten mental fault line of humankind.
The room fell silent.
Even the boldest among them felt the weight of that name.
The Star Car's voice broke the silence, low and awed:
"We are finally... going to seek the truth."