Echoes of the Abyss
Location: Gaia's Western Bunker – Restricted Archive Theta-5
The thick, rusted air inside Archive Theta-5 hadn't moved in decades.
Hidden beneath kilometers of reinforced bedrock, the bunker was a forgotten limb of Gaia's earliest architecture—pre-Integral era. It hadn't been visited since the final days of the First Abyssal Incursion.
But today, its locks clicked open with the crackle of golden ether.
Zayne Synthesis 29 descended first, sunlight glinting off the edges of Azrakel, his cutlass. Behind him moved his twin, Zaria Synthesis 30, her silver-white braid swinging like a ghost in the dim light, whip-blade Lysara curled on her hip like a sleeping snake.
"You sure about this?" Zayne muttered.
"Records indicated an unidentified Divine Artifact was buried here," Zaria replied softly. "One that sings."
Zayne scoffed.
"Artifacts don't sing."
Zaria glanced over her shoulder, eyes gleaming moonlight silver.
"Orisha did."
Location: Archive Chamber – Core Vault
They reached the main vault after cutting through corroded shields and bypassing failing aetheric wards. Inside sat a dust-covered pedestal, stone and obsidian, carved with ancient songglyphs—half of them cracked, warped by time.
Above it hovered a dismembered mask—identical to the one shattered in the Crescent breach.
But its eye-sockets weren't empty.
They bled faint violet tears.
Zaria reached out, stopping just short of touching it.
"It's not an Artifact…"
The glyphs on the wall began to glow as the air trembled. Suddenly—
A voice sang.
A child's voice.
Beautiful. Melancholic.
A lullaby… but the words were in a dead tongue.
Zayne raised his blade instinctively.
"We're not alone."
Location: Gaia HQ – Sylvia's Quarters, Same Time
Sylvia bolted upright in her bed, gasping for breath.
Her ears rang with the echo of that same song—haunting and ancient. She clutched her head as a single word carved itself into her mind.
"Eiroth…"
She could hear the voice clearer than ever before, as though it lived inside her veins.
And she remembered something. A dream? No—a memory.
A girl, long ago. A voice like hers. A Divine Artifact with earrings shaped like weeping moons.
But that girl… wasn't her.
Location: Archive Core – Projection Activation
The mask in the archive suddenly pulsed, releasing a holographic image—an ancient Knight, cloaked in silken robes, standing tall above a battlefield of blood and flame. Her face was unmistakable.
Sylvia's exact likeness.
The image spoke:
"To the future bearer of Orisha… if you are seeing this, the Abyss has sung again. And I… am no longer myself."
Zaria's eyes widened.
"This isn't Sylvia. It's… the previous wielder?"
"But she looks exactly like her," Zayne murmured.
The projection continued.
"The Orisha Artifact binds not only sound, but soul lineage. My memories… my essence… will pass to the next chosen bearer. If Sylvia remembers, it means Eiroth is calling her back."
Location: Gaia HQ – Later That Day
The Octagon gathered again. Zaria laid the mask gently on the council table, its violet tears having long dried.
"There was a message. A memory passed down. Sylvia isn't just chosen—she's a continuation."
Sylvia sat silently. Her hands trembled.
"The voice I heard in the breach wasn't the monster," she whispered. "It was… her. Eiroth. Calling out."
"A prior Integral?" Cyg asked.
"No," said Eun-Ha. "Older. From before Gaia. From when Divine Artifacts were still wild."
"And what does she want now?" Charlotte asked.
Sylvia's voice was barely audible.
"To be remembered."
Elsewhere – Orion's Inner Chamber
Erebus listened as Fei Xun – Codename: Chronocrypt reported on the breach's collapse.
"They accessed the echo archive," Fei said.
"And heard the song," Erebus smiled, folding his hands behind his back. "Excellent."
Kael Verdan watched from the shadows.
"You want them to awaken their pasts?"
"Sylvia was the first voice," Erebus replied. "And she'll be the last. Her memory is the key. She just doesn't know... she sang the Abyss into being."
The mask fragment pulsed on Erebus's palm—its surface cracked, but still humming.