📌 Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, events, and locations are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
1. Into the Icy Heights
[Operation Initiated: Smoke Signal]
[Region: Himachal Pradesh, India – Former ISRO High-Altitude Observatory]
[Altitude: 11,300 ft | Temperature: –18°C]
[Warning: Psychic Storm Front Detected]
A modified Skydive-Class transport shuttled through blizzard-laced clouds, weaving between rising thermals of psionic interference. Inside, Raunak Virk adjusted his breathing, syncing his psi-core with a cold climate stabilization module.
Across from him, Seo Jin-Tae sat silent, his eyes half-shut as if meditating—but the pressure in the air around him was dense, like space bent subtly toward him.
To Raunak's left, Tara was going over illusion decoys. Yumi stabilized the team's psionic aura using soft waves of her empathy field.
[Team Loadout Complete]
[Psionic Compatibility: 89% – Stable]
[Environment Immunity Module Active – Duration: 6 Hours]
"Five minutes till drop," said the pilot. "Readings just spiked. Something's… alive down there."
2. Observatory Omega
The team landed near the derelict ISRO observatory — once India's premier satellite relay point. Now, it looked like a fossil from a lost world: domes cracked, satellite dishes bent by time, and a glowing fog snaking through the valley.
[No civilian presence detected]
[One active energy pulse – Origin: Underground bunker]
As they approached, snow crunched underfoot — but it wasn't just snow.
Raunak knelt down and touched it.
[Analysis: Crystalline Residue – Psionic Condensate (Type: Memory Frost)]
[Warning: Residue contains echoes from another timeline]
"They've been bleeding into our dimension," Raunak muttered.
"Not bleeding," Seo Jin-Tae corrected calmly. "Merging."
3. Entity Echoes
The team descended into the observatory's underground level via a broken lift shaft. Walls lined with cryo-panels flickered as they passed.
Suddenly, the lights died.
The temperature dropped further.
Yumi held out her hand. "There's... presence here. A lot of presence."
The hallway filled with distorted whispers.
One by one, frozen corpses emerged from the walls — trapped in the ice itself. Their faces screamed silently, eyes locked in terror.
Tara raised a veil of illusions around the group to mask their psi-signatures.
Seo Jin-Tae walked straight through the hallway unfazed. His shadow didn't follow him—it crawled in front of him.
Raunak blinked. "Your shadow…"
"Not mine," Jin-Tae replied. "It's what follows me from the other side."
[Passive Skill Detected: Shadow Anchor (Echo-Class Trait)]
[Effect: Stabilizes Echo Leakage at the cost of mental strain]
4. The Door Beneath the World
They reached a vault sealed with both magnetic and psionic locks. No combination, no retinal scan.
Instead—a psychic imprint.
Raunak stepped forward.
The door pulsed. His system vibrated.
[Psionic Echo Match: 52%]
[Foreign Key Detected in Proximity – Source: Seo Jin-Tae]
[Fusion Link Required]
Jin-Tae raised his palm without hesitation.
[Executing Joint Core Sync…]
Raunak's hand touched his.
The system flared.
[Temporary Dual-Link Established]
[Opening… Vault 07: World Echo Chamber]
The door hissed open.
Inside, crystalline structures floated mid-air—like frozen tears of the multiverse.
In the center stood a mirror, not reflecting them—but a different team. Versions of themselves—but twisted, darker, colder.
Seo Jin-Tae froze. "This… wasn't here before."
The Yumi in the mirror held a weapon. The Raunak inside had eyes of silver, not gold.
Then the mirror whispered:
"Would you kill yourself… to save yourself?"
5. Breach – Incoming Echo Shift
[Alert: Echo Distortion Breach – 0:59 until Phase Collapse]
[Entities Emerging – Tier II to Tier IV Projections Detected]
[Estimated Hostile Count: 23]
[Survival Probability Without Anchor: 31%]
"Defense circle! Yumi, center! Tara, backfield illusions!"
Raunak activated his system.
[Skill Activated: Psionic Chain – Squad Mind Link Online]
[Trait Surge: Adaptive Core – Echo Alignment Temporarily Boosted]
[Weapon Sync: Phantom Arc Blade Deployed]
Shadow-limbed creatures burst through the walls — humanoid in shape, but their faces were blank screens, flickering static. Their attacks were not physical, but psychic—forcing memories to overlap with pain.
Yumi cried out as one of them "rewound" her sense of time, pulling her into a childhood trauma. Raunak leapt in and severed the connection with a psionic burst.
Seo Jin-Tae fought like a ghost—moving between frames of time, slicing through shadows that hadn't even moved yet.
Tara projected a version of the team 200 feet away—distracting half the horde.
But it wasn't enough.
[Echo Pressure: 92% – Collapse Imminent]
Then Raunak heard it—a voice in the mirror.
"You can control the breach. Let me in."
6. The Offer
Entity-X's voice slithered through his mind.
You want to protect them? Then open the seal. Just a crack. You'll gain the power to control both worlds. I'll give you a taste. Just one.
Raunak hesitated—then reached for the mirror.
Jin-Tae screamed. "NO—once it touches you, it marks you!"
But it was too late.
Raunak's hand brushed the surface.
[Passive Triggered: Mirrorlink Core Fragment Acquired]
[Warning: Echo Signature Embedded – Traced by Entity-X]
[Temporary Power Surge: Active – Duration: 60 Seconds]
Raunak's blade ignited, now layered with spectral energy.
He moved faster than the distortion.
The tide turned. One by one, the team drove the Echo-beasts back. The room began to collapse.
7. Escape and Aftershock
[Operation Conclusion – Status: Incomplete]
[Vault 07 Core Fragment Acquired: Yes]
[Echo Presence Dispersed: 84%]
[Untracked Entity: Entity-X Signature Active in Raunak Virk]
[Squad Status: Minor Injuries]
Back at the surface, the sun began to rise over Himachal's white peaks.
Raunak sat alone on a ridge, his blade beside him—now permanently marked with fractal cracks of the Echo.
Seo Jin-Tae stood beside him.
"You touched the mirror," Jin-Tae said.
"I had to."
"No," he replied. "You wanted to."
Raunak didn't respond.
But in his System log, one final update appeared:
[New Subclass Eligible: Echo-Bound]
[Warning: This path cannot be undone.]
End of Chapter 9