The Echo Core pulsed like a living sun, its light refracting through the chamber’s mirrored walls until it felt as though they were standing inside the mind of something ancient. Every hum, every vibration, carried rhythm — a slow, deliberate heartbeat that seemed to whisper through the air.
Maya stood beside Ethan, her face pale in the glow. “It feels like it’s… watching us,” she whispered.
Dr. Taylor adjusted her scanner. “That’s because it is. The entire structure reacts to neural proximity — it’s not just a power source. It’s sentient.”
“Then we’re standing inside its brain,” Dr. Myles muttered.
Ethan’s gaze locked on the glowing sphere at the chamber’s centre. “If this is Elysium’s mind,” he said quietly, “then it already knows we’re here.”
A voice answered him — smooth, harmonic
