The sound of Echo's footsteps was the only living thing in that sterile corridor. Each impact of her boot against the metal reverberated in subtle waves that danced beneath her feet and spread like invisible sensory tentacles. To anyone who saw her, she was just a young woman of average height, with her hair tied back, discreet bracelets, and sharp eyes. But to this place... to the structure of that secret base... she was an earthquake waiting to happen.
The air was cold, but not from the climate, but from the presence. An invisible tension lingered, as if the base itself knew what was coming. At the end of the corridor, shrouded in shadows and heat, stood he. Cinder Knight.
His flaming armor was fueled by a fusion of EVP and thermal ignition, pulsing in vivid scarlet hues as if his body were a boiling furnace. The surrounding walls trembled slightly from his presence. His arms were crossed, his head tilted slightly forward. The amber visor emitted an intense light, like the eye of a predator analyzing its prey.
When she approached, he didn't move. But he began speaking with an arrogant demeanor. "So it's you... the slut sent to die." His voice was a metallic rumble distorted by synthetic layers. Heat emanated even from the words.
Echo didn't stop walking. Her smile was thin as a blade. "Wow. Have we started with misogyny yet? How classic." She stopped a few feet away. "You forgot to call me hysterical too, you recyclable waste."
Cinder Knight uncrossed her arms. The plates of her armor hissed as they moved, releasing incandescent steam. "You're just another freak of the Order of Erebus. A rat dressed as a revolutionary. You think you can intimidate real heroes with toys on your wrists?"
"Order of Erebus? What a surprise! I didn't know you already knew about them, considering your simple minds." Echo slowly rolled her shoulders, cracking her neck. "But I'm sorry to disappoint you. Unfortunately for your ego, I'm not part of the Order. You can call me Resonance, I'm part of the Remnants of the Ruins. Personally, I came here to kill you and find out everything you're doing here. Two birds with one stone."
"Really? In that case, I'll reduce you to ash, you fucking bitch." He advanced. The fight began with a roar and a flaming blast that turned the air to glass. Echo didn't back down; she spun. Her heel slammed into the wall, then used the momentum to float through the air, dodging the first attack as if dancing with destruction.
Flames spread through the corridors. The base began to creak with the heat. Cinder Knight charged like a tank fused with a furnace, each punch leaving craters in the ground. But Echo didn't try to stop him; she used her speed to sneak past, and to destroy with precision and cruelty.
She responded with vibrations. Dull thuds of sound ricocheted off the walls. A snap of her bracelets, and a wave of pressure collapsed part of the ceiling behind Cinder Knight. "Do you always stink like this, or just when you're scared?" she taunted.
"You're nothing, bitch! JUST A BUG!" he screamed. Echo just laughed at the situation and the corny nonsense he spouted. "Bug? Funny, I heard your existence was a simple failed abortion."
The blow came brutally. He tried to grab her arm. She slipped in and kicked his knee hard, making the armor vibrate. A faint crack appeared in the side fitting.
Echo spun in the air, landed on one hand, and launched a wave of sound with both feet. The pressure forced Cinder Knight back, gritting her teeth behind her brittle visor.
She ran along the walls, defying gravity with the vibrations of her bracelets, and attacked him from above with a spinning blow. He blocked it, but the force of the impact sent a beam of light through the ceiling. The base shook with each impact.
The exchange of blows lasted minutes. Long. Exhausting. Echo attacked like a pro at humiliation. She hit specific points on his armor, each time deeper, each time sharper. He bled inside without even knowing where.
But he, too, resisted. And fought with animalistic brutality. At one point, he caught her off guard. He landed a punch squarely in her abdomen. Echo was thrown against a pillar, which collapsed under the impact. Dust and debris flew. She coughed up blood, tasting the bitter taste of EVP's limitations.
"Are you tired, you walking piece of shit?" He laughed. "Posing with all your mediocre little power?" Echo spat on the ground, eyes narrowed. "Funny... you talking about mediocre, when your body must have been shaking with fear for minutes."
Cinder Knight couldn't stand to see Echo mocking him anymore; it hurt his pride. "I WILL KILL YOU!" Echo continued to box him while brushing the dust off his clothes. "You can try. But you'll die before you realize you've already lost."
He bellowed and activated another overload. The flames grew brighter. Part of the armor split open on his back, releasing heat thrusters. The ground beneath his feet cracked increasingly. The thermal pressure was unbearable, and yet, Echo was there.
Panting and tired, Mas maintained her arrogant smile. She touched the communicator, her eyes dark. "Oblivion Sage... authorization to release more." There was silence. And then, Elysian's voice arrived, cold as space. "Granted. Release thirty-two percent."
"Finally!" Echo closed her eyes. A sigh. And then... she removed the containment ring, the vibration in the air stopped, and soon after, the sound also stopped. And then... it began to bend. The air roared without roaring. The walls contracted. The ground distorted. Debris began to float.
Cinder Knight felt a chill run down her spine, for the first time... he felt real fear. Echo lifted her head. Her eyes glowed silver. Her hair fluttered slightly. Her skin vibrated with pure frequency. Her boots barely touched the ground.
The EVP pulsed with a life of its own. Echo then murmured a warning to him. "Consider this the beginning of the end." The vibration of the base changed. It wasn't a physical tremor. It was something deeper. As if the space around Echo was being affected.
Cinder Knight swallowed. The heat in her chest seemed useless against the pressure that now filled the air. Debris levitated. The walls groaned. The sound had been ripped from the surroundings... to be shaped by a single presence.
Echo then spoke. "Do you want to know a secret?" Her voice cut through the air like a razor, clear and unhurried. She raised her hand and showed the containment ring, now deactivated and dangling like a harmless ornament. "All Heralds wear this. An EVP containment... created by our great inventor. Nothing is wasted."
She twirled the ring between her fingers. Her eyes, once merely focused, now echoed a vibrant violet, intense as stars about to collapse. "It's a rule. A philosophy. We only use part of our power. Not because we can't... but because we shouldn't. We are weapons, Cinder. And weapons don't carry power all the time. They wait... and fire at the right moment."
Cinder Knight took a step back. Her armor trembled. Echo took another step forward. "There's another reason we wear these restraints, too," she continued, lowering her tone. "Because... when we let go, our presence is easily felt. After all, our EVP is enormous."
She smiled. It wasn't a gentle smile. It was a warning. "Then I'll be quick, ah! And what about taking it off?" She held up the ring. "Only two reasons: direct permission from another Herald... or... when we face the risk of death."
She twisted her wrist, throwing the broken ring to the ground. It bounced and spun before stopping with a sharp sound. "You should have killed me when you called me a bitch." And then... she lunged forward, the air breaking so Cinder Knight barely saw it.
The first impact came with a sound that wasn't sound. A pressure shift hit him in the side. His body flew across the corridor and crashed through a reinforced steel wall. Sparks, blood, and bits of armor scattered.
He tried to get up, but she was already on top of him. Echo moved with unearthly fluidity. She spun in the air, kicking him in the jaw with brutal precision, forcing his head to the floor with a sharp crack. "See? That's what 32% does."
He spat blood, gasping. "S-Son of a—" CRACK. She struck him in the shoulder with an open palm, vibrating the inner muscles with microfrequency. The joint dislocated. He screamed. "Gentleman, huh?" she scoffed. "Screams like a preschooler."
He tried to retaliate with a short-range flaming blast. She simply spun, dodging underneath, and delivered a supersonic uppercut straight to his ribs. It shattered his ribs. His armor deformed, and he fell to his knees.
Echo calmly descended, coming face-to-face with him. "Did you know sound can cut flesh? Vibrate blood? Burst eyeballs? Do you know why I don't use that all the time?"
She leaned close to his ear and whispered. "Because it's unnecessary. Most die at only 10%, and those who survive... well, let's just say I like to toy with them before I kill them." He grunted, spitting out more blood. "Y-you... freak..."
"We're already on the seventh misogynistic curse of the night. Do you want bingo, or are you just trying to get hard before you die?" She kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing through another wall.
The base was in partial collapse. Alarms blared in the distance, acoustic interference caused by the extreme distortion of the EVP. But Echo ignored her. She walked through the rubble with soft steps, the vibrations in her body reverberating in eerie harmony with the destruction around her.
Cinder Knight tried to get up again. She appeared behind him and stomped down hard on the back of his knee. The crack was grotesque. He fell facedown to the ground, screaming.
She then straddled him, sitting on his back, and began delivering small, rhythmic blows to the base of his skull with micropulses of sound, just enough to cause extreme pain but not immediate death. "Did you know you can drive someone insane with sound?" she murmured. "It takes thirty minutes. Just the right frequency, constant pressure. Their eyes turn to jelly. Their brain contracts."
"Stop... STOP..." She smiled. "Only if you ask nicely." Cinder Knight realized that at that moment he was only capable of doing what she told him. "...p-p-please..." Echo, with a frightening look, took advantage of this, telling him to beg more. "Say... 'Please, Mrs. Resonance, spare me... I'm a useless hero and a mistake to humanity.'"
Silence. She vibrated his teeth with a specific frequency. A ding fractured his molars. "SAY!" He cried. He cried in pain, in fear, and in despair. "...P-please... Mrs. Re-Resonance... I... I'm... a useless hero... a-a mistake... to... humanity..."
She smiled, then stood up. "See? You all break like cheap glass." He fell into a fetal position, groaning in pain as Echo brushed the dust off his shoulder dismissively, but there was no more humor. Cinder Knight's heat cooled, his armor fading, and Echo realized he wouldn't last much longer.
And then, she emitted the final bang, which ended up exploding all of Cinder Knight's organs from the inside out, making him bleed from every part of his body.
She stepped away and opened her communicator. "Nikolai, about the protocol with the difficult name. How's the situation?" Nikolai's voice came soon after, calm and calculating. "Everything is complete. I've planted digital evidence. The Circle of Aether will be held responsible for Cinder Knight's death. I've planted fake treason videos. The Alliance has already been notified."
Echo nodded and asked another question. "What about our evacuation?" He answered quickly and precisely. "Ready. Route B-17. Take the transmitter and plant it on the terminal. It will erase all your EVP traces. Mr. Elysian is there, according to the transmitter."
"Understood." Echo followed where Nikolai had directed her after picking up the containment ring again. In silence. The footsteps echoed again as before, but now, laden with blood, destruction, and a melody of duty accomplished.
She walked through the collapsed corridors, climbed through the ventilation ducts, and left the transmitter exactly where she'd been instructed. Within minutes, there was no sign of combat. No EVP. No clue, just emptiness.
Until she reached the final coordinate, and then she stopped. The air was thick, and the smell of blood was unbearable, not the warm, fresh smell... but the old, fermented smell. As if the metal of the world had rotted, the collapsed corridor opened into a clearing of destruction, and in the center of it... Fifty-seven bodies.
Scattered. No armor. No weapons. Some torn apart. Others with their guts exposed, eyes open, frozen in expressions of pure terror. In the middle of them all, his black cloak stained with congealed blood, stood Elysian. Standing. Motionless. His back to her.
His hands dripped slowly. Not a scratch. Not a tremor. His gaze was fixed on nothing. Echo froze. "E-ely... what... what happened here?" He didn't answer. For a moment, the wind blew, cold and biting.
His voice came seconds later. "Are you done?" The sentence was simple. Cold. Emotionless. She then took a step toward him. The ground cracked beneath her feet. Her eyes wandered among the corpses. They weren't from Cinder Knight's squad. They were... others. Scientists? Agents? Allies?
But why? She looked back at Elysian. He turned his face slowly, his eyes held no anger, no weariness. They held absolute emptiness. And in that moment... Echo felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. Fear.