With the Cage of Light schematics, a dangerous, proactive plan formed. They couldn't just hide and wait for the next accidental resonance. They had to control it. To trigger a resonance on their own terms, in a prepared location, and be ready to vanish before the Cage could be deployed.
It was like calling down a lightning strike while standing in a forest, hoping to guide the bolt to a specific tree.
To do it, Echo needed to deepen his Synthesis state exponentially. And that required a profound, conscious unification with his Circle—not just physically or emotionally, but on the level of shared purpose.
They prepared for a week. The Sanctuary was put on full stealth. The network went silent. All their energy was focused inward.
The ritual took place in the heart of the grove, under the now-glorious Starlight Pomegranate tree, which had grown to maturity, its single fruit glowing like a captive star.
The five of them joined, not just in body, but in a shared meditative trance. Echo was the nucleus. Leyla represented Protection—the unwavering will to guard what is loved. Mira represented Connection—the understanding that all things are linked in space and meaning. Ryn represented Resilience—the ability to endure, adapt, and persist. Kiera represented Perception—the vision to see the hidden patterns and true value.
Echo's Sovereignty was the force that unified these principles into a single, coherent truth.
As they reached the peak of their union, their five life-threads didn't just braid. They fused into a single, radiant cord of multicolored light that shot through Echo's Vitalis Core.
He directed this unified power inward, to the spark of the dead multiverses, to the anomaly at his center. He didn't ask it to resonate. He commanded it.
Show me the stillness. Show me the null point. Show me the Crystal.
His anomaly core sang.
The resonance was not a ping this time. It was a chord. A complex, beautiful, and terrifying note of pure potential that echoed through the layers of reality.
For three seconds, his consciousness was a beacon. He saw it—not Earth, but a place on Earth. A nondescript, deep cave system beneath a familiar mountain range—the Himalayas. And in its deepest chamber, where reality was thin and time flowed like tar, hovered the Chaos Crystal. It was not large. A fist-sized, ever-shifting shape that was all colors and no color, singing a silent song of infinite possibilities.
Then, as planned, Mira and the Sanctuary Seed acted in concert. Using the resonance itself as a carrier wave, they performed a spatial and metaphysical refraction. They bent the resonance signal, splitting it and sending distorted echoes shooting out toward five different fake locations across the Gloom, including the decoy.
The real location—the Himalayas—was masked within a layer of harmonic static only someone who understood Synthesis could ever hope to decode.
The chord faded. Echo collapsed, utterly drained, but triumphant. He had seen it. He knew where home was. And he had, hopefully, thrown the hunters off the scent.
On the sensors, they watched as the blockading fleets erupted into frantic motion, scrambling toward the five false echo locations.
The gambit had worked.