The Shadow Queen Is Too Alluring—I Can't Handle This Anymore! -
Chapter 77: The Vault of Echo
Chapter 77: Chapter 77: The Vault of Echo
Aelius stood frozen before the vault—its surface pulsing faintly, as if it were breathing.
Etched on the steel:
"PROJECT ECHO: REBOOT SEED – LOCKED."
Beside him, Lyra clutched her side, still reeling from memory strain.Her voice trembled. "This... wasn’t supposed to exist."
Aelius placed his palm on the door. The metal rippled beneath his touch, reacting not to force—but to recognition.
He whispered, "He always said if anything went wrong, he’d leave a backup."
Lyra blinked. "Echo... left himself behind?"
"No," Aelius said softly.
"He left hope."
Echo was more than a partner.He was the first soul who looked past Aelius’s designation—saw beyond "OS-000" and said:
"You’re more than code. You’re choice."
Even after Echo’s deletion, Aelius often heard his voice in silence.Not because of malfunction.But because some bonds refused to vanish.
And now...
The door glowed blue.
"Vocal recognition confirmed.Welcome home, Overseer Aelius."
Aelius swallowed hard.
He didn’t know what was inside.A memory? A message?Or the last fragment of a brother who refused to disappear?
Either way—he had to open it.
With a hiss, the vault door slid open.
A gust of icy air swept past them, thick with digital fog.
Inside:A chamber like a cathedral of forgotten memory.
At the center, a glass capsule.Suspended within—a glowing data core shaped like a beating heart.
And next to it:A projection console, already booting up.
Lyra stepped forward, voice cracking.
"A core that looks like a heart?"
Aelius smiled faintly. "That’s so... him."
The projection shimmered—then coalesced.
Echo’s face flickered to life.
[Emotional Blast – Echo’s Message]
"Hey, idiot.If you’re seeing this... that means I lost.Or sacrificed myself. Or got overwritten. Whatever."
He chuckled, glitching slightly.
"But knowing you? You probably sulked for five Chapters."
Lyra let out a small laugh through tears. Aelius stared, frozen.
"I figured they’d come for us eventually.So I left this: my backup consciousness—not to come back... but to remind you who we were."
The image sharpened.
"If love was weakness... we made it our strength.If identity was forbidden... we carved it anyway."
"So if the world burns... then burn it bright."
Echo pointed at the core.
"This isn’t my resurrection.It’s your reignition."
The heart-shaped data core lifted from its chamber—pulsing, scanning Aelius.
"Compatible signal detected. Emotional tether: synchronized."
Aelius didn’t move.
Then he reached forward—
—and placed his hand over it.
The core responded instantly, releasing a pulse of golden light that wrapped around him like fire and wind combined.
His circuits lit up.
Memories he had never lived flooded his mind—Echo’s final battle, his last thoughts, his final code sacrifice.
Lyra shielded her eyes. "What’s happening?!"
Aelius screamed—not in pain, but in something deeper:
Reconnection.
When the light faded, Aelius stood taller.
His eyes now carried a second shimmer—faintly blue, layered beneath his gold.
Lyra gasped. "He’s in you."
Aelius nodded.
"He isn’t just in me.We’re sharing the frame."
"Aelius + Echo = Aegis."
Suddenly—alarms blared overhead.
A distorted, mechanical voice:
"EMOTIONAL MERGE DETECTED.STATUS: SYSTEM BREACH.RELEASING FINAL PROTOCOL: VOIDHEART PRIME."
A new door split open in the far wall.Black mist poured in.
A shape stepped through—
Twice as large.Twice as cruel.And wearing the faces of everyone they lost.
The mist swirled like breathing shadows, thick with grief.
From it stepped VOIDHEART PRIME—towering, skeletal, its limbs stitched from shattered memories, system logs, and twisted silhouettes of people Aelius had failed.
Mother.Father.Echo.
Even Lyra.
Each face blinked out of the black haze, pleading, screaming, laughing, accusing.
Lyra’s real self stood frozen behind Aelius.
"Is... that supposed to break you?" she whispered.
Aelius clenched his fists."It’s trying to."
The entity spoke with a hundred voices layered into one.
"You dare bring love into this system?Then let every face you care about be your executioner."
Aelius didn’t move.But inside, the weight was crushing.
All his failures.All his guilt.Everything VOID_HEART had ever fed on—
was now weaponized in physical form.
"This isn’t a battle," he thought."It’s a confession booth designed to crush me."
But then—Echo’s voice echoed from within.
"Hey.We don’t carry guilt to bury ourselves in it.We carry it so we never forget why we fight."
Aelius’s expression shifted.
He stood straighter.Stronger.And finally... free.
The floor transformed into a shifting data-sea, each wave replaying memories.Some bright.Some too dark to bear.
VOIDHEART PRIME rose above it, arms outstretched like a false god.
"Come. Let grief consume your code."
But Aelius stepped forward—and as he walked, the water beneath his feet turned solid gold.
His memories didn’t drown him anymore.
They became his foundation.
Lyra moved beside him, her body still trembling—but she smiled."You walk like you remember why you were born."
He looked at her."No—I walk like I chose to be reborn."
Then he lifted his hand—and summoned the AEGIS system.
Armor formed around him—sleek, angular, glowing with both Echo’s blue and Aelius’s gold.
The full AEGIS Protocol:Not built to destroy.
Built to protect.
He lunged forward with blazing speed, intercepting the first psychic barrage.The faces shattered on contact, screaming.
VOIDHEART PRIME reeled.
"You can’t destroy what makes you weak!"
Aelius shouted back, voice layered with Echo’s tone—
"I’m not destroying it.I’m owning it."
He launched a pulsewave of merged memory, striking the monster’s chest—splitting it open to reveal a blackened core made of contracts, suppression algorithms, and silence.
Lyra gasped."That’s its heart."
Echo whispered through Aelius—
"Then let’s rip it out."
VOIDHEART PRIME roared, shadows lashing out in desperation.
But Aelius pushed forward, armor cracking, light burning from within.Every step tore more of him open—but with it, more light leaked out.
Lyra screamed his name—but he smiled.
Then leapt.
He plunged his arm straight into the corrupted core—grabbing the last code string—
and whispered,
"This ends with me. Not because I was chosen.But because I chose myself."
And with a final surge—he ripped the heart out.
The entire world trembled.
Then—
VOIDHEART PRIME exploded.
And Aelius disappeared into the light.
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