Chapter Fourteen: The Realm of Eternal Echo
When Ryan passed through the Gate of Will, he didn't enter land… nor sky… but sound.
Everything around him trembled, resonated, as if the world he had entered was nothing but an echo of a great voice with no known source.
Every move he made echoed through the space—not just his voice, but his footsteps, his breath, even his thoughts.
"This isn't an ordinary dimension…" he murmured.
Every thought that crossed his mind manifested before him as an image.
When he thought of his mother… she appeared, gazing at him and smiling.
When he thought of fear… a black shadow emerged, crawling toward him like dense smoke.
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"Be careful…" a voice came from the void.
"Here, what you think… becomes real."
Ryan looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice, but no one was visible.
Suddenly, a transparent entity took form before him—made of sound waves, with eyes pulsing in a bright blue hue.
The being said:
"Welcome to the Realm of Eternal Echo."
"And who are you?" Ryan asked, guarded.
"I am not a being… but a voice, born from the echoes of those who passed through here before you. My purpose is to observe your thoughts… not to guide them."
Ryan stared at it.
"Why am I here?"
"Because you've reached a stage where you must confront your inner voice—not through memory, but through echo."
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Suddenly, Ryan was engulfed in a vortex of sounds—his old laughter, his childhood screams, whispers of those he loved, cries of those he let down.
They swirled around him, pressing against his mind until he began to doubt his reality.
Was this real?
Was he still Ryan?
Then, amid the chaos… a single, clear, powerful voice rang out:
"I… I am the one who chooses. The voice doesn't define me—I define the voice."
And with that declaration, everything vanished.
The world quieted.
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The blue entity appeared again, but this time it was shining more brightly than before.
"You succeeded. You passed the trap of voices. Many have lost their minds here, believing what they heard was truth."
Ryan replied calmly:
"A voice does not define who I am… I decide which voice I listen to."
The entity smiled and pointed to the sky.
A portal opened above—shaped like a musical note reverberating through the horizon.
The entity said:
"He who passes the Echo Gate draws closer to the Source's core. Prepare yourself, Ryan… for the next dimension will not be a test, but a revelation."
Ryan took a deep breath and prepared to leap.
But at the moment he was about to jump, he heard a voice—one achingly familiar…
"Ryan… come back to me…"
He froze.
It was his mother.
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He turned to find her standing behind him, arms open wide, eyes glistening with tears.
But something felt off.
She wasn't moving.
She kept repeating the same phrase.
"Come back to me… Come back to me… Come back to me…"
She was… just an echo.
Ryan spoke in a soft, tearful voice:
"My real mother is within me, not in this echo."
The figure vanished… and light bloomed around him.
Ryan jumped.
And the next gate was not just an entrance… but a beginning to the heart of truth.
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End of Chapter Fourteen