They chose a test site: an old plaza deep in the Greyline district.
Once a hub. Now a graveyard of shattered glass, overgrowth, and collapsed skywalks.
Riven stood at the center, Echo Anchor on his wrist, cube floating beside him.
Ash watched from a distance, tense.
"This is still a bad idea," she muttered.
"Only if I don't control it," he said.
He knelt, placed his palm on the cracked stone.
Initiate Echo Build.
A low chime rang out.
The cube rose higher—pulsing blue.Reality began to shimmer.
Like the world itself was waiting for instructions.
Riven didn't speak.
He thought.
Images formed in his head: support beams, walls, solar tiles, purification systems. A haven built into the bones of the city.
And the cube responded.
The air warped.
Light bent.
Then—snap—
Structures appeared.
Perfectly placed. Formed from the old material, reconfigured at the atomic level.
Walls grew upward like time was reversed.Glass sealed itself across broken windows.Solar veins pulsed through floors that had been dead for years.
In seconds, the plaza was reborn.
Ash stepped forward, stunned.
"You didn't build that. You imagined it."
Riven nodded slowly.
"That's what Echo Tech is. I'm not a builder anymore."
"Then what are you?"
He smiled.
"I'm a reality architect."