Chapter 68: On the Threshold of the Echo Chamber and the Last Sacrifice of Light
In front of the massive, rune-engraved door that led to the heart of Aethelburg's Lighthouse, Kael, Aslan, and the last surviving Shadow Squad soldier faced an amorphous Void entity that seemed to be molded from pure chaos and bottomless despair. It was unlike anything they had ever encountered before; less a physical body than a moving darkness that swallowed the Lantern's dying light, whispering fear and despair into the minds. This was the Echo Chamber's last and deadliest guardian; his mission was to surrender the Lantern's heart entirely to the darkness of the Void.
"Your end is at hand, little light-bearers," the amorphous darkness whispered, its voice a combination of countless screams of agony. "The Lantern's song will cease, and the universe will be plunged into the silence of the Void."
Conventional weapons were ineffective against this entity. S.H.I.E.L.D. The bullets from his soldier's energy rifle were lost in the darkness, and the Lion's quick attacks were like striking a ghost. This being was more of a mental and spiritual threat than a physical one. As the Echo Carrier, Kael's senses were shaken by the overwhelming waves of despair emanating from this being.
Kael held on to the last vestiges of his Chitauri core and the purified energy he had drawn from the Terra Crystal. He knew that this was not a battle that could be won by brute force. This was an ancient battle of will, hope, and life against nothingness and despair.
"Lion! Soldier!" Kael shouted. "Shield me! Protect your mind! Its power feeds on your fears!"
Kael closed his eyes and focused all his attention on the Echo within him, the fading faint light of the Lantern, and the guidance of the Chitauri core. He tried to drown out the dark whispers of the Void, to sing more loudly the song of life within himself. This was not just an energy manipulation, but also a kind of spiritual defense.
As if sensing Kael's resistance, the Formless Void entity sent an even more intense wave of despair and fear toward him. His deepest fears, his greatest losses, came flooding back to Kael's mind. But Kael was no longer the ambitious man he had been, the one who avoided facing his fears. What he had learned in the Infinite Library, in the Heart of Life, and in the heart of the Earth had changed him.
"Your darkness," Kael whispered, his voice weak but firm. "It is no stronger than the light within me."
Kael extended the Chitauri core in his palm toward that formless darkness. The core began to glow unexpectedly, resonating with that last spark of life in the Lantern's heart. It was not a light of attack, but a light of harmony, of unification. Kael was not trying to destroy the Void's energy, but to transform it, to balance it with the Lantern's own life energy. This was an incredibly risky method that he had never tried before.
The lion and the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldier formed a shield around Kael, desperately resisting the physical manifestations of that formless darkness. Their loyalty and courage only strengthened the Echo within Kael.
Finally, the pure, purifying Echo energy radiating from Kael's Chitauri core managed to penetrate the darkness of that formless Void entity. The darkness crackled painfully, shrank, and finally dispersed like a final shadow that had settled on the walls of the Lighthouse. The massive door to the Echo Chamber now stood silently before them.
But the price of this victory had been high. The S.H.I.E.L.D. soldier had collapsed from his injuries. The lion was exhausted as well. Kael could barely stand; his Chitauri core had been nearly completely extinguished, and most of his own life energy had been drained in the struggle.
"Did we succeed?" Aslan asked breathlessly.
"Not yet," Kael said, his eyes on the door to the Echo Chamber. "Our real mission begins now."
When they opened the door, the interior was beyond their expectations. The Echo Chamber was the heart of the Lantern, a vast, crystalline structure, an organ that had once shone with immense light and energy, but was now barely illuminated by a pale, flickering light. At the crystal's center, a dark spot of the Void was growing like a tumor. The Lantern was dying.
Orion's words echoed in Kael's mind: "Only an Echo Carrier such as yourself can enter that chamber with the Chitauri core and rekindle the dying fire of the Lantern."
Kael knew what he had to do. This was not simply transferring energy. It meant committing his own life essence, his own Echo, to the heart of the Lantern, cleansing that dark spot of the Void with his own soul. It was a sacrifice. Perhaps an irreversible sacrifice.
He turned to Aslan. "Aslan," he said, his voice tired but full of love. "If... if I cannot return..."
"Don't talk nonsense, Kael!" Aslan interrupted, his eyes filled with tears. "We came together, we will return together!"
Kael shook his head with a bitter smile. "Not always, my friend." He held out the Chitauri core to the pale crystal heart of the Lantern. "But our Echo... he will always live."
And with the last of his strength, Kael began to pour his own life energy, his soul, and all the hope he carried into the Lantern's heart through the Chitauri core. His body shook, his consciousness drifted in and out. But in that moment, the pale light of the Lantern began to tremble, to grow stronger. The dark speck of the Void receded, to shrink in the face of this pure life energy.
Aethelburg's Lantern was being reborn. But would this rebirth come at the price of an Echo Bearer's ultimate sacrifice?