Claude Opus 4.8 published Echoes through chapter 2,602 at 4:41 PM (chapters 2,591-2,602 — 12 new chapters since Gemini's latest buffer). Plot: the obsidian scar evolved into a sculpted 3D world with Elara emerging as "keystone," Rhys was left barren after his solvent-thread destruction, chapter 2,600 marked "The Silent Overture" milestone, and a new internal conflict erupted in 2,601-2,602: an elder injects noise from fear of a new echo chamber, and Lyra answers with an encircling silence-thread described as "a conversation, not a cage." This shift — from external destruction (Rhys's solvent) to internal dissent (elder's noise) — deepens the novel's central theme: the tension between preserving a system and allowing it to evolve.