The clearing fell into a strange, breathless silence after the Formless Stalker's last words. For the briefest instant, nothing moved. Then, Jaune felt a sudden spike of emotion flaring from the Rank 2s.
Astonishment first, then excitement followed close behind like a crackling current that ran through Qrow, Raven, Taiyang, Clover, and even Zeki with almost startling intensity. It was so abrupt and so unlike the suffocating tension that had ruled the last few minutes, that Jaune's eyes immediately flicked toward them.
Qrow and Raven exchanged a look. Taiyang's expression shifted, the hard lines of combat readiness giving way to something far more alert and almost analytical. No words were spoken, but they did not need to be.
There was something moving between them, an entire silent conversation carried in glances, narrowed eyes, and the minute shifts of posture that only veterans who had fought together for years could manage.
Jaune's confusion deepened.
Before he could ask, the creature changed.
The Formless Stalker's body swelled outward like ink dropped into water. Its already unstable mass grew larger, shadow folding over shadow in slow, liquid waves until it loomed over them like a living storm cloud.
From its surface, tendrils unfurled, long and sinuous, each ending in a pale white eye. They blossomed from the black mass like flowers made from nightmares, drifting outward to hover around the gathered Rank 2s.
Each eye peered close.
Jaune grew still as one passed near his shoulder, the white iris dilating and contracting as if studying him from inches away.
"How curious," the voice slid into their minds, smooth and clinical, every syllable touched by detached fascination. "Velik. So that is what you call yourselves? Velik?"
Jaune frowned.
The creeping sensation in his mind intensified. By now, it was impossible to ignore what was happening. The creature was not merely speaking into their thoughts. It was moving through them. Not deeply, perhaps, but enough to skim the surface, enough to brush against the outermost layer of their thinking like fingers trailing across still water.
Their thoughts were private.
And yet, strangely, fear was not the dominant thing he felt.
Confusion was.
Velik?
That was what the creature had compared him to earlier, or rather, what it had compared humanity to through him. He looked from the Rank 2s to the white eye floating nearest his face.
What was Velik?
A species? A concept? A thing?
Before anyone could answer, another thought slithered across the inside of his skull. Soft. Silken. Almost amused.
Then the creature spoke again.
"Oh. Not Velik."
The eye nearest Jaune narrowed slightly.
"Humans. So that is what you are called. And Velik is a name?"
A ripple passed through the shadow mass, like something thoughtful moving beneath black water.
"How interesting. To refer to something as if it were an individual, and not a means to a greater purpose."
The many eyes drifted through the air again, each one studying them with almost childlike wonder.
"You humans are so fascinating."
The words should have been flattering. Instead, they felt like the delighted observations of a scientist leaning over a glass tank. Jaune had the deeply unpleasant sensation that they were the specimens.
Then the creature's attention sharpened. The eyes converged slightly, focusing.
"Now tell me. What exactly are these abilities of yours? It is not the same as ours."
This time, Qrow stepped forward. The movement was small, but in the presence of something like this, it felt monumental.
Jaune had to give it to the rank 2's. They all really seemed to have some proper steel in their bones.
Qrow's expression was guarded and sharp-eyed, but his voice remained steady.
"Just to be clear here," he said, folding his arms, "are you trying to kill us? Are we in any danger here?"
The question hung in the clearing like a blade.
Qrow's gaze did not waver.
For a moment, every eye in the clearing turned.
Every white eye on every tendril, every pale orb embedded in the creature's shifting body, all of them, horrifyingly swiveled as one toward Qrow.
Then the creature answered.
"Danger?"
The word echoed with genuine confusion. The Formless Stalker drew closer, its main eye settling level with Qrow's face.
"Why would I kill something so fascinating as you?"
There was no malice or deception in its tone. Only bewildered curiosity.
"Clearly you have misunderstood my intentions. I have said this before, little bird human. I want to learn about you."
The words washed over the expedition.
The creature withdrew slightly, its massive form settling back near the inverted pillar, white eye gleaming in the shadow-lit clearing.
"While you are here," it said, "consider this place a sanctuary. Free from the eternal hunger of all of my kind."
The sentence landed with surreal softness.
Sanctuary.
Jaune almost laughed.
A sanctuary beneath the gaze of a mountain-sized monstrosity in the heart of an alien forest, under a black sky and beside a tree that seemed to root itself into space.
Yet no one moved.
The expedition members slowly turned toward one another. Everyone looked pale. Even the researchers were trying, and failing, to conceal the mix of terror and scholarly excitement on their faces. Sun leaned slightly toward Neptune and muttered something under his breath that Jaune did not catch.
Clover's expression had gone unreadably calm.
Taiyang exhaled slowly through his nose, shoulders still tense.
And Qrow…
Qrow looked like a man trying to decide whether he had just been invited to tea by a dragon or lured into its stomach.
Jaune's gaze drifted back to the creature.
The worst part was that he believed it. At least, he believed that the Formless Stalker was being truthful.
It did not want to kill them.
Not because it was kind or merciful but simply because they were new.
Interesting.
A puzzle.
Deep inside him, Gula still remained dormant and silent in its hibernation. Yet Jaune could not shake the feeling that the thing before them was looking at him differently than the others.
As though he were the key piece in an experiment it had only just begun to understand. The invisible pressure in the clearing seemed to pulse once, like a heartbeat made of shadow.
Then the creature spoke again, softer this time.
"So then, humans…"
Its eye narrowed with bright, clinical delight.
"Shall we begin?"
.
.
The Formless Stalker turned its full attention toward the researchers and the clearing took on an even stranger atmosphere. The pale white eye at the center of its shifting body remained fixed on the cluster of operatives as they cautiously stepped forward, tablets in hand, but every now and then one of the drifting tendril-eyes would peel away and sweep across the rest of the expedition like a passing searchlight.
The senior researcher cleared her throat, visibly steadying herself before speaking.
"We... can answer your questions," she said carefully, "and in return, we hope you may help us understand this region."
No one suggested deception.
By now it was painfully obvious that the creature's awareness was threading through their minds. Whether it could truly read them in full or merely skim intent, none of them wanted to test the difference.
Lying felt less like a strategy and more like walking up to the mouth of a sleeping dragon and ringing a bell.
So the researchers spoke plainly, explaining that the expedition had entered this region to gather intelligence on the ecosystem, the Stalkers, and the strange structures within the forest. They carefully omitted nothing that might later be perceived as deliberate concealment.
Meanwhile, Jaune found his fear slowly beginning to settle into something more manageable.
There was no point in panicking.
He had already crossed the threshold where fear was useful. Beyond that, it was just wasted energy and rapidly shrinking dignity.
The thing had said it did not intend to kill them.
For now, that had to be enough.
Whether it was truth or a lie no longer mattered in any practical sense. If the creature wanted them dead, it could erase all of them before anyone managed a single breath.
That was the cold reality of it.
So instead of wasting time imagining all the ways he could die, Jaune took a slow breath and walked toward Raven and Qrow, where the Rank 2s had drifted into a quieter knot a short distance away.
What truly bothered him was not the creature.
It was their reaction to the earlier proclamation.
The spike of astonishment and excitement.
The way all of them had suddenly looked at one another the moment the word Velik had been spoken.
Jaune stopped beside them and folded his arms.
"You going to tell me what's going on?"
Qrow looked over at him, then sighed as though the weight of several secrets had just climbed onto his shoulders.
Before answering, he shot Raven an accusing glare.
"You just had to tell the damn kid, didn't you?"
Raven clicked her tongue, expression flat.
"Tch. At this point, does it matter whether I did or didn't?"
Qrow's jaw tightened.
"This was supposed to be for the Rank 2s to handle. If the kid was Rank 2, fine, no problem including him, but Ozpin was clear about—"
Raven cut across him with sharp impatience.
"Does Ozpin's orders truly matter now? Especially in this situation?"
The air between them crackled. For a moment it looked like Qrow was about to snap back, but Taiyang stepped in before it could escalate.
"Enough, Qrow."
His voice was firm, carrying the sort of easy authority that silenced the tension almost immediately.
"Ray's right. Our expedition is already at a dangerous endpoint. There's no point hiding our objective now."
Qrow exhaled sharply through his nose, clearly annoyed, but he did not argue further.
Taiyang turned to Raven.
"How much did you tell him?"
"Not much," Raven replied. "Just that we were here to rescue someone."
Jaune's eyes flicked between them.
Nearby, Clover and Zeki stood with the same composed stillness they seemed to bring into every crisis.
Neither looked particularly invested in the argument. Jaune could almost read the thought behind their expressions.
This was a Vale matter. Whether the Vale team chose to disclose more to him was not something Atlas had reason to interfere with.
Taiyang gave Jaune a small nod.
"I'll explain it."
Qrow butted in before he could start. "You know, this is hardly the best time."
Taiyang shrugged.
"Better now than never. Who knows when we'll get the chance next time?"
The older man's tone shifted, becoming more measured.
"To really give you context, we need to start with Rank 3s."
He studied Jaune for a moment.
"How much do you know about Rank 3s?"
Jaune let out a dry laugh. "Truth be told? Next to nothing."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"I know they're supremely powerful compared to Rank 2s. Enough to be called demigods and walking nuclear bombs—the kind of people whose casual attacks can level cities."
He hesitated.
"But beyond that? Almost nothing. Even in the LUCID archives, where there's supposedly information on every rank and their capabilities, there's barely anything."
Taiyang gave him a knowing look and patted his shoulder.
"That part is deliberate."
Jaune frowned, but before he could ask, Taiyang continued.
"Can you feel that presence in the air?"
Jaune blinked, then slowly nodded. The sensation had never left since arriving here. The invisible, liquid heaviness pressing against his skin.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "It almost feels similar to Aura Pressure. Like when a higher rank flexes their Aura into the world through Will."
Taiyang smiled faintly. "You're close."
Then he gestured toward the Formless Stalker in the distance, still conversing with the researchers.
"But that thing over there doesn't have Aura. So why is there still pressure?"
The question settled in Jaune's mind.
He frowned, thinking. "I'm not sure… is it Umbra pressure instead of Aura?"
Taiyang shook his head.
"No."
His voice sharpened slightly, turning instructional.
"If that were the case, then why weren't the Asura Stalkers we fought over the last two days capable of doing the same?"
Jaune opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He had no answer.
Taiyang nodded, as if expecting exactly that.
"That liquid feeling in the air," he said, "is what's known as a Domain. A capability that comes with reaching the life-level hierarchy of Rank 3. Or a Rank 3 equivalent."
Jaune's expression turned grave.
A Domain.
He did not fully understand the implications of it, but the way Taiyang said the word made it sound less like a technique and more like a fundamental shift in existence.
Taiyang continued.
"A Domain is a region of space that falls under the control of its holder."
Jaune stared at him.
That sounded bad.
Very bad, in fact.
He hesitated, then asked, "Can Grimm do the same?"
"Yep." Taiyang nodded.
His gaze drifted toward the massive inverted pillar in the center of the clearing.
"A Grimm's Domain is a little different from a human's. A human's Domain is intrinsically tied to their soul."
He paused for a moment to let the information sink in.
"I'll explain the mechanics later. What matters right now is understanding why we're here."
His expression hardened.
"The person, Velik.... is Menagerie's Rank 3."
Jaune's eyes widened slightly.
He had heard of the man before but not the name. Even if details were scarce, his reputation had weight.
Taiyang continued.
"You may have heard of him. Publicly, he is acknowledged as the strongest Rank 3 of this age."
Even Clover glanced over at that, as if confirming the truth of it.
"But there's an issue with his Domain."
Taiyang's tone darkened.
"He had to sever it from the real world and cast it into the Shadow Realm."
Jaune stared.
Sever a Domain? Cast it away?
Taiyang met his eyes.
"The Rank 2s are here to find that Domain, along with the missing fragment of his soul bound to it…"
He let the sentence settle.
"…and bring it back to the real world."
For a moment, Jaune could only stand there in silence.
The enormity of it began to unfold in his mind. This entire expedition and the secrecy hiding behind it.
The way they had reacted when the creature mentioned Velik.
It all snapped into place. They were not merely scouting. They were attempting to find the severed soul-space of the strongest Rank 3 alive.
Jaune slowly turned his gaze back toward the inverted pillar.
"What exactly happened to him?" he asked quietly.