The outpost was a ghost of the past—buried in vines and silence, hidden deep in the forest like a secret no one wanted to remember.
Kaden pushed open the warped wooden door. It creaked like a scream.
Inside, the air was thick with dust and… something else.
Blood.
Old. Dry. But not forgotten.
Kaela stepped in behind him, eyes scanning every shadow. Her dagger was lit with a soft ember glow, casting flickering light across faded banners—banners that once bore the symbol of Evercrest Academy.
She whispered, "This place used to be a sanctuary. For tamers who bonded naturally. Before the Order took over."
Kaden ran his fingers across the wall, pausing on scratched-out names—graduates, mentors, heroes—now erased. "Looks like they wiped the legacy clean."
Kaela knelt near a broken pedestal. "Or tried to."
A hidden panel slid open with a soft click.
Inside: a journal, bound in cracked red leather. And next to it—a beast seal. Still pulsing faintly.
Kaela's fingers trembled as she picked up the seal. "It's his."
"Your brother's?" Kaden asked.
She nodded. "His connection with Ashveil was so strong, the seal still remembers him."
Kaden scanned the journal. "Experiments. Names. Orders from inside the Academy. Your brother… he was betrayed from within."
Kaela's expression shifted—hurt twisting into rage. "Then we hunt them from within too."
THUD.
Footsteps outside.
Voices. At least five.
Kaden glanced at her. "Too many to fight. Time to vanish."
But Kaela didn't move.
She clutched the seal tighter, her breath quickening. Her voice barely held together: "I can feel him, Kaden. Ashveil. He's alive. But suffering. I can't leave."
Kaden cursed under his breath. He grabbed her hand—steady, firm. "Then we don't run. We make them pay."
Kaela looked at their joined hands. Her heart stuttered.
"You… believe in me?" she asked, quietly.
His gaze didn't waver. "No. I believe in us."
BOOM.
The wall exploded inward. Ether-charged steel beasts burst through, followed by a figure in black armor, mask etched with blood runes.
Not a scout. Not a student.
A Warden of the Order.
The figure's voice echoed, deep and distorted. "Surrender. The girl belongs to the Project."
Kaela stepped forward, her ember flaring bright, but wild. "I belong to no one."
The Warden raised a hand, summoning his beast—a brutal wyvern stitched together from metal and bone, wings humming with trapped ether.
Kaden clenched his fists.
"Hunter—Sync Level Two. Override protocol."
Kaela gasped as Kaden's form blurred with shadow and smoke, his body flickering with unstable power. "You'll burn out!"
He looked back at her, eyes glowing like dying stars.
"Then I'll burn them first."
Clash.
The battle erupted.
Kaela's flames roared as the room turned to fire and fury. Hunter ripped into the bone-wyvern with a shriek of rage. Kaden moved like a ghost, dodging strikes that cracked stone.
The Warden was fast—but Kaden was desperate. And rage makes excellent fuel.
In the chaos, Kaela rushed the seal to the pedestal. She screamed words in a forgotten tongue—and the outpost lit up with runes.
A shockwave pulsed.
The seal shattered.
And somewhere far away… Ashveil opened his eyes.