The sky bleeds into dark violet. The group made a crude encampment along a narrow cliffside trail. Trees loom on one side, a drop into fog on the other. No fire—Daniel ordered no flame.
"We don't know how it tracks—sight, heat, sound... or fear," Daniel explained quietly.
"Great. So we're cold, hungry, and paranoid." Amber chimes in.
Sera inspects her blade. "At least it's honest. Camp back home was all smiles and poison."
Ryder half-whispers to Jennifer. "You feel that? Like the trees are leaning closer?"
Jennifer doesn't answer immediately. She's watching Daniel, who crouches near the edge, staring into the dark beyond the ridge. There's tension in his fingers—controlled but straining.
"He's bracing for something. He Knows." She speaks in a low voice.
Multiple screens float in a crystalline array, and shadows move in reflected glass. Evelyn Morte stands at the center of the chamber, sipping a dark herbal tea, her eyes fixed on one particular screen—Daniel's heartbeat signature, pulsing erratically between orange and red.
Engineers type quietly behind her, monitoring data.
"The Reaper is in range. It's begun cycling its aura. Emotional destabilization phase active."
Evelyn nods once. A faint, thrilled smile curls at the corner of her mouth.
"Okay, Reyes... Let's see if you fold... or flare."
_________________________________
The temperature has dropped. Breath comes in mist. Cyril, ever still, looks upward.
"It's above us again." He says quietly.
"I didn't hear anything," I say with tenseness.
"You weren't meant to. It breathes when it wants to be heard. The rest of the time... it waits."
Adrien shivers. "I don't like this. Not just the cold—me. I feel... empty. Like I've forgotten something important."
Sera grips her arms. Amber bites her lip. Jennifer rubs her temple, then flinches. She pulls her hand away and stares at her palm—a thin stream of blood from her nose. Headache just got worse... She says to herself. Ryder walks beside her, noticing.
"Hey, Jen. You okay?"
Jennifer is strained. "It's trying to crack us open, one thought at a time," she said quietly.
Then, just as suddenly, Cyril spins. His blade is out. "It moved."
"Where?" I asked.
Cyril replied without blinking. "...Inside the trees."
——————————————————————
A second screen flashes—a vague humanoid, elongated and broken—a silhouette sliding across the treetops. It's nearly invisible, cloaked in a haze of breath and ash. It stops just above the ground, perched, upside down, spider-like.
"If they don't move soon, it'll breach," says an engineer filled with unease.
Evelyn smiles softly. "They'll move. Fear always does that. Or fire."
She taps the screen beside her, zooming in on Daniel's palms. The mark pulses beneath his skin. Let's see what kind of flame your fear really makes. She thinks to herself as she continues to watch on.
——————————————————————
We crouch near the treeline. I signal silently, a hand raised and my finger spread. Everyone readies their weapons.
"We flank it. Cyril, left sweep. Amber, high rush. Adrien and Sera, cover range. Ryder—disruptive noise." I say quietly.
Jennifer raises an eyebrow. "...And me?"
I glance at her. "Watch our backs; if it gets too close, use everything."
Jennifer nods once, tension behind her cool front.
I say with a low tone, "On my mark..."
The wind stills. The trees creak.
"Now!"
We burst forward. Cyril phasing through shadow, Amber dashing like a missile, Adrien and Sera moving into overwatch positions. We converged on the largest tree at the edge of the ridge, where the breath was coming from. Cyril strikes first, his blade phasing through the bark, but nothing is inside—only hollow space. Then, the trees explode in a blast of smoke and ash.
That same vaguely humanoid appears again. This time, in full view. Its limbs are long, and its movements are too smooth. An ash gray body covered in flickering, charred feathers—always smothering, never burning. No eyes, a porcelain-white bird mask, cracked at the center. Smoke constantly escapes from the cracks like breath.
Its hands were bladed fingers that left burning cuts, not from contact, but from proximity. It never roared; it only breathed. Drawing in energy from its surroundings, light, sound, and emotion. A low inhale echoes through the air, like the world itself is holding its lungs. Then, a wave of black breath pulses outward, warping the air.
Sera gasps, stumbling back. Her boots skid on gravel. "My light—it's fading."
Amber clenches her fists, then winces. "My arms feel... heavy. Like something's locking me down."
Adrien's knees buckle slightly. His connection to the earth flickers, unsteady. "It's dampening everything. It's targeting our elements."
Jennifer tries to form an illusion, only to produce a barely-there flicker. She curses under her breath.
The words appear above us all—The Hollow Reaper. It doesn't run or charge; it glides forward like a ripple across a mirrored surface. It phases straight through Amber and slashes the air behind her. An echo of her—a frozen, pale copy appears just behind, locked in the exact moment she turned to fight.
Amber spun. "What the hell is that?!"
"Not an illusion. A memory. Yours." Cyril declared.
Ryder tries to intercept it with a burst of elemental sound, but his gauntlets short out. The Reaper twitches toward me, standing still. My fists tighten, a faint violet glow pulsing at my palms.
I yell. "Everyone, move! Scatter! Break its focus!"
They all obey.
I stand alone now, facing the creature. The Reaper tilts its head at him. The cracked mask leaks a thin trail of black smoke, drifting toward me like fingers. I ignite my flames; they were faint but alive. With my right hand, they sputter like a lighter in a windstorm.
"...What the hell was that headmaster smoking to create this beast?"
The Reaper steps forward, and the air pulls, trying to rob me of that flicker. I roar, swinging my fists downward. A raw fire pulse bursts from the ground, throwing up dirt and cinders between us. The Reaper vanishes into smoke, then reappears behind me.
I spin and throw a wild punch, flames coating my knuckles. Just enough to catch the Reaper in the ribs. It screeches, but in reverse like a cry played backwards. I stand at the center of this field with this monstrosity. Scorched earth cracking beneath our feet. My flames flicker weakly across my knuckles—barely stable, but defiant.
The Hollow Reaper circles me, masking, tilting, movements slow and predatory. I don't run, not my style. I breathe, one foot forward, eyes locked on it. Amber grits her teeth as she's crouched behind a half-fallen tree trunk. Her Metal Element is too dulled to armor herself, but her body is still trained and lethal.
She grabs a broken rebar length from the old wreckage and charges from the left. HEY, trenchcoat! She leaps, swinging the bar overhead. The Reaper twists to meet her, slashing upward with a finger flick. Amber deflects it midair, crashing to the side with a skid. She snarls while rising once more. "You cut air—I break faces."
Though the Reaper's suppressive breath dulls her light and angel elements, Sera doesn't panic. Instead, she focuses not on brightness but on precision. She lifts her arm and channels just enough of her angelic element to cast a radiant flicker. Not a flash, but a flare, like a blade of light hovering beside her.
She launches the flare into the trees as a moving decoy. The Reaper turns slightly, tracking the false signal long enough for Sera to dart to my side.
"Your back still looks like it needs guarding."
I smirk. "Don't let it get a good look at yours."
Together, we rotate formation, I draw the Reaper's ire while Sera uses subtle gleams of misdirection to blind its focus every few seconds, throwing its timing off just enough for the others to strike.
From behind cover, Adrien extends both arms to the dirt. His earth element flickers, barely able to grip. But he can still weaken the terrain. He channels a shiver through the soil under the Reaper's feet, suddenly shifting the loose gravel beneath it. It was just enough to falter as it lunges.
I intercept, planting a flaming punch to its chest. Not strong enough to damage, but enough to keep it focused on me.
After taking a blow from me, the Reaper tries to reposition. Cyril vanishes into a passing mist. He reappears in the Reaper's blind spot and slashes the creature's mask with his blade, leaving a fine crack near the top—the Reaper's breath stutters as if momentarily confused.
Cyril fades again before the Reaper can retaliate. He reappears briefly behind me. "You're holding up. Not bad for a country bumpkin."
I smirk back at him. "I can handle anything."
Ryder kneels beside a shattered pillar, reconfiguring one of his broken sound gauntlets. His element's dulled, but I discovered he's a techhead. He taps the side of the crystal with a flick of his ring and slams the gauntlet shut. A second later, a sonic pulse erupts from the pillar beside the Reaper. It jerks violently, arching its spine, masking tremors with distortion.
I saw an opportunity. I spared no time grabbing its arm and throwing it into the dirt. I used all my power in my legs to kick the Reaper. Flames bursting fueled my strength as I sent the creature rolling back.
Jennifer watches from afar. She doesn't act immediately. She's still watching and seeing how everything unfolds. That's until she sees the Reaper's shadow begin to extend again, trying to steal someone's memory. She strikes. A mirror image of me appears beside the Reaper. It is not a complete illusion, but just enough to make it hesitate. I shove it away with a shoulder-check.
"...You don't get to be the only one who controls what people see," she says to herself.
——————————————————————
The crystalline screen flickers, reflections of heat, fear, and focus dancing across Evelyn's face. Engineers murmur in hushed tones behind her, cycling through data feeds. On the screen, Daniel's group is working in tandem. Improvising. Defending each other.
Evelyn smiles softly. "They're not dying." She says flatly.
"No, ma'am. They're coordinating. Fluidly. Not with training. With instinct," an uneasy Engineer expresses.
Another feed shows Daniel throwing the Reaper with a shoulder charge, fire still clinging to his arms. Amber, Sera, Ryder, Adrien, Cyril, and Jennifer contribute and react.
"They're not soldiers yet... This is all raw."
She steps forward slowly, tea forgotten on a ledge. Her eyes narrow.
"But he made them move. Without power, without orders." She mutters in a low tone. Evelyn glances at the pulsing readout of Daniel's mark, barely flickering.
"Still holding back... Why?"
She turns to the lead engineer.
"Give the Reaper adaptive clearance. Full behavioral range."
The lead engineer looks at her, shocked. "But ma'am, that could kill—"
"That could reveal what I'm actually testing," she responds coldly.
There was a looming pause.
"Come on, Reyes, let me see what you do when unity falls..."
——————————————————————
The Reaper staggers back, its cracked mask hissing as black smoke leaks like steam. It crouches—then, goes still. We all pause, watching it.
"Is it... giving up?" Amber asks.
Cyril's eyes narrowed. "No. It's remembering."
The Reaper shudders. The black breath intensifies, curling around its flame. Its shadow stretches long behind it, but no longer follows the light's direction. The ground around it sinks, like reality is softening. Then it lunges, not at me but at Adrien. A burst of smoke sends Adrien tumbling. He hits a tree hard, sliding to the ground. He is not injured but separated from the rest.
I yelled out my best friend's name. Too late. The Reaper phases between us. Sera and Amber try to intercept, but the Reaper splits, creating two echo-forms of itself: flickering, unstable, but real enough to stall them. Ryder fires a sonic burst, but it passes through both echoes harmlessly.
"It's copying itself now..." Jennifer gasps, her eyes widening.
The real Reaper slams into me. Its claws rake across my chest, not cutting skin, but pulling heat and breath from me. It then moves, picking me up and slamming me into a tree. I coughed out in pain. Dropping to the ground on one knee. My flame flickers lower.
"Ngh—what...? You changed...?"
The Reaper leans in, mask inches from my face. It inhales, and I see myself again, but this time in the smoke reflected in its mask. Not angry, not afraid. Alone. Jennifer throws a distortion illusion, but it's ignored. The Reaper has found its actual target—Me.
"It doesn't care about us anymore. It wants Daniel!" Jennifer shouted.
As I stared into its abyssal mask, I couldn't help but feel my breath being stolen, my body trembling. The Hollow Reaper loomed above me, its mask cracked and exhaling silence. Its fingers hovered near my chest, not clawing but pulling, like it was draining my vitality.
Behind me, Sera falls back, jaw clenched in pain. Adrien's hand, reaching toward me, fades from view. The Reaper's breath is cold against my skin. A memory plays into my vision: the mirror version of myself in the woods. My mark pulses. I feel something I haven't felt in almost three years: rage.
My hands curl. Flames flare to life, wild, raw. It was never obedient. I gasped as I told the monster to let go of me. I erupted upward, fist cloaked in unstable fire. I punch the Reaper in the chest, sending it skidding back through smoke and ash. I feel the sensation of hate take charge. I'm not in control.
The fire lashes my arms, crawling up my shoulder. The flames flicker dark violet at the edges. My pupils narrow, and my body trembles with too much energy. It was too quick, too sudden. Sera looks at me, alarmed.
"Daniel—!?"
"Stay BACK—!"
The Reaper recovers slowly, head tilting, almost fascinated. It stands there, waiting.
——————————————————————
The screens light up red—alarms pulse in low tones.
"Wrath activity detected—He's a Gatekeeper! It's triggering at 47% and rising!" An engineer yells.
Evelyn watches intensely. Her eyes never left Daniel's sight. She faintly smiles, like this is what she wanted to see. Like she's finally had a breakthrough. But she's also judging. Calculating.
"He's flaring, not snapping—flaring. That's new."
"Should we shut the monster down?" Another engineer yells.
"...Not yet."
His eyes widen. "Ma'am, if the Hollow Reaper capitalizes on that state–"
"That's exactly what I want it to do." Evelyn cuts him off. Her eyes were glued to the screen.
——————————————————————
The Reaper begins to move again. This time, it's faster. It lunges past me, striking Ryder, Cyril, and Adrien. Both Ryder and Cyril stumble together. Blood trickling from their ears. Adrien collapses, shaking, eyes wide with fear, not entirely his own.
I whirl, fire spiraling out from my back. The trees catch, glowing violet. Cyril yells steadily.
"If we stay, he'll burn with it. We have to fall back!"
"We can't leave him!" Amber yells through clenched teeth.
Sera turns to Amber. "We won't." She then turns to Jennifer.
"You wanted to watch us. Then help us. Now."
Jennifer hesitates, then nods. "Don't make me regret this," she whispers to herself, then shouts to me, crafting a visual illusion: a warped mirror of the Reaper placed between it and me. She calls out to me.
"Daniel—look at it! That's not you!"
The Reaper stops, and so do I—just long enough to see the mirror illusion. It's mask now mimics my face, and fire licks from its hands. My flame sputters and flickers. The Reaper moves in. Cyril blinks once and then pulls a flare crystal from a pouch. He throws it in the air, and it flashes.
The intensity of the light causes the Reaper to shriek and recoil, mask smoking.
"MOVE! Go, now!" Sera howls as Cyril grabs me by the collar of my suit. We flee down the racine path, leaping over roots, dodging low branches. Smoke chases them, and behind us, the faint echo of breath. It's slow and patient. We run not in defeat, but in desperate survival.
——————————————————————
About an hour later, we retreated to a rocky outcrop above a dry riverbed, far from the ridge. The air was still heavy but breathable. There was no fire this time—just trembling breath and cooling blood. I lay on my back. My shirt was singed, my pulse slowing. My flames were gone, burnt out. I stared out at the sky, silent.
Adrien and Sera sit beside me. Sera bandages my arm where the fire-singed skin is. She's quiet, possibly thinking as she goes in circles, slightly going higher with each rotation. Amber looks toward her and speaks quietly, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"We should've pulled him sooner."
Cyril watches the campsite, looking towards the woods. His face is stoic. "He didn't want to save. He wanted to burn it down."
Ryder grins, his body tired. "Guess we're lucky he didn't take us with him."
Jennifer sits a little apart, knees up to her chest. She stares into the woods, not in fear but in anticipation.
"It didn't follow us," she spoke with caution.
"...Why wouldn't it?" Adrien asks groggily.
"Because it's patient. And it now knows that we'll split if it presses hard enough."
——————————————————————
The screen dimmer. Heat signatures lessen. Daniel's pulse steadies. Evelyn watches alone now. The engineers have stepped back. Her fingers hover over the command console, but she doesn't touch it. Instead, she watches the last five seconds of Daniel's flare looped in slow motion, frame by frame.
The moment his flames spiked violet—
The flicker in his eyes—
Then the decision to drop. To let go.
"You saw it. You felt it. But you didn't take it."
She leans back, lips pressed into a thin smile.
"...You're not ready. Not yet."
She taps a control, and the screen blurs into static. She turns around, and another woman—her assistant—is waiting for her. Helene Eventrap is neatly dressed, her expression unreadable through her glasses, and her hands are folded in front of her.
"How long have you been standing there?" Evelyn asks.
Helene stands cool and level. "Long enough to know he didn't break."
Evelyn lets out a faint breath—amused or annoyed, it's unclear. Then, she speaks.
"I want a meeting arranged."
"With whom?"
Evelyn walks to the far window, which overlooks the academy's many training fields below. The morning wind presses faintly against the glass.
"The one who rose to be one of the strongest."
Helene's eyes shift, just briefly.
"I'll see that it's done."
No names, no confirmation. Evelyn closes her eyes.
"She'll understand what this means... even if she doesn't like it," Evelyn says as she holds a note for Helene to grab.
Helene takes the note, then nods once. She turns and vanishes down the hall. Evelyn remains at the window, gaze distant.
Then, after a minute, she smiles. "Well then, Gatekeeper. I knew I was right to accept you... This year will be interesting."