Kael woke with a suddenly. His chest moved like he had been running for miles, and his sheets stuck damp to his skin. The nightmare was still a shock to him, thick and suffocating—the smell of the lab and the echo of screaming.
Room 47B. He would never forget it.
His vision blured faintly as the System flickered to life.
[Status: Elevated heart rate detected.]
[Cortisol levels critical. Recommend deep breathing exercises.]
Kael dismissed the screen with a flick of his wrist, running both hands through his hair. Breathing exercises weren't going to help him cut it tonight.
Across the room, Jace snored like a dying engine, his blanket was moved half onto the floor. Lyra's bed was on the far wall and her back was turned to him, her silver hair spilling across her pillow in loose waves. She was asleep.....or at least looked like it.
Kael sat on the edge of his bed for a long time, he was staring at the faint cracks in the ceiling. Then he stood, sliding his boots on as quietly as possible. He wasn't going back to sleep at least not after that dream.
The hallway outside Dorm 27D hummed with unsual silence, the usual chaos of recruits and instructors barking orders were gone, replaced by the soft glow of overhead lights and the faint hum of security drones gliding down distant corridors.
Kael shoved his hands in his pockets and walked, he had no destination, but just movement.
Every corner of the facility looked the same—cold steel walls, sealed doors, and the occasional glass panel revealing dark, empty training rooms. It was too clean, too controlled. Exactly like the lab he'd escaped from.
His jaw tightened.
[Quest Reminder: Face the Shadows.]
Objective: Stabilize emotional state. Reward: +2 Sync Level.]
"Yeah," Kael muttered under his breath. "Working on it."
He stopped at a wide observation window overlooking a combat chamber. Rows of shattered training dummies lay scattered across the floor, faint scorch marks and deep gouges carved into their surfaces. The standby lights gave everything a cold, sterile glow.
Kael pressed his palm against the glass, staring at his reflection—dark hair tousled, eyes hollow with exhaustion.
You should've died there, he thought. They made sure of it.
"Couldn't sleep either?"
Kael spun, his muscles tensed on instinct.
It was Lyra.
She stood a few feet away, her hoodie was draped over her uniform pants, silver hair tied back loosely. Without the rigid posture and sharp focus she wore during the day, she seemed… softer somehow. Human in a way none of them were allowed to be.
"Yeah," Kael said after a pause.
"Nightmares."
She stepped closer, resting her shoulder against the same glass. Her voice was low,
almost tired. "Facility dreams?"
Kael blinked. "…You too?"
Lyra gave a small, humorless laugh. "Doesn't everyone who came out of those places?" Her gaze stayed fixed on the empty chamber. "Sometimes I still wake up smelling the chemicals. Or hearing that sound—the restraints clicking shut."
Kael swallowed hard, his fists tightening. "Yeah. That sound never leaves."
They stood there in silence for a while.
Lyra's eyes were distant, shadowed by something Kael recognized all too well. "You ever wonder why we made it out? Why it was us and not… someone else?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. He felt the weight of the System in his mind, silent but watching, like a presence breathing down his neck.
"I try not to think about it," he said finally. "If I start, I don't think I'll stop."
Lyra glanced at him, and for a second their eyes met—two survivors trying to make sense of a world that didn't want them alive.
They started walking together down the dim corridor. Their steps echoed softly, the quiet between them almost comfortable now.
"Tomorrow's going to be rough," Lyra said, breaking the silence. "I heard they're running team drills. Wonder who I'll get paired with."
Kael smirked faintly. "Hopefully not Jace. You'd spend more time dragging him out of trouble than fighting."
Lyra's lips curved in the faintest smile. "Honestly? That sounds about right."
"Or maybe me," Kael offered before he could stop himself.
Lyra shot him a sideways glance, her expression unreadable—but her eyes lingered for a beat too long. "Would that be so bad?"
Kael's throat went dry. "Guess not."
They rounded a corner, the silence between them thicker now, heavy with something neither wanted to name.
Lyra finally stopped at the dorm entrance, turning to him. "Try to sleep, Kael. Big day tomorrow."
"Yeah," he said softly, though sleep still felt impossible.
Back in the room, Lyra slipped into her bed without another word. Kael lay awake, staring at the faint blue glow hovering above him.
[Quest Progress: Face the Shadows. Emotional Stability Improved. +1 Luck.]
He closed the screen and turned toward the wall. For the first time that night, the shadows didn't feel quite as heavy.
Sleep didn't come easy. Kael lay staring at the faint cracks in the ceiling long after Lyra had curled up in her bunk. He finally drifted off sometime before dawn, though his rest was shallow, he rested.
When the intercom blared, it felt like only minutes had passed.
"Attention, recruits. Assemble in Arena Block C in one hour for team assessments. Failure to appear will result in immediate dismissal."
Kael groaned into his pillow, dragging himself upright. Jace was already awake, pulling on his combat vest and whistling an upbeat tune that made Kael want to throw something at him.
"Morning, sunshine," Jace said, grinning like a man who didn't know the meaning of fear. "Ready to make history?"
"Ready to not die," Kael muttered, rolling out of bed. His limbs felt heavy, but the weight in his chest had loosened since last night.
Lyra emerged from the bathroom, hair tied back in a sleek braid, her expression calm and unreadable. She glanced at Kael briefly, then away. If last night had meant anything to her, she wasn't showing it.
The System blinked awake in Kael's vision.
[Status: Stable.]
[HP: 154/200 | Stamina: 63% | Sync Level: 44%]
[Quest: Team Trials – Objective: Survive simulation. Reward: +1 Level, +5 Stat Points, +200 XP.]
"Great," Kael muttered. "No pressure."
The cafeteria buzzed with nervous energy. Recruits crowded tables, shoveling down protein blocks and synthetic eggs. Some were already sparking magic between their fingers or flexing weapons like they were about to go to war.
Kael sat with Jace and Lyra, though conversation was thin.
"You think it's gonna be one of those full-on squad fights?" Jace asked,with his mouth full of toast. "Like, all-out magic chaos?"
Lyra gave him a look. "Would that surprise you?"
"No," Jace admitted. "But hey, at least I get to show off my wind tricks." He grinned. "And Kael gets to… what, shoot things?"
Kael smirked faintly. "Something like that."
His fingers flexed unconsciously in his gloves. He'd need skin contact if he wanted to use his ability today. Lyra had shown him a taste of her magic during drills—those shadows that swallowed light like ink in water. He hadn't forgotten.
Arena Block C was a monster of a chamber—three football fields long, lined with metal walls and sensor grids glowing faint blue. Platforms and ruined building shells formed cover throughout the zone. Overhead, combat drones hovered in lazy circles like vultures waiting to kill.
A scarred instructor paced before them, his voice like gravel in a blender. "Today's trial is simple: survive. Each squad will enter the zone and face a simulated hostile force. Time limit: fifteen minutes. Fail to adapt, then you fail to advance. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the recruits shouted.
Kael's stomach knotted as squads were called one by one. When Squad Delta echoed through the speakers, his pulse jumped. That was them.
The gate slammed shut behind them with a clang that reverberated in Kael's bones. The silence lasted only a second before alarms blared and the System chimed in his vision.
[Simulation Start: Enemy Threat Level – Medium. Time Limit: 15 minutes.]
Figures rose from the smoke ahead—combat drones armed with rifles and curved blades, their red optics glowing like embers.
"Take cover!" Kael barked, diving behind a half-collapsed wall as bullets tore through the air. Jace ducked in beside him, grinning like a lunatic.
"Oh, this is my kind of warm-up," Jace said. Wind coiled around his forearms, crackling faintly. He leapt over the barrier with zero hesitation, launching a spiraling gust that ripped two drones apart and sent the rest scattering.
"Show-off," Kael muttered, firing two clean shots into another drone's chest. It dropped in a shower of sparks.
A ripple of darkness slithered past him like a living thing. Kael turned just in time to see Lyra step out of the shadows, her hands weaving arcs. Tendrils of pure black erupted from the ground, skewering two drones and dragging them into an abyss made of shadows.
Kael stared for half a second too long. Damn.
"Kael!" Jace's shout snapped him back. A drone lunged, blade flashing. Kael rolled aside, grabbed its arm, and drove his pulse pistol into its face at point-blank range. The blast sent fragments skittering across the floor.
[Combat Performance: Adequate. Recommend enhancing close-quarters proficiency.]
"Working on it," Kael growled under his breath.
Then the ground shook. A heavy-class mech dropped from above, slamming down so hard the shockwave knocked Kael to one knee. Its twin cannons swiveled toward them with a menacing hum.
"Oh, great," Jace said, eyes wide. "They gave us the boss early!"
"Keep it distracted!" Kael barked, sprinting forward.
Lyra's shadows exploded outward, tangling the mech's legs. It staggered, servos screaming, while Jace hurled a compressed vortex at its head, denting the armor.
Kael slid under the mech as it struggled, brushing past Lyra for just a second.
[Contact detected. Ability identified: Umbramancy.]
[Copy ability?]
[Yes / No]
"Yes," Kael hissed.
[Umbramancy acquired. Slot 1 filled.]
A surge of alien power raced through his veins, making his vision darken at the edges. The shadows around his boots stretched unnaturally, writhing like living smoke before snapping back.
Kael clenched his fists, a wild grin curling his lips.
"Kael!" Jace yelled. "Any ideas here?!"
"Yeah," Kael said, stepping out of cover, shadows pooling at his feet. "I've got a few."
He lunged. Black tendrils burst from the ground, coiling around the mech's legs and yanking hard. It toppled with an earsplitting crash, and Jace finished the job with a compressed gust that shattered its core in a shower of sparks.
The alarm cut out. Silence fell.
[Simulation Complete: Squad Delta – Passed.]
[Rewards: +500 XP | Sync Level +3%.]
[Level Up: 5 → 6.]
[Stat Points Available: +5.]
Kael smirked as Lyra approached, her eyes flicking to the lingering shadows curling faintly at his boots.
"You moved faster this time," she said evenly.
Kael shrugged. "Guess I'm full of surprises."
Jace clapped him on the shoulder. "Hell yeah, Delta Squad! Drinks on me tonight!"
"We're not allowed to drink," Lyra deadpanned.
"Water counts," Jace said without missing a beat.
Kael laughed under his breath, but his mind was already spinning. He had Umbramancy now. One slot filled. Two more to go.
And this was just the beginning.