Six months had passed since the Skeleton Siege.
Six months since Leventis had vanished into the jaws of the Gashadokuro.
The Academy of Estana stood rebuilt—taller, cleaner, quieter—but beneath its glass and steel, no one really felt safe.
The New Government called it "a new dawn."
The survivors called it "a truce before the next war."
Adam sat in a dim government lab, the room humming with the sound of cooling vents and terminal fans. Rows of holo-screens filled the space, lines of code streaming endlessly before his tired eyes.
The insignia of the New Government hung above him—a hollow, silver emblem of an angel's wing pierced by a spear. He'd joined them after the battle, telling himself it was to make a difference.
But lately, it felt more like a compromise.
He rubbed his temples and stared at the data flow on his screen: capacity readings, border scans, monster migrations… and something else.
A sudden pulse.
A blinding spike cut across the holographic graphs—fast, loud, unmistakably alive.
Adam blinked and leaned forward. "What the hell…?"
He tapped into the satellite feed just in time to catch it: a streak of light splitting the night sky, silent but powerful, crashing somewhere beyond the city limits. A second later, a low boom rippled through the walls, shaking the monitors.
He stared at the readings. It wasn't just energy. It was biological—human, even.
"This… can't be right," he whispered.
Across the city, Chino wasn't paying attention to any of it.
He stood in a half-collapsed gym near the academy, his breath ragged as he punched into a reinforced training slab.
Each hit flared with blue-white energy, leaving scorch marks on the metal.
"Harder…" he growled to himself, voice low and bitter. "If I had been stronger, none of this—"
He struck again, the floor beneath him cracking.
His injured leg still limped slightly when he moved, but he didn't stop. He couldn't.
The New Government had offered him a place in the city's defense unit, but he refused. He didn't trust them—especially not after what happened.
He spat to the side, sweat running down his jaw. "Adam's just their pet now… working for the same people that let this happen."
He threw another punch—this one strong enough to dent the slab.
Meanwhile, Angelina sat alone on the rooftop of a high-rise dormitory overlooking the quiet streets. Her friends beside her as the spoke and gossiped as if nothing happened, but a feeling of emptiness washes over her remembering Adam and Chino.
She hadn't spoken to either of them in months. Not since Adam joined the government, and not since Chino started drifting into anger and isolation. She'd tried to bring them together once—failed.
The world didn't reward idealists anymore.
Her phone buzzed.
A government message scrolled across the screen:
ALERT: Unidentified impact detected outside City Perimeter. Sector 12 restricted. Citizens remain indoors.
Angelina frowned and dismissed it. "Another experiment gone wrong," she muttered. "Figures."
But she didn't notice the faint light still glowing in the clouds above—something falling, burning, alive.
In the New Government command center, Commander Rayne stood with his arms behind his back, eyes locked on the glowing radar map before him.
"Report," he said evenly.
"Unidentified entity fell outside Sector 12, Commander," a technician replied. "Energy spike matches no current weapon or lifeform signature. It lasted under ten seconds, then vanished."
Rayne narrowed his eyes. "Vanished? Objects don't just vanish."
"Sir," another voice cut in from a separate console. "Partial bio-readings before the fade. The pattern's… human."
That got his attention.
He stepped closer, scanning the data himself. "Are you suggesting someone just fell from the sky?"
"No suggestion, sir. The readings are clear. And…" the technician hesitated, "it's similar to the anomaly recorded during the Gashadokuro incident."
The room fell silent.
Rayne's voice dropped low. "That monster was sealed. Whatever this is, it shouldn't exist."
He turned sharply. "Send a recon drone immediately. And contact Garrison—tell him something's happening in Sector 12."
Back in the lab, Adam was already out the door before the orders even hit the network.
He grabbed his jacket, a field drone, and a portable scanner. His instincts screamed one thing over and over:
That energy felt like him.
He left without telling the others. He didn't trust how they'd react.
Not Angelina, who had grown cold toward the government.
Not Chino, who blamed him for joining it.
This—whatever it was—was his responsibility.
Outside the city walls, the world changed. The air was heavier, colder, and smelled of metal and ash.
Adam followed the trail on his wrist display, the readings fluctuating wildly until he reached a crater half-buried in smoke.
At its center was a body— motionless, surrounded by faint white light.
Adam's pulse spiked.
He dropped to his knees beside it, brushing off debris. His breath caught in his throat.
"No way… no way…"
The figure stirred. His clothes were shredded, his body glowing faintly with runes like burning veins.
A weak, pained voice escaped his lips.
"Adam…?"
Adam froze, his heart stopping cold.
Tears welled in his eyes as the impossible truth unfolded before him.
"Leventis?" he whispered.
The man he thought he'd buried was alive—reborn under a foreign light, radiating energy that didn't belong to him.
High above, the clouds trembled with silent thunder.
Back in the command center, Commander Rayne's voice echoed through the room.
"Track that anomaly—now!. Whatever it is… it's not human anymore."
And for the first time in months, the city of Estana felt the tremor of fate shifting again.