Eight Years Later
The world continued burning.
Kaien Veyr stopped expecting peace long ago.
By the year 2062, the idea of an ordinary life had completely disappeared from human civilization. Cities no longer built parks or theaters anymore. Every new structure served military purposes first. Training centers. Weapon factories. Research facilities. Emergency bunkers.
Humanity had adapted to endless war so completely that nobody even called it a crisis anymore.
It was simply life.
Children were born into systems designed to turn them into soldiers before adulthood. Education itself had changed. Traditional schools vanished decades earlier after the Continental Conflict intensified beyond recovery. Mathematics, history, science—everything now revolved around survival and warfare.
Every teenager belonged to the military eventually.
No exceptions.
And Kaien had grown up inside that reality.
The rain fell heavily across Novaris City once again while massive holographic advertisements illuminated the dark skyline with military recruitment propaganda. Armed transport aircraft crossed between skyscrapers while anti-air cannons rotated slowly above defensive towers surrounding the city perimeter.
Kaien stood silently beside one of the massive observation windows overlooking District Eleven while adjusting the dark combat jacket worn by every trainee inside the Dominion Youth Military Institute.
At sixteen years old, he already looked older than most adults.
War did that to people.
His dark hair had grown slightly longer now, falling near sharp golden-gray eyes that constantly carried a calmness most soldiers twice his age lacked. Years of training had shaped his body lean and disciplined while scars already marked parts of his arms from combat exercises and field operations.
Because the Institute wasn't merely a school.
It was preparation for the battlefield.
And eventually—
the battlefield always came.
Behind him, hundreds of trainees moved through the enormous training complex preparing for another combat simulation. Conversations echoed throughout the massive steel hallways while instructors barked orders constantly from elevated control platforms.
Pulse rifles.
Combat drones.
Energy blades.
Target systems.
Everything inside the Institute existed for war.
Kaien slowly closed the locker in front of him afterward before glancing toward the digital schedule displayed across the wall nearby.
TACTICAL COMBAT EXERCISE — SECTOR 7
LIVE-FIRE SIMULATION
ALL SECOND-YEAR TRAINEES REPORT IMMEDIATELY
Same routine.
Every day repeated endlessly now.
Train.
Fight.
Survive.
Nothing else mattered.
A loud voice suddenly echoed through the hallway afterward.
"Kaien!"
He turned slightly afterward just in time to see someone jogging toward him through the crowded corridor.
Darius Kane.
Tall, broad-shouldered, and constantly loud enough to irritate almost everyone around him. His dark combat uniform hung loosely around him despite his muscular build while a training rifle rested casually over one shoulder.
Darius stopped beside Kaien afterward while catching his breath dramatically.
"You were ignoring messages again."
Kaien calmly answered,
"I was busy."
"You're always busy."
Darius narrowed his eyes suspiciously afterward.
"…were you sleeping standing up again?"
"No."
"That wasn't convincing."
Kaien sighed quietly afterward before walking toward the training sector while Darius followed immediately beside him.
Despite his constant complaints, Darius had remained Kaien's closest friend for years now. Mostly because he refused to leave him alone long enough not to become one.
The two of them had trained together since childhood inside the Institute.
And unlike most others there—
Darius wasn't afraid of Kaien.
Because many trainees were.
Not openly.
But enough.
Kaien consistently ranked at the top of nearly every combat category inside the Institute despite never looking particularly interested in competing. Hand-to-hand combat. Tactical analysis. Weapons proficiency. Reaction speed.
He excelled unnaturally fast at everything involving battle.
Nobody understood why.
Not even Kaien himself fully.
Or rather—
he understood too well.
The memories never truly stopped returning.
Over the years they became quieter. More stable. Less painful. But they remained inside him constantly like echoes from another existence refusing to disappear.
Karna.
Aditya.
Arin.
He remembered all of them now.
Not every detail perfectly.
But enough.
Enough to know this life wasn't random.
Enough to understand the cycle still continued.
Enough to remember the promise made inside the void between lives.
But strangely enough—
some memories had faded again over time.
Especially the ones connected to those two girls from his childhood vision.
At first he tried remembering them constantly.
The blurry figures he saw during the monster breach years earlier. The strange feeling of recognition buried deep inside his soul.
But eventually…
life continued moving forward.
Training intensified.
The world became harsher.
Reality demanded survival above everything else.
And slowly—
he stopped thinking about them.
Not intentionally.
The memories simply faded naturally beneath years of routine and warfare.
Now he barely remembered the vision at all.
Only fragments remained sometimes.
Silver light.
A familiar feeling.
Nothing more.
Darius suddenly elbowed him lightly afterward while they entered one of the massive elevator platforms descending toward the lower training sectors.
"You spacing out again?"
Kaien blinked once before answering calmly.
"No."
"You do that creepy silent thing too much."
The elevator descended rapidly afterward while dozens of trainees crowded around them carrying combat equipment and tactical gear. Massive digital displays along the walls showed live battlefield reports from active conflict zones outside Novaris.
The war had worsened again recently.
The Helios Dominion and Vesper Union had begun fighting openly across several continental sectors after months of unstable ceasefires. Entire cities disappeared beneath orbital bombardments while both factions developed increasingly dangerous experimental weapon systems.
And beyond human conflict—
the monsters continued spreading too.
Distorted creatures now called Hollows infested ruined territories across the planet after decades of unstable energy experiments poisoned entire ecosystems.
Humanity fought wars against itself while the world slowly died around them.
Nobody seemed capable of stopping either disaster anymore.
The elevator doors opened afterward into the lower combat sectors.
Massive underground arenas stretched endlessly beneath the Institute filled with holographic combat zones and live-fire training fields. Thousands of trainees moved through the complex while instructors monitored everything from elevated command platforms overhead.
Kaien and Darius stepped into Formation Sector Seven alongside dozens of other second-year trainees preparing for combat simulation exercises.
The instructor waiting there immediately drew attention.
Commander Ryker Vale.
One of the youngest active combat veterans serving as an Institute instructor. Tall, heavily scarred, and permanently carrying the exhausted expression of someone who spent too long surviving battlefields.
Ryker stared at the assembled trainees silently afterward before speaking.
"You're not children anymore."
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Because every trainee there understood one truth already.
Sooner or later, the Institute would send them to actual warzones.
And many of them wouldn't return.
Ryker activated the holographic battlefield map behind him afterward.
"This simulation reflects real combat conditions from the Northern Frontier."
Destroyed cityscapes appeared across the massive digital projection while Hollow signatures flashed across multiple zones simultaneously.
"Dominion forces lost three entire divisions there last month."
Silence deepened throughout the training hall afterward.
Ryker continued calmly.
"Your objective is survival. Nothing else."
Kaien quietly watched the battlefield map afterward while something strange stirred faintly inside him again.
The ruined city displayed across the projection looked familiar somehow.
Not from this life.
From somewhere else.
A battlefield from another world.
Another war.
Another lifetime.
Then suddenly—
his head hurt sharply again.
Fragments flashed through his mind instantly.
A silver-haired girl smiling.
Another girl standing beside her.
Golden eyes.
Gunfire.
Blood.
Kaien's breathing paused briefly afterward.
What was that?
The vision vanished immediately before he could focus properly.
"…Kaien?"
Darius looked toward him carefully now.
"You alright?"
Kaien slowly looked away from the battlefield projection afterward.
"…yeah."
But deep inside—
something had started moving again.
The forgotten memories were returning.
And somewhere far beyond Novaris City—
two girls carrying fractured pieces of the same soul were already walking toward the same battlefield fate had prepared for all of them once more.