The sky over the ruins of Western Sichuan was ash-gray, choked with clouds and smoke. Echoforms were pouring from the collapsed fissures like insects from a split carcass. Each one shimmered with makeshift armor plating—metallic, jagged, and crudely fused—claws scraping, eyes glowing in unnatural violet hue.
"On your left!" Saline shouted, voice sharp and cutting through the chaos.
She spun midair, both hands igniting with condensed flame. With a sharp downward arc, the fire blasted across the swarm and erupted through three of the charging echoforms. Their bodies collapsed in flaming heaps.
"I got 'em, I got 'em—wait, no I don't—Emi!"
A massive shard of ice speared through the gap in the rubble seconds before another creature lunged toward Saline. Emi stood calmly, her silver hair catching the light as runes glowed faintly around her arms. Her stature small—but everything else about her presence was cold, lethal.
"You were slipping," Emi noted calmly.
"I wasn't—" Saline huffed, "Okay fine, maybe I blinked."
From behind the broken truck carcass, Jerome bolted forward like a cannon—runic threads spiraling across his fists and legs. He swung upward in a spiral, launching one echoform into the air before slamming a second one into the side of a crumbled wall with enough force to crack the concrete.
"You're still a freak, Jerome!" Ferez called out from behind a turned-over van.
"Thanks?" Jerome replied, not slowing his assault.
Seyfe ducked just as a tail-like blade swept over his head, rolling into a sideways kick that barely fazed the modified echoform. Ferez leapt beside him, shielding with his arm as they both got knocked back by another slam.
They grunted, picking themselves up amid the dust and broken stones.
"You know," Seyfe coughed, "we're literally the backup dancers in a cast of main characters."
"Oh, you noticed too?" Ferez groaned, blocking another charge with a half-formed barrier. "I'm starting to think Jerome could one-punch a Sovereign if he sneezes hard enough."
"Saline's gotten faster too. And Emi? She's like if a glacier and a sniping satellite had a baby."
A burst of ice rocketed across the battlefield.
crack-crack—shhhrrrchh
Five more echoforms shattered mid-run.
"Not complaining, but how the hell do you keep your cool fighting with monsters?"
"Practice," Seyfe replied dryly. "And knowing they'll make sure we don't die."
Ferez smirked, his gauntlet charging up with a small rumble.
"Well, let's make sure we're not the comic relief this time."
"No promises," Seyfe said, lunging back into the fight.
They surged forward again—supporting, flanking, buying time as their far more refined teammates carved down the swarm with practiced brutality. The battlefield lit with bursts of ice, flame, and raw momentum.
Still, the two of them danced in the chaos—less polished, but unbroken.
And somewhere inside, Seyfe thought:
Monsters they may be… but I'll catch up. Even if I have to crawl.
Seyfe barely rolled out of the way as a metallic echoform lunged past him—only for the entire thing to erupt in a torrent of fire that seared the air.
WHOOOMPH—SSSSHHHH
The flames licked upward in spirals, burning so hot the air shimmered. At the center stood Saline, eyes half-closed, her arms glowing with deep crimson runes, the ground beneath her heels cracked and scorched.
"Saline?" Seyfe blinked, shielding his eyes. "You're—"
"Yeah," she said with a wild grin. "Core's finally maxed."
She threw her hands forward—pillars of fire spiraled from her fingers, tracing along the terrain like living serpents and ripping through the incoming wave with such precision that even the rubble was cauterized mid-fall.
Ferez whistled. "Remind me not to ever argue with her again."
Before Seyfe could respond, a boom echoed beside them.
Jerome slammed both palms into the ground, sending out a pulse—BOOMF—the ground erupted like a landmine, debris and enemy bodies flung like ragdolls in every direction. His body radiated kinetic pressure, runes on his arms flaring with electric-blue intensity.
He stood slowly, exhaling steam, knuckles smoldering.
"Huh. Guess mine's full too," Jerome said simply, cracking his neck.
"Of course it is," Ferez muttered, brushing off a bit of concrete dust from his coat. "Why wouldn't the both of you turn into nuclear reactors in the same fight."
Saline flicked her hand, flames swirling and then vanishing like steam.
"Once a Veiler's core is satiated to the max," she said, "you don't need help from gear anymore. No crutches. Just raw flow."
Jerome nodded, his fists still pulsing faintly. "Weapons start to feel like overkill once the runes inside you align naturally. Equipment's useful… but when your body's synced with your core, you become the weapon."
Seyfe stared for a moment, feeling the faint thrum of his own core—erratic, unbalanced, still echoing with strange frequency ever since the stabilization.
He looked down at his gloved hand.
Not yet.
Not for him. Not like them.
But something inside him stirred—not envy, not doubt… something deeper. The silence before a new storm.
"Guess I better hurry up," he muttered.
"What's that?" Saline called.
"Nothing," he said quickly. "Just reminding myself to survive."
Ferez elbowed him lightly. "Same here, partner. Let's not get turned into charcoal while the gods are playing."
With a shared look, the squad braced again—more enemies emerging from the smog ahead, this time moving in synchronized patterns, metal jaws screeching as they advanced like a tide.
Their monsters were ready.
And Seyfe?
He'd find his way there.
"Right, isn't it supposed to be Weaver Core?" Emi asked suddenly, tilting her head as she glanced between Saline and Jerome. "Why are you guys calling it Veiler Core?"
Jerome blinked mid-step. "Uh…"
Saline scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "We're kinda… used to the Veiler term. Just rolls off easier."
Ferez shrugged. "Old habits die hard. You think I have time to say Weaver Core Sanctification State every time I punch something?"
Emi gave them a flat look. "You literally said that exact phrase back in training once."
Seyfe chuckled—but the moment was short-lived.
A screech tore through the air, shrill and jagged like metal against bone.
From the thick mist between the shattered buildings, a blur moved—then another. The ground quaked as the silhouettes revealed themselves.
A swarm of modified Grade C echoforms surged forward—hulking, feline-shaped monstrosities with black fur slick like oil. Tubes and rusted pipelines coiled around their spines and legs, pulsing with a sickly green fluid. Their mouths split open into three jagged jaws, unhinging like a serpent's maw with rotating teeth inside, buzzing with sonic vibration.
"Oh that's new," Ferez said, narrowing his eyes.
"Why do they always look worse the higher the grade?" Seyfe muttered.
"Because someone out there's designing nightmares," Jerome said, already stepping forward, fists tightening.
"Positions!" Saline shouted, flames curling along her forearms. "We've got less than ten seconds!"
Emi exhaled, her silver hair lifting as the temperature dipped. "This formation's unnatural. They're herding us…"
The lead echoform shrieked, leaping toward them with its triple-jawed maw wide open—joints bending unnaturally, eyes glowing violet with layered rings.
And in the span of a heartbeat, chaos returned to the battlefield.
Aki stood in front of the circular holographic display, her crimson eyes sharp and unreadable. Dozens of feeds projected above the table—live visuals, sonar scans, core resonance patterns, echoform traces, and squadron vitals—all shifting rapidly with each update.
A distress beacon blinked into the feed, followed by a real-time transmission from the Sichuan field.
:: HIGH PRIORITY ALERT ::Type: Modified Echoform – Grade CRegion: Sichuan ExpanseStatus: Swarm Deployment – Unknown DesignerObserved Traits: Feline morphology, tri-jawed mutation, pipeline augmentation, hive movement patterns
Aki's gaze narrowed. "Those aren't naturally occurring. Someone made this."
Another alert came in. She didn't blink.
"Commander Varess," one of the support staff called from the side. "We've also just received data that Veilers Saline Vergaress and Jerome Dwight both registered full-core satiation during combat. No equipment usage noted in their last engagement—just raw sanctified output."
"That makes five," added another handler, arms crossed. "Across three different regions. Veilers from Fallacy, Foxtail, and now Overseer are unlocking full sanctification states mid-operation."
"They're adapting faster than we projected," murmured the Owl Squadron handler. "Some of these cadets weren't even full cycle trained yet."
"And it's not isolated," said Hyacinth Uganda from Foxtail, folding her arms. "My unit's medic core reported a similar spike earlier this morning—C-level core burst without stabilizers."
Aki turned slowly, taking it all in. Her voice came out level, precise. "Someone's triggering forced evolution. These modified echoforms—they're intentionally pushing our people into core ignition."
"But why?" another handler asked. "They're awakening Veilers faster, sure—but if we burn them out too soon—"
"That might be the point," Aki replied coldly. "Break the Veilers' thresholds. Overwhelm the system. Leave us with unstable survivors… or corpses."
The table fell into a moment of heavy silence.
Another red beacon flashed—Southeast Riftline – New Mutation Spotted—and again from the Darnes Outpost, reporting uncontrolled core resonance feedback from two rookie Veilers.
"These mutations aren't natural evolutions," Aki said. "Someone is behind them. And they want us to see what they're capable of."
"So what now?" Hansel Fel of Asher Squadron asked. "We still don't know if this is connected to the Sovereign mutation cases last week."
"It's connected," Aki replied firmly. "Someone is rewriting the rules of the field."
She turned toward the side screen and tapped into the Sichuan visual—Saline, wreathed in flame, and Jerome, shattering terrain with his bare hands, holding the frontline without even drawing their weapons.
She leaned closer, eyes glinting.
"And yet... our Veilers are rewriting theirs too."