The sky was slowly bleeding orange as the sun dipped lower into the Shatterveil horizon. They had maybe two hours left before nightfall, and night meant danger out here.
Both squads sat in a loose semicircle near the collapsed wall where Squad C-707 had emerged earlier. A subtle line had formed between them—Cadets on one side, Wardens on the other—but it wasn't unfriendly.
Not yet.
Instructor Tamsin broke the silence.
"Warden Ivara," he said respectfully, "before the night comes, would you mind sharing what your squad discovered so far? It might help us decide how to move forward."
Tamsin was not in any way weaker in rank compared to Ivara. But he knew her temper well, so he chose to be polite.
Still, Ivara didn't answer immediately.
Her gaze found Raith, who stood in the middle between his S-ranked friends—Kev, Dane, Mira, and Elisa—and his C-707 squad members. She watched him carefully, but Raith, trained by years of survival as an Untuned, showed nothing.
No flicker of discomfort. No tell.
He didn't speak despite knowing that Ivara wanted to know what he had found inside the place just now. Even Liara was waiting if he was going to share.
She believed that Raith had stumbled upon some kind of trial and had gotten a reward from it.
Raith remained silent.
Seeing that nobody wanted to talk, Cael somehow felt that he needed to step forward.
He leaned forward, voice laced with condescension. "Let me guess. You guys just fought a Feral Crawler, right?"
Kev raised a brow. It was clear that he was asking the Cadets that came with Instructor Tamsin.
Cael smirked. "Cute. We killed two."
He hit that word like it was some kind of trophy.
Kev looked ready to fire back, but Dane beat him to it.
"Yeah. You guys are strong," Dane said calmly. "With Raith in your squad, there's no doubt you'll easily kill three or four at the same time."
Cael's smirk faltered. Everyone knew who had delivered the final blows. Who stood at the center when things turned dangerous. It wasn't him.
He opened his mouth, trying to salvage something, but Ivara shut it down before he could embarrass himself further.
"Enough," she said. "I don't mind if you guys want to compete. Just don't be a fool or make a fool out of yourself."
Then she turned slightly and pointed back toward the collapsed wall. "We encountered something strange inside this building."
Everyone turned to the place she pointed.
"What kind of 'strange' are we talking about?" Tamsin enquired.
She kept her tone professional, but the weight in her voice hinted at more.
"I've already taken full visual records, photos, and videos. The researchers at camp can handle the analysis."
Tamsin nodded slowly. "Interesting. Not even two kilometers from the entrance portal. Do you think there's more further in?"
Before Ivara could respond, Vanna cut in, her voice a little too loud.
"Do any of you even realize how creepy that place was?"
Mira, surprisingly open despite the earlier tension, asked, "Why? What happened?"
Vanna's expression tightened. "It was dark. I don't mean 'hard to see' dark. I mean unnatural. And then came the voices. They were screaming, crying, laughing. Like a memory was looping over and over again."
The air went still. Everyone from Squad C-707 seemed to recoil slightly as if the memory alone brought a chill.
Even Liara, usually silent, folded her arms tighter.
The S-ranked Cadets leaned in.
And then Raith finally spoke.
"It's not just the voices. It's not just inside that place," he said, turning toward Tamsin, Kev, Dane, Mira, and Elisa. "Have you noticed how this place feels… different? Nothing like the ruins of the Old Earth?"
Cael groaned. "Oh, here we go again. As if you've read a thousand history books."
Ivara didn't say a word, but the glare she sent Cael made him shift uncomfortably.
Raith didn't respond to the jab. He gestured around them instead. "Look at the materials. The structure. The symbols on the walls. Even the language carved into the signs. None of that matches what you'd find within the first 500 meters to one kilometer around the portal."
Dane stood and slowly turned on the spot, examining the surroundings. The others followed suit.
He wasn't wrong.
Tamsin's eyes narrowed in interest. "That's a good observation. But how are you so sure this isn't part of Old Earth?"
Raith shrugged slightly. "I'm not. It's just a theory. Nothing solid yet."
He paused, then added, "I've memorized the letters we found. They don't match English. But they feel structured. Like a language. Same sentence rhythms. Different symbols for the alphabet. But even if we could pronounce the symbols, the words might mean something completely different."
Tamsin nodded, clearly impressed. "That's valuable insight."
Dane's curiosity lit up. "If we find something like a book or anything with full text, can you decipher it?"
Raith looked at him, then said quietly, "That's actually why I went in. I saw writing on the wall that didn't match anything else in the vicinity. It led me deeper, into the place Vanna mentioned. I thought it might've been a library or resource center."
He paused, his voice dropping slightly. "But I ended up blacking out before I could find anything useful."
"Why didn't you check after you woke up?" Kev asked.
Raith sighed. "Something happened. The darkness and voices that Vanna mentioned? They closed in and we were forced to escape. Luckily there was some kind of device that teleported us out."
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
Unlike Squad C-707, the S-ranked Cadets didn't question Raith's words. They didn't look at him like he was just spinning tales. After all, they had awakened together, right here in the Shatterveil.
They were from the Outer Wards, too.
They felt they knew Raith and they could believe him.
Tamsin broke the silence. "Alright. Here's what we'll do."
He stepped forward, addressing both squads.
"We move together. Formation. Controlled pacing. We'll press forward until the night comes, then find a place to rest."
He looked out toward the horizon, where the Force Field shimmered like a mirage.
"The Shatterveil changes at night. Let's not be caught still deciding when the dark comes."
Everyone nodded.
Two squads. Nine Cadets stood, gathered their gear, and began to move.
Unseen in the dark, something else was already waiting.
***
Deeper in the Shatterveil, the landscape twisted the deeper they went. It was like the world had forgotten how to follow logic.
Black trees curled into the air like frozen tendrils, and the ground shimmered faintly with threads of pulsing energy as if the Force itself had veins.
Ahead, rising above the crooked horizon, stood a formation of towers. They were ruined, jagged, and leaning like drunken giants.
But one tower was different.
It stood tall. Unbroken. Its spires were the color of dried blood, so dark they seemed to absorb the last rays of sunlight. Shadows curled along its surface unnaturally, resisting the fading light.
At its peak, a circular platform glowed faintly, like it was breathing.
Inside that tower, the air was colder and thicker.
Three figures stood in a ringed chamber, the ceiling rising so high it vanished into blackness. The walls were covered in symbols, red and blue veins of glowing cracks ran like webbing through the stone, pulsing gently.
They looked human.
At a glance.
But their foreheads bore the truth. Fractures in their flesh, glowing either red or blue as if something beneath their skin was trying to break through.
The one on the throne was a woman. Tall, poised, cruelly beautiful in a way that felt carved, not born. Her hair was silver-black, cascading around her like liquid smoke, and the cracks on her forehead glowed a vivid red.
She wore a robe stitched in gold, and the air around her buzzed with restrained power.
She was known as The Queen.
Before her stood three subordinates.
The first was massive, round with wide shoulders and thick limbs, his armor rusted but still managing to look imposing. He carried a hammer slung over his back and was known among them as Fatty.
The second was wiry, hunched, and twitchy. His eyes moved too fast, like a trapped rodent. His fingers were long and stained with black ink. They called him Skinny.
And the third was balanced, neither bulky nor slender, but muscled and efficient, dressed like a mercenary with a dull blade at his hip. His name was Muscle.
They knelt before her.
The Queen's voice echoed through the chamber. It was sharp, low, and final.
"It's time," she said.
The cracks on her forehead pulsed brighter.
"I can feel it... the God Essences have entered this place."
The three subordinates lifted their heads slightly, tension rising.
"After all these years hiding," the Queen continued, rising slowly from her throne, "they come to us."
Her eyes shimmered red. "How fortunate."
Fatty—whose real name was long forgotten—let out a low, amused growl. "Heh. If we get our hands on even one of those Essences… our strength will surge."
He stood a little straighter, hand brushing the haft of his massive hammer.
"We'll rise by leaps and bounds. And finally, we can return. Not as outcasts. Not as shadows. But as conquerors."
Skinny's hands twitched. "And the Flame..."
The Queen nodded slowly. "Yes. That, too."
Her gaze shifted to the dark walls. The red and blue veins pulsed in sync with her voice.
"That's why we chose Shatterveil, after all. Unlike other Force Fields, this place is alive with secrets. Ancient ones. Among them... the Flame of God."
Muscle, silent until now, spoke with quiet certainty. "But it burns our kind."
"Exactly," the Queen said. "We cannot take it directly. If we try, it will consume us. But... if a human absorbs it first..."
Fatty grinned. "Then we devour them."
"Flesh, soul, power. All at once," Skinny hissed. "Two birds. One beautiful, screaming stone."
The Queen's expression sharpened.
"Let the humans think they've been chosen. Let them awaken with their holy little gods' powers. It only makes the harvest sweeter."
She turned back to her throne, dragging a single finger across the armrest where ancient script glowed faintly beneath the surface.
"Watch them. And when the time is right…"
Her voice dipped into a whisper. "Gut them."
The chamber darkened as her words settled like dust in the air. The red and blue fractures along the walls brightened, flaring once.
Then, silence.
The three subordinates nodded, turned, and vanished into the blackened corridors.
Outside, the last breath of sunlight finally died.
And as the Shatterveil fell into night, the three predators stepped quietly into the dark, following the scent of God.