I looked up at the sky.
My thoughts were a mess. I felt proud, proud that my father was a man of principle, someone who stood for something. But I also felt angry. Why hadn't he thought about me? Why didn't I matter enough to make him stay?
I wondered what I would do in his place.
I was about to go on a mission myself. One where the chances of coming back were, at best, fifty-fifty. And I had agreed without hesitation. Not once had I stopped to think about how Grandma would feel if I didn't return. What would it do to her if I died?
I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth.
Feelings were hard. They never made sense. Pride, pain, guilt, anger, they all mixed together until I didn't know what to feel anymore.
After a moment, I turned around and walked back into the hall.
Grandma was still sitting behind the desk. She looked deep in thought, her eyes distant, like she wasn't fully there.
I stopped in front of her and spoke.
"Grandma… I'm going to come back from this mission. And when I do, I want to know everything. About their last mission. All of it."
She looked at me for a long second. Then she gave a slow, quiet nod.
I nodded back and gave her a small smile.
"Take care, Grandma."
I turned and walked out of the hall.
There was a fire in my chest. I wasn't angry at my father, or even at myself. I was angry at the world, the kind of world that made him choose between duty and his son. A world that forced good people to carry impossible burdens and then left others to deal with the silence they left behind.
Just as I stepped out, a figure appeared in front of me.
Arkas.
He stood tall as always, unreadable as ever.
I looked up at him and asked, "Where's Steve? He's not answering my calls."
Arkas's eyes narrowed slightly at my tone.
He answered calmly, "The entire unit has gone on an expedition. They're dealing with an Abomination nest."
I didn't hesitate. "Take me there."
He tilted his head, studying me.
That's when I realized I'd spoken like I was giving an order, to a superior officer, no less. Like I was talking to someone below me. But I was too angry to care about rank or formality right now. My emotions were pushing everything else aside.
Arkas gave a quiet nod and placed a hand on my shoulder.
In an instant, the world around me blurred.
A second later, we were standing on the same teleportation platform I'd used to reach the Eastern Continent before. Light filled the circle beneath our feet, and then we vanished.
When the world reformed around me, we were back inside the mission hall of Unit 02.
Arkas looked at me and asked, "Want to put on a new uniform?"
I glanced down at myself. My shirt was gone. My boots were missing. I must have looked like a mess.
Then I turned to Arkas. He was still in the same state as before, blood-streaked, his uniform torn, fresh wounds across his arms and shoulders. He hadn't bothered to clean up either.
I shook my head. "No."
He nodded.
A split-second later, golden lightning crackled around his body.
Before I could blink, we were off the ground, soaring.
The air rushed past me as the world stretched and blurred beneath us. Trees, rivers, and hills zipped by like streaks of color. I held my breath, the speed nearly overwhelming.
And then, suddenly, we stopped.
We floated high above the ground, suspended in the sky. I looked down.
It was an open plain stretching out beneath us, right before a dark, jagged mountain range.
Far below, I saw Unit 02 locked in battle against a massive swarm of Abominations. As Arkas had mentioned earlier, it looked like a nest, just one type of creature, but in overwhelming numbers.
I narrowed my eyes and focused on one of them.
[Nocturne Crawler – Level 26]
The creature was pale and huge, like a centipede the size of a bull. It had way too many legs that twitched and writhed as it moved, and its armor-plated back gleamed with slime.
I could see thick, corrosive liquid dripping from the plates, hissing as it touched the ground. Its eyes glowed faintly, a sickly yellow-green.
All around, hundreds more crawlers scuttled over the battlefield. Some were bigger, some smaller. Some had thick, bladed limbs, while others had bulging sacs on their backs that pulsed like they were alive.
A few even had wings and were flying in wide, erratic loops, diving down to attack from above.
I scanned the stronger ones as we hovered there. The highest-level crawler I could find was a Level 35, it was larger than the rest, with more mutations and deeper corruption.
But even so, it didn't worry me. To me, it was just another monster.
Then I spotted Steve.
[Steve Harper – Level 36]
He was tearing through the swarm like it was a game. His sword moved in lazy, almost bored arcs, but every slash was precise and deadly.
One of his hands was tucked into his pocket, and the other held his blade with casual ease. He grinned as he fought, like this was the best thing that had happened to him all week.
But as I kept watching, something felt… different.
There was a sharpness to his movements now. A focus in the way he shifted his weight, the way he reacted to danger. The lazy attitude was still there, but it didn't slow him down. If anything, it made him even scarier. He wasn't holding back anymore.
I looked to the side and found her.
[North Winter – Level 29]
She stood just behind the front line. Her bow was raised, eyes locked onto her targets. Every shot she fired landed exactly where it needed to—between armor plates, in the soft joints of the creatures' legs, or right through the eye if it showed.
I saw one arrow suddenly surge forward with a burst of speed, faster than the others.
'Wind.'
She was starting to touch it. Starting to awaken.
She fired two, sometimes three arrows at a time, switching between single targets and clusters without losing accuracy.
I spotted Sarah, Mark, and the other guy with her, I still couldn't remember his name, but North was clearly holding their formation together.
But even as I admired her skill, a strange feeling crept in.
When I looked back and forth between her and Steve, Steve, who was cutting down dozens without even trying, I couldn't help but feel like she was lagging behind.
It wasn't her effort. That much I knew. North was trying her hardest, but to me… she looked under-leveled. The power behind her arrows felt weak.
Then my attention shifted to the loudest person on the battlefield.
I scanned her.
[Sarah Gibson – Level 32]
She was tearing through the crawlers like a wild animal.
Her greatsword swung with brutal force, each movement wide and aggressive, like she had no care for defense. She roared with every swing, like each one was the final blow of her life. Her battle cries echoed across the field, louder than the screeches of the Abominations.
I almost laughed. She looked ridiculous but at the same time, impressive. Like a berserker who had found the perfect battlefield.
That's when Arkas spoke.
"What do you want to do?"
My eyes didn't leave the chaos below. The anger inside me was still there, burning just as fiercely as before. I hadn't calmed down one bit.
And as I looked at the Crawlers, the corrupted swarm that kept pouring out from their nest, I felt my rage spike again.
I answered quietly, my voice sharp.
"Kill. I want to kill until not a single one is left standing."
I stepped forward, ready to dive into the fray, but Arkas placed a firm hand on my shoulder.
"Don't overdo it," he said. "Especially no Essence. Not here."
I gave a small nod and pulled my staff from my ring. As I channeled Essence into it, the weapon extended and locked into its full seven-foot form. Solid. Familiar. Ready.
Arkas let go, and the golden lightning holding me aloft vanished.
I dropped like a stone.
Spinning midair, I turned to face the battlefield and let fire burst from the soles of my feet.
Boom.
The blast launched me straight down toward the front lines like a missile, fury in my heart and fire at my heels.