The sirens were already screaming by the time the officer dropped. Cadets swarmed around the body in confusion, and in the same moment, a quieter alert chimed inside Ethan’s head.
[Mission Complete.]
[5/5 Officers Dead]
[Reward Granted.]
[120 EXP Points Granted]
[100x Reward Applied]
[120 EXP => 12,000 EXP]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
He felt it before he understood it - his body pulling taut, expanding, rewiring itself in the span of a few heartbeats. Other soldiers in the empire spent years grinding through brutal training and hunts to move up even half a tier. And here he was, leveling up in the middle of a corridor.
Almost everyone in the empire had a system - a gift from the Olympian gods. Some were born into it. Others had it granted by the empire itself, handed down to a carefully chosen few. But standing there, feeling his bones settle into something new, Ethan knew with quiet certainty that he was different. Not just a little different. Fundamentally.
"Hey." Marcus’s voice cut through.
"Yeah?"
"What just happened to you?"
They were pressed into a corner, the chaos of the siren covering their stillness. Ethan blinked. "What do you mean?"
"I don’t know. You look... taller. Or something."
Ethan glanced down at himself. His sleeves were riding up his arms. His shirt pulled at the shoulders. His trousers felt short.
He’s right.
"We don’t have time for this," Ethan muttered. "Move, while they’re all distracted."
Marcus looked like he had more to say. But he didn’t say it. Time was running out.
They moved fast, cutting through the base toward the locker room - the one used by soldiers coming off shift, where uniforms were left hanging. They’d been here long enough to know every shortcut, every blind spot.
Ethan pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Then stopped.
"Wait," he breathed.
"Wha-" Marcus opened his mouth and Ethan’s hand snapped over it. He leaned in close.
"Someone’s in here."
Marcus’s eyes narrowed. "It should be empty right now."
Ethan let go of him and moved deeper into the room. Past the rows of lockers, a figure stood with her back to them - long red hair, a captain’s hat, the unmistakable curve of a woman’s silhouette.
Marcus went still beside him. "Captain Karisa?"
"What is she doing here?" Ethan whispered.
They watched her move through the lockers, glancing around once before stopping in front of one specific door. Ethan’s door. She grabbed the handle and wrenched it open with bare hands, no effort at all, the lock giving way like it was nothing.
She reached inside and pulled out his uniform.
Then something small hit the floor. A pin, slipping from Marcus’s pocket.
Both of them froze.
Karisa spun toward the entrance, her body coiled. "Who’s there?"
Silence. She waited, scanning the shadows, then tucked the uniform under her arm and slipped out through the window in one smooth motion. Gone.
Neither of them breathed for a moment.
"She gone?" Marcus asked.
Ethan peered around the row of lockers. "Yeah."
"What the hell was that?" Marcus exhaled. "I thought women were strictly off-limits in this wing."
"That’s exactly why she jumped out the window instead of walking out the door."
Marcus nodded slowly, filing it away. They grabbed spare uniforms from other cabinets, changed quickly, and stepped back into the corridor - two soldiers among hundreds, unremarkable, right on time.
They had spent years in this base. They knew it the way you know a place you’ve hated for a long time - every route, every rotation, every gap in the pattern. The comms room was next. That was where their data was stored.
"This is it," Ethan said.
"Yeah."
They scanned their IDs and walked in. A few officers were stationed inside, but that wasn’t the problem. Ethan raised a finger toward the cameras mounted near the ceiling and sent a precise crackle of lightning into each one. Marcus moved behind the nearest officer, and before the man could register a sound, a sharp blow to the neck dropped him cold.
Ethan’s hands buzzed - his current felt stronger than it had before, rawer, harder to contain. He let it arc from one officer to the next in a chain, and they went down one by one, silent and clean.
Marcus looked around at the unconscious bodies. "That was easy."
"Don’t say that," Ethan said flatly. "That’s bad luck."
"Yeah, yeah. Let’s get this done. Get our data. Get out."
"Yea-"
"What happened here?"
Both of them turned.
Red hair. Red eyes. White uniform. She stood in the doorway, taking in the room - the fallen officers, the two of them frozen in place - her gaze steady and unreadable.
Then her eyes landed on Marcus.
"...Marcus?"
Marcus didn’t hesitate. His hand went to his gun, and he had it up and aimed at her head before Ethan could get a word out.
"Marcus, stop-"
He pulled the trigger.
Karisa moved. Just barely - a small tilt of her head, and the bullet grazed her cheek instead of passing through it. A thin line of red opened along her jaw.
Bang. Bang.
Marcus kept firing, something older than thought driving his hands. He knew what she was capable of. He had trained under her. He knew exactly what she could do if she decided to close the distance, and he wasn’t going to find out.
Bang.
She rolled under a table, moving between the shots like she could read them. "Marcus, stop!" she shouted.
He emptied the magazine and looked at Ethan, breathing hard. "Use your power. Zap her. Now."
"Ethan."
Her voice changed. She had caught the name, and it echoed differently now. She rose slightly from cover. "Ethan - is that you?"
Marcus’s jaw tightened. He knew what he’d done. "Do it," he said, quieter now. "You know what she is. You know what she’ll do."
He did know. The extra sessions she had pushed on him alone. The way she had always seemed to be watching, testing, pushing harder than the rest. He summoned his lightning - both hands crackling, more than he’d ever managed before - and drove it into the table.
It exploded outward.
But she wasn’t behind it.
A sharp bloom of orange light flared above them. Both of them looked up.
Karisa hovered near the ceiling, both palms wreathed in fire, her red eyes burning twice as bright. She was something like Ethan, close to it - a demigod in her own right - and right now she looked ready to remind them of that.
"We’re done," Marcus said.
"Yeah."
"I said stop!!"
She drove both hands downward - and the fire surged. But it didn’t hit them. It swept past them, slamming into the two officers who had begun to stir on the floor behind them. They were gone before they could make a sound. Nothing left.
The smell of burnt flesh hit immediately.
Ethan and Marcus stood very still.
"Why?" Ethan asked, the word barely forming.
Karisa landed. The fire died. She straightened her hat and looked at them both.
"I’ve been looking for you," she said. "I’m not here to kill you. Follow me."
Ethan and Marcus exchanged a glance. Neither of them had any idea what was happening. But they followed.