The wind swept across the observation walkway in gusts, drawing sharp whistles from the metallic structures of the South Arena.
Mazen Nazari, his hands crossed behind his back, stared at the center of the urban war zone.
Under his authority, he maintained a very tight control over the geometric space.
His topological distortion kept the hundred students under an invisible glass ceiling, crushing their spiritual flows down to twenty percent of their maximum capacity.
The Director perceived every anomaly on the field as a vibration resembling an immense spiderweb.
Suddenly, a heavy resonance made the fabric of his Domain shiver.
Mazen did not move a muscle, but his pupils dilated.
Sixty meters below, the emerald dome of the first beacon had just activated.
But it wasn’t the flash of light that monopolized the Director’s mind.
It was the titanic mass that had just fled toward the ruins of the West sector.
To his right, Captain Kei Aris crushed his empty coffee cup.
His lazy attitude instantly vanished.
The shadows cast by the walkway’s floodlights stirred around his boots, refusing to stretch toward the West zone.
« That wasn’t one of my hunts, » Kei muttered, sensing the doubt.
His dark-ringed eyes scanned the darkness.
« The absorption density of that thing…
it just pushed back my own dark fluid.
» Captain Ornella stepped up to the railing.
The temperature beneath her skin rose sharply.
The radiant heat made the air ripple around her shoulders.
Her thermal vision, capable of dissecting infrared signatures miles away, pierced the Arena’s dust.
« I’m feeling an exceptional heat spike, » Ornella spat, her jaws clenched.
« That thing’s energy core is spinning extremely fast to regenerate its cells.
It’s an Orange-level Suppuration, without a doubt.
» Kei placed his hand on his communicator’s grip.
« It’s supposed to be confined in cryogenic stasis in Sector B’s underground labs.
The heat elevation it’s producing should have triggered the entire complex’s alarm.
» Mazen Nazari kept silent.
The Director closed his eyes.
He wasn’t looking for a logistical explanation.
He was analyzing the zone.
The Arena’s energy grid showed no external breaches.
The invisible dome was intact.
Yet, a multi-ton mass, saturated with corruption, had materialized in the center without ever crossing the perimeter.
« It didn’t break the boundary, » Mazen stated.
« It was injected directly from the control room.
» Kei and Ornella’s gazes converged on the armored command tower overlooking the Arena.
The Director reopened his eyes.
« Captain Aris.
Captain Ornella.
Intervene on the field.
Isolate the students.
» The air around Mazen condensed, saturated with a growing topological pressure.
« I’m locking down the control room.
» Far below the surface, the ascent was meteoric.
The maintenance elevator shaft flashed by at a dizzying speed.
Thiago Vane wasn’t running up the stairs.
He was using the infrastructure.
His amber chains hooked into the metal cage, dragging his body toward the upper levels through violent contractions.
Mastering his Domain Authority allowed him to calculate the alloy’s tension points with extreme precision, neutralizing gravity’s pull.
Jin Arashi followed him effortlessly.
The young noble lowered the air density above him while compressing it beneath his soles.
He floated inside the elevator shaft, propelled upward by a high-pressure air current.
« You’re terribly silent, Captain, » Jin whispered, the wind ruffling his light hair.
Thiago stared at the approaching ceiling.
His gray pupils were already analyzing the vibrations transmitted by the metal.
« Vang and Moreau are coordinating the exam from the Arena command bunker.
Safety protocol requires them to be alone.
If they control the Director’s distortion, they can decide the survival of every student.
Especially Vang.
» « A perfect locked-room scenario, » Jin savored, his fingers caressing the edge of his silver coin.
« The veteran theorist against the brilliant scientist.
One of the two opened the doors for Morgen.
And one of the two synthesized the Suppuration to act as a decoy.
» An alarm suddenly wailed.
The emergency lights turned red.
A colossal mechanical screech echoed throughout the entire Central Academy structure.
Thick titanium shutters slammed down over all exits, sealing the military complex in a lockdown.
« Code Black, » Thiago declared.
The vice had just closed shut.
« Looks like our mole just realized they’ve been unmasked, » Jin laughed.
Excitement dilated his pupils.
« The chess game is over.
Time to apprehend them.
» Thiago’s chains coiled around the heavy landing doors of the command level.
He didn’t try to force the mechanism.
He located the structural weakness points of the locking bolts and applied torsional force.
The steel screamed before giving way with a deafening snap.
They emerged into the upper corridor.
The control room was only twenty meters away.
Inside the command bunker, the humming of overheating servers throbbed.
The huge armored glass bay offered a panoramic view of the South Arena ruins.
Screens lined the walls, pouring streams of biometric data and topological readouts.
Professor Livia Moreau held her touch tablet with both hands.
Her eyes swept across the screens.
« David, » she called out.
« Sector B’s containment grid is fractured.
The energy signature…
it’s the Orange Suppuration.
It’s no longer in stasis.
The sensors are tracking it right in the middle of the East Sector.
» David Vang stood in front of the main terminal.
He didn’t turn his head.
His empty sleeve drifted slightly, while his metallic prosthesis, connected to the control console, emitted a continuous hiss.
« I know, Livia, » Vang replied.
His voice was strangely calm, devoid of the slightest surprise.
Livia stopped dead.
She lowered her tablet.
Her brain pieced together all the puzzle pieces.
Vang’s posture.
The locked controls of her own console.
The deactivation of medical extraction protocols.
« You modified the drop parameters, » Livia breathed.
« You injected the orange level onto the field.
» The servomoteurs of Vang’s prosthesis clicked.
He slowly unplugged his metal arm from the connection port and pivoted toward her.
« This Academy’s system is stagnating, Livia.
We’re training armchair theorists.
Spoiled children who rely on their genetic lineages or this institution’s walls to survive.
» Vang took a step forward.
« Spirit shouldn’t be theorized.
It must be forged in pain, and Morgen understood that.
» Livia instinctively stepped back.
« Morgen massacred our students.
He stole the artifact!
You let him in?
» « The artifact had no business staying in our basements, » Vang cut in, lifting his prosthesis whose alloy was beginning to glow red under the accumulation of an intense thermal charge.
« Humanity is soft, Livia.
This generation must relearn how to be under field pressure.
Those who survive today will be the weapons we need for the coming war.
The rest are just useless waste.
» Livia didn’t waste another second on speeches.
She tried to project her Domain Authority.
Her mind modeled air trajectories, seeking to create a vacuum bubble around the veteran to neutralize his oxygenation.
But Vang was faster.
The metallic prosthesis opened in a hiss of steam.
An energy core crackling with corruption, embedded in the mechanical forearm, unleashed a shockwave of unprecedented brutality.
The detonation didn’t target Livia’s body, but the very structure of her nascent Domain.
The wave impacted the young woman’s chest.
The physical shock pulverized her concentration.
Her blood vessels burst under the pressure of the backlash.
Livia was violently thrown backward, her back crashing against the carcass of a computer server.
The taste of blood flooded her palate.
Her lungs refused to expand.
Vang didn’t give her another look.
He turned back toward the main console.
He slammed his working hand onto the emergency terminal.
Total Asphyxiation Protocol.
Activation.
The interface turned crimson red.
Vang had just canceled the power limiters of the quarantine elevators.
Below them, the Sector B laboratory doors opened in a chain reaction, releasing all the Spiritual Suppurations captured by the Commission over the last six months directly into the Arena.
The heavy armored door of the command bunker suddenly exploded inward.
The heavy twisted steel panels rebounded against the walls in a devastating crash.
Thiago Vane entered the room.
His amber chains whipped the air, generating arcs of golden light.
By his side, Jin Arashi slid across the debris-strewn floor.
Thiago scanned the room.
Livia Moreau agonizing against the servers.
David Vang standing in front of the red terminal.
There was no room left for doubt.
The Captain’s Domain Authority crashed down upon the room, crushing the local gravity.
The armored windows threatened to implode under the spatial pressure.
« It’s over, Vang, » Thiago iced.
The old veteran slowly turned around.
A twisted smile stretched his scar-covered lips.
« You’re rushing things a bit too much, Vane, » Vang replied, pointing his smoking prosthesis toward the bay window.
« You really do have an annoying habit of showing up late.