Chapter 2: Phantom Protocol
Aarav Velcris—or as the academy still knew him, Aaron Velcris—sat cross-legged in the relic chamber well past curfew. The obsidian-black relic pistol pulsed faintly in his palm, every throb echoing a fragment of memory: urban warfare, smoldering wrecks, coded commands in encrypted bursts. Not from this world. From his old one.
> [VOID CALIBER — Synced: 72%]
[Trait Active: Codefire Ammunition — Charges generated through emotional resonance.]
[Warning: Host psyche degradation at 3%. Stabilize or rest advised.]
He should have rested. Instead, he disassembled the weapon.
Not physically—its structure was semi-fluid, held together by dimensional code, not screws or steel—but with his mind, guided by the Reality Sync Interface. Every piece broken down revealed traces of something familiar: Earth's military protocol merged with arcane architecture. Like his system had hijacked this relic's design and rewritten its DNA.
"That's it, isn't it?" he whispered, voice hoarse. "You're not just helping me adapt. You're… rewriting the world around me."
> [Statement: Affirmative. RS-I is translating environmental threats and relic interfaces into military-operable logic.]
[Objective: Survival. Optimization. Supremacy.]
Aarav slowly reassembled the weapon, watching its barrel glow with faint red runes that hadn't been there before.
Codefire. Trauma-powered ammo.
Only someone like him could use it.
And he was going to need it soon.
---
Two Days Later – Training Grounds, Veltraxis Academy
"Tell me, what does it mean to lead a squad?" barked Instructor Graves, his heavy boots sending dust clouds spiraling through the air. "To swing a sword the hardest? To yell the loudest? To look cool with a relic strapped to your back?"
A few students chuckled. Aarav did not. Neither did Saira, now standing to his right with arms crossed, eyes still red from lack of sleep.
"No," Graves spat. "Leadership means getting your squad out alive. Even if it means leaving yourself behind."
He turned to Phantom Squad, five students standing stiff as iron posts despite their fraying patience.
"You're bottom-ranked in the performance board. Again. I should disband you."
He paused.
"But… one of the examiners noticed your performance in the sim-run."
Graves' eyes landed squarely on Aarav.
"You're not flashy. But they listened to you."
He stepped closer. "Didn't they?"
Aarav said nothing. He didn't need to.
The next moment, Graves dropped a scroll onto the ground.
"Special assignment. A live-field recon in the Miris Fringe Zone. Normally reserved for third-years. But hey… maybe Phantom Squad has a death wish."
Kaito gasped. "Miris? That's near a Red Fracture!"
Torgan frowned. "That place eats squads, doesn't it?"
Lena merely turned to Aarav. Saira did the same.
Aarav picked up the scroll, unrolling it with calm fingers. Coordinates. Mission details. Survival projections.
> [Survival Probability: 17%.]
[Optional: Decline mission and lose academy standing permanently.]
He looked up at his team.
"We accept."
---
The Miris Fringe Zone wasn't just dangerous—it was practically suicidal. Fracture storms swept through the land in violent pulses, reshaping terrain, bending mana fields into chaotic spirals. Ruins floated midair. Gravity changed direction without warning. Creatures—riftborn—roamed the area like glitches in space-time.
To Aarav, it was just like home.
He led Phantom Squad through the ravine near Sector Delta-4, using military hand signals instead of speech. He taught them low-stance movements. Reactions to sudden shifts in terrain. Observation patterns.
Saira hated it at first.
"Why can't we just fly in on mounts like everyone else?" she grumbled.
"Because they're dead weight when the rift surge hits," Aarav replied flatly. "You want to survive, do what I say. Or die on a pretty winged horse. Your call."
By the third day, she stopped arguing.
---
Their target: a data beacon buried under a collapsed relic vault. The academy wanted to retrieve any surviving tech fragments—possibly old bonding prototypes. The vault was buried beneath miles of unstable terrain, swarming with riftborn entities and pulsating mana fields.
But Aarav wasn't here just for the mission.
> [Reality Sync Objective Update: Beacon Vault identified as Class-Dimensional Sync Node.]
[Accessing it may enhance system adaptation by 22%.]
[High priority.]
And that made this personal.
---
They reached the vault on the fourth night.
The earth was jagged, twisted like glass under heat. Shards of broken mana crystals littered the ground. Aarav moved first, instructing Torgan to hold the high ridge with Kaito. Lena vanished into the shadows. Saira stayed close, palms burning faint orange as flames danced along her skin.
Aarav found the entrance—a spiraling metal ring sunk halfway into rock.
> [Beacon Signal Detected. Sync Node 001-B Found. Accessing…]
[Caution: Riftborn Presence Detected]
[Entities: Class Beta — Unstable]
[Squad Formation Mode: Engage]
[Tactical Interface Online]
[Deploy Command Tree? YES/NO]
YES.
At once, his vision flickered. Phantom Squad's outlines turned blue in his vision, overlaid with data. Heart rates. Mana outputs. Defensive capacities. Even emotional indexes.
They were his soldiers now.
And just in time.
The rift opened.
---
The creature that slithered out defied shape. It had too many limbs—then none. Its skin shimmered with colors that shouldn't exist. It screamed in frequencies that shredded stone.
Beta-Class Riftborn: "Skinwalker Drone"
Threat Level: Moderate to High
Weakness: Heat and Sound Disruption
Aarav didn't hesitate.
"Torgan—pin it down with seismic strikes. Kaito—prepare suppression barriers. Saira—burn in a wide arc, no focus. Overload the frequencies!"
They moved like they'd trained for weeks. Because they had. Under him.
Aarav ducked under a claw swipe, drew the Void Caliber, and aimed.
Bang.
The shot didn't echo. It resonated, like a scream translated into a bullet. The creature buckled, oozing silver mist. His trauma—his codefire—was burning it from the inside.
Another shot. A third. The beast wailed, fragmented, collapsed.
> [Entity Eliminated. Squad Formation Bonus: +15%]
[Squad Skill Unlocked: Phantom Echo]
[Description: After a kill, squad members receive a +5% evasion buff for 30 seconds]
Aarav exhaled. But not in relief.
Because that wasn't the only one.
---
Three more riftborn crawled out.
Torgan got hit—hard—knocked against the vault wall. Lena backflipped into shadows. Saira's flames flickered dangerously low. Kaito's barriers cracked.
> [Critical Threat Detected. Suggestion: Activate Phantom Protocol.]
[WARNING: Unstable. May cause excessive system strain.]
[Proceed? YES / NO]
He thought of the bunker. Of the mission. Of dying with unfinished orders.
YES.
---
Phantom Protocol wasn't a relic power.
It was pure Aarav Singh.
He surged forward, movements laced with centuries of soldiering. Every breath measured. Every shot lethal. The Void Caliber barked infernal truths into the enemies' skulls. He rolled beneath claws, caught one beast mid-leap, flipped it into another, then shot both through their converging eyes.
> [Trauma Stack: 3. Codefire Boost +12%.]
[User Rating: A-Tier Performance under RS-I]
[Tactical Uplink Maximized.]
Torgan rose again, fist glowing with rage.
Saira's flames flared like a sun.
Kaito's barrier rebounded a strike straight into the third creature's gut.
Lena emerged from the shadows—and slit its throat.
Silence.
Aarav stood in the middle of it, breathing heavy. Team intact.
Mission—complete.
---
The Vault
They found the node, deep in the broken chamber, humming faintly beneath layers of relic dust.
Aarav touched it.
And the world bent.
> [REALITY SYNC NODE INTERFACE: ACTIVE]
[Earth-Origin User Detected. Synchronizing advanced permissions.]
[New Feature Unlocked: SYSTEM HUD CUSTOMIZATION]
[New Protocols Installed: Squad Development Tree, Auto-Command Threads, Battle Memories]
[Trait Gained: Dimensional Anchor - Reduced corruption from fractured zones by 50%]
[Rank Evaluation: D-Class Climber progressing toward C]
He didn't understand everything yet.
But he understood this: He had started a war system inside a world that had never seen one before.
And Phantom Squad… was no longer the worst team in the academy.
---
Later That Night – Academy Dorms
Saira knocked on his door.
He opened it, expecting sarcasm.
She stared at him.
"You're not him."
Aarav froze.
She looked down. "You… feel different. Ever since you came back from that relic bonding room."
He didn't answer.
She walked closer. "I don't care who you were. Or are. Just… don't die on us."
He nodded. That much, he could promise.
---
> CHAPTER 2 END