The transport descended through twilight, its engines hummed against the thickening atmosphere of the deeper Scourged Zone. Instructor Mira stood near the pilot's compartment, her amber-gold eyes tracking the landscape below as it shifted from the relatively stable outer ring to something far more hostile.
The sun had already begun its descent, painting the sky in shades of crimson and violet that bled into the Zone's natural luminescence. Bioluminescent vegetation pulsed with increasing intensity as darkness approached, creating patterns of light that were beautiful and deeply unsettling in equal measure.
"Five minutes to drop point," the pilot called back.
Mira nodded without looking away from the window. Her mind was already going through search patterns, threat assessments. The beacon tracker device sat heavy in her palm, its screen displaying coordinates that should have led her straight to Kaelen.
Should have.
She activated it again, watching the signal flicker and jump. Three hundred fifty meters north of the facility, the readout claimed. Then three hundred forty. Then four hundred ten. The numbers refused to stabilize, corrupted by the concentrated aether that saturated this deeper region.
"Damn it," she muttered.
The pilot glanced back. "Problem?"
"Interference. The tracker's useless due to the aether condensation during the evening." Mira deactivated the device and secured it to her belt. "I'll have to search manually."
"That's dangerous after dark. The nocturnal species out here are significantly more aggressive due aether density compared to what's encountered in the morning."
"I know." Mira's tone carried finality. "I'm not leaving without my student."
The pilot wisely didn't argue. He'd seen that expression before on instructors who'd decided a student was worth risking protocol for. You didn't talk them out of it. You just made sure the transport was ready for emergency extraction.
The landing was smooth despite the unstable terrain. Mira disembarked before the ramp had fully extended, her boots hitting crystalline gravel that crunched and sparked faintly under her weight.
The transport lifted off immediately, rising to a safe altitude where it would maintain position and monitor her beacon. If she didn't check in every thirty minutes, it would assume the worst and call for backup.
Mira hoped it wouldn't come to that.
She stood alone in the growing darkness, letting her senses expand outward. The aether density here was substantially higher than the morning mission area. It pressed against her awareness like physical weight, making navigation harder and detection more difficult.
But she'd operated in worse conditions than this.
Mira activated her aether sense fully, pushing it to maximum range. A sphere of awareness expanded around her, translating the environment into readable information. Terrain features, aether concentrations, movement signatures. Everything within two hundred meters became visible in her mind's eye.
There was no human signatures or a beacon pulse strong enough to cut through the interference.
It was just the Zone, alive and indifferent to her urgency.
She began moving north, toward the last known coordinates the tracker had provided. Her pace was quick but controlled, efficient movement honed through decades of field experience.
The landscape shifted around her as she moved deeper. The vegetation grew denser, more aggressive in its luminescence. Strange formations of crystallized aether jutted from the ground like frozen lightning, their surfaces reflecting her passage in distorted patterns.
Sounds echoed from the darkness. Distant roars. The scrape of claws on stone. Movement in the shadows that her sense couldn't quite identify at this range.
The Zone was waking up for the night.
Twenty minutes into her search, she sense something moving towards her. Approaching from her left flank was a F-rank beastbmoving with the caution and a confidence of a predator that assumed it held the advantage.
Mira didn't break stride.
The creature emerged from the undergrowth ahead of her. An F-rank Scavenger Rat, pathetically weak by her standards. Protruded crystal from its back pulsed with faint blue light as it assessed her, deciding whether she was prey or threat.
It chose poorly.
The beast lunged, extending its claws and opening its jaw. It was fast by F-rank standards, but laughably slow to her perception.
Mira raised one hand casually, barely interrupting her forward momentum. A flash of amber light erupted from her palm, compressed aether released with precision.
The air itself seemed to fold around the creature, reality bending under the force she directed. The beast didn't have time to register what was happening. One moment it was attacking. The next, it was dead, its body crumpling to the ground as Mira walked past without slowing.
She didn't even glance back at the corpse.
"Come on, kid," she muttered to the darkness, her voice carrying frustration and determination in equal measure. "Give me something to work with."
But the Zone offered no answers. Just more shadows, more distance and time slipping away.
Mira checked her chronometer. She'd been searching for nearly two hours now. The sun had fully set, replaced by the Zone's eerie luminescence and the aurora patterns that danced across the sky like living things.
Her tactical assessment was clear: she had maybe two more hours of safe searching before extraction became mandatory. After that, the risk level would escalate beyond acceptable parameters for someone of Kaelen's rank in the safe zone.
Davos was injured according to the info she got and Kaelen is only E-rank in reference to an adventurer's rank. Beasts become more active and aggressive during the night, even in the safe zone.
The thought of leaving Kaelen out here, alone and possibly injured, made her jaw tighten.
"I'm not leaving without you," she said to the empty air, as if speaking the words would make them true through sheer force of will.
She pressed deeper into the search zone, calling his name periodically into the darkness.
But nothing concrete emerged. Just the endless, indifferent vastness of the Scourged Zone at night.
...
The rumor had spread through Veyra Academy like fire through dry timber.
By early evening, every corridor buzzed with whispered speculation. Students clustered in the dining hall, in common areas, anywhere information might flow faster. The academy officials maintained tight control over official channels, but rumors filled the vacuum their silence created.
"Someone from Unique Combat didn't come back."
"I heard it was a first-year."
"They say an Observer is missing too."
"Must have been something really bad out there."
"Aren't Observers C-rank minimum?"
The speculation grew with each retelling. By the time it reached the library's study sections, the missing student had become three students. The threat level had escalated from E-rank to A-rank in people's imaginations. The whole thing had transformed into a disaster of unprecedented scale.
Daniel sat at his usual study table, trying to focus on an assignment. But the words on his tablet screen refused to be understood. His mind kept drifting to the message on his screen.
Twelve unread messages. All sent to Kaelen over the past four hours. None answered.
That wasn't like him. Kaelen was usually quick to respond, even if just to acknowledge receipt. Four hours of complete silence even after a club mission was unusual enough to trigger Daniel's natural paranoia.
Then the whispers reached his table.
Two students passing behind him, their voices were low but not low enough.
"Did you hear? Someone from the Unique Combat division is missing. They didn't come back from today's mission."
Daniel's head snapped up. His hands froze over his tablet.
Kaelen had a club mission today. Unique Combat Division. He'd mentioned it yesterday, saying he wouldn't be available until evening.
Daniel's mind immediately began connecting points.
Missing student. Unique Combat. Today's mission. No response to messages.
The thoughts formed before he could stop them. The odds of these being unrelated events was infinitely small.
His hands began to shake.
Daniel pulled up the academy's mission schedule through a back door he'd discovered months ago. The academy had a great security but to someone of Daniel's IQ, it was laughable. Within seconds, he had the roster for today's club missions.
He cross-referenced the returned transports. Teams 1, 2, and 4 had all checked in within expected timeframes. Team 3's transport had returned a little later.
But the passenger was incomplete. Seven names confirmed. One blank entry where an eighth should be.
And Observer Davos's status was listed as "Unaccounted."
Daniel's breathing became shallow. His vision blurred.
He grabbed his tablet and stood so quickly his chair scraped loudly against the floor, drawing annoyed looks from nearby students. He didn't care.
His fingers moved across the screen, sending urgent messages to three people.
> "Emergency. We need to talk. Now. It's about Kaelen. He might be in trouble."
He was already moving toward the exit before the messages finished sending, his mind was spiraling through worst-case scenarios that his emotion desperately wanted to reject.
...
They converged at the small courtyard near the eastern training wing, a spot they'd claimed through repeated use over the past weeks. It was quiet this time of the evening, away from the main student traffic.
Lira arrived first, her silver eyes sharp with concern. "What's wrong? Your message said it was about Kaelen."
"He's not answering any messages," Daniel said, his words tumbling out fast. "I've sent twelve over the past four hours. Nothing. And I heard students talking about someone from the Unique Combat division being missing, someone who didn't come back from today's mission, and Kaelen had a club mission today, so I checked the transport logs and Team 3 returned but the manifest shows only seven confirmed passengers when there should be eight, and the Observer is listed as unaccounted, which means something went wrong, something bad enough that people are missing, and Kaelen hasn't responded to anything which isn't like him at all, and I think he might be the one who's missing."
He ran out of breath and stopped, his hands shaking.
Lira's face had gone pale. "Missing? What do you mean missing?"
Sera arrived then, her crystalline gray eyes immediately assessing the situation. "Explain."
Daniel repeated his findings, forcing himself to slow down enough to be coherent. By the time he finished, Torven had joined them, his expression was unreadable but his posture was tense.
"We need confirmation," Sera said. "Rumors aren't facts. We need to speak with someone who was actually on that mission."
"The Unique Combat Division," Lira said immediately. "If Kaelen was on a club mission, his teammates will know what happened."
"They might not be allowed to tell us," Daniel pointed out. "Academy protocol during emergencies is to control information flow."
"Then we make them tell us." Lira's voice carried steel. "He's our friend. We deserve to know if he's okay."
Sera nodded once. "Agreed."
They walked through the corridors, their silence was heavy filled with shared worries. Daniel's mind continued its spiral. Torven's hands kept clenching and unclenching at his sides. Sera's face remained composed but her eyes tracked every movement around them with unusual intensity.
And Lira walked slightly ahead of the group, her entire body radiating a fury barely held in check.
The Unique Combat Division's practice hall was dimly lit when they arrived. Only a handful of students were present, scattered in small clusters throughout the space. The atmosphere was subdued, almost funeral in its silence.
Seraphine and Roan stood near the entrance, talking in low voices. Sofia sat alone on a bench against the far wall, her posture defeated. Other members of Team 3 were visible at various points around the hall, all showing signs of exhaustion.
The moment Kaelen's group entered, every head turned. The conversations died.
Seraphine's color-shifting eyes narrowed slightly. Roan's stance shifted into something more defensive.
Lira walked forward first, her voice firm but controlled. "We're looking for Kaelen Burn. He's in this club."
Sofia's head came up at the name, visible reaction crossing her features.
Roan stepped forward, positioning himself slightly between the newcomers and his teammates. "Club business is private. You should leave."
"He's our friend," Lira said, her tone hardening. "We just want to know if he's okay."
Roan's expression didn't change. "That doesn't give you clearance for club information. And we've been ordered not to discuss details with unauthorized personnel."
Sofia stood slowly, her face conflicted. She opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it again. Her eyes moved between Lira and Roan, clearly torn.
Daniel's control finally snapped.
"Just tell us what happened!" His voice rose higher than he'd intended, his hands shaking with suppressed emotion. "We know someone's missing! We know Kaelen had a mission today! Stop hiding behind protocol and just tell us if our friend is alive!"
The outburst shocked everyone into silence. Daniel was normally so quiet, so controlled. Seeing him like this, desperate and afraid, made the situation feel suddenly more real.
Sofia flinched as if struck. "I can't. We were ordered not to discuss anything with anyone outside the combat division." She paused."Not even our Support or Tech division."
"Please." Lira's voice had shifted, softer now but carrying equal intensity. "He's like a brother to me. I just need to know."
She took a step forward, her silver eyes pleading. "Whatever happened out there, we deserve to know. We're his family."
Seraphine moved to stand beside Roan, her Adaptive Evolution beginning to respond unconsciously to the tension in the room. "Sofia's been through enough today. Leave her alone."
Roan's hands positioned themselves carefully, ready to activate his Kinetic Reversal if needed. "This isn't about what you deserve. It's about academy protocol and team security."
Torven, who'd been silent throughout the entire exchange, finally moved. His response was physical before it was verbal.
The dermal plating emerged across his right side in a wave of dark, hardened scales. His arm, shoulder, ribs, half his face. The transformation was both impressive and deeply intimidating, protective armor growing organically from his skin.
His amber eyes glowed slightly brighter through the scales as he spoke, his deep voice rumbling with barely controlled aggression.
"Our friend is missing. You will tell us what happened."
It wasn't a request. It was a statement of intent, backed by the promise of violence if cooperation wasn't forthcoming.
The practice hall fell absolutely silent.
Other students began backing away, sensing the situation spiraling toward actual combat. Roan's hands shifted into proper defensive position, his Kinetic Reversal primed to activate. Seraphine's body was already adapting, her skin beginning to harden in response to the perceived threat.
Sofia stood frozen between the two groups, horrified at what was unfolding.
Daniel and Lira moved slightly behind Torven, ready to support him despite the evident fear in their postures.
The air itself seemed to charge with aether as multiple abilities hovered on the verge of activation.
Then Sera stepped forward.
She'd been observing from slightly behind, assessing the situation with her characteristic calm. Now she recognized the moment before the explosion and moved with purpose.
She placed herself directly between Torven and Roan, not activating any abilities, just her presence and the weight of her gaze.
"This accomplishes nothing," she said, her voice carrying quiet authority that somehow cut through the tension.
Her crystalline gray eyes met each person in turn. To Torven: "Stand down. Violence won't bring Kaelen back."
To Roan and Seraphine: "We have a right to information about our friend."
To Sofia: "You know keeping us in the dark is wrong."
Then to everyone: "Everyone here wants the same thing, for Kaelen to survive. Fighting each other prevents that."
Something about the way she spoke, without threat or plea, just stating reality as observable fact, made people pause. The charge in the air didn't disappear but it shifted, becoming less dangerous.
Torven's plating began to recede slowly, the scales withdrawing back into his skin. Roan's defensive stance relaxed marginally. Seraphine's adaptation process halted.
Vyne walked in.
She'd been in the hallway, close enough to hear the entire confrontation through the partially open door. Her usual playful demeanor was completely absent as she entered, her violet eyes scanning the scene with unusual seriousness.
She understood immediately what was happening and why. Part of her wanted to maintain club loyalty, to support the information control her teammates were trying to enforce. But a larger part recognized the injustice of keeping Kaelen's family in the dark.
"Sofia," she said quietly, her voice carrying unexpected weight. "It's okay to tell them."
Other Unique Combat students looked at her in surprise. She was effectively overriding the implicit gag order, giving permission where academy protocol said none should exist.
Vyne stepped closer to Kaelen's friend group, her eyes finding Lira specifically.
"You're Lira, aren't you?"
Lira nodded, confused by the recognition.
"Kaelen talks about you. A lot." Vyne's small smile didn't reach her eyes. "He calls you his sister. Says you were there when no one else was. Says you believed in him before he had any reason to be believed in."
She turned to address both groups, her usual masks completely dropped. "These aren't just some students asking questions. These are Kaelen's people. His allies... real allies."
To the Unique Combat members: "We don't abandon each other. That includes telling his family what happened."
To Kaelen's friends: "You deserve to know. And we need to tell you."
The shift in atmosphere was palpable. Vyne had claimed Kaelen's friends as worthy of trust, and seeing her this serious carried enough weight that others reluctantly accepted it. Roan and Seraphine stepped back, creating space.
Vyne took a breath and began explaining, her voice steady but strained.
"The mission was investigation of an abandoned pre-Descent facility in the western Scourged Zone. We were supposed to document interior conditions and identify sources of anomalous aether readings."
She described the nest, the D-rank matriarch, their emergency extraction.
"During extraction, we encountered two B-rank humanoid beasts. Observer Davos engaged them to cover our retreat." She paused, the weight of what came next evident in her expression. "Kaelen ordered us to leave. He stayed behind to help the observer."
Sofia's damaged voice added quietly, "He didn't hesitate. The beasts were between us and safety. Davos was injured. Kaelen just decided. Told us to run. Made it an order. Then stayed to fight."
The complete picture emerged through their combined explanation. Two B-rank humanoids, threat level capable of killing Sentinel-rank cultivators. Davos, a Sentinel, already injured from initial engagement. Kaelen, a first-year Novice rank student, choosing to stay.
The reactions came in waves.
Daniel's face went pale, visibly trembling. His mind immediately began calculating the odds that his emotions desperately wanted to reject.
"B-rank?" His voice cracked slightly. "That's suicide. He can't... there's no way..."
His hands shook uncontrollably as he pulled out his tablet, fingers moving automatically to access beast classification data.
"B-rank beasts have sixty to eighty percent kill rate against Sentinel-level opponents." His words came faster, spiraling. "Two of them means... and Kaelen's only Initiate cultivation... the probability of survival is less than five percent even with..."
He couldn't complete the thought. Just stared at the numbers on his screen, watching them confirm his worst fears through cold mathematical certainty.
Sera grabbed his shoulders firmly, forcing eye contact. "Stop. Calculating worst-case doesn't help him."
"But the numbers..." Daniel's voice was filled with fear.
"Kaelen has surprised everyone before. Trust that." Sera's tone left no room for argument. "He's made it this far. He'll make it further."
Daniel wanted to believe her. But his mind kept showing him the statistics, the cold reality that people didn't survive encounters like that.
He sank into a nearby chair, head in his hands. "I should have been there. Could have helped, could have done something..."
Sera's asked practical questions, seeking actionable information rather than drowning in emotion. How long had rescue been active? What was Instructor Mira's capability level? What was the beacon's range?
Her composure didn't mean she wasn't worried. But panic served no purpose, so she stopped fear and focused on what could be controlled.
"Kaelen chose to stay," she said, both to Daniel and herself. "That means he believed he could survive. We honor that by trusting his judgment, not assuming his death."
Torven had been silent throughout the revelation, his dermal plating partially re-emerging on his forearms as an unconscious stress response. His amber eyes fixed on middle distance, processing.
When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet but carried absolute conviction.
"Kaelen survives."
Not hope. Not belief. Statement of fact, delivered with the certainty of someone who'd known Kaelen long enough to trust his survival instinct implicitly.
"He's fought worse odds before." Brief pause. "We wait. When he returns, we welcome him."
Lira stood frozen for a long moment, processing the words but not quite absorbing their full meaning.
"He stayed behind. Against B-ranks."
Then reality crashed through and protective instinct transformed instantly into rage.
She rounded on Sofia and Vyne, her voice sharp as broken glass. "You left him?!"
"He's a first-year! Barely out of Latent stage! And you just ran?!" Her hands were shaking, whether from fury or terror, it was unclear. "What kind of team abandons their leader to die?!"
Her aether began to rise unconsciously, Resonant Flow starting to manifest as visible currents in the air around her.
"You should have stayed! All of you! You don't leave someone behind!"
Sofia flinched as if physically struck. "He ordered us to..."
"I don't care what he ordered!" Lira cut her off. "You could have refused! You could have fought beside him!"
Vyne stood perfectly still during the verbal assault, absorbing every word without defending. Her usual masks were completely gone, just standing there accepting Lira's judgment.
Because part of her agreed. Maybe they should have stayed. The guilt had been crushing her for hours, replaying "Don't die" over and over, the last thing she'd said before leaving him there.
Lira's rage found new focus, whirling to face the room as if the academy itself were present.
"And where is the rescue? He's been out there for hours!" Her voice rose with each word. "A student is missing! An Observer is missing! And what, they sent one person?!"
"This is Veyra Academy! We have resources! We have Paragon-level cultivators and above! Where are they?!" She was pacing now, unable to contain the energy. "If this were a Pyrell, or any other noble family's child, they'd have mobilized an entire unit!"
The accusation hit on real systemic issues, on the way resources got allocated based on political pressure rather than actual need. Her anger was justified even if the timing was complicated.
"He's out there alone! Fighting something that could kill Sentinels! And nobody's doing enough!" Her voice broke. "Why isn't anyone moving faster?!"
Sera positioned herself in Lira's path, forcing her to stop pacing.
"Lira. Stop." When Lira tried to continue: "I said stop."
Something in her tone cut through. "You're right. About all of it. But this isn't helping him."
"Kaelen chose to stay. We weren't there. We couldn't have stopped him. The academy is moving as fast as bureaucracy allows. And your anger, justified as it is, doesn't change what's happening right now."
Sera's crystalline eyes met Lira's silver ones directly. "He needs you strong when he gets back. Not consumed by rage you can't act on. Channel this. Don't let it consume you."
The words finally penetrated. Lira's momentum stopped, all the fight draining out at once.
She sank onto the nearest bench, her hands covering her face. Her shoulders shook slightly though no sound emerged.
"He's all I have." The words came muffled through her hands. "I don't... I can't lose him. He's my brother. The only family that matters."
The raw terror and love in her voice stripped away all pretense. Lira rarely showed this level of fragility, usually projecting strength and confidence. But the possibility of losing Kaelen broke through every defense.
Daniel moved to sit beside her, his own panic momentarily set aside to offer silent support. Torven stood nearby, his presence protective. Sera sat on her other side.
"He knows that," Sera said quietly. "That you're his family. That's why he'll fight to come back."
Across the hall, Sofia's tears streamed silently down her face. Mateo's hand on her shoulder offered what comfort he could. The guilt was crushing, Lira's accusations touching doubts she'd been fighting since the moment they'd left Kaelen behind.
Vyne remained standing, isolated between the two groups. When Lira finally collapsed, she moved closer with hesitation.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was barely audible. "I should have... I don't know. But I'm sorry."
It was inadequate and she knew it. But it was all she had.
Seraphine watched the entire exchange with her color-shifting eyes, not interrupting but recognizing the depth of loyalty on display.
"This is what real loyalty looks like," she said quietly to her own team.
Roan stood with arms crossed, conflicted. He still believed the extraction order had been correct tactically. But seeing the human cost made him feel the weight differently.
The other Team 3 members present showed various levels of guilt and sadness, confronting how their survival had come at a cost Kaelen's friends were now paying.
The practice hall fell into uncomfortable silence, everyone sitting with their own reactions and regrets.