The holographic screen hovered before Rei, lines of data scrolling in cold, indifferent blue.
STATUS: UNSTABLE
His heart dropped.
So that's what they see.
He thought.
A problem.
The word lingered longer than it should have, pressing against his chest. Rei clenched his jaw, eyes fixed on the screen as if staring hard enough might change it.
Inside his mind.
A slow, amused laugh echoed through his thoughts.
Unstable.
Vaelion mused, voice thick with satisfaction.
They're not wrong, you know.
Rei's breath caught.
How fitting.
The laughter deepened, curling around his consciousness like a crown setting into place.
Mugen let the holographic screen fade to black.
"The Nullborne are ranked not by size or strength."
He said calmly.
"But by how much of reality they are allowed to touch."
The screen reignited one last time, displaying a vertical threat index.
---
NULLBORNE
Lesser Nullborne: Feeders
Crimson eyes
Threat level: D-Class
Individually weak. Dangerous in numbers.
Drawn to raw fear, panic and strong emotions.
Evolved Nullborne: Emotion Leechers
Emerald green eyes.
Threat level: C-Class
Exhibit autonomy.
Actively manipulate emotional states to weaken targets.
Apex Nullborne: Consciousness Dominators
Golden eyes
Threat level: A-Class
Capable of overriding perception, memory and identity.
Engagement requires trained Somniarch units only.
HIGHER NULLBORNE
Abyssal Regents
Threat level: S-Class
Apex entities refined beyond physical limits.
City-level extinction events.
Sinbound
Threat level: Variable / Unknown
Artificial beings birthed by Crowned Nullborne.
Power fluctuates based on obedience and proximity to their origin.
Sovereign Entities
Threat level: SS-Class
Nation-ending beings.
Crowned Nullborne
Threat level: Omega (World-Termination)
If one fully manifests, human extinction is a projected outcome.
---
The display vanished.
Mugen's voice lowered.
"Remember this well. You are not training to fight monsters. You are training to delay extinction."
He paused.
"Now it's time to experience what it's like to be on a battlefield."
Murmurs spread through the room.
Enma leaned back, smiling.
"Finally. I was growing bored."
The Shirayuki siblings exchanged a quiet glance.
Ayame nudged Rei, grinning despite the tension.
"Looks like we survived orientation. Now it's time to risk our lives."
Rei didn't respond.
His eyes lingered on the word Crowned long after the screen disappeared.
The Seventh Prince.
Vaelion Noctyrr.
Rei swallowed.
"Are you one of them?"
He thought.
No answer came.
Somewhere deep within his mind, The Prince watched smiling.
---
The students were led into a vast circular chamber lined with dozens of full body immersion pods. Soft blue lights pulsed along the floor, cables and conduits running like veins through the walls.
A short man with neatly kept brown hair wearing a lab coat stepped toward Mugen, hands tucked into his pockets.
"So these are the new recruits."
He said, eyes scanning the room.
"Pretty young batch. They'll need all the experience they can get."
Mugen rolled his neck once then sighed.
"Good to see you too, Isamu. This will be a Type-S simulation."
The man smiled faintly.
"Of course."
Mugen turned to the students.
"This is Dr Kuroda Isamu. He'll be overseeing your simulations."
Quiet murmurs spread as the students exchanged glances.
One by one, they were guided into the pods. The lids shut shut with a soft hiss until all 26 stood sealed inside their own chambers.
Rei lay back as restraints adjusted around his limbs.
A narrow beam of light descended, touching his forehead.
The world dimmed slightly.
Then.
A system window unfolded behind his eyes.
Grey black with crimson text.
---
THE COVENANT
WARNING
Mental State: UNSTABLE
Mental Autonomy: COMPROMISED
Mental Fortitude: INCREASED
---
Rei's breath caught.
Somewhere deep within his mind, something stirred.
---
The ruined city came into focus piece by piece.
Concrete towers leaned at impossible angles, streets split open, storefronts hollowed out and devoured by time. One by one, the students materialized across the city, alone and scattered unaware of one another's position.
Rei appeared inside what had once been a shopping mall.
The silence was suffocating.
Broken escalators lay frozen, glass storefronts shattered inward. Rotten bodies littered the tiled floor, dried blood smeared across walls like crude murals. The air felt heavy, like the city itself was holding its own breath.
Rei swallowed.
"You can barely tell this was a mall…"
His voice echoed back to him.
In the shadows, something moved. No, several things.
Rei stiffened.
Before he could see them, he felt them. A pressure against his mind. A crawling sensation.
Three Nullborne burst from the far corridor, their forms jagged and uneven. Eyes glowing crimson as they locked onto him.
They were drawn to him. To the output leaking from his body.
"Already?"
Rei staggered back.
A second sensation slammed into his mind. Then a third.
Two more presences surged in from the behind, unseen but unmistakable, their intent sharp and hungry.
Rei clutched his head.
"Why… I just got here."
His heart raced.
"I can't fight those things."
The shadows around him trembled.
Then, laughter.
Low. Lazy. Amused.
Unless you wish to die.
Vaelion murmured from within,
You should act.
Rei's vision blurred.
My vessel will not fall to low class beings who can't even think for themselves.
A system window opened in his vision.
---
THE COVENANT
UNLIT PASSAGE
Status: STABLE
Condition: RECENTLY RECOVERED
Due to failure to manifest. Vaelion has activated the user's concept.
NOW ACTIVE
---
The world broke.
Shadows bled outward from Rei's feet, swallowing light, sound, and space itself. The mall twisted and folded in on itself as darkness surged like a tide.
The Nullborne froze mid charge. Their distorted forms vanished.
Rei stood alone. Not in the mall.
But in a darkness black expanse.
No walls, floor or sky. Only him
And the feeling of eyes watching from everywhere at once.
"What… Did I just do."
---
The Nullborne did not understand where they were.
There was no ground beneath them they could feel. No air to breathe, No scent, No sound.
Not even themselves.
They reached out instinctively, only to grasp nothing.
Their senses screamed for input, but the void answered with silence.
Then, Voices.
Not sound, but meaning, flooding directly into what passed for their minds.
Whispers layered over one another, incomprehensible yet unmistakably hostile.
The Nullborne convulsed.
They clawed at their own forms, staggering through the darkness, crashing into unseen boundaries that weren't there.
Panic escalated into something feral as the voices grew louder, sharper, crushing thought itself.
They thrashed and broke everything around them.
Their movements slowed, then collapsed into stillness as whatever held them together unraveled.
From behind Rei, the darkness stirred.
Vaelion emerged silently, his form towering yet relaxed, eyes gleaming with quiet delight.
"So fragile,"
He murmured.
"It's time to devour."
He inhaled.
Not air but essence.
Fear, consciousness, the last echoes of resistance were drawn out and erased, consumed effortlessly. The Nullborne fell away, reduced to empty husks, their presence extinguished as if they had never existed.
Vaelion snapped his fingers.
The Unlit Passage folded in on itself.
Reality rushed back.
The mall reappeared in a blink, broken glass, ruined walls and silence.
Rei staggered, catching himself against a cracked pillar.
He chest felt heavy, Full.
"What... just happened?"
His stomach twisted as the sensation settled, unfamiliar and deeply wrong.
Behind his eyes, Vaelion watched satisfied.