Part 1: Entry Protocols
"Power is never born—it is remembered. And what we call strength… is merely the echo of something once lost."
— Zeiran Aethros, Pre-Academy Archives, Year 2291
1. The Glint Behind the Mirror
Zeiran hadn't slept in days.
He pretended to. He closed his eyes, slowed his breath, even faked snoring once to avoid suspicion from Lyra. But inside, he was lit—the tether to Unit X-0 quietly humming like a second heart beneath his ribs. It wasn't constant. It pulsed like a tide: sometimes distant, sometimes screaming.
He could feel it… growing.
The connection wasn't a full Contract yet. That required a formal Manifestation Trial, usually performed inside the Prime Sanctums or the elite military-run academies. But Zeiran had skipped something. The machine had bonded with him outside the system—an illegal, untraceable tether.
If the Sanctum Registry found out, he could be flagged for Memory Lock or worse—Protocol Erasure.
Still, he didn't tell anyone.
Because the Sentiencer—the voice of X-0—had told him one thing before vanishing again into his subconscious:
"They will fear what you carry. And they should."
2. Aenya's First Glow
Meanwhile, Lyra Aethros had a secret of her own.
Late at night, she began sketching strange symbols into her room's walls using a simple shard of carbon. She didn't understand why, only that when she closed her eyes, light poured through her veins—light shaped like runes, breathing like fireflies.
Zeiran noticed. Of course he did.
He watched her from the doorway one night, his eyes narrowing at the familiar resonance.
No way… She's awakening early.
Normally, a child's Contract process began strictly at age 14. Lyra was only eight. But her aura was unmistakably reactive. Something ancient had touched her. Something he hadn't yet seen.
And whatever it was, it wasn't just Kaidessian.
"Maybe the Aethros bloodline isn't as dormant as they thought…" he muttered.
3. The Prime Academy Letter
The next morning, a chrome-plated courier drone arrived—hovering at their front gate, sealed in an official gold-pressed envelope.
Dominion Prime Academy of Awakening Combatants
—D.P.A.C.
Zeiran stared at it for a long time, the letter burning in his hands like prophecy.
He had qualified.
Not just as a student, but as a candidate for Dual-Path Initiation—a rare branch reserved for individuals showing signs of both Technokinetic and Bio-Essence Synchronization potential. In other words: elite potential.
They have no idea what I'm carrying…
He tucked the envelope away before Lyra or his mother could see it. He already knew what they'd say.
"Be careful."
"You're special."
"You can change the world."
But Zeiran didn't want to change the world.
He wanted to tear open its spine and rewrite it.
4. Arrival at D.P.A.C.
The academy wasn't just a school—it was a city-state.
Floating above the Upper Dominion Skyrange, connected by magnetic tunnels and grav-capsule bridges, it stood like a fortress made of light and memory. Every wall was reinforced with Quantum Carbonsilk. Every dorm carried a personal AI interface. Every student was scanned upon arrival—eyes, bones, heartbeat, soulprint.
Zeiran's scan stalled for exactly 4.1 seconds longer than normal.
That was enough for a whisper to spread.
"Who's the anomaly?"
"New recruit flagged unregistered—no record of system pre-bonding?"
"Ghost-core match?"
They didn't say his name. Not yet. But they would.
5. The Girl in Silver Red
She stood near the flame garden, a blur of red coat and silver combat skin, her hair trailing like braided silk laced with photon threads. Her aura shimmered.
Zeiran didn't recognize her rank badge, but he knew a core-binder when he saw one.
She turned—and their eyes met.
He froze.
Not from attraction.
From memory.
Because she looked almost exactly like the girl from his dream… the one holding his hand beside a crumbling world.
"You're not from any of the listed satellite academies," she said, walking toward him.
Zeiran didn't respond.
"I'm Seris Veyl," she continued. "House Veyl. Upper-tier combat class. Also top marks in mech-soul binding."
He raised an eyebrow. "Impressive self-introduction."
"You'll need to know who I am when we face off in trials."
"…Cocky."
"No," she said, eyes gleaming. "Prepared."
She was dangerous. He liked that.
6. Kalen Dray—The First Friend
In contrast to Seris's controlled energy, Kalen Dray was a walking explosion.
He collided with Zeiran in the corridor a few minutes later—arms full of plasma snacks and smile too wide.
"Sorry, bro! First day nerves. You new?"
Zeiran nodded slowly. "Zeiran."
"Kalen. Exo-transfer from Ori Arcadia Branch. Tech-binder, but I dabble in energy weaponry. Also—what the hell's up with that scan delay back there?"
Zeiran blinked. "You noticed that?"
"Of course. I got bored and hacked the log in real-time. Kinda freaky, not gonna lie."
Zeiran didn't say a word, but something clicked between them. Kalen grinned wider.
"Yup. We're gonna be best friends or die trying."
Zeiran sighed. "…Wonderful."
7. The Shadow in the Archive
That night, while others slept, Zeiran snuck into the academy's sealed archives—a chamber guarded by biometric pulse-locks and temporal seals. But Unit X-0 had whispered the bypass code in his sleep.
Inside, he found something wrong.
Old records, wiped names, a hidden directory titled: "X-Designates: Redacted Legacy".
His own face appeared.
Next to a name he didn't recognize: Eira Aethros.
His mother's maiden name.
And below that:
"Origin Access Denied: Forbidden Protocol – Prime Candidate X."
8. Closing Moment – Trial Announcement
The next morning, a full-scale announcement was made in the hovering courtyard.
Headmaster Vhalen stepped forward, his silver robes sweeping in the wind.
"Tomorrow," he thundered, "you will enter the Trial Grounds. There… your potential will be tested by the Echo Sentiencers. There… the Prime Path will begin."
Zeiran looked up.
Seris Veyl stood across the courtyard, her eyes locked on him like a challenge.
Kalen whispered beside him: "Think they'll let us use weapons?"
Zeiran didn't answer.
Because inside his mind, X-0 stirred and whispered again.
"The other candidates… are not ready."
"But we are."
Part 2: Trial by Resonance
1. The Echo Chamber
Dawn broke over Dominion Prime Academy in a wave of violet mist and low-gravity fog. As the sun breached the skysphere, the Trial Grounds activated—an arena constructed from folded terrain tech, capable of mimicking any environment across Earth or Kaidess.
Today, it shimmered into a ruined battlefield—half urban wreckage, half floating rock slabs orbiting a cracked core of molten earth.
The Echo Sentiencers waited in the shadows—six towering constructs, ancient models with no consciousness, designed to mimic enemy response patterns during Contract awakenings.
Zeiran stood in silence at the edge of the arena platform. Beside him: Kalen, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.
"Okay, not gonna lie," Kalen said. "This place looks like the final stage of a VR boss raid."
Zeiran cracked a faint smile. "Except you die for real here."
"Comforting."
The Headmaster's voice boomed from the cloud towers above:
"All candidates will face the Trial of Resonance. You will enter individually. If you survive, your Sentiencer will fully bond. Fail, and your link will be severed forever."
2. Seris Takes the Stage
Zeiran didn't go first.
Seris Veyl did.
She stepped forward, no fear in her gait, eyes sharp and mind focused. A light flared beneath her collarbone—and in a blinding pulse of silver, her Sentiencer manifested.
It was a lean, jagged figure named Velcrys—built like a dancer, armed like a war god. Twin blades, photon-plated armor, a cloak made from ion silk.
Within seconds, Seris was airborne—moving like a blur, her resonance harmonizing perfectly with Velcrys's battle rhythm.
The Echo Sentiencers responded—three activated at once.
She dodged, countered, spun.
And when her attack landed, it cleaved a Sentiencer in half.
Gasps erupted from the other candidates.
Zeiran watched, unfazed.
She's good… But she's not the only anomaly.
3. Zeiran's Trial Begins
"Next: Zeiran Aethros."
He stepped forward. No flash. No transformation. Nothing visibly activated.
Murmurs spread.
"No manifest? He's gonna get shredded—"
"Did the registry screw up again—?"
Inside his chest, the voice stirred.
"They will never see you coming."
"Let them doubt."
As he walked into the field, the first Echo Sentiencer turned toward him. Towering. Bladed arms. Twin reactors glowing.
Zeiran raised a hand.
For a moment, it looked like nothing happened.
Then—the Sentiencer froze.
Its glow flickered. Its weapons retracted. One by one, its systems shut down.
Then—kneeling position.
Dead silence across the arena.
"What… the hell?" someone whispered.
A ripple surged through the observing Primes.
"Is that… forced resonance override?! That hasn't been done since the Kaidess War!"
Zeiran's eyes glowed faint blue.
"I didn't come to play."
4. System Shock
Instead of stopping him, the system sent two more Echo Sentiencers at once. One came from above—spinning. The other charged head-on.
Zeiran exhaled.
"X-0."
"With you."
A streak of black and blue light exploded behind him. A shadow emerged—X-0, no longer broken, standing in full form. Not bulky. Not sleek. Just perfectly built for war.
Not a tank. Not a scout. Something else.
A Designator. A controller class.
Zeiran moved once—and both Echo units collapsed mid-air, their cores crushed by internal overload.
The AI judges halted the sequence.
Zeiran's core glowed—not blue. Not red.
A deep, violet-white.
"Prime Protocol Candidate Confirmed."
5. Aftermath & Confusion
When Zeiran exited the trial grounds, no one looked at him the same.
Some were in awe.
Others… afraid.
Seris approached him at the edge of the colonnade.
"You cheated."
"I didn't."
"No one without formal training or a registered Contract can perform override harmonics. That's Blackline tech—illegal. Ancient."
Zeiran didn't argue.
Instead, he asked, "You've seen override resonance before?"
Seris hesitated.
"…My brother used it once. Before he vanished."
That stopped Zeiran cold.
"…Who was your brother?"
She paused. Then answered:
"Prime Veylan."
The one who had once looked at Zeiran like he knew him.
6. The Real Test is Coming
That night, Zeiran sat in his room, staring at the cracked tablet he found inside the academy archive. A code scrolled across its surface—layered in a dead language.
"Unit X-series were never meant to bond."
"They are meant to judge."
And just before the message faded:
"The First Judgment begins at Moonfall."
Zeiran looked up through his window, toward the sky—where the first sliver of Earth's second moon, Aeris, began to glow red.
And inside him, X-0 whispered:
"They will hunt us now."
"Because we're no longer hidden."