Part 1: The Shattered Grove
"The first lesson I learned was that truth doesn't wait for readiness. It strikes like lightning, and either you're burnt… or reborn."
— Zeiran Aethros, Field Log 0004-A
1. Cracks in Silence
Three days had passed since the Trial of Resonance.
And nothing had been the same since.
Whispers followed Zeiran wherever he walked. Whispers of forbidden harmonics. Of an override resonance only recorded in Prime-class warfare archives. He pretended not to care. But he saw the change—in everyone.
The instructors tracked him longer.
Students watched him closer.
Even Seris Veyl, who once smirked with prideful challenge, now studied him like a weapon she didn't yet understand.
But it was Kalen Dray who broke the tension.
"I swear," he said, tossing a glowing orb of nanodust between his fingers, "if one more kid looks at you like you murdered a Godbot, I'm gonna reprogram the toilets to scream their names in the shower."
Zeiran finally smiled. "You're unhinged."
"No, just loyal."
They both laughed. For a moment, the pressure lifted. But only for a moment.
2. Mother's Secret
That night, Zeiran accessed a private pulse-call to home. His mother answered, seated by her herbal altar, sunlight spilling across her healing hands—no longer crippled, but still slightly trembling.
"Your eyes are different," she said softly. "Your father had the same look when he touched a Sentiencer for the first time."
Zeiran hesitated. Then asked:
"Were you… bonded?"
A long silence.
She turned away, then pulled something from a hidden drawer beneath her altar—an Elvan sigil, made of crystallized wood and glowing faintly green-blue.
"I was never allowed a full Contract," she whispered. "The Elvan didn't trust Sentiencers. They called them Steel Devils. But I… I heard one call to me once. In a ruined grove, after the Rift opened."
Zeiran leaned closer. "And?"
"I ran."
That answer burned.
Because Zeiran hadn't run.
3. Field Mission Assignment: The Caervin Grove
The next morning, all first-rank initiates were called to the Nexus Hall. Headmaster Vhalen addressed them with gravitas rarely heard:
"You will be deployed—under escort—to the Caervin Grove. It is a neutral resonance zone, high in Elvan relic activity. Your mission: investigate the Moonfall rift readings and stabilize any surge anomalies. This is not a simulation."
He paused, eyes narrowing.
"Failure will not result in a reset. It will result in death."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
4. Rivalry Rekindled
Before departure, Seris Veyl approached Zeiran once more.
"You may have beaten the Echo Trial," she said, "but out there—no safety fields, no rewind protocols. Don't freeze up when it gets real."
Zeiran didn't rise to the bait. He stepped past her, whispering:
"I won't freeze. But I'm starting to think… you're scared I won't hold back."
Her eyes widened—just slightly.
Score one for Zeiran.
5. Kalen's Surprise: The Echojammer
On the transport hover, Kalen pulled out a cloth-wrapped object. Unwrapped, it revealed a compact, humming device pulsing with illegal circuitry.
"I call it the Echojammer. Short-range burst tech that interrupts nearby Sentiencer resonance for seven seconds. Highly banned. Highly useful."
Zeiran raised an eyebrow. "Where did you even—"
"Don't ask questions you don't want illegal answers to."
6. The Grove Awakens
They arrived at Caervin Grove by midday.
It was beautiful—haunted, but beautiful. Trees older than memory. Sky cracked faintly at the edges, revealing glimpses of Kaidess starlight bleeding through. And the hum of resonance… constant, like a living heartbeat.
Lyra would've loved this place.
Seris took point with Velcrys scanning.
Kalen set up the jammer perimeter.
Zeiran paused, knelt, and placed his palm to the moss-covered roots.
The hum… recognized him.
And from the base of one of the largest trees, a glyph began to form. Not carved. Not programmed. But called—by his presence.
"Welcome, Lost Blood."
His blood chilled.
Who the hell is talking?
Suddenly—a scream.
7. The First Enemy
Two of the newer students had wandered too far. One now floated—limp—above a ring of vines that had twisted into mechanical limbs. Not natural. Not Elvan.
Something else had infected the grove.
The instructors moved too slowly.
Zeiran moved first.
He activated X-0—not as a full summon, but as an echo form—a semi-translucent projection of its battle mode. It wasn't full power, but it was enough.
He charged.
The vines struck like vipers.
Zeiran dodged—barely—then slammed a kinetic pulse through the glyph-ring, severing the corruption.
The boy dropped, unconscious but breathing.
The vines retracted.
Then something far worse stepped out of the fog.
8. The Voidspawn
It was not a Sentiencer.
It was… malformed. Half-tech, half-organic, eyes stitched shut, bones lined with dark resonance crystals. A mutation from Kaidess. A Voidspawn.
Kalen whispered behind him:
"Bro… That thing shouldn't exist anymore."
"Apparently no one told it."
Seris drew her blades.
Zeiran summoned X-0.
The Voidspawn opened its mouth—and let out a sound that wasn't a roar.
It was a name.
"Aethros."
Zeiran's blood turned cold.
Part 2: A Name Not Forgotten
1. The Name That Shouldn't Exist
"Aethros…"
The Voidspawn's voice was not a roar, not a scream—it was a memory weaponized.
When it spoke Zeiran's surname, everything stopped.
Kalen dropped his Echojammer.
Seris's Sentiencer, Velcrys, faltered mid-glide.
Even the instructors hesitated.
The creature should not have known names.
It shouldn't have spoken at all.
And yet… it did.
Zeiran took a slow step forward, chest rising and falling, X-0 glowing faintly on his shoulder like a specter of vengeance.
"How do you know my name?"
No response.
Instead, the creature shifted. Its chest peeled back, revealing a glyph-seal scorched with the Kaidessian sigil for "Judged."
Kalen gasped. "That's a Sentiencer kill-mark. It was marked for deletion."
Seris tensed. "Then why is it alive?"
Zeiran didn't answer.
Because inside him, X-0 had already whispered:
"Because someone has started the culling again."
2. Battle in the Grove
The Voidspawn struck first—its claws extending into razored cables, snapping forward at unnatural speed. Zeiran dodged and sent a pulse command to X-0. The sentient construct morphed, deploying a resonant burst that shattered two of the Grove's corrupted glyphs nearby, interrupting the creature's momentum.
Seris moved next—blades arcing in perfect synchronicity with Velcrys. She lunged, slashed, and twisted mid-air, forcing the Voidspawn backward.
But it adapted. Too quickly.
Its skin hardened. Its limbs split. It learned.
"This isn't just some corrupted beast," Kalen shouted, backing up as he activated two support drones. "It's learning us."
Zeiran gritted his teeth. "Then we don't give it time."
Together, they synchronized—Seris in close, Zeiran with pulse strikes, and Kalen jamming the enemy's resonance channels. The fight was brutal. And just as they managed to corner the beast—
A blast of green light shot down from the ridge.
The Voidspawn screamed and imploded into ash.
Silence followed.
Then a voice, arrogant and sharp:
"Tch. Took you long enough."
3. The Rival Arrives: Cael Virex
He stood atop a moss-slicked rock, arms folded, wearing an academy overcoat marked black and emerald, trimmed with military-grade fibersteel. A narrow scar ran from under his left eye to his cheekbone—a precise duelist's mark, not accidental.
Cael Virex.
The moment Zeiran saw him, his entire body tensed.
They had never met, but the aura between them sparked like two storms caught in the same sky.
Seris exhaled sharply. "Virex…"
Kalen whispered, "That's the Dominion's second-highest ranked initiate. Got his Contract at thirteen. Supposedly rejected Prime candidacy. Some say… he's building his own title."
Cael landed silently beside them and locked eyes with Zeiran.
"You're the anomaly with the ghost-binder."
"And you're the one who shows up late, kills the target, then expects praise?" Zeiran shot back.
Cael smirked. "You must be fun at funerals."
4. Clash of Paths
Tension escalated fast. Not through words, but through resonance pressure.
Both Zeiran and Cael gave off waves of unseen force—one deep and turbulent like ancient oceans, the other sharp and surgical like a gravity blade.
Even Velcrys buzzed with warning tones.
"Stop," Seris snapped. "This isn't the time."
Neither flinched.
"You and I," Cael finally said, "we're going to clash. Maybe not here. But it's inevitable."
Zeiran didn't blink. "Good. Then I'll know what trash feels like when it's crushed."
Kalen: "Whoa. Okay. Testosterone much?"
5. Buried Roots
As the team set up camp for recovery scans, Zeiran walked deeper into the Grove—following the glyphs that had reacted earlier. They responded to his presence alone, glowing in spiraling patterns.
He reached a tree older than Earth's written history. And at its base, a stone—carved in Elvan runes, bearing a single word.
"Zeïriel."
The name echoed in his bones.
From behind, Seris approached quietly. "That's your mother's birthname, isn't it?"
Zeiran turned. "You've been researching me."
"I research threats."
He almost smiled at that.
"I don't know what this place is," he admitted. "But it knows me."
From the roots, a second whisper pulsed:
"You were not meant to survive."
6. Moonfall Begins
Night descended on Caervin Grove, and with it, the bloodred gleam of Aeris, Earth's second moon, climbed into the sky. Its light bent through the trees, distorting everything. Sound warped. Time felt elastic.
Zeiran sat beside the now-silent glyph tree.
Then he felt it.
A second Sentiencer. Nearby. Watching.
He stood fast—X-0 humming on alert.
But nothing appeared.
Until…
In the sky above, just beyond the moon's shadow, a figure hovered in armor unlike anything from Earth or Kaidess. Its form pulsed faint white. Its helm bore a broken Prime crest.
"Found him," it whispered to someone unseen.
"Initiate Protocol Recall. The Prime X has awakened."
Then it vanished.