The trip back from the Great Wall was a quiet one. The brutal reality of the front lines had left a heavy mark on both Jonah and Vanessa. Their training, their rivalries… it all felt smaller. But Jonah's secret now felt heavier than ever. He wasn't just hiding a unique skill; he was hiding a weapon of national importance.
They returned to the Academy with a new, sober sense of purpose.
They had barely been back for a day when the crisis hit.
It wasn't a PA announcement this time. It was an urgent, piercing alarm that echoed through the entire campus, a sound reserved for only the most severe emergencies. A red alert. All students were ordered back to their dorms. All instructors were to report to the command center immediately.
Jonah and Vanessa met in the hallway, their faces pale with confusion. "What's going on?" Jonah asked.
"I don't know," Vanessa said, her eyes wide. "They haven't used the red alert in years."
The news trickled out through the school's network over the next hour, a story of disaster told in cold, official reports. A remote bio-research lab, a high-security facility in the northern mountains called Station Chimera, had gone dark.
The station's official purpose was top-secret, but the rumors were that the station was engaged in illegal Essence Splicing - forcibly injecting beasts with conflicting essences to create unstable, monstrous soldiers.
A practice banned by the Headmaster himself. An hour ago, they had sent out a single distress signal. The message mentioned a "catastrophic containment failure" and "hostile, spliced subjects loose." Then, silence.
The military couldn't just storm the place. A full-scale assault was too risky. If volatile bio-agents were loose, a stray explosion could cause an even bigger catastrophe. They needed a specialist team. Someone to infiltrate the silent station, assess the situation, find any survivors, and figure out what the hell they were up against.
A list of available Elites was being assembled at the command center. It was a problem for the high-ranking pros, far removed from the world of first-year students. Or so Jonah thought.
Exactly an hour later, his datapad buzzed with a message that left no room for questions: Briefing Room 3. Now. – Sgt. Seraph
Jonah's heart pounded in his chest. He found Vanessa waiting outside the briefing room, her own face a mask of disbelief. "She summoned you, too?"
"Yeah," Jonah said nervously. "What's going on?"
"I think we're about to find out."
They entered the room. It was filled with grim-faced, high-ranking military commanders and a handful of combat-ready Elites. At the front of the room, standing before a holographic map of Station Chimera, was Sergeant Seraph. She looked completely in her element.
"The infiltration team is being finalized," a grizzled commander was saying. "We need a small, effective unit. A standard four-person squad."
"I will lead," Seraph stated, her voice cutting through the room with absolute authority. The commanders nodded. She was a Rank Two veteran, a natural choice.
"For my team," Seraph continued, her gaze sweeping the room, "I will need a medic and a heavy-hitter." She pointed to a tough-looking woman with a glowing green cross on her armor. "Eliza, you're my medic." The woman nodded.
"For raw power, I'll take Draven," she said.
Jonah's stomach sank. Standing near the back of the room, looking arrogant and bored, was Draven the Blademaster. The fiery-haired Warrior who had challenged him. Draven smirked, clearly pleased with the choice.
"And for scout," Seraph said, her voice steady, "I am taking Jonah."
The room went dead silent.
Every head turned to stare at the thin, Rank One kid standing awkwardly by the door. The grizzled commander looked at Seraph like she had just grown a second head.
"Sergeant," the commander said slowly, "that's a first-year student with an Unclassified ability. He has no scouting skills on record. This is a high-risk, life-and-death mission, not a training exercise."
Draven let out a short, mocking laugh. "You can't be serious, Sergeant. You want *him* to scout for us? He doesn't even attend normal classes. What's he going to do, throw a rock?"
"Your ability to 'kick the door down' is why you are ill-suited for a stealth and reconnaissance mission, Draven," Seraph shot back, her voice like ice. She turned to the commander. "Sir, Jonah's development is classified on a Level-5 order, signed by the Headmaster. I cannot disclose the nature of his abilities in an open briefing, but I will state for the record that for this specific scenario. His unconventional assets are more valuable than any standard scout. That is my official assessment."
She then pointed at Vanessa. "And I'm taking her as well. Her theoretical knowledge of mana composition will be crucial for identifying these spliced creatures."
The commanders were in an uproar. Two first-year students on a black-ops mission? It was unheard of. It was reckless.
Just as the argument was about to boil over, a calm voice came from the main screen, where a video link had silently activated. It was the Headmaster.
"Sergeant Seraph's assessment is sound," the Headmaster said, his face calm and authoritative. "And her roster is approved. This is precisely the kind of unexpected, high-stakes scenario the Academy is designed to prepare our students for. They are ready."
The Headmaster's word was law. All debate instantly ceased. The grizzled commander sighed and nodded.
"Very well. The mission is a go."
It was official. Jonah, a kid who had been scavenging in ruins just a few months ago, was now part of an elite military team being sent into a disaster zone. And worse, he was being forced to work with Draven, the one person in the entire Academy who already hated his guts.
Draven strolled over to him, a sneer on his face. "Don't get in my way scrapper," he snarled under his breath. "Just stay quiet and let the real Elites handle the work."
Jonah stayed silent, meeting the Warrior's burning stare with a calm steadiness he hadn't known was in him.
The trip to the Wall had changed him. He'd seen what real Elites could do. Draven? He was all talk. Just a puffed-up bully playing soldier.
He had a mission to do. And he would prove to Draven, and to everyone else, just what a kid from the Undercroft could do.