The air inside the black-glass briefing room was artificially perfect temperature-controlled, scrubbed of particulates, chemically neutral. But Darian could taste the tension anyway. It wasn't from the atmosphere. It came from the silence that sat across from him in human form.
The man wore no insignia, no officer badge. His face was forgettable, but his presence was not. Federation. High clearance. Dangerous. He sat behind a narrow console, hands clasped in front of him, posture precise.
Between them, a faint projection flickered above the table: Darian's post-Rift data profile. Or what was left of it.
Core Type: Unknown
Grade: Unregistered
Element Affinity: Void / Dimensional Interference
Stability: Fluctuating
Evolution Path: Obscured
System Access: Blocked – Multiple Failures
The man studied the interface without speaking for several long seconds. Then he tapped the display once, shifting the image to a rotating scan of Darian's core matrix blurry, distorted. The scan shimmered with anomalies.
"You didn't just survive Theta-12," he said at last, voice flat. "You brought something back with you. Something the Federation can't scan, can't control, and—so far—can't explain."
Darian remained still, posture neutral. His heart beat slowly, regulated not entirely by his own will. The Void Serpent inside him had settled into a dormant coil, but it wasn't asleep. It never slept. It watched. It learned.
"I didn't choose it," Darian said calmly. "I didn't go looking for a Sovereign-tier beast. It found me."
The man raised an eyebrow. "It chose you?"
Darian gave a slight nod. "That's how it felt."
The officer studied him for a moment longer, then tapped the console again. A red-coded file opened grainy Rift-zone footage from a past cadet operation. A figure sprinted through unstable terrain, his core signature flickering. His movement was too smooth. His beast interface glitched. Then, mid-run, he froze, screamed, and detonated in a plume of black fire. The video ended in static.
"That was ten years ago," the officer said. "Anomaly Case Two. Neural collapse, system disintegration, total loss. No remains to autopsy. The first case Anomaly One never returned. You're Anomaly Three. And the only one breathing after stabilization."
Darian met his gaze without flinching. "So why am I still here?"
"Because unlike the others," the man said, "you didn't break the system. You bent it. And it bent for you."
He stood slowly, crossed behind the console, and motioned to a wall panel. It shimmered and slid open, revealing a corridor bathed in low white floor lighting. The walls bore no markings.
"You've been removed from the cadet registry," he said. "Your mission log is sealed. Your Awakening footage is off-grid. You are, officially, dead to the system."
"And unofficially?"
"You're being reassigned."
Darian didn't speak. The Void Serpent within him stirred just slightly. He sensed no threat. Just inevitability.
"Down that hallway is the Black Squad dorm," the officer continued. "They don't show up on training logs. They don't participate in standard advancement. And they don't ask questions about what they're not allowed to know."
Darian stepped toward the corridor, then paused.
"Why not dissect me? Or destroy the core?"
"We tried that," the officer said. "It ended worse than you'd imagine. And it didn't work."
The answer was final.
"Welcome to Black Squad," the man added as the wall closed behind Darian. "Try not to break anything you can't fix."
The corridor stretched long and silent. Every step Darian took felt like it echoed a little longer than the last. The white floor lights pulsed slowly beneath him. The air wasn't cold, but it carried weight a pressure that made his thoughts sharpen.
The Void Serpent inside him remained quiet, its awareness coiled like a satellite orbiting his consciousness. It didn't interfere. But it didn't retreat either. It was watching everything. Logging it. Cataloging it.
When he reached the sealed hatch at the end, it rotated open without input. The room beyond was minimalist six bunks, individual lockers, soft overhead lights. Three of the beds were already claimed.
One of the occupants sat cross-legged on a lower bunk, head tilted slightly in curiosity. She had silver hair cut just below the ear and mercury-hued eyes. Her Beast Core signature radiated faint starlight. Elemental powerful.
"You're new," she said simply.
"Darian."
"Nova."
She didn't ask where he came from, and he didn't offer it. There was no handshake. No welcome. Just silent understanding. Everyone in this squad had arrived here the same way unasked for and unrecoverable.
He moved to the opposite bunk and sat down.
Then the system stirred. Not loudly. Just enough.
System Notification
[System Update – Cadet Clearance Modified]
Unit: Black Squad – Omega-Level Classification
Beast Core Sync: Active
Status: Unscanned
Squad Members Identified:
Nova Tarsis – Beast: Stellar Phase Bloom (Elemental)
Ryne Calder – Beast: Titan Apex Hound (Physical)
Elian Vehr – Beast: Storm Glass Weaver (Hybrid Support)
Squad Commander: Data Restricted
Squad Objective: Data Restricted
System Notification
[Talent: Evolution Architect – Passive Scan Triggered]
Note: Target data visibility exclusive to host.
The scan came unbidden, woven into his senses now. He didn't control it. Not fully. The system's bond with his beast enabled more than interface access it gave him passive insight. Evolutional potential, latent affinities, subgrade instability points.
He blinked slowly and dismissed the window. No one had noticed. No one ever would.
The Evolution Architect didn't make noise.
It simply understood.
He leaned back on his bunk, gaze drifting upward toward the ceiling's recessed lights. The Void Serpent pulsed gently beneath his ribs calm, present, unthreatened.
Everyone else in this room was a mystery.
But he could see their paths.
And his?
His hadn't been written yet.