It began at dawn.
No warning. No build-up this time. Just the sudden rupture of the sky—like a sheet of glass shattering—and the world rained people.
Naked light. Bodies falling like sparks.
A hundred of them.
Some landed in the river. Some in the treetops. Most slammed hard into the dirt.
Screaming.
Yelling.
And in seconds, the jungle came alive to greet them.
Yuren was already running before Chloe gave the order.
He sprinted past the perimeter, past the torch-markers, into the misty treeline. Trace Sense active, pulsing like a sonar map inside his skull.
Footsteps. Trails. Blood.
Too many to process.
He focused on one cluster—four survivors, tangled in vines near a ridge slope.
Something was approaching.
Fast. Six limbs. Tall as a van. Spiked along the spine.
He didn't wait for backup.
Titan Grip surged into his arms as he yanked one of the vines down and used it like a tether, swinging across the slope.
Glassshot—he only used it once, a quick shard to the eye.
It was enough.
The beast collapsed with a shriek.
The survivors scrambled away, wide-eyed, half-conscious.
Only one of them looked at him.
A girl.
Dark hair. Thin. Torn shirt. Cuts down both arms.
And something in her hands.
A stone slab.
Palm-sized.
Same shape. Same material.
Same glyph.
But her slab had no sockets.
Just a single vertical line carved across the surface—so faint it could've been missed entirely.
He froze.
She looked up at him, eyes glassy.
"Where… where am I?" she asked.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he knelt beside her, ignoring the others, and took her wrist gently.
"What's your name?"
She blinked.
"I… I don't remember."
"Do you have powers?"
"I don't know."
"Any floating rank?"
She shook her head.
"No mark. Nothing."
Back at camp, things were chaos.
Reika was already pulling survivors into the clearing. Chloe directed teams to retrieve the injured. Mason had set up a triage zone using the last of their gauze.
Denzel stood watch, silently cataloguing who looked dangerous.
Kaela hadn't moved.
She stood at the edge of the crater, staring toward the jungle.
As if waiting for someone specific.
Yuren brought the girl in himself.
She didn't speak much. She didn't look around.
But her grip on the slab never loosened.
He didn't mention it.
Didn't tell Chloe.
Didn't let Reika see it.
Not yet.
He led her to a shaded corner of the camp, offered her water, and waited until no one else was near.
Then asked again.
"Do you know where you got that?"
She shook her head.
But her voice was clearer this time.
"They said I should keep it safe."
"Who?"
"I don't know. I didn't see their face. Just… hands. Cold hands. And a voice."
"What did it say?"
She closed her eyes.
Then whispered:
"When the third is ready, the door will open."
The girl said her name might be Lyra.
She wasn't sure.
She didn't remember much.
Not her hometown. Not her age. Not what her power was supposed to be—if she even had one.
But she remembered two things:
The glyph she held had been given to her.
She wasn't supposed to let it go.
Yuren didn't tell Chloe.
He didn't even tell Reika.
He sat with Lyra the first night—beneath one of the tarp shelters, near the edge of camp—and watched her sleep, if only to make sure nothing happened.
No light.
No pulse of energy.
No glyph reaction.
But his own slab—hidden in the dirt beneath his crate—was glowing faintly.
Just enough for him to feel it.
Not see it.
Not touch it.
But know.
The third was present.
By morning, the attention started.
The others assumed she was weak.
Unranked meant unarmed.
Chloe kept her under observation. Quietly, carefully.
Mason offered her food, noticed how she didn't flinch around beasts in the distance.
Reika, though—Reika noticed everything.
"She doesn't act lost," she said to Yuren, low and quiet, while watching Lyra sit near the fire.
Yuren kept his voice casual. "What do you mean?"
"She doesn't flinch when something loud drops. She walks without watching her feet. She doesn't panic."
Yuren said nothing.
Reika glanced sideways. "You know something."
"I think she's in shock."
Reika raised a brow.
"Bullshit."
Then Denzel approached.
Late afternoon. No pretense.
He walked straight to Lyra, crouched beside her, and offered a half-smile.
"You eat yet?"
She nodded faintly. "Yes. Thank you."
"You from the States?"
"I don't remember."
"Interesting. You look like someone who used to know a lot."
She looked at him for the first time then. Calm. Still.
"I don't know you."
He grinned. "You will."
Yuren stepped in.
Quietly. Casually.
"Denzel."
He turned. "Just making conversation."
"She's off-duty."
"Didn't realize she'd been recruited."
"She's under watch. Not open to negotiations."
Denzel stared at him for a moment. Hard. Cold.
Then stood.
"I don't like secrets, Kai."
Yuren smiled. "Good thing you're not smart enough to find any."
Kaela was the last to see her.
She waited until night.
Waited until most of the camp was resting, patching up, sorting survivors.
Then, without warning, she approached.
Yuren saw her the moment she stepped into the firelight.
Eyes locked on Lyra.
She didn't blink.
Didn't speak.
Lyra noticed immediately.
She stood.
The two stared at each other in silence.
And then—Kaela's disc weapons lifted.
Two of them. Spinning, pulsing.
Aimed directly at Lyra's chest.
Yuren moved fast.
So did Reika.
Kaela didn't fire.
She just stared.
Then, slowly, she spoke.
"She has one of the keys."
Reika's eyes widened. "What?"
Kaela didn't look away from Lyra.
"She has one. I can feel it. Just like I felt the other flare three days ago."
Yuren stepped between them.
"Back off."
Kaela's voice was calm. "You've been hiding it."
"Back. Off."
She smiled.
Then lowered the discs.
"For now," she said. "But if she opens it first… you won't get a second chance."
That night, Yuren unearthed his glyph.
Held it in the moonlight beside Lyra's, when no one was watching.
Theirs matched exactly.
Except her line—hers had begun to split.
A hairline fracture, almost invisible.
But unmistakable.
Something in hers was activating.
And she didn't even know it.
It started with the sound.
A low hum.
Not loud. Not constant. But enough to make the ground beneath the crates tremble—not quake, just… vibrate.
Yuren jolted upright.
He wasn't the only one.
A few others stirred. Mason sat up and scanned the air, frowning. Chloe froze mid-step as she passed through the supply tents.
But Lyra?
She wasn't awake.
She was standing.
Eyes closed.
Glyph in both hands, held out in front of her like a compass.
And it was glowing.
Fractured.
Light seeped from the crack running down its surface—thin, pale gold, flickering like a dying signal. No heat. No sound. Just light.
Until the wind picked up.
And then it started pulling.
Yuren reached her first.
He grabbed her wrist gently. "Lyra. Hey. You're okay."
She blinked like waking from a long dream. "I didn't mean to… it just started… I felt something, someone… angry."
He looked around.
Kaela was watching from the tree line.
Not hiding it anymore.
Just waiting.
Later, under the tarp behind his shelter, Reika came to him.
Silent.
Deliberate.
She dropped a broken glass shard on the ground in front of him.
Not hers.
His.
"It doesn't match my shape," she said.
Yuren stared at it.
Said nothing.
"You've been using my technique," she continued. "I saw the residue near the kill pit. That shot was yours, not mine. And I don't train with anyone else."
Still, he didn't speak.
She took a breath. Calmer now.
"I'm not angry. I just want the truth. What's your ability?"
He looked her dead in the eyes.
And said:
"I can copy powers."
She didn't flinch.
But she did exhale.
"Permanently?"
"One every ten days."
"Since when?"
"Since the first beast."
Reika nodded.
Sat down beside him.
"You're playing a dangerous game."
"I know."
She turned toward him. "Are you going to copy Lyra?"
He paused.
"No."
"Why not?"
"I think if I do… something will break."
Kaela came the next night.
No preamble.
No warning.
Just walked straight into the campfire circle, her discs floating behind her, eyes fixed on Chloe.
"I want the girl."
Chloe stood. "No."
Kaela tilted her head. "This is a mistake."
"She's under protection."
"She's a key."
"We don't know that."
"I do."
Kaela looked past her.
Right at Yuren.
Right through him.
"She activated her glyph last night. The second one responded. And if we don't open the Door soon—someone else will. Someone worse."
Chloe didn't back down. "She's not ready."
Kaela's expression didn't change.
Then she said, simply:
"If you don't hand her over by tomorrow night—I'll kill everyone here and take her myself."
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Then Kaela turned and walked away.
Like she hadn't just delivered a death sentence.
That night, Yuren stared at the glyph in his hand and saw something new.
A message carved across the bottom edge.
Thin. Small. Fresh.
THE THIRD SHALL DECIDE WHO OPENS.
ONE OPENS. TWO FOLLOW.
ONLY ONE SURVIVES.