The first sound Elias Torvic heard was breathing, not his own.
It came in ragged pulls, echoing inside his skull like wind through hollow bone. He tried to open his eyes, but the world bled white, blinding, searing every nerve. His chest rose, too fast. His body convulsed. For a moment, he didn't remember his name.
Then.....
[Awakening Sequence Initiated]
[Vessel: Elias Torvic]
[Soul Tier I — Fragment Integration: 03%]
[Task Assigned — Bind the Mortal Flesh.
Failure = Dissolution.]
The voice wasn't human. It was cold and ancient, as if the universe itself had spoken. Elias gasped, clutching the sheets beneath him. Sweat slicked his back. He was in a dim, sterile infirmary, white light panels flickering above, the faint smell of burnt ozone in the air.
He looked down at his trembling hands. Scars he didn't remember. Callouses he had never earned. His reflection in the metal cabinet, eyes no longer soft gray but faintly silver, glowing with something alien.
"What… what's happening to me?" he whispered.
The door hissed open.
"Torvic! You're finally awake."
Juno Kai's voice was a flash of warmth against the static in Elias's mind. The boy rushed in, tall and broad-shouldered, his cadet uniform half undone, eyes dark with worry. "You've been out for three days. The medics said your vitals were unstable like your body was rejecting itself."
Elias stared at him, words caught in his throat. He knew this boy, but he didn't. Flashes assaulted his brain, gunfire, blood on his hands, a mission gone wrong. But in those visions, the person he saw wasn't Elias Torvic. It was a man with dead gray eyes, a man who killed without hesitation.
[Memory Fragment Detected — Entity: Liam Blackwood]
[Warning: Consciousness Overlap, Integration unstable.]
Elias doubled over, clutching his head as the pain struck like a blade.
"Hey, hey.....Eli!" Juno grabbed his shoulders. "You okay?"
The lights flickered. A hum built in the room. Metal instruments rattled. And for a split second, Elias's shadow on the wall moved out of sync with his body.
Elias gasped for air, the echo of the system still whispering. Bind the mortal flesh. Bind the mortal flesh.
Before he could respond, the door slid open again. A woman stepped in, tall, graceful, her expression carved from ice. Tasha Cobham, top of the cadet corps, infamous for breaking ribs in sparring matches and never once apologizing.
"Torvic," she said flatly. "If you're done dying, orientation starts in twenty minutes."
"Tasha," Juno snapped. "He almost died!"
"Almost doesn't count in the field." Her eyes lingered on Elias, studying him too long, too sharply. Something about him made her jaw tighten. "There's something off about you," she muttered. "You smell like ozone."
She turned on her heel and left.
Elias stared after her, pulse hammering. Ozone. The same scent from his dreams. From the explosion. From his death.
[Subprocess Initiated — Sensory Recognition Link Confirmed.]
[Directive: Adapt to Environment. Observe. Survive.]
He felt the words burn into his mind like commandments.
Training resumed that afternoon.
The academy's simulation dome glowed like liquid crystal, an artificial sky stretching over polished black floors. Holographic drones circled above, scanning cadets as they took position.
Elias stood at the far end, his uniform hanging loose on his thin frame. Juno adjusted his gloves beside him, whispering,
"Just breathe, Eli. It's only a mock field test."
But to Elias, every movement around him was too clear. His eyes tracked every muscle twitch, every breath. His brain calculated angles, distances, weaknesses, like instincts he didn't remember having were suddenly alive again.
When the signal blared, cadets scattered.
Tasha moved first, striking with brutal precision. Two holographic drones shattered under her kicks.
"Try not to embarrass yourself, Torvic!" she shouted over her shoulder.
Elias ducked under a laser bolt too fast, almost preternatural. His body moved on its own. His hand shot out, grabbing a training rifle. He fired once, clean hit. The drone disintegrated midair.
The others stopped to stare. Even Tasha hesitated, her competitive smirk faltering.
"Where did that come from?" Juno whispered.
Elias didn't know. His chest heaved, adrenaline surging, but it wasn't excitement. It was instinct, cold, military precision. A whisper of a man who had trained to kill since birth.
Then the voice returned.
[Skill Protocol — Adaptive Combat Memory: Activated]
[Efficiency: 87%. Fragment Source — Blackwood, Liam]
His fingers trembled. The System was rewriting him, piece by piece.
Suddenly, the simulation glitched. A blinding pulse filled the dome, turning the holograms into static rain. Cadets screamed as the floor shook.
Elias clutched his chest, feeling something burn beneath his skin, a mark, glowing faintly through his uniform.
[Warning: Vessel Stability Compromised. Soul Overlap — Phase Two.]
The world dimmed around him. His heartbeat synced with a deeper rhythm, like a pulse beneath the earth itself. He heard a voice, distant yet familiar, deep, commanding, the echo of another life.
"You're not ready to die again, soldier."
Elias gasped. The light in the dome erupted pure, violent, divine.