The corridor felt wrong.
Not in the obvious way.. no alarms, no flickering lights, no rushing footsteps. The silence was too clean, too deliberate, like someone had scraped away every sound that didn't belong.
Ryu stood still, one hand relaxed at his side, the other hovering close to his jacket seam where a hidden micro-blade rested. The sterile white glow from the ceiling stretched ahead of him, illuminating nothing but polished metal and empty air.
Empty.
Except it wasn't.
NV's voice was low, tight, almost metallic with tension.
"Ryu… the rhythm of the footsteps is inconsistent. Not human. Not civilian. Not trained like us. Something else."
Inside, Eon's whisper curled like smoke.
"Finally waking up, little one? Someone is crawling through your walls."
Ryu didn't turn his head. He didn't need to. His senses had narrowed into a razor's edge, reading every shift of temperature, every vibration in the floor plating, every breath of displaced air.
The shadow at the far end of the hall had been small. Too small for an adult. Too fast for a child.
Something between.
Ryu exhaled once.
Slow. Controlled. Centered.
Then he walked.
Not fast. Not cautious.
Just precise.
Each step made NV sharpen its feed.
"Thermal signature leaving cold traces… meaning they are masking their core temperature. That is not standard tech. That is infiltration-grade equipment."
Ryu thought: Which level?
NV hesitated.
"Not Level 3, not Level 2. Higher."
Eon gave a soft laugh.
"Oh, yes. This one is worth hunting."
***
At the midpoint of the hallway, the world shifted.
A faint displacement.. like air folding.
Ryu stopped instantly.
A figure materialized at the edge of a maintenance hatch. Not fully visible.. more silhouette than body. Limbs thin and long, moving with an unnatural liquidity, the joints too smooth.
It wasn't wearing Vasena clothing.
It wasn't wearing anything recognizable.
The head snapped toward Ryu.
NV hissed.
"Eyes like that.. Ryu, that is not a student. Not staff. Not even an agent."
The creature tilted its head.
Then moved.
No, launched.
A blur of silent velocity, closing the distance in less than a heartbeat.
Ryu shifted his stance.. weight lowered, center aligned. The world slowed into sharp lines.
The creature's hand slashed forward.
Claws.
Not nails.
Claws, metal-black and thin as blades.
Ryu stepped aside, barely a breath-width to safety. The claws scraped past his temple, leaving a line of heat where they almost touched skin.
Eon whispered, delighted.
"Yes… like that. Let go a little."
Ryu ignored him.
The creature twisted mid-air with impossible grace, rebounding off the wall with no sound at all. It lunged again...
Ryu moved first.
He slid under the swing, grabbed the creature's forearm, twisted, and drove it into the floor. The metal surface dented.
But the creature didn't scream.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't react.
Instead, it dissolved.. its body breaking into a dark vapor that slipped through Ryu's fingers.
NV's alarm sharpened.
"Projection. It was a projection body. Ryu, the real one is..."
Something dropped from the ceiling behind him.
Ryu spun just in time to block a downward strike. The force tremored through his arm like a shockwave. He slid back half a step, boots digging into the metal.
The creature's real body landed in front of him.. smaller than expected, barely chest height. Its limbs were too long for its frame, its movements like a mimicry of human motion rather than the real thing.
But its eyes...
Ryu recognized something in them.
Not hunger.
Not anger.
Analysis.
It was studying him just as he studied it.
NV murmured, "This is not an attack pattern. It is scanning your responses."
Eon whispered, "Maybe it's impressed. Or maybe it wants to tear your spine out. Hard to tell."
The creature cocked its head again.
Then it spoke.
A glitching voice, layered with static:
"Subject… Alverion… confirmed."
Ryu's pulse didn't change.. but NV roared inside him.
"Ryu. That designation is restricted to top-tier intel files. How does it know your origin-classification?"
Ryu took one step forward.
"What are you?"
The creature's jaw cracked open in a too-wide motion, like a hinge snapping.
"Observer unit… Phase-0. Directive: assess threat of Alverion anomaly."
Phase-0.
Not Phase-1 or Phase-2.
A category that shouldn't exist inside Vasena grounds.
Ryu felt NV freeze.
"Impossible. Ryu, this unit is not from Vasena. Not from any allied sector. This is foreign infiltration tech."
Foreign.
As in enemy.
Ryu's fingers curled slightly. "Who sent you?"
The creature didn't answer. Instead, its body tensed.. preparing to launch.
Eon whispered a thin, hungry note.
"Let me take him."
Ryu's jaw tightened.
"No."
He moved a split-second before the creature lunged.
Their bodies collided in a blur of motion... hands locking, feet shifting, gravity bending around precision. The creature twisted its torso in a serpentine arc, claws slicing through the air inches from Ryu's throat.
Ryu slammed an elbow into its sternum...
Only to find no sternum.
The body folded inward, absorbing impact as if made of thick elastic, then snapped back.
Claws flashed again.
Ryu dropped low, swept its legs...
They didn't break.
They bent backward, like they had no bones.
"Ryu," NV called sharply, "do not aim for joints. Aim for the core node. It's between the shoulder blades!"
The creature lunged for his neck.
Ryu pivoted, hooked his fingers around its arm, and in one clean motion...
He dislocated it.
Or he should have.
But the arm simply reformed, as if made of memory rather than muscle.
Eon's voice deepened.
"You cannot fight it as a human. You must think like what you are becoming."
Ryu ignored him again.
He found the opening NV marked...
A faint pulse under the creature's rear plating.
Ryu moved.
A sharp forward step...
A twist...
A strike with the edge of his hand.
Contact.
The creature spasmed violently. Its limbs jerked, its form glitching like corrupted data. It scrambled backward, claws screeching across metal.
Then it froze.
Looked up at Ryu.
And whispered:
"Alverion anomaly… confirmed lethal. Escalation required."
Then...
It dissolved.
Completely.
Leaving nothing but a smear of dark particulate on the floor.
NV processed fast.
"That wasn't death. That was retrieval. It sent everything it recorded to a remote host."
Meaning someone now had the creature's footage.
Someone now knew exactly what Ryu could do.
And where he was.
Eon chuckled softly.
"Now the game starts."
***
Before Ryu could move, NV spoke again.
"Ryu… Lyra is coming."
Ryu turned.
At the end of the corridor, the medical door slid open. Lyra stepped out, tablet in hand. She wasn't running, but her pace was fast... too fast for her usual calm.
Her eyes found Ryu instantly.
And her breath caught.
"Ryu… you… your waves just spiked so high it nearly shut down my panel." She reached him quickly, eyes scanning him for injuries. "What happened?"
Ryu said nothing.
On the floor behind him, the smear of dark particulate still flickered faintly.
Lyra saw it.
Her expression changed.. not fear, but a precise, focused alarm.
"That is not Vasena material," she whispered. "Who did that?"
Ryu met her eyes.
"A foreign unit."
Lyra's grip on her tablet tightened. "Inside the residential wing? That means they breached past three security layers…"
Her gaze lifted to Ryu again, softer now, heavy with something unspoken.
"Ryu… were you hurt?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Lyra let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.
Something fragile in her expression eased.
Then she looked past him again, toward the smear.
"Ryu… if something is targeting you, then..."
"It wasn't targeting me," Ryu said. "It was evaluating."
Lyra's voice dropped.
"That's worse."
NV spoke urgently.
"Lyra, you need to return to Medical. Lock down your wing."
Eon whispered, almost amused.
"Oh, let her stay. She stabilizes you."
Lyra stepped closer. "Ryu. Come with me. Now."
Ryu didn't move.
Lyra's eyes softened, just a little.
"Please."
That word struck differently.
Ryu nodded.
Lyra exhaled... a barely-there release of tension... and she turned, guiding him back toward Medical.
Halfway there, she spoke without looking at him.
"Ryu… whatever that thing was… it wasn't meant to kill you." She paused. "It was meant to decide if someone else should."
Ryu remained silent.
Lyra slowed slightly, her voice quiet but steady.
"I don't know what you're becoming, Ryu."
A beat.
"But I'm not letting anyone else decide it for you."
Ryu looked at her.
For the briefest moment, her expression was unguarded... concern, fear, determination… and something warmer than all three.
Then she masked it again as the door slid open.
"Inside," she said quietly.
Ryu stepped through.
Behind him, the hallway lights flickered once..
Just once...
As if something unseen brushed past the sensors.
NV whispered:
"Ryu… we're not alone."
Eon whispered too.
"No. And it's about to get interesting."
The door sealed shut.