The man in the black coat arrived without announcement.
No footsteps echoed down the hallway, and no alarms blared. One moment, Kian was called to the briefing room; it was empty except for Kian and the inactive screen wall.
The next moment, the man was there, dressed in black.
Leaning against the far wall as if he had always belonged to it.
Kian did not flinch.
That alone made the man smile.
"You don't react like the others," the man in the black coat said. His voice was calm, smooth, and unhurried. "Good. Fear wastes time."
Kian studied him openly.
Black coat, long and unmarked. No academy insignia, no rank display on his coat. His face was sharp.
"Who are you?" Kian asked.
The man pushed himself from the wall and approached the center of the room. The screen flickered to life behind him, displaying rotating sigils and satellite images.
"You don't know me," the man in the black coat said. "Okay. It has been twelve years since we last saw each other."
Kian quickly connected the dots. "You are the man in the black coat back then," he said. "You are the one who brought me here."
The man in the black coat replied to Kian, saying, "Yes. Some call me Handler." He paused. "Others call me Observer. Officially, I don't exist."
He paused again, then added, "You can call me Executor Ash."
Kian felt his bracelet tighten around his hand.
The name carried weight in Kian's chest.
Evaluators did not train students.
They evaluated threats.
"You are seventeen," Ash continued. "Twelve years since you came to Crestfall Assassin Academy. You have just proven yourself to be a weapon."
"For twelve years, I thought you were going to become a liability," Ash said. "I was already considering disposing of you. But you changed your fate."
Kian was shocked by what Executor Ash said. In his mind, he thought that if he had not proven himself, he would have become a liability and they would have disposed of him.
Kian said nothing, only staring at the man in the black coat.
"Tonight," Executor Ash said, "you will go on your first mission."
The word settled heavily in the air.
"Mission," not test and not exercise, Kian murmured.
Mission meant permission to kill your enemies.
"Yes," Executor Ash said.
Ash waved his hand, and the screen shifted, displaying a city skyline under the rain. Nighttime. Industrial district.
"Location: Red Harbor, Subsector Seven," Executor Ash said.
"An abandoned factory complex. Three nights ago, a containment team failed to return."
Kian's eyes narrowed. "Containment teams don't fail."
"They do," Executor Ash replied, "when they meet something that doesn't care about protocol."
The image zoomed in, revealing warped metal and scorch marks not from fire, but from something that had been peeled away.
"Target classification: rogue Veilborn," Executor Ash continued. "Destination pending. Estimated power and authority threshold high."
Kian's heartbeat slowed.
"Authority-level targets are very dangerous," Kian said.
"Meaning death for a normal squad."
"You won't be going alone," Executor Ash said. "An elite squad will accompany you."
The screen split into profiles.
Five operatives.
Names redacted. Rank higher than Kian. All veterans.
Blade specialist.
Curse suppressor.
Tracker.
Sniper.
Field captain.
Kian recognized some of them. There was coldness in their eyes.
"Executor Ash," Kian said, "they outrank me, sir."
"Yes," Executor Ash replied. "They outrank you."
"They won't like me," Kian said.
"No," Executor Ash replied.
Executor Ash smiled faintly. "That's intentional."
Kian met Executor Ash's gaze. "Why me? Why did you choose me?"
Executor Ash didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he leaned closer to Kian, lowering his voice. "Because the target is similar to you."
"And because if this goes wrong"
"It won't gone wrong," Kian interrupted.
Executor Ash's smile widened. "Good. You understand already."
Executor Ash told Kian not to fail his first mission and to get stronger, then walked out of the briefing room.
Kian remained in the briefing room, thinking about what Executor Ash said about the mission the target is similar to me in some ways.
Kian stood up and prepared to leave. While walking down the hallway, he spotted Ashren with some students approaching from the front. They passed each other, Ashren looking at Kian with disdain on his face.
The transport cut through the rain without lights. Inside the transport, silence ruled.
The elite squad sat strapped into their seats, weapons secured beside them, faces unreadable. None of them spoke to Kian.
No one acknowledged him beyond brief glances, their eyes assessing him.
The field captain was a tall woman with burn scars crawling from her neck to her face. She broke the silence.
"Rules are simple," she said. "You stay behind us. You don't use your power unless ordered. And you don't improvise. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, Captain," Kian replied.
"Your job," she continued, "is observation. We extract if necessary. We eliminate it if required."
Her eyes hardened as she looked at Kian. "And you are not required."
"Understood," Kian replied. "Yes, Captain."
They breached the factory at 02:17. The air inside was wrong.
Not hot. Not cold. Thin.
Kian felt it immediately the way his skin reacted. The flame inside him tightened, drawing inward. The tracker cursed softly, unable to detect the target. No thermal signature.
They advanced deeper into the factory.
The machinery loomed like a dead giant. Shadows stretched unnaturally, bending toward a central corridor.
Kian stopped. His bracelet pulsed once sharp.
"It's here," Kian said.
The captain raised her hand. "Quiet."
Then the lights went off not flickering, but dying.
Something moved fast in the darkness.
The curse suppressor screamed as he was dragged inward, folding like paper. He was lifted off the ground, bones snapping audibly, before being hurled against the wall.
Blood splattered.
The elite squad reacted immediately. Gunfire. Sigils. Blades flashing.
Nothing hit.
The air laughed.
A figure emerged from the darkness human-shaped but wrong. Its skin looked scaled, energy radiating from its body.
It looked at Kian.
The monster froze.
The world seemed to pause.
"You," the creature whispered, its voice echoing everywhere. "The fire child."
"Don't listen to it," the field captain shouted.
The sniper fired. The bullet disintegrated. The creature was irritated by the attack.
"Fall back!" the field captain yelled but it was already too late.
The floor collapsed. The tracker vanished.
The creature moved again, this time directly toward Kian. The captain and the others tried to intercept it.
They were brushed aside.
Kian didn't move.
The flame inside him surged not outward, but inward.