The creature moved toward Kian. "You seem to be an Emberborn," it said. "It has been a long time since I have seen an Emberborn."
"What are you?" Kian asked.
The creature tilted its head, then said, "I was a Veilborn before, but now I am broken."
Then the creature screeched and struck Kian. He blocked the attack, but the force pushed him into the wall. Kian stood up.
The captain shouted for evacuation. No response, the signals were dead.
Executor Ash's voice crackled faintly through Kian's earpiece. "Kian," he said calmly. "This is where you prove yourself reliable."
The creature moved forward toward Kian, shouting, "You should run, fire child."
His bracelet glowed, and Kian raised his blade to attack. He slashed the creature with his condensed blade.
The creature recoiled, shrieking in pain.
Behind Kian, the remaining squad was in shock to see Kian damage the creature.
The creature retreated into the darkness, escaping.
The factory stood half ruined, walls warped inward as if the structure itself had tried to collapse away from something it couldn't endure. The rain outside seemed to have stopped.
Kian dropped to one knee from exhaustion after the attack. His blade was still holding onto it.
He tried to steady his breath.
The words of the creature disturbed him, and its behavior felt wrong, as if something was controlling it.
Behind Kian lay the elite squad, unmoving.
They stared at Kian as if he were something that had slipped out of containment without permission.
The captain was the first to recover. "All units, status report. Now."
Silence answered.
Two were dead. One was missing. One was seriously injured by the creature.
The sniper finally spoke. " I saw the creature recoil. Your strike, Kian, damaged it. It reacted."
He looked at Kian. "The creature didn't react to any of our attacks."
Kian withdrew his blade. His bracelet dimmed, the glow retreating beneath his skin.
"I didn't burn it," Kian said. "I cut it."
The captain approached Kian cautiously.
"How did you do it?" she asked.
Kian hesitated for a moment.
"I don't know," Kian answered honestly. "The flame didn't spread. It listened to me."
None of the elite squad responded.
The building groaned metal shrieking somewhere deep below as the fight destabilized the structure.
"We are leaving," the captain said. "Now."
The remaining elite squad and Kian moved away from the building quickly.
No pursuit.
No confirmation of the kill.
That alone meant failure to the Academy.
The extraction came late. The transport finally broke through the cloud cover nearly thirty minutes after the signal returned. By then, the emergency suppression team had sealed the area.
Inside the transport, Kian sat alone without restraint for the first time.
That was new.
Others avoided him.
Not with hatred, but with calculation.
The captain stood near the exit of the transport, arms crossed, jaw clenched. She had not looked at Kian since liftoff.
Executor Ash appeared as soon as they crossed Academy airspace.
As they disembarked from the transport, he materialized across from Kian, as if summoned by his thoughts.
"Alive," Executor Ash said, observing him. "That's good."
"You said to prove reliability," Kian replied. "Was that enough?"
Executor Ash studied Kian carefully.
"The mission failed," Executor Ash said. "The target escaped. Two members of the elite squad were lost."
Kian didn't look away. "Did I fail?"
Executor Ash smiled faintly.
"No," he said. "You survived and made contact with the target. That redefines the parameters."
Executor Ash leaned closer.
"Do you know what you did?" he asked quietly.
Kian replied, "No."
"You demonstrated your flame can damage the creature without erasing it," Executor Ash said. "That means you have good control over your power."
"Okay," Kian said.
Executor Ash nodded. "It's a good thing you're getting your hands on it."
After that, Kian and the elite squad were called to the briefing room.
The briefing room was sealed.
No windows. No observers visible.
Only a long table, light, and the people who decided whether you lived or died because of the failed mission that put them in this situation.
The captain stood at attention.
The sniper stood stiffly, jaw tight.
Kian stood alone.
Executor Ash occupied the far end of the table with several others.
"Report," Executor Ash said.
The captain spoke.
She didn't defend herself.
She stated the facts with brutal efficiency: timeline, engagement failure, loss of personnel, and environmental anomalies.
Then she stopped.
Executor Ash assessed her report.
The captain inhaled.
"The target was a Veilborn," she said. "And the creature was very powerful. Suppression was ineffective. Our attacks were useless."
Her eyes flicked to Kian once.
"The Emberborn asset demonstrated his abilities," she said. "His attack was able to damage the creature."
Executor Ash turned his gaze fully to Kian.
"Your statement," he said.
Kian inhaled and spoke.
He didn't justify himself.
He said the creature spoke to him as if it knew him, then suddenly attacked as if something was controlling it. When he struck the creature, it screeched and recoiled in pain.
"It was like something was controlling it," he finished.
Executor Ash's fingers tapped the table.
"Meaning?"
"I sensed a corrupt energy inside the target," Kian said.
The room shifted.
No one spoke.
Finally, one of the unseen voices behind the table broke the silence.
"That is impossible."
"It is," Executor Ash agreed. "And it happened."
Another voice said, "The subject is not merely an Emberborn."
Executor Ash smiled thinly at Kian.
"No," he said. "He is something older."
Kian felt the weight of those words press against his chest.
"Permission to speak," the captain asked.
"Granted."
"You knew this might happen, yet you sent him knowing the risk, sir."
Executor Ash nodded. "Yes."
"And if he had lost control when the creature attacked him?"
"But he didn't," Executor Ash replied.
"That isn't an answer," the captain said.
Executor Ash looked at her without responding.
The captain said nothing more.
That night, Kian returned to the dormitories, escorted to his room by Executor Ash.
Kian stepped inside.
The door didn't close.
Executor Ash didn't leave immediately.
"You heard what the creature said," Executor Ash said.
"Yes," Kian replied. "It called itself a broken Veilborn. Then it snapped and attacked me as if it was being controlled."
"Did it say anything else?" Executor Ash asked.
Kian shook his head. "No."
Then Executor Ash said, "Crestfall Assassin Academy didn't create monsters. We prevent them."
He turned and walked away, and the door closed.