The sun was still out, yet it cast longer shadows here. Like time itself walked differently.
We had landed in a clear-out zone. Rift traces from a recent incident had saturated the rocks, forming glowing streaks in the cracks. Crimson embers flickered in the dirt like leftover fireflies from another dimension.
"Alright, kids," Riva said, stepping forward and addressing us with the energy of someone who'd done this a hundred times and never stopped being slightly annoyed. "This is a zero-to-one variant exposure zone. No living threat, but rift energy is still active, so don't start licking rocks."
Jonas raised his hand. "That's oddly specific."
"I have regrets," Riva replied flatly. "Now—your collector nodes are linked to your individual crest signatures. Insert your palm into the core and scan. Do not press both buttons at once, unless you want me to teleport you into a volcano."
As everyone activated their nodes, I kept mine off. Luan glanced at me. I could already see the question forming on her face, so I answered before she asked.
"I don't have a signature to sync it with."
She blinked. "Wait, what? I thought—" she lowered her voice, "ooohhh sorry I forgot."
"You think too much."
Without asking, she scanned her own node and pressed mine against her palm. Both lit up.
"You're lucky I'm sentimental," she said, smirking.
"And you're lucky I'm desperate," I muttered.
"Team up," Riva called. "Everyone moves in pairs. I'll be checking in through dimensional relay. If you hear my voice inside your head, don't freak out—it's just me abusing government technology."
I noticed her pupils shimmer faintly—her space crest active. A symbiont, no doubt. She could literally fold space around herself. I'd once read in a classified thread that she once disassembled a man by sending his limbs into four different portals. Probably just campus myth. Probably.
Khadija partnered with Milo, and the two immediately began a hushed debate about radiation exposure and contour-safe hazard suits. Jonas was forced to team up with Marlo, who greeted the assignment with all the warmth of an open palm slap.
"Don't slow me down," she said.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Jonas replied, adjusting his gloves with that confident-dumb-guy smile.
Willy was paired with his pet shard wheeler and instantly began explaining why Wheeler hadn't been seen in a while.
"He's in crest recalibration," Willy said, tapping the side of his gas mask. "Had a minor overload. Nothing serious. His core's stabilizing."
"Still felt weird not seeing him around your neck," Khadija said, adjusting her visor. "It's like watching a chef without their spice rack."
Willy just shrugged.
We all set off, moving out through the cracked plains. The terrain shimmered faintly, hot and dense with energy. Remnants of a rift echo, still pulsing weeks after the variant was neutralized.
Jonas crouched over a steaming crack in the earth, the glow beneath his collector node casting a warm light on his knuckles. "Okay, readings say minimal rift energy... though this rock is practically humming like a bad mixtape."
Marlo stood a few paces away, arms crossed over her hazard suit, eyes sharp beneath her visor. "That's not how science works."
"I think it is. You just don't like the remix," Jonas replied, flashing a crooked grin.
Marlo sighed. "Just scan the formation properly."
"You ever smile, Marlo?"
"Only when people like you shut up."
He chuckled, tapping his node. "Guess I'll die trying then."
Marlo crouched beside him. "Focus. We're already five minutes behind on our section sweep."
Jonas stole a glance her way. "You know, for a law minor, you've got serious main character energy."
Marlo turned, expression unreadable. "And you've got sidekick vibes with a death flag waving behind your head. Let's move."
Jonas was about to make another quip when—
CRACK!
A burst of hot air seared past his cheek.
He blinked—then froze.
"Blood," he muttered, staring at the red trailing down Marlo's ear. "You're bleeding."
Marlo's breath hitched as she touched her ear, her fingers trembling. "What the—?"
Another shot tore through the rock behind them, blasting it into debris.
"Sniper," Jonas hissed, grabbing her hand. "We're getting ghosted out here!"
Without hesitation, his eyes glowed—irises blooming with prismatic shimmer—and the air around them bent like heatwaves.
Light diffraction. Aeon-type crest.
They vanished.
A few minutes in, Luan and I stopped by a jagged rock, red veins running through it like lightning scars.
"So, quick pop quiz," she said, pulling out her collector. "Echoes, aberrants, titans... what else?"
"Parasites," I said, bending to scan the soil. "And the Diavolo."
"The what?"
"Variant classification. Echoes are the low-level drones. Aberrants are smarter, sentient. Titans are huge and usually territorial. Parasites, well... they hijack other living things. Turn 'em into puppets."
"And Diavolo?"
I paused. "Nobody really knows. Top-tier variant. Smart, powerful. Rarest of the rare."
Luan shivered slightly. "Charming."
She moved ahead to scan the next formation, glancing at me sideways. "I still think it's dumb you don't have a crest."
"I don't think about it."
"You totally think about it."
"I do."
"called it."
Somewhere far off, the sound of a collector unit whirred.
"Anyway, you're welcome," Luan said casually. "My crest's a shard type. You're synced to one of the rarest classes. I expect a thank-you coffee."
"I'll even pretend to listen while you drink it."
We shared a grin. It lasted four seconds.
Then the transmission hit.
"All teams." Riva's voice cracked across our earpieces. "We've got a situation."
The hologram of the space shimmered mid-air, forming a portal window—through it, we saw Jonas holding a bleeding Marlo in his arms, crouched behind a jagged rock. His eyes were frantic.
"I've got a sniper on us!" Jonas barked. "I went invisible but the blasts are still tagging near us—they've got some kind of impact crest!"
Marlo groaned, clutching her ear.
"Sniper?" Willy's voice came over the comms. "This was supposed to be dead space!"
"No joke, dude!" Jonas ducked another round. A flash lit the side of the portal, and an explosion blew debris into the air. "This isn't a joke round! It's live!"
Riva's voice was firm. "All groups converge on Jonas and Marlo's signal. I'm porting to their location now. Eyes sharp, no hero moves."
As the portal shimmered shut, Luan turned to me.
"You're freakishly calm right now."
"Isn't that what's expected from someone crestless?" I replied, brushing dust off my sleeve.
Meanwhile—across the ridge—hidden within the warped skeleton of a derelict variant hive, a man adjusted his rifle.
He had jet black gloves, a grey and red undersuit, and messy auburn hair tied back into a loose knot. A scar danced across the corner of his mouth like it wasn't sure if it wanted to be a smile.
He didn't look like a toppler. He didn't move like one either.
But when his eyes narrowed, and the wind pulsed around the barrel of the gun—that's when you saw it.
He pressed his hand against the side of the weapon. A low hum buzzed through the air. The bullet inside the chamber flickered red. The kinetic energy in the shell magnified.
The next shot he took cracked a boulder clean in half fifty meters away.
"Luigi," he muttered to himself, reloading. "Better they say my name than forget it."
A soft glow shimmered along his spine. His symbiont crest signature activated.
Kinetic manipulation. Not just speed. He could store momentum, redirect it. Amplify it. A bullet fired from his rifle didn't just travel faster—it exploded with compressed force, detonating on contact.
And worst of all... he could slow it down. Curve it. Make it chase.
"Let's see what these kids are made of," he murmured, raising his rifle again.
And then he smiled.
The air cracked.
A streak of heat tore through the red-tinged sky, detonating just meters from where Jonas and Marlo had taken cover.
Jonas ducked behind the warped stone outcrop, sweat dripping into his eyes as he clutched Marlo tighter. Her breathing was shallow, her ear still bleeding from the earlier shot. Her shard crest—Zig—had retreated into dormancy, pulsing faintly against her chest.
He cursed under his breath. "Of all people, I had to get paired with the sniper magnet."
Another shot whizzed by. Jonas winced, forced his head up just long enough to get a glimpse of a flicker—light distorting unnaturally about eighty meters northeast. He narrowed his eyes. A shimmer in the air. The bastard was still out there.
"Alright. Light tricks it is."
He breathed in.
His fingers flexed, eyes glowing faintly. With a whisper of motion, the air around Jonas shimmered. He bent the light—not to hide, but to twist. He turned the curve into a flash, scattering photons in a sharp refraction. A microflare, right where the shimmer was.
A grunt. The glint of a rifle shifting position.
Jonas smirked. "Got you."
Marlo groaned, just barely conscious. Her hand twitched, and Zig stirred—its form crackling like sharpened shadow. "Z-Zig… The Hand..."
The shard creature responded immediately, stretching like an elastic claw and slamming into the ground beneath the sniper's position. With a low crack, the earth split and tilted.
A black boot skidded into view. A silhouette slipped out of hiding—tall, cloaked in a weathered coat, his rifle casually cradled like a paintbrush.
Jonas' smirk faded.
"Not great."
The man lifted the gun again. A shot thundered from the barrel, but this time, it wasn't just speed—it whined, like something cutting through reality itself. It shimmered with kinetic buildup, bending space before impact.
Jonas clenched his jaw and shielded Marlo's body. "Zig—!"
Too late.
The air exploded—
—but space twisted first.
A portal cracked into existence mid-blast, swallowing the bullet whole and spitting it into a distant hilltop.
Riva stepped through the shimmer like she'd been waiting her whole life to make an entrance.
"Luigi, what are you doing here."
The man adjusted his coat. He had the kind of face you'd forget until he smiled—then it stayed with you. The smile was there now, lazily curling beneath a rough stubble and framed by a sharp jaw. His eyes gleamed like molten iron. And he was holding that rifle like it was part of him.
"Was wondering when you'd show."
Jonas blinked. "They know each other?"
Riva's stance didn't waver. "You used the students as bait."
"Correct."
"And you came here—for me?"
"Correct again."
He flicked a switch on his rifle, reloading with fluid grace. "Don't act like you didn't see this coming. Everyone pays, Riva. Even sellouts."
"You mean ex-partners."
"You say 'ex' like it means 'done.'"
He pulled the trigger.
Bang—Bang—Bang—
Riva spun, her portals flaring like shards of broken mirrors. Each bullet vanished before it hit her, reappearing in midair and slamming into the dirt around Luigi's feet. But his expression barely twitched—he waved his hand, and the bullets slowed mid-flight, shifting direction. One slammed into a tree, another skipped across the ground like a pebble, exploding ten feet away.
The students scattered.
Khadija shouted, "What the hell is happening?!"
Milo yanked her behind a ridge. "Symbiont crest. Kinetic type! He's manipulating energy flow—speed, force—he's weaponizing physics!"
Huey arrived in silence, sliding in beside Luan, his eyes tracking every movement. She noticed the quiet burn behind them.
"Shouldn't we… do something?" she whispered.
Huey didn't answer.
He was watching. Measuring. Staring.
The wind shifted.
Riva and Luigi blurred into motion again—bullets folding through portals, fists thrown, space cut and stitched in the span of a breath.
Then Luigi changed it.
He slid back, fingers reaching toward his gear. A low hum filled the air.
Jonas's eyes widened. "That's not a regular rifle."
The shotgun gleamed like polished obsidian, a faint blue glow humming around the chamber. Luigi fed something into it—capsules, round and charged.
"Compressed kinetic chambers," Milo whispered. "That'll level the field."
A few of the rounds Luigi had fired before hand changed trajectory and was heading for the students, Riva was forced to focus her attention on them.
Luigi fired.
A burst like thunder cracked the sky.
Riva spun, sweat flicking from her brow, her arms outstretched. She forced the portal open without her hands.
It opened above the cliff, and dropped the round straight down.
The impact crater swallowed the battlefield in dust.
Silence.
Then coughing.
Then applause.
Jonas, of all people, started clapping from behind cover. "Yo! Portal Queen! She cooked that man!"
Riva let her shoulders fall, breathing heavy. "Still got it."
She turned, dusting her sleeves. "Everyone okay?"
Jonas: "Yup."
Huey: "Fine."
Luan: "That was—wait. Behind you."
Riva froze.
Luigi stepped out of the haze like a ghost, both hands raised—holding twin pistols.
Pop pop pop—
Not bullets. Dummy rounds. Charged with kinetic energy.
They slammed into Riva's side, one after the other, too fast for a portal, too blunt for evasion.
She collapsed.
Luigi strode over. Reached into her coat, fished out the encrypted Arcana ID chip.
"You've gotten sloppy," he murmured. "You always did like to gloat too early."
"I should kill you here and now for betraying Kaiser, but You always did know how I liked my pasta"
He turned to the students.
They stared, frozen.
He raised one pistol lazily. "Nothing personal."
But he paused.
Looked right. Then left.
He felt it.
The pressure.
Standing at the back, eyes half-lidded, blue irises glowing faintly under the shadow of his hood.
Something… wrong about him.
The way his presence twisted the air.
Luigi stared, not smiling anymore.
"…Hmph."
He lowered the gun.
"Didn't come to kill children anyway."
He turned and vanished into the red haze.
Luan let out a breath. "What the hell was that?"
After a few minutes.
Riva's body twitched.
She groaned.
"…You all okay?"
Jonas frowned. "Yeah."
But his voice was tight.
Huey just stared, unreadable.
Riva stirred, groaning as she dragged herself into a seated position, back against a crumbled slab of concrete. The metallic ring of silence around the students buzzed, thick with the aftershock of violence.
Her gaze swept across them — wide-eyed, breathless, and unmoving.
"You sure you're all alright?" she asked again hoarsely.
They didn't answer.
Jonas stepped forward first, a hand resting protectively on the still-unconscious Marlo. His lips pressed into a thin, unreadable line. Khadija's eyes narrowed. Milo's gaze never left her hands, clenched at her sides. Even Huey — cold, calculating, Huey — wasn't hiding the way his jaw flexed, eyes locked on the spot where Luigi had vanished.
Riva frowned.
"…What's wrong?"
It was Luan who said it. Soft, but enough.
"He told us everything."
Riva flinched — not at the words, but at the certainty behind them.
There was no "what did he say?"
No "what are you talking about?"
Just stillness.
Then… she laughed. Bitter. Choked.
"Of course he did."
She buried her face in her hands, nails digging into her cheeks. "I knew it would catch up. I just didn't know it'd be this soon."
The students watched her unravel in real time.
"You think it's easy?" she snapped suddenly, eyes red. "Getting here? Becoming someone? I had nothing. Do you know what it's like to grow up watching everyone else get ahead because they had crests that mattered — names that mattered?"
Huey's gaze darkened, just slightly.
"You think I got into Arcana Divisione because I'm talented? No. I sold them data. I fed them little things. Nothing dangerous. Nothing that would hurt anyone. Not at first. I just needed— I just needed traction. A seat at the damn table."
"You gave them a seat at ours," Khadija murmured coldly.
"Don't act like I betrayed you," Riva shot back, unhinged. "I protected you. Every damn time. I taught you more in two days than Arcana would have in two years."
"And what about now?" Jonas growled. "You still protecting us?"
Riva didn't respond.
She looked down.
Then laughed again — not bitter this time, but broken. "Funny. I don't even know how that chip got into my jacket. It wasn't there this morning. I swear it."
"You're lying," Milo said flatly.
"No. No! I'm not—" Riva stood up shakily, her voice rising. "You think this was easy for me? You think I wanted this?"
Her pupils shrank, and something unhinged sparked behind her words.
"I tried to do good. I tried. But now… now you all know too much."
Huey's fists clenched.
Jonas backed up, pulling Marlo with him.
Khadija cursed. "She's about to—"
"I could almost shed a tear," Riva whispered, her hand sparking with portal light. "But it's too late now."
She raised her hand—
—and vanished backwards in a burst of wind and dust, her body slamming into a boulder with a crunch.
The students turned.
Atop a small ridge, wind swirling at her boots, stood a tall girl in all-black crest ops attire. Her silver-braided hair whipped around her sharp, dark features, and her pupils glowed with a soft air-lit shimmer.
Huey groaned. Loudly.
"Oh no."
Jonas blinked. "Who…?"
Luan's jaw dropped. "Wait— That's—!"
Huey didn't move.
"Hailee cross."
Hailee Cross stepped off the ledge, her boots making almost no sound against the dust as she landed.
Jonas blinked, muttering under his breath.
"damn, that face card is literally to die for.