The infirmary smelled faintly of antiseptic and dried herbs. Pale light hummed overhead, casting the room in an even, clinical glow. Cadets lay scattered across a row of cots, most too drained to speak, their wounds tended by robed medics moving with quiet precision.
One of them, a woman with blond hair bound in a tight braid, waved Kez toward an empty cot.
"Sit."
Kez obeyed, letting her cut away the stained bandages. The fabric peeled off reluctantly, tugging at the skin where the blood had dried.
She frowned the moment the wound was exposed. "That's… unusual."
The bite marks were still there, but instead of closing neatly, the edges looked tense and drawn inward and outward at the same time. Beneath the skin, faint blue light pulsed in uneven beats, like a faulty heartbeat.
"Your mana channels are active," she said. "Too active. That shouldn't be happening during passive healing."
Kez tilted his head, trying for casual. "Isn't active better than not working at all?"
"Not when they're trying to force themselves open." She leaned closer, scanning his arm with a strip of glass etched in runes. "Healing mana is supposed to flow along your existing channels to repair them and boost cell regeneration. Think of it like water running through a pipe while sealing the cracks. Yours is taking that water and… digging entirely new pipes."
Kez raised a brow. "So, I'm converting healing mana into my own mana and using it to make new channels?"
"Not exactly. It's more like your mana is making use of the healing mana for something completely different. Normally, healing mana slowly converts into your own mana when they come in contact but that's not the case here. And this doesn't happen by accident."
She straightened, her tone sharpening.
"Channel expansion is an advanced and dangerous process. Done wrong, you rupture the ones you already have. That's why it's only attempted under controlled training, and only by people who know what they're doing. How familiar are you with expanding mana channels?"
"About as much as a newborn... maybe less."
The medic gave him a long, level look mixed with disbelief and resignation. "Then listen carefully. Your channels are like roots. Forcing them to grow in the wrong direction can tangle them, split them, even choke off the flow entirely. If that happens, your mana will turn inward. And when mana turns inward, it burns what it can't escape. Think of it like accidentally shorting a circuit."
She paused for a second before continuing.
"But what makes it even worse is that your channels aren't just expanding but they're doing it without your conscious control. Normally, this happens when high rankers fail their rank advancement rituals which is a death sentence. Expansion without guidance tears the channels apart from the inside out. The fact that you're still alive tells me the expansion isn't random."
She met his eyes.
"It's precise. Your mana knows exactly what it's doing."
Kez slowly absorbed the new information with some unease. He wanted to ask more questions, but then he felt strange movements beneath his skin.
The pressure flared up, sudden and sharp. Kez's breath caught as heat shot up his arm, threading into his shoulder.
The medic's eyes narrowed. "There it is." She pressed her palm over the wound, but it wasn't to suppress it.
Kez felt more healing mana being poured into his wound through the medic's hand.
Kez's eyes widened. "What are you—"
"I need to see how it reacts. If I can map the flow, maybe I can redirect it." Her voice stayed steady, but there was a glint of focus in her eyes that told him she knew this was risky.
The moment the new mana entered, his own surged to meet it, seizing it like a hand grabbing rope. The channels in his arm shuddered as if something inside was forcing them wider, carving through scar tissue that shouldn't even be there yet.
Kez clenched his jaw, every muscle in his arm locking. It felt alive and not just moving but carefully choosing which way to move. He felt something faint but incredibly painful pushing from his wound toward his heart.
Her grip tightened. "Almost there… just a little longer."
The flare held for several heartbeats before it finally eased, like whatever had been pushing had gotten what it wanted. The wound closed a fraction more, and the blue pulses under his skin dimmed.
The medic pulled her hand back slowly, studying him with an expression that was equal parts curiosity and concern. "As I thought. It's drawing in mana with intent... almost like it's hunting for it. This isn't a wild surge. It's a trained pattern."
"Trained? I didn't train it."
She gave him a long, searching look. "Then either you've been conditioned without realizing it… or something else inside you is using the mana as if it's already been taught how."
Kez flexed his fingers, feeling the strange wakefulness still thrumming through his arm. "That's supposed to make me feel better, right?"
Her lips pressed into a thin line. "No. But it might save your life if we figure out who — or what — gave it those instincts."
'I already have a guess. Stupid Ai. It's your doing, isn't it?'
[ Beep! Unable to respond. Please try again later ]
'Fucking great. Let me guess I have to buy a subscription to keep using it. Useless clanker.'
Kez sighed deeply and looked up at the blond media.
"So, what now?"
The medic didn't flinch at his question. "Now, you rest. No training, no sparring, no mana exertion unless it's absolutely necessary. I want to see how it behaves when left alone — if it's truly acting with intent, it might reveal its triggers without us forcing them."
Kez leaned back slightly, narrowing his eyes. "And if it decides to start a massive highway project in my chest while I'm asleep?"
"Then I'll be here to stop it." She crossed her arms, studying him like a puzzle piece that didn't belong. "I'm assigning you to a private room for observation tonight. I'll set a detection ward, so I'm alerted if your channels spike again."
Kez smirked faintly. "Sounds like a cozy date."
Her gaze didn't soften. "It's not a joke. Whatever's inside you… it's not just reacting to healing mana. It's choosing how to grow, where to go. That's deliberate. And deliberate means it can be bargained with — or it can turn against you."
That last part lingered in the air longer than he liked.
He remembered reading something similar to this. For example, the blood parasites used by the people of demonic sea.
Kez flexed his fingers again. The thrum in his arm was still there: quiet now, but not dormant. It felt like an animal crouched low, tail twitching, waiting for the next movement.
"Great. I love my new pet that lives under my skin... just great."
The medic finally stepped back, removing her gloves and tossing them into a bin.
"You never told me your name," Kez said, watching her. "Or do you keep that classified until patients sign a waiver?"
Her lips twitched, not quite a smile. "Arlen Veyra. Senior combat medic."
"Kez," he said, gesturing vaguely with his uninjured hand. "Professional highway construction site."
"I have noticed," she replied dryly.
He leaned back on the cot. "Alright, Arlen, since I am apparently stuck here for the night, what about tomorrow? First day of classes at TROP. I am assuming they frown on no-shows."
"You will report," she said. "But if the channels flare again, you leave immediately and come here. No arguing."
Kez tilted his head. "So, what, I get to show up on day one with a doctor's note?"
"If you need one, I will write it," Arlen said, crossing her arms. "But you are still going. Observation does not mean isolation. If anything, I want to see how your mana reacts in an active environment."
"Great," Kez muttered. "So I am the lab rat and the student."
"Better than being the corpse," she said, and her tone made it clear that was not hyperbole.
Kez gave her a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am."
She did not rise to the bait. "Rest. And try not to provoke your… pet."
Kez lay back, the quiet of the infirmary settling around him. The thrum in his arm was still there, faint and steady, like it was listening.
Kez lay still, staring at the faint lines in the ceiling until his eyes lost focus. The quiet of the infirmary pressed in from all sides, broken only by the shuffle of footsteps and the occasional murmur between medics.
The thrum in his arm pulsed again, slow and steady, like it was reminding him it was still there. Not demanding. Not aggressive. Just present.
He exhaled and let his head sink deeper into the pillow. Tomorrow could deal with itself. For now, the cot was warm, the air was still, and the presence under his skin stayed calm.
His breathing slowed.
Sleep took him before he realized it had arrived.
***
Kez opened his eyes and found himself adrift in an expanse so vast it defied comprehension. There was no ground beneath him, no horizon to anchor his sight, only an endless sea of black scattered with stars. They glimmered like shards of frozen light, some bright and sharp as cut glass, others faint and far away, dimming and brightening as if breathing in slow motion.
He hung in the void without weight or pressure. There was no sense of air moving past him, no warmth or cold against his skin. In fact, he was not sure if he still had skin. His body was… distant and felt absent. He could sense where it should be, but the usual web of sensations was absent. Even the beat of his heart and the familiar thrum in his arm had gone silent, replaced by a strange emptiness that neither comforted nor hurt.
"How did I end up in the fucking abyss?! Is this some kind of dream?"
Something ahead caught his attention.
It was him.
His body or some figure resembling his body floated several meters away, slowly spinning in place. The figure's limbs were loose, drifting in the same languid rhythm as his rotation. The head tilted slightly, the eyes open but unfocused, gazing past the stars into nothing. The expression was calm in a way that unsettled him — as if this version of him had already accepted where it was and had no interest in changing it.
"Wait… that body... it's me! Huh? This doesn't look right."
That was him. The real him. Fin Lumien. But he had never looked like that before. It was as if someone had taken Fin and Kez, broken them into pieces, and rebuilt them into something entirely new.
Kez tried to move toward it. The moment he attempted it, his view lurched sideways instead, the stars sliding across his vision in a disorienting arc. He righted himself — or thought he did — and tried again. This time, the figure's arm lifted halfway, twitching before falling still.
It was like tugging on strings he could not see, the signals delayed and muffled. There was no feedback, no weight to push against, only the knowledge that he had attempted something and the result had landed halfway to what he intended.
'Am...am I controlling that body...remotely?? But most importantly, is that my body?!'
He focused harder, picturing his body taking a step toward him. It obeyed in the loosest sense: one leg extended slightly, then the body drifted in an awkward tumble, spinning away as if knocked off balance.
"Great," he muttered into the nothing, his voice oddly clear despite the absence of air. "I can't even walk since there's no floor."
His body continued its slow spin, responding only when he concentrated enough to force another twitch or drift. Every movement was clumsy and unnatural, like piloting a half-broken puppet through water.
The emptiness around them remained absolute. No movement, no sound, no hint of anything beyond the two of them. The stars were distant and still, as if they were painted on a surface too far away to ever reach.
Kez tried again, narrowing his focus. He pictured his body turning toward him, raising an arm in a simple wave. It twitched in place, head turning too far, arm bending awkwardly before falling back to its side.
He grimaced. It was like trying to thread a needle while wearing gloves two sizes too big. Each command felt dulled, and the results came through warped. Sometimes the body responded late, other times it drifted in a direction he had not intended at all.
He tried walking. His body kicked a leg forward and spun slowly in place, drifting further away instead of closer. He attempted to turn, but the body tilted at an odd angle, the stars behind it sliding unnaturally across his vision.
The sheer emptiness pressed in. There was nothing to orient himself by except the other him, and even that felt slippery, like it could drift away into the void at any moment.
Kez exhaled slowly, though here the act felt strange. "Wonderful. Stuck in the middle of nowhere and I can't even figure out how to drive my own body."
His body floated on, unbothered, waiting for his next clumsy attempt.