The chamber trembled.Dust drifted from the ceiling as the metal walls rippled outward, folding and turning as if the entire room were alive.
A deep hum filled the air—low, violent, almost angry.
Jarek stumbled to his feet, wide-eyed.
"This isn't normal," he whispered."This isn't normal at all—"
Aria's expression hardened.
"It's a Termination Protocol."
Jarek froze.
"A what?"
Aria didn't look at him.Her gaze tracked the shifting walls with cold clarity.
"It's a failsafe. Used only when the System decides a simulation should purge failures… or eliminate dangerous variables."
Jarek's breath hitched.
"Why would it want to eliminate us?! We didn't do anything wrong!"
Aria didn't answer.There was no answer that would comfort him.
Elias already knew.
The Faultline Guardian.The Mirror Constructs.The escalating difficulty.The unnatural intensity.
This wasn't training.
Someone—or something—was pushing the chamber beyond limits, as if testing how much pressure he could withstand.
Testing him.
Hunting him.
The floor split open.
A circular pit yawned beneath them, glowing with molten mana.Chains of metal rose from the depths, rattling as they locked into place around the edges of the chamber.
A monstrous silhouette emerged from the molten light.
Not a copy.Not a construct.Not an aberration.
Something else.
Something alive.
The System's message appeared like a slash of lightning in Elias's vision.
Termination Unit ActivatedDesignation: Cleanser of FaultsTier B — Adaptive Killer-Type
Jarek's legs nearly buckled.
"Tier… B? That's… that's—"
"Impossible," Aria finished quietly.
Tier B monsters were used to cull entire squads of elite cadets.They didn't appear in training.Not even in special examinations.
The Cleanser rose fully into view.
A towering figure of blackened mana fused with iron.Four mechanical limbs emerged from its back, each ending in a razor-edge blade.Its head was featureless except for a single, vertical slit of crimson light.
It stood completely still.
Silent.Waiting.
Then it spoke.
A voice without emotion.
A voice without origin.
"Failure must be erased."
Jarek staggered backward.
"No. No no no—what failure? We passed everything!"
Aria's voice was a thin, controlled thread.
"It's not judging us as a group."
Her eyes moved to Elias—slowly, deliberately.
"It's judging an anomaly."
Elias didn't react.But Aria wasn't wrong.
This protocol wasn't for Jarek.Not for her.
It was for him.
He felt the System stir inside him—cold, ancient, watching.
Unknown entity detectedYour class properties have triggered an evaluationSurvival Required
Of course.
Of course it wasn't going to let a Riftborne Sovereign develop quietly.
The Cleanser moved.
It didn't attack.It didn't roar.It didn't charge.
It simply vanished.
A blur of black metal reappeared behind Jarek.Claws descended.
"MOVE!" Aria shouted.
Jarek dove aside as the claws sliced through the air, carving molten lines into the floor.He screamed—a raw, terrified sound that echoed across the chamber.
The Cleanser did not chase him.
It turned its head toward Elias.
Silently.
Unwaveringly.
Target locked.
Aria moved between them instantly.
"Ward—run!"
Elias didn't.
He looked at the Cleanser.
Then at Aria.
Then at the floor, where the molten cracks pulsed in a slow rhythm.
The Cleanser shifted its stance.
Aria's breath caught.
"It's reading us."
Jarek shouted from across the room, voice breaking."What do we do?! What do we DO?!"
Aria tried to think—fast.
"We have to break its targeting algorithm. Its priority lock is too strong. It's going after the highest threat."
Jarek gaped."You mean Elias?! Since when is he—"
"Jarek," Aria snapped."Shut up."
Her eyes stayed on Elias.
"You knew," she whispered."Didn't you?"
Elias didn't deny it.
The Cleanser lunged.
Not at Aria.Not at Jarek.
Straight at him.
Elias moved instantly, the world narrowing into lines and angles—weights and openings.The creature's blade-arm cut past his chest, the mana-heated edge grazing his skin.
Pain flared.Shallow.Controlled.
He stepped inside the creature's reach, trying to jam the metal shard into the gaps of its armor—
—then stopped.
The shard melted the instant it touched the Cleanser's heat.
Useless.
The Cleanser swung again.Elias ducked and rolled back, boots skidding across molten cracks.
Aria attacked from the side, palm glowing with temporal distortion.The world seemed to slow around her—
—but the Cleanser was faster.
Its rear limb lashed out, striking her shoulder and launching her across the chamber.She hit the wall with a choked breath, barely managing to roll before another blade tore through the air where she'd been lying seconds earlier.
Jarek charged with a roar of desperation.
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!"
The Cleanser didn't even look at him.
One arm snapped backward like a whip.
Jarek flew.
He crashed into the ground, coughing blood.
The Cleanser turned.
Back to Elias.
Its voice was a lifeless whisper.
"Eliminate anomaly."
Aria dragged herself up, eyes burning weakly with fractured mana.
"Ward," she breathed."Don't… let it touch you…"
Jarek choked, trying to stand.
"I… I can still…"
He couldn't.
Elias realized something then.
He could survive this.If he revealed a fraction—just a fraction—of what he truly was.
But Aria would see.
Jarek would see.
The instructors…The Regime…The government…
Everyone would know.
He couldn't afford that.
He needed another way.
The Cleanser lunged.
No more time.
Metal claws filled Elias's vision.
His heart slowed.
The System whispered.
Spiritual fragments availableCombat memory integration possibleTemporary stat enhancement accessible
Temporary.
Not suspicious.
Not traceable.
He breathed in.Steady.Controlled.
Then he moved.
He sidestepped the claw with impossible sharpness—not supernatural, but impossibly precise.Predictive.Calculated.
He grabbed the Cleanser's blade-arm.Felt the heat.Let it burn his skin.Pain sharpened his mind.
He stepped inward, twisting his hips, redirecting the momentum the way only a fighter who lived inside battle could.
The Cleanser stumbled.
Not far.Not much.But enough to shift its balance.
Aria's breath hitched.
Elias reached for a molten crack in the floor and kicked upward.
Mana burst out.White-hot.Unstable.
It struck the Cleanser's underside, destabilizing its core for a fraction of a second.
The System flared.
Weak point exposed — 1.3 seconds
Aria moved.
Fast.Faster than before.She struck the exposed joint with a time-split palm thrust.
The Cleanser jerked violently.
Elias didn't hesitate.
He seized a shattered chain from the ground—still glowing red—and rammed it into the exposed core.
A scream—metallic and unearthly—tore through the chamber.
The Cleanser convulsed.
Exploded.
Silence followed.
The System chimed softly.
Termination Unit destroyedSpiritual fragment absorbedMajor reinforcement achieved
Elias stood in the settling dust, chest rising and falling steadily.Burn marks crawled up his arm.Blood dripped from his shoulder.
Jarek pushed himself up weakly.
"We… we survived…"
Aria staggered to her feet.Her eyes locked onto Elias—quiet, sharp, shaking.
"You're not just hiding your strength," she whispered.
He met her gaze.
"You're hiding who you are."
He didn't deny it.
He simply watched her back, unblinking.
And in her look he saw something new.Not suspicion.Not fear.
Resolve.
She would find out.
She would uncover him.
Not because she hated him.
But because something about him defied the rules she lived by.
The lights blinked.The chamber doors opened.
The simulation was over.
But something far more dangerous had begun.