Day Six dawned beneath a charged stillness over Camp Veil's Edge.
Even the forest beyond the dread barriers seemed subdued—wind stilled, branches unmoving—as if the wards themselves held their breath in anticipation of what the day would birth.
The cohort assembled in the central arena, faces drawn tight from the lingering fractures of the mirror chambers.
Sleep had not healed them.
Reflections still haunted the corners of their vision.
Rex Thorne stood apart from the formation, arms crossed, glare fixed squarely on Xia Ying. Resentment simmered in him like an infected wound—unhealed, festering, deepening.
Lin Mei hovered nearer to Xia Ying than protocol required, eyes unconsciously seeking reassurance.
Wei Jun, ever pragmatic, ignored the emotional currents entirely—his gaze roamed the arena's perimeter, studying the warded containment pens stationed along the outer ring.
Inside them…
Things moved.
Instructor Garrick stepped forward, voice cutting clean through the low hum of reinforced barriers.
"Illusions forge resistance," he said.
"Today—live dread simulations."
A ripple of tension passed through the cohort.
"Captured low-Realm horrors," Garrick continued. "Sedated transport from sealed Rifts. They'll be released under controlled parameters. Pain feedback is real. Dissolution is not."
The pens rattled faintly as if responding to his words.
"Defend. Extract. Or survive until suppression fields trigger."
His gaze lingered—deliberately—on Xia Ying.
"Summons are permitted. Hungers feed hungers. Control them… or they control you."
---
**Horror Types — Simulation Brief**
Garrick gestured to the containment crates as holographic overlays flickered to life.
**Shadow Lurkers** — Phasing ambushers. Strike from blind angles. Paralysis dread on contact.
**Fear Leeches** — Tendril parasites. Drain willpower. Amplify Flaws exponentially.
Murmurs spread.
Traumatized branded trembled openly.
Boastful ones flexed, overcompensating bravado thin as paper.
Rex muttered to his lackeys, though his eyes never left Xia Ying.
The air thickened as dread barriers intensified containment output.
Mirror-chamber residue left the cohort mentally brittle.
Perfect conditions for collapse.
Or harvest.
---
Early solo rounds began.
A traumatized recruit froze the moment a leech latched—will draining visibly as screams tore from their throat.
A blade-type charged a lurker head-on—only to be ambushed mid-swing as it phased behind him. He left the arena limping, pride shattered.
Real fear replaced simulated stress.
Xia Ying watched calmly.
Today…
His Phantom would debut fully.
---
Midday escalated to **Team Wave Engagements**.
Multiple horrors released simultaneously into the warded arena.
Chaos ignited immediately.
Rex's team fought savagely—brute strength crushing lurkers—but leeches latched onto lingering Flaw fractures within him, draining stamina fast.
Another squad collapsed outright under swarm pressure.
Then—
Wei Jun and Lin Mei's unit was deployed.
They were cornered within minutes.
Lurkers phased through blind angles.
Fear Leeches swarmed Lin Mei's healing glow like carrion insects.
Wei Jun dodged two strikes—
The third came from behind.
Claws raked across his back, injecting paralysis dread.
He froze mid-movement, eyes wide.
Terror spiked.
Lin Mei tried to mend him—but her glow destabilized as leeches latched on, draining will while projecting failure visions across her mind.
The group faltered.
That was Xia Ying's cue.
---
He stepped into the arena with measured calm.
"Shadow familiar—assist," he announced for the instructors' benefit.
Then—
**[Summon: Juvenile Phantom]**
The air tore open in a wave of bone-deep cold.
The Phantom manifested center-field.
A pale child in tattered orphanage garb.
Hollow sockets weeping ink-black tears.
Its presence alone altered the battlefield.
Horrors hesitated instinctively.
Cohort members shuddered as frost crept across the arena floor.
Faint whispers layered the air:
*Play… forever…*
The Phantom moved.
A chilling aura wave pulsed outward—leeches stunned mid-latch.
Wei Jun broke free.
Shadow tendrils lashed from Xia Ying's palms, binding a phasing lurker mid-shift—yanking it into full exposure.
He dispersed it with a controlled strike.
A trace sip of Wei Jun's near-death terror flowed into him.
Warm.
Refined.
---
Lin Mei was near collapse.
Leeches drained her glow to embers.
The Phantom phased beside her—its dread aura intensifying parasitic fear responses.
Tendrils peeled the creatures away one by one.
Xia Ying pulled her clear, maintaining a healer-support illusion while harvesting her spike of guilt-terror beneath the surface.
The Phantom's presence warped the arena dynamic entirely.
Even the horrors recoiled from it.
Primal recognition.
Predator acknowledging deeper predator.
---
Wave suppression neared completion—
Then the Phantom began to change.
Ink tears flowed thicker.
Its form shuddered violently.
Absorbed horror-terror condensed within its core.
Molting began mid-battle.
Its frame elongated.
Orphanage features sharpened.
Aura density tripled.
A shockwave of dread rolled outward.
Then—
**Possession manifested.**
A surviving lurker froze as hollow darkness filled its eyes.
It turned—attacking its own kind for three brief seconds before collapsing.
Instructors moved swiftly to suppress remaining entities.
Silence fell over the arena.
The Phantom stabilized—
Now taller.
More defined.
Whispers layered deeper, more articulate.
An **Adolescent Phantom**.
Xia Ying dismissed it calmly, as if such evolution were routine.
The entity dissolved reluctantly.
---
Reactions rippled instantly.
Whispers spread like infection.
"Did you see that thing…?"
"Abyss child…"
"Possession…?"
Traumatized recruits avoided his gaze entirely.
Boastful types went quiet.
Rex's glare darkened further—humiliation rekindled.
"Freak summoner," he muttered to his lackeys.
Fear and respect fused into a new social hierarchy around Xia Ying.
None challenged it.
---
Barracks corner — evening.
Their trio consolidated naturally.
Lin Mei's eyes were still wet.
"You saved me again… That thing's eyes… terrifying… but you controlled it."
She hesitated.
"Stay with me in Rifts… always?"
Devotion absolute.
A healer bound by survival debt twice over.
Wei Jun leaned against the bunk frame, analytical as ever.
"That Phantom changes everything. Dread stun. Possession. Battlefield suppression."
He nodded once.
"Shadow, tracking, healing—we're optimized."
Xia Ying returned a faint smile.
Masks layered perfectly:
Reassurance for Lin Mei.
Strategic respect for Wei Jun.
Tools secured.
---
That night, Xia Ying returned alone to the forest perimeter.
Barriers thinned here—safe enough for testing.
He summoned it again.
The Adolescent Phantom materialized fully.
Taller now.
Garments darker with dried shadow-blood echoes.
Its hollow eyes deeper—abyssal.
Aura waves froze surrounding foliage instantly.
Whispers layered:
*Play… eternal… stay…*
He tested possession on a detached shadow mass—animating it briefly like a puppet.
Residual lurker echoes replayed through it.
Control held flawless.
Even Xia Ying's skin prickled faintly at its matured dread output.
He smiled.
"Terror ascends," he murmured.
The Phantom tilted its head in eerie agreement.
Then dissolved at dismissal.
---
Camp had forged many things.
Broken minds.
Bound alliances.
Refined hungers.
But his greatest weapon had ascended alongside him.
---
Final evening briefing gathered the volunteer squad around the central fire.
Garrick spoke plainly.
"Departure at dawn. Rift swarm in the slum sectors. Rank 3 density. Civilian evacuation incomplete."
He glanced at Xia Ying.
"Your familiar—scouting, flex strikes, suppression support."
Roster confirmed:
Wei Jun.
Lin Mei.
Rex Thorne.
Others followed.
A full support strike unit.
Xia Ying packed light that night.
Knife.
Essence kit.
Comm chip.
Within his shadow, faint whispers stirred in anticipation.
The Phantom hungered.
So did he.
Dawn would open a real Rift.
Not simulations.
Not mirrors.
A city screaming in terror.
An ascension feast waiting to begin.