> "[Life force: Critical.]"
"[Death threshold met.]"
[Dormant Protocol Accessed.]
[System Override Initiated.]
[You have unlocked: Deathbound Protocol]
Class: Revenant
Trait: Near-death enhancement
Primary Skill: Grim Reversal (Lv. 1)
You grow stronger… when you're about to die.
Something clicks in my chest.
I stand.
Not human anymore. Not exactly.
Dark sigils crawl across my arms like ink alive. The air around me cracks. The simulation glitches just by being near me.
Ryn's broken body stirs.
> "Kael...?" he whispers. "What... what the hell are you?"
I don't answer.
I raise my hand.
The monster lunges again.
> [Grim Reversal Activated]
Redirecting fatal damage. Channeling pain.
Delivering stored agony: 310% backlash.
It hits me.
I don't move.
Then the creature explodes in a burst of writhing black light.
---
Aftermath
I collapse to my knees. Mira runs to me, breath ragged.
> "You died," she whispers. "You died, Kael… what was that?! What are you?!"
Before I can answer, the simulation crashes completely.
> "[System Lockdown Triggered.]"
"[Unauthorized Protocol Detected.]"
"[Floor 12 Origin Confirmed.]"
[Subject: Kael Aedric. Potential Hazard.]
Voss bursts into the room, eyes wide—not with rage, but… fear.
> "Get him to Medical. Now. And lock this file down. No one outside this room hears a word."
As my consciousness slips, I hear one last thing:
> "He wasn't supposed to awaken yet…"
- - -
Darkness.
The world was dark.
But my veins burned like fire.
Not pain. Not anymore.
Power.
Like something had latched onto my soul and refused to let go.
---
Ashenvale Institute – Medical Wing, Isolation Chamber Delta
Beeping.
Sterile lights.
The faint scent of blood and mana residue.
I opened my eyes.
Glass walls. White sheets. An IV full of blue liquid dripping into my arm. My sword—still blackened—rested against the wall, sealed inside a mana-reinforced case.
Two voices whispered just beyond the soundproof barrier.
> "He should be in a coma."
"And yet his vitals are stable. Normal, even. It's like the system… restored him."
I stirred.
The glass shimmered and hissed open. Mira burst in before the med officer could stop her.
> "Kael!"
She ran to me, throwing her arms around me without thinking—then quickly pulled away, cheeks flushed.
> "You're—okay. You're okay."
I sat up slowly. "What… happened after the sim?"
Mira's expression darkened. "They shut it down. Hard reset. You triggered a lockdown. Nobody knows how. Not even the faculty."
> "You died, Kael. I saw it."
Ryn entered a beat later, his arm bandaged, his usual cocky grin missing.
> "That thing you did. The sigils. The way you moved. You reversed a hit that should've vaporized us all."
He leaned in. "That wasn't in the school database. Whatever you are… you're not normal."
I stayed silent.
How could I explain that the moment I died… I felt alive for the first time?
---
System Prompt
Just as I was about to answer, something flashed across my vision again:
> [System Update Complete.]
[Synchronization Level: 3%]
Class: Revenant (Deathbound Protocol)
New Skill Unlocked: "Vestige Sight" — See traces of death energy around living beings.
Warning: Unauthorized Protocol. Tower-Origin Detected.
Monitoring Systems Have Been Alerted.
I blinked.
The world around me flickered—like layers of color peeled away.
Mira had a faint aura. Blue and red. Flickering.
Ryn's was jagged. Burnt-orange, with cracks.
They were marked. But not fatally. Not yet.
> "Kael?" Mira asked, noticing the change in my eyes. "You okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Just… tired."
---
Outside the infirmary walls, beyond the sterilized glass and medical enchantments, a different kind of tension brewed.
Inside the Operations Room Theta, hidden deep within Ashenvale Institute, five figures stood before a rotating 3D projection of the simulation arena. The data streams flickered with corrupted logs and red error markers.
Dean Harrow leaned forward, his wrinkled hands clasped behind his back, eyes fixed on the distorted replay: Kael's death, and what followed.
> "The simulation core collapsed for 4.6 seconds," murmured Professor Ysara, head of Applied Mana Theory. "And during that blackout, an unauthorized protocol was triggered."
She flicked her fingers. A still image hovered: Kael's silhouette wreathed in black flame, eyes glowing with an otherworldly blue hue.
> "This—this isn't school-sanctioned coding. It's Tower Script. Variant-12."
A chill passed through the room.
Vice Director Halst tapped on a rune pad, bringing up the boy's profile.
> "Kael Veres. No lineage history, orphan file from Sector K-9, basic affinity rating. There's no reason he should be capable of interfacing with Tier 4+ protocols."
Dean Harrow remained silent, his thoughts clearly elsewhere.
> "Floor 12," he finally said. "It's the only location that matches the resonance signature."
Ysara hissed. "We agreed that floor would never be reopened."
> "We didn't open it," the Dean replied. "He did."
A new voice joined the room.
From the shadows, Headmaster Malrik stepped forward, tall and ageless, his eyes silver with ancient knowledge. The staff fell silent.
> "Do not mistake chance for coincidence," he said. "The Towers never act randomly. If Floor 12 has chosen this boy…"
He paused, glancing at Kael's frozen image mid-transformation.
> "...then the Architects may not be as silent as we thought."
Ysara: "So what do we do?"
Malrik: "Watch. Test. Let the system evolve."
He walked away, robes fluttering like mist.
> "But mark my words—if he is what I think he is… then this academy is already a battlefield."
---
Ashenvale's marble halls echoed with silence—the kind that followed a storm.
Everyone knew what had happened.
Or at least, they thought they did.
> "That's the guy…"
"Simulation core crashed when he awakened."
"They're calling it a 'Death Sync.'"
I kept my hood low and footsteps steady, flanked by Ryn and Mira.
> "This school eats weirdos alive," Ryn muttered. "Try not to taste too fresh."
Mira elbowed him. "He's not weird. He's… something else."
I wasn't sure that was better.
---
Ashenvale Class Halls – Combat Protocols 1-A
Professor Laevin's classroom resembled an arcane arena—stone amphitheater walls lined with glowing runes and floating holo-scrolls. No desks. Just practice pads, mana channels, and real-time Tower data streams hanging in the air.
Laevin stood in the center, his long coat embroidered with geometric sigils—markers of a Tower-contracted Ranker.
He didn't greet the class.
> "Today," he began, "we talk about Protocols. The laws that govern the System. The reason any of you can even touch a Tower floor and survive."
The class fell silent.
> "Let me be clear. You're not special because you have mana. You're not a Ranker because you're brave.
You are Rankers because the Tower allows you to be."
He waved a hand and a massive construct appeared in the air—an outline of a Tower floor, surrounded by glyphs.
> "The System is not a passive thing. It is an interface, a living code that translates the Tower's rules into something we can survive. It grants us protocols. Abilities. Stats. Missions. But only if we bind to it… and follow its rules."
> "A Protocol is a contract. When you trigger one, you aren't just casting a spell—you're executing an ancient command authorized by the Tower's architecture."
He looked straight at me.
> "And when someone activates an unknown protocol… one that doesn't exist in the standard system… that's not talent. That's trespass."
> "There are five known types of Protocols:
1. Combat Protocols – enhance stats, skills, weapon affinity.
2. Support Protocols – healing, shielding, speed, status cleanse.
3. Binding Protocols – allow a Ranker to sync with floors, monsters, or relics.
4. Override Protocols – rare. Used to bypass normal Tower mechanics.
5. Corrupted Protocols – undocumented, unstable, possibly sentient."
Someone gulped.
Laevin's eyes didn't leave me.
> "The boy who awakened one in the sim—he accessed a Corrupted Protocol. That's not advancement. That's contamination."
A few students turned and stared.
> "What happens if someone keeps using one?" Ryn asked, his voice unusually serious.
> "They either become something the Tower consumes—or something that consumes the Tower."
>"Alright everyone move to the combat arena for a more practical session" Laevin's announced to them.
- - -
The bell hadn't rung, but everyone was already inside.
Eyes trailed me as I stepped into the Combat Arena. Some were curious. Others? Cautious.
The moment I crossed the mana-sealed threshold, the air changed. It was heavier here—like the world knew what was about to happen and held its breath.
Professor Laevin hadn't even glanced at me since the incident.
But today, that would change.
> "Kael Vale," his voice called out, measured and low. "Step forward."
I felt every pair of eyes lock on me.
Ryn shot me a side glance from his circle of elemental majors. Mira gave a small nod—encouraging, nervous.
> "You were unconscious for forty hours," Laevin continued. "Your system interface was unstable, your vitals inconsistent with your stat sheet, and your aura showed signs of… foreign feedback."
He turned away before I could respond.
> "You will duel. Now. Against someone normal. So we can see just how abnormal you are."
> So this is how they test monsters, I thought.
From across the arena, a figure stepped out.
Silver hair. Tower-stitched academy cloak. Balanced stance. Calm fury.
Nira Althorne.
Top 10 in the class. Granddaughter of the former Guildmaster of Ivory Dawn. She didn't flinch. She didn't smile. She was there to put me down—for everyone's comfort.
> "You're the anomaly," she said as we faced each other. "Let's see if you bleed like the rest of us."