The massive doors stood like silent guardians, tall and ancient, carved with unfamiliar symbols and patterns that looked too precise to be handmade.
Squad C-707 stood before them—Cael, Demitri, Liria, Vanna—and their Warden, Miss Ivara, who stepped forward without hesitation.
'He's inside.'
She pressed both palms against the stone. Nothing happened.
'What? Why is it so heavy?'
She applied more force to it, but the result was the same. She was a Warden, not some normal, lower-ranked Tuner. But the doors didn't move. Not even a shift. Not even a sound.
"Are we going inside, Miss Ivara?" Cael asked.
Ivara stepped back, frowning. "Don't touch anything," she said without looking at them. "Not the walls, not the doors. Nothing."
Cael raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Demitri kept quiet too. The weight of the place was already doing enough to keep everyone in check.
Ivara was the first to move. She stepped through the gap, the others followed suit, and were immediately swallowed by darkness.
A thick, heavy kind of dark. The kind that pressed against your skin.
"What… is this place?" Vanna asked. Her voice betrayed her. She was trembling.
Cael instinctively reached for his lantern from inside the backpack, thumb hovering over the switch, but Ivara stopped him with a single gesture.
"Don't," she said. "There are things here we're not supposed to see."
Vanna flinched. "What does that mean?"
No answer.
Just silence.
Even Demitri, who usually didn't flinch at anything, shifted uncomfortably.
"Then why are we even here?" he asked.
"Is Raith really here?" Cael added, his voice lower than usual.
Vanna suddenly pointed ahead. "There," she whispered.
In the distance, a few hundred meters forward, a soft golden glow pulsed in the dark, calm, warm, and strange.
Liria stared at it. "That's gotta be Raith."
Oddly, no one questioned it. Anything golden? It had to be Raith. Somehow, that made sense now.
Ivara's voice snapped them back. "We're moving. Stay close to me. Don't look back. No matter what."
Everyone nodded. That was enough for now.
Then Ivara moved fast, but not too fast for them to follow. She knew their limits. They just needed to keep up.
They began to run.
That's when it started.
The voices.
Not just whispers—but screams. Laughs. Cries. Conversations. A battlefield. A market. A classroom. All overlapping. All impossible.
Cael stumbled. "What the—"
He looked around, but the darkness offered no clues.
"Don't look around!" Ivara reminded. "Just move quickly!"
Her tone became more serious. But it was impossible for these Cadets to not be affected by the voices. Slowly, the voices got into their mind.
They experienced things that Raith didn't. The voices started to call their names. Ridiculing them, laughing at them and some sounded so evil that almost made them pissed their pants.
'What is this…' Liria's breathing quickened. 'Is this some kind of trial?'
She didn't show fear on her face, but her fists clenched tighter. She had read about trials that happened for some Tuners. They would be tested to their limits. If they managed to pass it, they would be rewarded greatly.
That was when a thought crossed her mind. 'Has Raith claimed the rewards?'
Even Ivara, who had seen her fair share of impossible things, felt something twist inside her chest. This wasn't just a Force Field. There was something here. Something old. Something that didn't want to be disturbed.
'What is this place? What secrets are you hiding, Shatterveil?' she wondered.
The pressure made it hard to think. There were too many Force Fields that she had explored. But for an F-grade, this was way too much.
Behind her, Vanna let out a soft cry and dropped to her knees. "I… I… can't keep going."
She was giving up to whatever the voices were saying. Slowly, the darkness started to engulf her.
"Vanna!" Liria turned immediately, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up.
The darkness behind them shifted. Vanna was lucky to be rescued by Liria. They only had each other to rely on.
Ivara didn't even bother to rescue or look back. Everyone believed that she was sticking to her words. If they can't make it, she won't waste her time.
"Move faster!" That was all she said.
They pushed on.
Cael was sweating buckets now. His breath was uneven, and his legs started to slow.
"I can't—" he muttered.
The voices were getting him, too.
Demitri, struggling himself, caught up and smacked the back of Cael's head lightly. "What? You gonna give up now? You're not that soft."
Cael hissed, "Shut up."
Demitri could think that was the only way to push Cael, and it worked. Cael gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
The darkness didn't end, but ahead, the glow grew stronger. It pulled them in. They believed that they were getting nearer. Somehow, that fueled them up.
"Keep moving, everyone! We're almost there," Liria tried her best to push the others.
Finally, after what felt like forever, they reached it.
The altar.
Raith lay slumped beside it, unconscious. His body was faintly glowing gold, like a halo wrapped around his skin.
The rest of the hall stretched endlessly into darkness. But here, in this strange stillness, it felt almost… sacred.
Ivara scanned the area. She didn't say anything, but her eyes moved from corner to corner. Her instincts screamed at her. Something had happened here.
'What is this?' she wondered as her eyes looked at the altar.
She crouched beside the altar, looking at the symbol carved into its surface. Her brows furrowed.
It was familiar. She'd seen something like this once. In one of the sealed archives back in Haven Bastion. But she couldn't recall.
She reached for her Globecom, tapped it once, and started recording. Pictures. Videos. Every inch of the altar.
She tried to send it to one of the researchers whom she was close to. But there was no connection.
"Guess I need to wait," she muttered.
For now, she needed to gather the data. Everything about Shatterveil was a mystery. She needed to unveil its secrets.
Meanwhile, Liria knelt beside Vanna, who sat trembling near the wall, hugging her knees.
"Everything is fine, Vanna. We've passed it," she said.
It was the first time she had talked this much. But it was necessary. They couldn't proceed with the exploration in this state.
She looked around at the others. They were not doing well, either.
Demitri stayed quiet, his eyes fixed straight ahead. He didn't dare look back.
Cael was trying way too hard to look normal.
Nobody bought it.
Then Liria broke the silence. "Miss Ivara… what happened to Raith?"
Ivara didn't answer immediately.
She had felt it earlier. Raith's aura shifting. Almost like it was evolving. Like something inside him had awakened. Whatever encounter he'd had here, it changed something.
'I need to ask him later. This kid had earned too many things here.'
She stared at Raith as she could still feel that power now. Not dangerous, but unfamiliar. And very much alive.
She glanced at Raith's Mark.
It was calm.
But it wasn't quiet.
"He's fine," she finally said. "But something happened."
Then, Raith stirred. His body shifted. A sharp breath filled his lungs.
He sat up with a jolt, eyes wide. "What is this?!"
Everyone jumped.
Cael nearly swore. "What the hell are you screaming for, moron?!"
Raith blinked. The golden light had faded, but in front of him, hovering in the air, only he could see it.
A translucent square.
He didn't blink. Didn't move.
Just stared.
The others looked confused. To them, it looked like he was staring at… nothing.
Vanna, who seemed better now, leaned toward Ivara again. "Did Raith hit his head or something?"
Ivara didn't respond. Her eyes were on Raith.
He was reading something. She could tell.
The boy wasn't broken.
He was processing.
Raith's eyes flicked across the glowing square in front of him.
[Welcome, Raith ????, to the God Mode.]
He blinked again. God Mode? The name alone was enough to shake him. That was what the golden-haired man had mentioned.
Another thing that confused him was the "???" part. Was it related to his family's name? But, before he could think much about it, a second line appeared.
[Do you wish to start the tutorial?]
His lips parted.
Too many eyes were on him. He couldn't explain this. Not yet.
"…Later," he muttered.
The box vanished as if it had responded to Raith.
"What did you say?" Demitri asked.
Raith blinked. "Nothing. Just… talking to myself."
Vanna didn't look convinced. "He definitely hit his head."
Ivara finally stepped closer. "You okay?"
Raith nodded. "Yeah… I think so."
Liria tilted her head. "Why'd you faint? Why'd you come here in the first place?"
Raith rubbed the back of his neck. "I was exploring. The structure. The writing. It didn't match Old Earth. Or New Earth either. I just wanted to understand what this place was."
He paused, then added, "And I guess… it felt familiar. I thought this might've been a camp, school. Or a university."
Vanna raised an eyebrow. "You explored this creepy place… alone?"
Raith hesitated. "I didn't expect it to be creepy."
Cael scoffed. "You didn't hear the screaming? The whispering? The war sounds?"
Raith looked at him. "Of course I did."
Liria stepped forward. "But you still kept walking."
Raith didn't answer that. He looked back at the altar.
He didn't know why he had come here.
But something in his gut told him this was just the beginning.