[ Ratha Guild – Training Grounds, Muster Field ]
The elevated platform overlooked the entire training field. Rian stood at the edge with the other commanders.
Support personnel were already spread across the field, moving in coordinated groups under the direction of Administrators Takumi and Risa.
They were clearing the bodies. Fallen espers and guides were covered and removed with steady efficiency. No one lingered once a death was confirmed. The outcome had already been accepted. The wyverns were handled separately. Larger crews dismantled the carcasses where they lay, dragging the remains off in sections.
Rian swept his gaze across the field. The first squad was returning.
There were only two of them, and one was leaning heavily against the other to stay upright. They crossed into the field without slowing, their steps uneven but controlled. A handler stepped forward to meet them.
Rian shifted his focus to the right as another group emerged.
Four this time, with one being carried between them. Their pace was slower, and a support team moved to intercept them before they reached the line, already bringing a stretcher forward as they approached. More squads began to appear across the field. Each group emerged separately, having fought their own battles after breaking off to handle their individual chasing wyvern. Some returned missing members, while others carried the ones who could not make it back on their own.
This was within expectations.
His gaze lowered slightly, unfocused for a brief moment.
He could still hear it clearly.
The room. The table. The discussion that had led them here.
✦ ♡ ✦
[ Ratha Guild – Guild Leader's Wing, Command Room, Floor 9 ]
At the head of the table, Guild Leader Veda lifted his gaze to Rena. His dark skin contrasted sharply with the pale fall of his hair, white as ash against his shoulders. His eyes were clouded and unfocused, dull and opaque, as if sight had long since left them. And yet the weight of his attention was unmistakable as he leaned back slightly in his chair, fingers steepled together in thought.
"You're asking us to kill some of our own people."
Rena didn't look away. "Yes," she answered steadfastly, "I am."
Silence settled across the room, heavy and unmoving.
"Rian."
Veda's gaze shifted.
Rian stilled for a moment, then spoke. "I agree with Rena," he said.
Arlen's brow furrowed.
"If we treat it like a standard operation," Rian said quietly, "I believe more people will die."
Arlen's gaze shifted to him fully now, the earlier casualness gone. Rian had always been precise, methodical to a fault – the last person in the room to endorse unnecessary risk. Hearing him agree to Rena's plan so readily, without qualification, was unexpected.
Veda exhaled slowly, his gaze lowering for a moment before lifting again.
His cloudy eyes moved between Rian and Rena, weighing them both.
"I'll handle the government authorization," he said, leaning back slightly. "And the public."
Arlen let out a quiet, humorless breath.
✦ ♡ ✦
Rian's gaze shifted back to Rena as the memory settled.
She stood where she always did, posture straight and composed, hands loosely clasped behind her back. At a glance, nothing about her had changed. To anyone else, she would have looked the same as always – controlled, precise, unreadable.
But he knew better.
The change had been immediate.
From the moment he had woken in this life, Rena had already been different. There had been no gradual shift, no slow hardening of her decisions over time like previous lives. It had been there from the beginning, as though something in her had already known.
Her restraint was gone. She was colder – more calculating. More willing to inflict harm if it benefited the whole. It was brutal.
And it was wrong.
It reminded him too closely of himself – of knowing what was coming, of adjusting before anything had even begun.
For a moment, he considered speaking to her. Did she know? About the upcoming world tragedy? The thought lingered just long enough to take shape. Then it faded.
Rian still wasn't ready to think. Not in this life. Not if it led to the same outcome. In his past lives, Rian had fought every current. In this life, he wanted nothing more than to drift along with the choices made by others. He wanted to rest.
He wanted to end.
Beside him, Arlen shifted slightly and leaned in just enough to speak without drawing attention, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Rena's been different lately, hasn't she?" he murmured, the edge of a smile tugging at his mouth. "You think she got dumped?"
The joke was light, but it didn't quite land. They both knew that wasn't it.
Rian's gaze remained fixed ahead, pausing for a beat before responding.
"Does she even date?" He said under his breath, tilting his head slightly toward Arlen. "Or does she just ruin men for a night and leave corpses behind?"
Arlen let out a low chuckle at that.
Rena tilted her head, her gaze found them immediately – sharp, precise.
"I heard that," she said, a faint frown on her lips.
Arlen straightened, his bright blue eyes widened just enough to feign innocence under her stare. Rian avoided her gaze altogether, though the corner of his mouth twitched.
Off to the left, Joel Herion, with the judgment of a man who knew better, chose not to involve himself.
The Triad was, in Joel's professional opinion, completely batshit insane. He found himself wondering, briefly, whether anyone in the guild knew the commanders had nearly died in their own training just hours earlier. Rena had dragged them into a gate immediately after the meeting with Veda. There had been no warning, no preparation, and no discussion. He exhaled softly, rubbing his side where a massive bruise lay beneath his leathers.
Arlen's voice cut in.
"Rian," Arlen said, pointing towards the far end of the field. "Squad Nine."
Six figures approached from the far edge, still upright and moving. One was carried on another's back, but their posture suggested exhaustion more than critical injury.
"Sera Yun's on that team," Rena said impassively. She flicked a glance toward Arlen. "The one you've been obsessing over."
"Yeah," Arlen said, a note of satisfaction slipping into his voice. "I thought she'd make it. Did you see her when the wyverns first descended? It looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her head. Haha!"
"What's special about Sera Yun?" Joel asked, though his gaze had already settled on the incoming red-haired figure instead. A small thread of relief pulled through him before he could stop it.
Arlen opened his mouth.
"She's a liar," Rena cut in. Her voice was flat, decisive. "She's hiding something."
"Yeah," Arlen said, his smile sharpening, almost pleased. "That's why she's interesting." He gave a small, amused exhale, tilting his head slightly, watching Sera approach. "Isn't that fun?"
In Ratha, questionable personnel were not taken lightly. The guild did not operate independently of the state; it was an extension of it. Authority here was not symbolic. If there was sufficient suspicion, detainment was immediate, and justification came later.
Sera Yun should have already been flagged from what they had seen - the inconsistencies in her fighting experience, the irregularity in her guiding metrics. But Veda had chosen not to.
Rian's gaze remained on the approaching squad as he considered that decision with quiet precision.
New faces were not unusual.
Across each life, small deviations accumulated, and even minor shifts could ripple outward into entirely different outcomes.
Rian noted her presence without comment, categorizing it alongside the countless other irregularities that surfaced in each iteration. For now, it remained a minor deviation, one that did not yet warrant intervention.
That would change once they entered the first gate. When the scale of what was coming revealed itself, attention would narrow, and anything extraneous would be discarded in favor of survival. She would probably die like all the others, he concluded. Guides had perished easily in the apocalypse, leading to even more strain on esper forces.
Squad Nine crossed the boundary line.
A handler stepped forward to meet them. The rest of the squad was directed forward toward the guild building, but Sera and Darien broke off from the group, angling toward the podium stage instead. Rian's gaze tracked their approach, settling on the bulging sack at Sera's side.
Evidence. Good. Darien had been the right choice.
Without slowing, Sera reached into her pack and flicked two objects upward in quick succession. Rian caught them both without shifting his stance. The first was a red gem, its surface still faintly warm with residual mana. The second was a jagged wyvern horn, darkened at the base where it had been torn free.
"Proof of elimination," Darien said, his voice steady despite the fatigue that lingered beneath it. "Sir."
Rian glanced down briefly at the items in his hand before returning his attention to them.
"Good."
His gaze shifted to Sera.
Her posture remained steady, but now that she stood closer, the damage was easier to see. Her sleeve had been partially burned away. The exposed skin beneath was flushed and uneven along her forearm, the surface disrupted where the heat had penetrated more deeply. In places, the outer layer had blistered or peeled back, leaving the tissue beneath raw.
It had not been treated, but Squad Nine had deployed with a healer.
Rian's gaze moved past her.
"Darien."
"Yes, sir."
"You had a healer assigned to your team." Rian's attention returned to Sera's arm. "So why was this not treated?"
There was a brief pause. Darien followed his line of sight and froze for a fraction of a second as he registered the extent of the injury on Sera's arm.
Sera glanced down at her arm.
…Right.
For a moment, she simply looked at it, as though noticing it properly for the first time. She had muted the pain at some point during the fight. Without the feedback, the injury had slipped from her awareness entirely. She had forgotten that pre-Filter beings couldn't do that.
"It is…alright," Sera said, lifting her gaze again. "It did not affect my performance." Her tone was straightforward, almost apologetic in its practicality. "Healer Brent and Team Leader Holt had to prioritize more critical injuries."
She flexed her hand once, testing the movement. "There will be no lasting damage once it heals."
Rena's eyes narrowed at Sera, the shift subtle but unmistakable. The explanation was coherent. Her behavior was not. An injury of that severity should have produced a significant pain response, yet Sera's expression never changed.
The conclusion formed without needing to be spoken.
Sera Yun was, once again, inconsistent.
"Are you a healer?" Rena asked.
Sera blinked, caught slightly off guard. "…No."
"Then you don't understand the extent of your injury." Rena's gaze dipped briefly to Sera's arm before returning to her face. "That is not superficial damage. That tissue is compromised. Left untreated, it will worsen before it stabilizes."
Sera met her gaze without flinching. "There…will be no permanent damage," she said again, steady and unyielding.
For a moment, Rena said nothing.
Then her attention shifted – just slightly – to the side.
Toward Rian.
Rian exhaled softly, already understanding.
"Sera Yun," he said.
"Yes, sir."
"You will report to the clinic for evaluation."
Rian's gaze moved to her, and with a brief tilt of his head, he added simply, "Come."