The medical wing of Valis Academy did not feel like a place of healing. It felt like a laboratory for high end machinery. The walls were lined with pulsing conduits of liquid silver.
Vane was laying on a raised platform, his eyes fixed on the ceiling while the automated surgical arms and the masked medical staff worked in silence. He felt a sharp, cooling sensation as a specialized gel was applied to the massive, jagged laceration that ran from his chest down to his lower abdomen.
"You really should be dead," a voice said softly from the corner of the room.
Vane turned his head slightly. Nora was standing by the equipment racks, watching the monitors with a look of intense curiosity. As she walked toward him,
she thought about General Kaine's voice echoing in the hallway earlier. "You will guide the boy through his first year at Valis. This is non negotiable. It is apart of your cadet training. Now go."
She had swapped her Vanguard field gear for a clean cadet uniform, though she still looked out of place in the sterile room.
Her eyes were focused on the deep, blackened edges of his wound displayed on the primary screen.
"I am dead," Vane whispered. "The part of me that matters is back in that garden."
Nora didn't offer empty platitudes. She had seen the same horror he had. She walked closer once the surgeons stepped back, her hands tucked behind her back. "General Kaine instructed me to be your guide while you get back on your feet. He wants me to show you the campus and ensure you don't get lost in the bureaucracy. But first, he kept his word. The transport with your friends is in the lower bay. Whenever you are ready to bury them, I will take you there."
Vane sat up, the cooling gel stinging as his skin stretched. He didn't wait for her assistance. He stood on shaky legs, his black hair falling over his eyes and contrasting against his warm skin tone. "Now," he said. "I want to do it now."
The burial was a silent, grueling affair in the Academy's private grove. Vane refused the automated digging droids. He used a spade, his hands blistering as he broke the earth for Rokan and Lira. Nora stood a respectful distance away, watching the boy who shouldn't be breathing work until his knuckles bled. When the last of the earth was turned, Vane stood over the mounds for a long time, the black iron pendant around his neck feeling like a lead weight. He didn't cry. The fire in his chest had burned all the moisture out of him.
An hour later, Nora led him through the towering glass halls of the main spire. Students in silver trimmed blazers moved past them, their skin shimmering with various degrees of electrical discharge. They looked at Vane with confusion. He was the only one in the entire building who didn't hum. He was a pocket of absolute silence in a world of static.
They reached a massive obsidian door that slid open to reveal a high ceilinged office. General Kaine was there, standing beside a tall woman with sharp features and hair that looked like spun platinum.
"Vane," Kaine said, his voice grave. "This is Proctor Vahn, the Dean of Valis Academy. We wanted to formally express our condolences for your loss. What happened at the Omen Academy was a failure of our early warning systems. It should not have happened."
The Dean stepped forward, her eyes scanning Vane with clinical intensity. "General Kaine has explained the nature of your heritage, Vane. Since you are from an architectural bloodline, the Monolith Grade, you technically do not need to take an aptitude test. Your rank is already classified as S by birthright. However, it is the beginning of the school year. Every student, regardless of status, is currently undergoing evaluation in the Grand Hall."
"I don't care about ranks," Vane said flatly.
"The test is a formality for the records," Kaine added, stepping closer. "But it would allow you to see where you stand against the current Kith. You can skip it if you wish, but the other students are already talking. A transfer student appearing out of nowhere is rare."
Vane looked at Nora, then back at the Dean. If he was going to kill every Bylaw in existence, he needed to see what this world considered "strong." He needed to know the benchmark of the people he was going to surpass. "I'll take it," he said.
The Grand Hall was a cathedral of glass and steel. In the center stood two primary stations. The first was a pedestal holding a translucent, crystalline sphere. The second was a massive, reinforced block of Impact Lead, a material designed to absorb and measure the kinetic force of a Kith strike.
Nora led him to the edge of the testing floor. "It's simple," she whispered. "Hand on the ball to measure your Spark output, then punch the block as hard as you can to measure your physical reinforcement. Most of these kids have been training for this since they were five."
Vane watched as a tall, muscular student stepped up to the sphere. The boy's skin turned a bright, mirror silver. He placed his hand on the ball, and it glowed with a steady amber light. A screen above flashed Rank C plus. The boy then moved to the block, his arm blurring as he struck it with a loud crack. The screen updated Physical Reinforcement 400 Tons. Rank C.
"Oh," Vane muttered, his voice devoid of emotion. "I should probably rank low as well, right? It would be easier to stay in the shadows if I just look like an E rank."
Nora looked at him, her brow furrowing. "Vane, your blood is literally light eating ink. I don't think you know how to rank low."
The proctor on the floor, a man with a sly, knowing smile, looked at his tablet and then scanned the crowd. He knew exactly who Vane was. He wanted to see the Monolith Grade in action. "Next," the teacher called out, his voice echoing. "Vane Obsidian of the Omen Ruins. Step forward."
A ripple of whispers broke out among the hundreds of students.
"Vane Obsidian? Who is that?" a girl in the front row asked, leaning toward her friend.
"A transfer student?" a random boy added, scoffing as he looked at Vane's warm, non reflective skin. "They said he's an S rank, but look at him. He doesn't even have a Spark. He looks like an E rank at best. He looks like a Dead Link."
Vane started walking forward, his expression unreadable. Nora watched him go, a small smirk playing on her lips. "Obsidian?" she said quietly to herself. "I like it."
Vane walked toward the crystalline sphere. Every eye in the room was on him. The air felt heavy, as if the room itself was holding its breath. He reached out his hand, his fingers pale against his palms. As he moved closer to the ball, the light in the immediate area seemed to dim, drawn toward the black iron pendant beneath his shirt.
"Let's see if this thing can even measure zero," Vane thought to himself.
He placed his palm on the crystal.
For a second, nothing happened. The sphere stayed dark. A few students began to titter and laugh. The boy who had called him an E rank barked a short, mocking laugh. But then, the laughter died.
The translucent crystal didn't glow. It began to turn black. Not a painted black, but a deep, hollow void that seemed to suck the very color out of the room. A spiderweb of cracks erupted from where Vane's palm touched the surface. The low hum of the hall's electrical conduits suddenly spiked into a high pitched scream before snapping into total silence.
The screen above did not flash a rank. It flickered violently, the numbers spinning into symbols that the system couldn't translate. Finally, the glass of the sphere shattered into a million jagged pieces, none of them hitting the floor. They simply hovered in the air around Vane's hand, suspended in a field of absolute stillness.
Vane pulled his hand back, looking at the teacher. The man's sly smile had vanished, replaced by a mask of pure terror.
"The block," Vane said, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade. "I still have to punch the block, right?"
He walked toward the massive slab of Impact Lead. He didn't Overclock. He didn't turn to chrome. He simply pulled his fist back, his eyes fixed on a point behind the metal. He thought of the Bylaw's hand on Rokan's head. He thought of the blade through Lira's chest.
He threw the punch.
There was no loud crack. There was only a sound like a heavy curtain being drawn shut. Vane's fist didn't just hit the block, it passed through the first six inches of the reinforced lead as if it were warm butter. A shockwave of cold air exploded outward, knocking Nora back a step and sending the nearby testing equipment flying.
The screen above finally found its voice. It didn't show tonnage. It didn't show a rank letter. It simply blinked a red warning. ERROR TOTAL KINETIC ABSORPTION SYSTEM FAILURE.
Vane pulled his hand out of the metal, leaving a perfectly shaped, blackened hole in the center of the indestructible block. He turned back to the crowd of students, who were now backed away in a circle of absolute fear.
"Was that low enough?" Vane asked quietly.
Nora caught up to him as he started to walk away, her eyes glancing back at the absolute devastation he had left behind. She spoke quickly, her voice filled with a desperate curiosity. "Vane, what was that? What did you just do?"
"I held back," he said.