The days slip by in eerie silence as Tessia guides us through the wilderness, her presence warding off trouble. I estimate that two weeks have passed since we were sent into this realm for our Nexus Event.

  Nico and I have fallen into a rhythm to survive. We train, hunt, and hide. My mastery over the Ether coursing through my veins has surged, and the transformation in these few weeks is nothing but staggering. I’m finally worthy of the title Star Child.

  If I’m to compare my strength between then and now, I would say it's similar to night and day. According to Nico, this is an effect of my ether circulating through my veins like blood.

  Each step toward mastery makes the foreign energy feel like an extension of myself. Nico’s breathing techniques have stretched my endurance, letting me wield Ether longer without gasping for air. It also lets it stay in my body longer after I release my breath. And when she can, Tessia offers pointers on swordplay. Her faint voice guides my blade as she passes down her sword skills, which might take me forever to master.

  Unfortunately, she doesn’t have much more time to train me. Her form grows fainter each day, and I can’t help but wonder how much time remains before her ghostly essence vanishes entirely.

  It tugs my heart to see her like this. But I guess this is common in heroic figures. They tend to think of others more than themselves. Maybe that’s what killed her in the first place. She thought of her teammates more. It's admirable when you put it like that, but stupid from my angle. None of them would’ve done the same for her.

  “Do you know about the dragons?” I ask, swinging Horus’s Agony. The blade hums softly, slicing through the wall of tangled vegetation ahead with surgical precision.

  The trees loom over us like the buildings of the capital, Spectra, their dense canopies blocking out the faint glow of a sun dimmed by perpetual black clouds that shroud the sky.

  “Dragons are an extinct race that once settled in Eden,” Nico replies with a steady and hushed voice. We can’t risk altering any creature with extreme hearing.

  “Anything else? Like their origin?”

  He shakes his head. “Not much. What I know is that Dragonkind appeared in a world where humans didn’t have the technology we have today. No Gravity suits to keep up with their flight, or plasma swords to cut through their skin. To the humans of that time, Dragons were too strong and therefore needed to be wiped out.”

  “I see. Then what power do you think you will acquire from the heart of a True dragon?”

  “It's not just any heart,” Nico’s eyes glint with an emotion I’m not familiar with. “These expeditions have been going on since humans first settled on Beta 3 centuries ago. The Spire belongs to a Dragon King, a Monarch from another world who was slain in this realm. His heart contains his soul, and with it, his power. I don’t know the details of what his power is like, but it will grant me the freedom I’ve been longing for.”

  ‘Why is he so sure that it will grant him his freedom? Could it be that Adam was already manipulating him? That is very possible because Adam already knew who was formidable for the second mission.’

  “Why are you so sure?”

  Nico doesn’t reply immediately. His jaw tightens. He’s anything but a fool. He must know that he might be under someone’s control.

  I mean, think about it. He has a free, powerful magic item. He knows so much about the world we’ve never been in. It is also strange that he already had a motive and was prepared to survive in a world like this.

  ‘All of this feels too convenient for him.’

  “I am not,” he finally admits. “I am simply taking a leap of faith.

  I want to blurt out that I know about the monarchs, that he’s chasing the same godlike power I crave. But I bite my tongue. I will pretend to remain ignorant until he reveals it to me himself. It's better that way.

  With a quick question, I changed the topic. “What do you think happens after we become Nexus Beings?”

  Nico makes a half shrug. “We’ll be integrated into the Beta 3 military system and begin our battle against Nexus Events and other threats. We then become weapons for the Galactic Order or the Planetary Alliance.”

  ‘The Planetary alliance…it would be fun to travel planet to planet, you know.’

  I’ve seen Nexus Beings from the Alliance. They wear sleek, colorful space uniforms that radiate with power. Their job is to ensure that human colonies are in order. Some say they come from the Colony Lunare, which is Eden’s Moon.

  When I was younger, I remember seeing a member of the Planetary Alliance. She was tall and muscular with muscles that I could compare to the size of coconuts. She had red hair, red eyes, and a customized space suit without the helmet. She looked like a goddess as she inspected the facility.

  Her overwhelming presence that day let me know that there are levels among Nexus Beings. Before that day, I used to think Nexus Beings were all the same when it came to strength.

  ‘I don’t want to join a group that is okay with child experimentation, human or not. The Planetary Alliance may be a dream come true for someone like me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be under the control of someone. Lunare has leaders that I will have to fall under.’

  As we follow Tessia further through the forest, I finally start to catch a glimpse of our destination. Its sharp, pointed tip pierces the sky like a weapon forged against the universe. A sudden pressure slams into us. It prickles my skin, and all the hair on my body rises. Danger coils in the air, thick and suffocating.

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  I nearly freeze, but the faint hum of Horus’s Agony in my grip grounds me. Its whispers claw at my mind. It's all I can hear every time I think.

  “That must be the Spire,” I murmur under my breath.

  The sky above the towering structure churns differently from the one we’re currently under. Black clouds spiral in a violent dance with dark lightning striking its peaks like veins of molten fury.

  “That fear you’re having is from the Darkest Night.” Tessia’s voice is heavy with solemnity. She has eyes fixed on the tower. “ It is immensely powerful, and I’m afraid you’ll have to face it.”

  “Do we even stand a fighting chance?”

  “No.”

  Her response did not surprise me. Two Dormant humans have no business going against something that killed a group of Nexus Beings led by someone as special as Tessia.

  There is not enough luck in the universe to solve what we were walking into.

  Nico is standing beside me, wearing the same stoic expression. His glasses are nearly shattered but still cling to his face more for style than function, I suspect. He’s also staring at the Spire’s ominous shadow. There's no doubt that he's wrestling with the same question.

  “Guess I owe you one." He breaks the silence. “Who’d have thought Whispers of the Unknown would carry us this far?”

  He was right. If I couldn’t talk to Tessia, we wouldn’t have made it this far like this. Not with our strength, at least. The forest was home to all kinds of creatures, from the Two-Headed Serpents to Scorpions with bodies covered with armor as tough as steel. These creatures were all harboring the mark of chaos—therefore, hosts to the power we both dread.

  “I wonder how many have reached this place or made it back to the real world.”

  “Not many. There is a great and ancient danger ahead.”

  With a flick of his wrist, he summons his poison gauntlet and a silver longsword, its blade etched with pulsating runes. The gauntlet clings to his arm like living nanotech. Its surface is now more organic, fused to his flesh in a way that wasn’t there before.

  ‘It’s evolved.’ I notice.

  The sword hums in harmony with the gauntlet, its edge gleaming with a sinister black coating of erosion born from poison, radiating a toxic aura. The air around it feels thick with death, an impending doom that makes my skin crawl.

  Our odds against the Darkest Night are abysmal, but I am ready to grasp any advantage I get. One of those advantages is my ability to die and return. And if you think about it, the powers of a Monarch are worth the risk. In fact, I will die over and over again if it means that’s the reward I’m getting.

  My finest weapon is Horus’s Agony. It bites clean and deep. It does the work, so I see no reason to risk my neck chasing more arms and blades out there. Still, I prepare. I stuff Kangra flowers into every pocket until the petals bruise black for healing, hunt for poisonous leaves with the same careful, hungry patience I once reserved for leftovers. I don’t expect natural toxins to work on a powerful Dark being. I expect them to work on people, on Nico, when the moment comes to wrest the dragon’s heart from whatever lock the Spire uses.

  Nico might not be the only one on this mission. I don’t plan to kill everyone, but if they choose to enter the Spire, they choose the rules of its hunger. I will fight to the death if I have to.

  There are thirteen of us clones originally. A few are already dead; only about five are the kind of dangerous that survive places like this. Nico is a cold, calculating predator with high intelligence. Devon drank an S-grade potion that made him brutal and hard as a diamond, the sort you need a plan and a dozen backup plans to fell.

  Sasha is labeled PP (Peak Performance) because she flickered with ability before the system even acknowledged her. She’s flashy, vicious, and probably the one who would step forward first if she’s alive. Then there’s me and Dan. Dan is no easy problem. He’s gifted at fighting, but he’s predictable.

  Adam went through with this expedition because we’re the odds that look like winners. Not everyone on the B team needs to be special to complete the mission. He just needs a unique group of individuals with a similar purpose.

  That also means he can decide who walks back into the real world and who becomes a number in his files.

  Swish.

  I practice with Horus’s Agony. The blade murmurs at the base of my skull, thin voices threading through the marrow. The structure has grown after days of walking. Its silhouette swallows the horizon, black, beautiful, and wrong. I keep my eyes on it to remind myself of the little time we have left.

  Swish....swoosh.

  One diagonal slash, a vertical cut. The routine was drilled into us at the facility. It served once, in a different life, when threats came in neat patterns and we had training partners. But now, the technique sits like a child's toy in my hands. It's useful, limited, and cruelly inadequate. Every swing reminds me I never planned on surviving for this long. Now regret tastes like metal on my tongue, and the blade keeps whispering, patient and hungry.

  I leap back, pretending to parry an invisible enemy. My breath stills as I will energy into the sword, shutting out the hissing whispers clawing at my mind. With a sharp swing, the blade cuts through the air. Ether surges, condensing into a violent wave that detonates against the boulder. Stone shatters into fragments, dust spiraling upward like smoke from a battlefield.

  I don’t release the energy. Instead, I pour more into the sword, forcing myself to let the whispers dig deeper, their maddening chorus pressing against my skull. The more I endure, the sharper my control grows, and the deadlier the wave becomes. The agony gnaws at me, but I bite my lip and push through, repeating the motion again and again.

  From the sidelines, Nico watches in silence, arms crossed. His wide eyes flicker with something between awe and suspicion, as if he can’t decide whether to be impressed or unsettled by how far I’ve come in so little time.

  “You’ve grown impressively. The talents of a Star Child truly stand out,” he remarks, a sly smile tugging at his lips. His eyes narrow, glinting each time he does that.

  “Well, I didn’t have a choice.” I giggle weakly, trying to smother the whispers clawing at me. Sweat streams down my face, my body trembling with exhaustion.

  The only way to silence the whispers is to dismiss the sword. But I can’t. Not yet. If I want to live, I have to learn how to endure the blade’s effects.

  “You need to develop your own technique if you want to keep surviving,” Nico says, his tone flat but edged. “You’re using a very universal fighting style, one that belongs solely to Bloodhaul and Beta 3. If you escape, it will be obvious.”

  Ah yes. My obvious style. As if I needed him to remind me. Still, that’s the least of my problems right now. This sword style is all I have. I don’t have the time, or the talent, to forge something new from scratch. That’s why I can’t beat someone like Nico. He’s more skilled. More complete. Superior.

  'That gauntlet… It’s also a problem.'

  I lower my sword, ending the drill. “It’s the only thing I can rely on for now,” I mutter. Then, louder, “Also, I think it’s time you tell me why you need a Star Child when entering the Spire.”

  “Adam mentioned we’d have a better chance of survival if we had a Star Child or two among us,” he says.

  I don’t want to ask, but the words spill out anyway. “Is he the one who told you everything?”

  Nico shakes his head. “No. The person who told me everything is Doctor Hendrick, a scientist from Eden. He’s against everything happening in Bloodhaul and wants to help us. I joined Adam’s expedition because it’s the only way I can get my hands on the Monarch’s power. By becoming a Monarch, you can sever the link you have with the Blood Monarch.”

  He said the word Monarch.

  'He’s not even trying to hide it anymore. But who is this Doctor Hendrick?'

  Nico notices my expression, palms his face, and chuckles. “You know, don’t you?”

  I nod once. “I do. The Unknown fed me knowledge.”

  Perfect. I have my excuse for knowing too much.

  Fantastic.