I stepped forward again.
The sound had stopped… but the silence left behind wasn't natural.
I placed my hand on the wall. Cold. Like sheet metal abandoned in winter.
But then… it pulsed.
As if something beneath it was slowly stirring.
I tightened my grip on the knife.
"I'm not imagining this."
"This isn't a dream. Not some sleep-deprived delusion."
I glanced around the corner. No cameras. No observers. No eyes watching.
I was alone… truly alone.
With the wall and whatever lay behind it.
Then suddenly,
The wall shuddered. Not violently… more like a breath.
I stepped back.
The knife was no longer a tool. It was part of me. Every cell in my body screamed: run.
But I didn't.
Instead, I drove the blade into the edge of the wall.
I didn't expect anything to happen… but the metal cracked.
A faint blue light seeped from the fracture, touching the blade first… then my eyes.
It wasn't electric. It wasn't fire.
It was mana.
But not pure mana.
Something else.
A distorted light, as if the core behind it were weeping.
I reached into the opening… just enough for my hand to slip through.
The texture inside was strange. Sticky, but not wet. Alive, but without a pulse.
Then I touched it.
A core.
Half-split. Saturated with something beyond the mana of children, beyond even that of awakened beings.
I tried to pull my hand back but my body wouldn't move.
As if the wall had swallowed my arm.
I heard a voice inside me.
No words. No language.
Just an echo…
A memory…
A face I'd never seen before.
Then a scream inside me.
Not pain but a surge.
The air shifted.
The knife dropped.
My back hit the far wall.
I saw the light bleed from the fracture, winding around the container like blue mist…
And then it entered me, through my chest, through my skin without leaving a mark.
I was no longer who I had been.
---
The air was colder than usual when I returned.
I sat on my bed. I didn't speak. I didn't move.
I only placed my hand over my chest, where that faint warmth still pulsed not like energy, but like something newly alive.
I heard footsteps. Not a trainer's. Slower. More deliberate.
A tall man, wearing simple clothes. No badge. No device. His eyes were a deep gray, like storm clouds waiting to fall.
He stood before me without asking permission. Without looking directly at me.
In a low voice, he said, "Container Three… you didn't see what was inside. But you came out different."
I didn't answer.
He continued, "That was the remnant of a core that failed five years ago. Classified as fractured… lifeless. It was buried there after it failed to kill the one before you."
I looked up.
He didn't smile.
"You… survived it. Or maybe it chose you."
"Was it a test?" I asked.
He shook his head slowly. "No. It was a cold trap. We only wanted to see if it was still dangerous. We expected nothing. We didn't expect you."
He paused for a long time, then said:
"What you feel now… you won't understand it yet. But it's a beginning. Not a core awakening something older. Something that doesn't belong to us… but to you alone."
He stepped closer.
"From today… you won't be treated as a failure. But you won't be treated as awakened either. Because you've become something else. Something our systems can't define."
Then he turned to leave, saying only:
"Stay silent, Reis. Silence… is still your greatest strength."
He left me alone.
But I was no longer the same.
I came back from a place no one returns from.
---
The day dragged on. Time here wasn't measured by hours, but by the weight pressing down on the soul.
During training, no one spoke to me. No friendly faces. No whispered mockery.
I was like a shadow inside a human shell.
Even the trainer didn't say my name. Just pointed when it was my turn in simulations.
And yet, it didn't bother me.
Because something inside me was shifting… something invisible. Silent. Shapeless but growing.
That evening, after everyone had returned to their rooms, someone knocked three deliberate taps. Not asking permission. Announcing arrival.
I opened the door.
The bald man stood there. Tall. Stern features. The voice I remembered from our first day in the field.
But this time, he wore no uniform.
And that cold authority in his tone… was gone.
He said, "Follow me, Reis."
I didn't ask where. I didn't refuse.
I followed him through corridors that had always been locked to me. Doors opening at his presence. Machines responding to his silence.
After minutes, we arrived at a circular chamber unlike any room I'd seen here.
The light was soft. The walls covered in screens displaying unreadable data.
At the center, a black table surrounded by four chairs. One was occupied.
Another man waited. Shorter. Slightly round. Transparent glasses. Fingers twitching over a data board.
Without looking up, he said, "So… he's here."
The bald man took a seat opposite him and gestured for me to sit.
I obeyed.
No one spoke for a moment.
Then the round man began: "Your name is Reis. A child discarded after a failed core implantation. The only one at the time labeled 'High Cognitive Sensitivity.' Rare, but useless to military applications. You were neglected. No tracking. No surveillance. Eventually, the system forgot you."
Now he looked at me directly, eyes sharp.
"But not all systems did. The container you were sent to wasn't just a physical test… it was a forgotten lab. Sealed five years ago after one failed core experiment."
"I didn't touch anything," I said.
"But the core… felt you."
The bald man finally spoke: "What happened there wasn't standard mana response. It was subconscious. Your mind… tried to summon something. A shape. A memory. An illusion."
"An illusion…?" I whispered.
He nodded. "Yes. Not raw mana. Mana shaped by unconscious will."
The two exchanged a glance.
Then the other added, more serious now, "We saw the dove, Reis. The one in your room. That wasn't coincidence. It wasn't just a dream. The cameras recorded a mana field in your room… it lasted five seconds."
I didn't speak.
"No child can form a field at your age. No one can form one without an awakened core. But you did."
Something inside me trembled.
The bald man said slowly, "You don't have a traditional core. But it's not dead. It's… transforming."
Silence filled the room.
Then he continued:
"What you have, Reis… is a power we haven't seen before. It doesn't rely on strength. Or control. It responds to imagination."
"The field you create right now it's just a meter wide. Lasts ten seconds at most. But we measured its energy. Its frequency. Its decay."
"It belongs to a third category of awakened. One… yet to be named."
He leaned forward slightly, voice low:
"That's why… we want to offer you something, Reis."
He continued, "We've stopped treating you as an unremarkable trainee. From this moment… you'll be considered an awakened candidate. Officially."
I opened my mouth, but he raised a hand.
"You're not alone."
"There's a boy, twelve, who manifested flame linked to a triple-core structure."
"A girl, young, who summoned a sonic field that moved objects without touch."
"And a few children once labeled scavengers who survived unexplainable mana exposure."
He looked at me, long and quiet.
"You are… the nucleus of a new batch. Different. None of you alike. Not even we know where this path leads."
"But you, Reis… you'll be the first we follow down it."
He stood, then extended his hand.
"If you want to remain just another face in the crowd… go back to your room. Forget this meeting."
"But if you want to become something they can't ignore…"
"Join us."
I hesitated.
Then I stood.
I didn't shake his hand.
But I said one thing:
"I'm… not who I was."
They exchanged a look.
And both nodded as if that alone… was the answer they needed.