Regina was too busy scrolling through the data. Her hands trembled slightly. "Output consistency perfect... synchronization stable... this is—" she looked up at rlin, disbelief cutting through her professionalism. "How are you doing that?"
rlin t her gaze evenly. "...Guess the blade likes ."
Draven snorted. "Yeah, or it’s scared of you."
For the first ti all morning, rlin almost smiled.
Then, the lights flickered.
Just once. Barely noticeable. But he felt it.
That pulse, the one inside his chest, suddenly staggered.
He froze.
[Warning: Source interference detected.]
[Unidentified signal... attempting synchronization override.]
Regina frowned at her monitor. "That’s not right. We’re getting resonance feedback from—"
"Cut the power," rlin said sharply.
"What?"
"I said cut the power!"
But it was already too late.
The Seraph Blade flared in his grip, light surging from its core, climbing up his arm like molten gold. The hum deepened, turning into a low, thrumming growl that shook the air.
Technicians scrambled. Alarms wailed. Draven cursed and stepped back.
"Containnt field’s spiking!" soone shouted.
rlin’s vision blurred for a mont. He could see it, faint, spectral lines spreading from the weapon, forming sigils midair. The sa kind he’d seen deep in the labyrinth.
Rathan’s mories stirred like ghosts behind his eyes.
’No... not now.’
He clenched his jaw, forcing his focus into the weapon. His will pressed down like a command.
"Stop."
For a heartbeat, just one, the light hesitated. Then it receded.
The alarms died one by one, leaving only heavy breathing and static silence.
Regina’s hand hovered over her console, eyes wide. "What—what did you just do?"
rlin exhaled, setting the blade gently back onto its cradle. "Stopped it from blowing your lab to pieces."
She stared at him. "That shouldn’t have been possible."
Draven’s grin had long since faded. "Kid..." His tone was quieter now, laced with a kind of wary respect. "What the hell are you?"
rlin glanced between them, golden eyes calm but unreadable. "...Soone who doesn’t want to see this world burn. Yet."
Then, without waiting for a response, he turned and walked out.
Outside, the morning sun was still bright, untouched by what had just happened below.
rlin tilted his head back and took a slow breath.
’Whatever that was... soone tried to override it. To reach through it.’
He glanced down at his hand. Faint traces of gold still shimred along his palm before fading.
[Interference logged.]
[Source: Unknown.]
[Recomndation: Caution.]
He closed his fist slowly.
"...Yeah," he murmured. "No kidding."
—
By the ti rlin reached the tower again, the morning rush had faded. The building’s mirrored glass threw back the sunlight, cutting through the skyline like a blade.
Inside, the lobby was too quiet. Even the receptionist’s polite greeting carried tension. Word had already spread, sothing had gone wrong at the range.
rlin didn’t stop. He rode the elevator straight up.
When the doors opened, Adrian Kael was already waiting. The chairman’s gray-streaked hair looked sharper under the office lights, his eyes unreadable.
Behind him stood Regina Hale, tablet tucked close to her chest. Her posture was stiff; her usual confidence cracked just enough to show the edges.
"Mr. Everhart," Kael said evenly, stepping aside to gesture him in. "I was inford the field test ended... unexpectedly."
rlin entered the office, the door sliding shut behind him. "You could say that."
Regina exhaled softly. "The Seraph reacted to an outside signal. Sothing interfered. The readings spiked far beyond capacity, then stabilized when—"
"When I told it to stop," rlin finished for her.
Kael’s brows lifted slightly. "You commanded it?"
"I didn’t command it," rlin replied, voice calm. "I focused, and it stopped. Maybe coincidence."
Kael didn’t buy that. Neither did Regina.
The chairman moved behind his desk, folding his hands together. "You understand what this ans, don’t you?"
"That your prototype almost lted a wing of your facility?"
"That sothing reached into a sealed chamber," Kael corrected, tone sharp. "That weapon was not linked to any external network. Not ours, not the governnt’s. For it to respond to an outside signal ans soone found a way to slip past protections that shouldn’t be breachable."
Regina’s voice softened. "It’s not possible. The Seraph’s core is isolated, mana-based, not digital. Unless..."
She trailed off, eyes flicking toward rlin.
He felt the weight of her unspoken thought: Unless the interference ca through him.
rlin didn’t flinch. "You’re wondering if it reacted because of ."
Kael didn’t deny it. "I’m wondering what you are, Mr. Everhart."
The words hung between them like a blade.
For a heartbeat, rlin said nothing. Then, quietly: "Just soone who owns eight percent of your company."
Kael’s mouth twitched, almost a smile. "A convenient answer."
Regina set her tablet down. "Chairman, with respect, if he hadn’t stopped it, the Seraph would have gone critical. We’d have lost the entire range. Whatever happened, he contained it."
"That doesn’t an he’s not part of the cause."
Their eyes t, tension sparking across the polished desk.
rlin’s voice stayed level. "You want to run tests? Fine. Scan . Track my mana signature, my neural patterns, my blood type if you want. You’ll find nothing that explains what happened."
Kael leaned back, studying him. "You seem certain."
"I’ve been certain for a long ti."
That seed to give Kael pause. He tapped a finger against the desk, gaze drifting toward the window.
After a long silence, he said, "Regina, prepare the diagnostics. I want every piece of data from the Seraph test cross-referenced with prior resonance records. And I want Draven and Cross briefed."
Regina nodded, already scrolling through her device.
Kael looked back at rlin. "Until we know what caused that surge, the Seraph remains sealed. And you, Mr. Everhart..." He stood, straightening his jacket. "...will remain in contact. If anything unusual happens, anything, you inform directly."
rlin’s golden eyes t his, unwavering. "You’ll be the first to know."
Kael nodded once, then dismissed them both.
Outside the office, Regina slowed her pace, falling into step beside rlin.
"You didn’t ntion the pulse," she said quietly.
He gave her a sidelong glance. "You noticed it too."
"Yes. Right before the surge. The entire weapon resonated with your biotrics. I’ve never seen readings that... aligned."
rlin kept walking. "Maybe it’s not aligning with . Maybe it’s sothing through ."
Regina frowned. "Through?"
He didn’t answer, and she didn’t press further.
When they reached the elevator, she spoke again, softer. "Thank you, for what you did. I know you didn’t have to."
rlin’s gaze flicked to her, then to the steel doors sliding open. "I didn’t do it for you."
"I know," she said, stepping inside. "But you still did."
The elevator humd shut, carrying her away.
He stayed by the window for a while after she left, watching the city below. The air outside shimred faintly in the heat, normal, busy, oblivious.
’Soone interfered with a sealed system,’ he thought. ’Soone who knows what the Seraph really is.’
The System’s faint glow blinked once in the corner of his vision.
[Unknown frequency logged.]
[Partial trace... matching pattern: 12%. Source undetermined.]
"Twelve percent?" he muttered. "Not much to work with."
Still, the faint trace burned into his awareness. Whoever, or whatever, had reached through that signal was now marked, if only faintly.
He took out his phone, scrolling through his contacts. Most were empty placeholders, corporate numbers he barely used. His thumb hesitated over one, Regina’s. Then he closed the screen.
Not yet.
He needed ti. And answers.
That night, the city lights painted the apartnt ceiling gold and blue. Victoria was asleep on the couch again, so old movie running on the TV.
rlin sat by the window, still in his suit, a cup of untouched coffee cooling beside him.
He stared at his hand, the sa one that had held the Seraph. Faint golden threads flickered across his skin, then vanished.
’It reacted to because of the System,’ he thought. ’But the override... that wasn’t random.’
There were other pieces on the board now. Soone, or sothing, was moving under the surface, testing boundaries.
And if this world’s story was still following the novel’s path... then none of this should be happening yet.
He looked out at the skyline. The Invoke Tower stood tall in the distance, lights pulsing at its crown like a heartbeat.
A quiet pulse answered within him.
He closed his eyes.
For the first ti since waking in this world, rlin felt sothing he hadn’t in a long ti.
A thread of unease.
Not because he was outmatched.
But because, for the first ti... soone else might be playing the sa ga he was.
—
The invitation ca quietly, no seals, no formalities.
A simple text ssage.
Chairman Kael: Dinner. 19:00. 79th floor. Alone.
That was all. No explanation. No assistant call to confirm.
rlin stared at the ssage for a mont, thumb hovering over the screen. A private dinner with Adrian Kael wasn’t an offer, it was a test. A summons wrapped in courtesy.
And tests, rlin knew, never ca without intent.
By the ti he reached the seventy-ninth floor, the sun was bleeding into the horizon. The sky was a wash of molten orange fading into violet, and the tower’s glass walls caught it all, turning the dining hall into a chamber of fire and dusk.
Kael was already there.
He sat by the panoramic window, no guards, no staff, only a single bottle of wine between two empty glasses. His jacket hung on the back of the chair, sleeves rolled to his forearms, the faint shimr of a mana barrier humming low around the floor, subtle, but present.
Power layered over civility.
"Mr. Everhart," Kael said, not looking up as rlin entered. "You’re punctual. I appreciate that."
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