Vale walked down the silent hallway, his phone glowing faintly in his raised hand while the other carried a half-burned book at his side. Eskar's flames had nearly reduced it to ash, the cover was charred and curling at the edges, but the pages inside had survived. It would have been an easy item to replace, Vale knew that well enough, but something about losing it would have bothered him more than he cared to admit.
He followed the guiding system on his phone through the white, polished corridors. The night sky outside glimmered faintly through the tall windows, and for a brief moment the academy looked peaceful, far removed from the chaos of the gymnasium.
But as he walked, Vale passed **that statue** again.
The golden statue of Dagon.
He stopped instinctively, turning his head rhythmically, almost cautiously. The sculpture stood tall in the center of the hall, its polished surface gleaming under the artificial lights. Vale had studied it earlier out of curiosity, but now, now something felt undeniably different.
Wrong even.
His eyes narrowed as a cold prickle ran along his spine. 'Something is off…'
It wasn't craftsmanship or style. It wasn't the golden sheen or the imposing stance.
It was something beneath all of that, something that felt strange.
Vale closed his eyes, shutting out the physical world entirely. He stretched his senses outward, focusing on the subtle hum of energy that soaked everything around him. He had learned that every object, every living being, held this faint signature, this mysterious substance that Vale himself inherently lacked.
And yet even without it, he could still perceive it.
But this time, the statue hummed differently.
There was a suppressed presence within the golden surface, faint yet unmistakable, like a deep breath held for centuries.
Vale furrowed his brows, pushing deeper into concentration.
'What are you hiding…?'
He extended a hand toward the statue. While he could not sense the movement of his own limbs, his body was invisible to this energy-based sense, he could still feel the physical sensation of air brushing against his fingertips as he drew closer.
But the moment he neared the statue, the energy inside it… shifted.
It flinched.
No, it responded.
It began to stir violently, swirling like a storm trapped beneath glass. Vale inhaled sharply. It was reacting to him, even though by all logic it shouldn't. Nothing ever sensed him, not machines, not spirit energy, not even living shadows. He was an anomaly in that regard.
And yet this energy reacted like it recognized him.
'Strange…'
His fingertips brushed the cold golden surface.
Instantly,
The hidden energy shot forward.
It surged like lightning, snapping outward and rushing straight into Vale's hand. He jerked back as the energy stabbed through his skin, not painfully, but with an overwhelming sense of pressure, before vanishing inside him.
He stumbled backward, breath hitching, heart hammering. A single bead of cold sweat slid down his cheek as he stared at his left hand.
It looked perfectly normal.
No glow.
No change.
No new presence of energy.
He felt nothing different, nothing except the echo of what had just happened.
"The energy went… into me," Vale whispered shakily. "How?"
He closed his eyes again, desperately trying to sense something, anything, but all he felt was emptiness. The same void where his energy should have been.
His armor, yes, its familiar signature was still intact. The other items he carried, too.
But nothing new.
Nothing from the statue.
He stood there for a long moment, trying to rationalize it, but every guess he formed collapsed into uncertainty. The event defied everything he understood about this world and himself.
Eventually, he exhaled slowly, rubbing the back of his neck as he forced his feet to move again. His thoughts lingered stubbornly on his left hand, on that brief sensation of contact, on the chaotic surge that had flooded into him.
It had hidden itself again, gone silent. Dormant.
But not erased.
Vale couldn't forget how the energy felt.
Chaotic. Unstable. Restless even when suppressed, nothing like the harmonious, controlled energies he had sensed in others. Not even like the unique energies that flowed through gifted individuals.
It was the opposite.
'Maybe that's why it stayed dormant so long,' Vale reasoned. 'Maybe this environment overwhelmed it. Maybe it only stirs when something similar appears… or when something draws it out.'
But even with that thought, the puzzle refused to be solved.
Why had it entered him?
He had no energy at all, chaotic or otherwise. By all known logic, the energy shouldn't have been able to sense him, let alone react to him or fuse with him.
No one could detect him.
Not machines.
Not mages.
Not spirits or shadows.
Even mirrors refused to show him.
And yet… that energy had reached for him first.
None of it made sense.
After a while, he simply let out a long, weary sigh.
"What am I even doing…? I don't know the basics of this world. There's no way I can figure this out," he muttered softly, closing his eyes.
For a few moments, he remained still, mind empty, quiet, and dark. Not thinking, not worrying; simply existing.
When he finally opened his eyes again, his gaze drifted toward the mirror hanging across the room. As always, he didn't see himself in it. There was no reflection, only the faint outline of his armor and the gleam of his metallic right arm.
And yet, somehow, staring into that empty mirror felt… personal. Intimate, even.
His pale eyes narrowed, and he whispered to his own absence:
"But I will."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
After that, he lay back on his bed, letting exhaustion pull him under. Sleep claimed him almost instantly, unsurprising, considering how much had happened in a single day.
Vale awoke to an odd chorus of chirps and reptilian trills, followed by something scratching his face.
He groaned, opening his eyes reluctantly.
Ember lay sprawled across his chest, flapping his tiny wings and scraping Vale's cheek with them as if trying to peel him awake. The small wyvern's ember-bright eyes met Vale's pale ones with an almost mischievous innocence.
Vale stared at the creature for a long second, too tired to be annoyed. Then he sighed, letting his head fall back into the pillow.
"…Fine."
He sat up, prompting Ember to hop gracefully off his chest and onto the bed with a soft chirp.
As Vale rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his hand brushed against something cold and metallic beside him. He turned, and froze for a moment.
A drone lay on the sheets near his hip.
It resembled the one Chrome used, but with several new modifications, sleeker plating, softer lines along its edges, tiny glowing seams.
Vale picked it up carefully, turning it over in his hand.
"So he really did improve it…" he murmured in quiet amazement.
Just as he examined it, the drone suddenly softened.
Its structure rippled, metal turning to liquid, and it slid beneath his armor like quicksilver. Vale felt the cool metal settle against his skin, attaching itself to him as if magnetized.
He couldn't help but laugh once in disbelief.
"Truly incredible… Chrome, you're truly incredible."
Chrome had promised he'd upgrade the drone so it could accompany Vale. He hadn't expected it to function almost like a living gauntlet, but after everything he'd experienced yesterday, he supposed he shouldn't be surprised.
What did surprise him was the sudden voice that echoed inside his head:
Activating protocol. Protocol type: Dormant.
Friendly ally detected. Ally name: Vale. Ally type: Friend. Objective: Protect at all costs.
Vale's eyes widened slightly. He instinctively tried to pinpoint the source of the voice—but there was nothing to track. It seemed to echo directly through his mind.
Probably one of the drone's new abilities.
A shame he couldn't figure out how it worked, not yet, at least. But still, this meant he could communicate with Chrome without drawing suspicion. That alone was useful.
He chose to focus on the positives instead of letting his curiosity gnaw at him again.
Vale rose from the wooden bed and stretched his arms and legs, loosening the stiffness in his body. Ember watched him intently, tilting his head with almost human attentiveness. When Vale finished stretching, the small wyvern fluttered up to his shoulder and perched there comfortably.
Up close, Vale noticed something odd, Ember had grown, if only a little. Not enough for most people to notice, but Vale wasn't "most people."
He filed the observation away for later.
Leaving his bedroom, he stepped into the small kitchen area, and paused mid-stride.
Something beside the counter had caught his eye, stirring a mild shock in his chest…