DESYREBOUND

The observation deck buzzed with tension.

Squad Three stood by the glass, eyes locked on the simulation — a layered city ruin, half-consumed by flickering static. Their reflections hovered over the display: Levi with arms folded tight, Min-ji chewing her lip, Charlotte silent.

"...They're actually doing it," Min-ji murmured, watching Julienne vault behind a collapsed walkway, pistol glowing violet. "They're pushing straight to the core."

"Course they are," Levi grunted. "They're psychos."

Charlotte said nothing, but her eyes tracked Kael — the way he moved through debris, fluid and controlled, as if every inch of the battlefield had already unfolded in his mind.

In the display, his whip cracked like a thunderclap, yanking a Riftspawn from cover. Before the creature even hit the ground, Kael's blade split its torso clean.

From the back of the room, the door hissed open.

Elise Fontaine stepped in, bandages visible beneath her collar. David followed close, flexing his gloved fingers as a fresh med-patch blinked over his forearm. Enzo limped last, half-supported by his cane, his cracked visor hanging loose like a scar across his chest.

Levi blinked. "Back from the dead, huh?"

David smirked. "Barely."

Enzo collapsed onto a bench, exhaling slow. The strain was visible now. Deep.

"You shouldn't be up," Min-ji said gently.

"I shouldn't be alive," Enzo muttered. "But here we are."

Charlotte turned to him. "That Wyrm-Class… that wasn't part of your trial, right?"

"No," Elise answered flatly. "It evolved mid-run. We weren't briefed on mutation protocols."

"They made it mutate," David added. "That wasn't error. That was engineering."

"Why would they escalate?" Charlotte asked quietly.

"They weren't testing reflexes," Enzo said. "They were testing trauma."

The words hit harder than the silence that followed.

Down below, the projection feed shimmered.

Cyrhelle's latest construct vanished into smoke as the last Riftspawn broke through. The boss — a spined, two-headed Wyrm-Class brute — emerged from the rubble beneath a collapsed scaffold, its dual throats howling across the shattered concrete.

Kael didn't blink.

He launched the whip — coiling one neck. Julienne's Vulcan Edge switched into Overclock, rapid bursts flaring in violet arcs that pounded the Riftspawn's left side. Cyrhelle drew and cast in seconds, pushing illusory rubble under the beast's feet, forcing it to lose balance.

Kael moved. Sword low, steps calm.

The blade rose — gleaming, clean.

It sank into the Rift Core glowing faintly within the monster's chest. One cry. Then a silence filled with shattering light.

[Simulation Clock: 00:58:42]

Boss-Class Entity Neutralized. Core Acquired.

Trial Cleared – Squad Two Complete.

The room didn't cheer. It held its breath.

"…That was surgical," Min-ji whispered.

"Damn right it was," Levi said.

From a nearby bench, a cadet with thick goggles elbowed her friend. "Kael Navarro. That guy's not fighting — he's pre-rendering."

"And Julienne Arc," the tech girl added with awe. "Vulcan drift sync, high-speed stabilization… She's doing five systems at once. Who even thinks like that?"

"She'd bury you with a grenade for saying that," her friend deadpanned.

"Worth it."

Above the projection, the Veil Division instructors stood behind a polarized glass shield. One of them — a woman with a coat marked by faint violet glyphs — leaned forward slightly.

Her eyes lingered on Kael, who looked up toward the ceiling — not exhausted, not triumphant. A flicker of tension remained in his jaw. He wasn't relaxing.

He was waiting.

"He knew where it would fall," the Veil instructor murmured.

Beside her, a Coregen analyst froze mid-swipe on his slate.

"…Merge wasn't in the current protocol," he said under his breath. "Who authorized this?"

A beat of silence. Then a brief crackle of static across the private comms.

A calm, cold voice.

"Stage Two begins."

The screen flickered once.

Then the lighting changed.

A low tone chimed overhead — deep, mechanical, deliberate.

"Attention: Squad Three — standby."

"Phase Three Activation: Merge Protocol Confirmed."

"Initiating Dual-Instance Rift."

The simulation floor below Squad Two began to pulse faint green.

At the far side of the deck, another gate activated. Steam hissed from its sides, casting vertical light into the chamber.

Charlotte's brows furrowed. "Wait. Merge Protocol?"

"They're combining trials?" Min-ji asked.

Levi scoffed. "That's not even part of academy reg. What the hell?"

Enzo leaned forward on his cane. "It's not regulation. It's Veil-level. Experimental simulations — hybrid loadouts, stacked threat zones."

David folded his arms. "A dual instance means new terrain. Layered sectors. And unknowns."

Julienne's voice crackled over the simulation relay from below.

"Uh… Not to freak anyone out… but that tunnel we just cleared? The walls are shifting. There's new power lines. This Rift's evolving."

Kael looked toward the tunnel's mouth. Fog thickened.

The sound of metal locking into place echoed through the walls.

Above, the Veil instructor tapped a single note into her datapad.

"…Now we see what breaks."

--------

Squad Three gathered by the entrance gate, gear sealed, eyes scanning the pulsing chamber. They hadn't moved yet.

They weren't confused because they were scared.

They were confused because no one had warned them.

Min-ji's voice dropped. "There's no new map on our HUD. It's blank."

Charlotte looked to the instructors. "They're not answering queries."

Levi unlatched his gauntlets and cracked his knuckles. "We're walking into a minefield blind."

Elise exhaled. "Welcome to the new rules."

The simulation didn't reset.

It shifted.

And now, Squad Three was entering not just a trial — but the aftermath of something rewritten.

They stepped forward.

Into the Merge.