"Erie Sunheart."
The letters glowed a radiant gold, but beneath his name, a series of remarks scrolled in a dark gray font, notes meant to be read only by officials, yet they were displayed for everyone to see.
"Wait?" Erie thought to himself. "Why are all of the remarks on display?" he thought, his voice tightening and hitching.
"Am I the only one with the remarks?"
Erie's heart pounded so loudly that he was sure the knights could hear it; though the room was still silent, he could hear the flies buzzing their wings in the background. The air felt heavy and reverent, as if everyone understood how dangerous it would be to make a noise accidentally.
A previous outburst was made, and the knight that stood watch appeared behind him and struck him, causing him to lose consciousness.
"I guess they are about discipline here." Erie thought to himself.
Erie stepped forward when it was his time. As he walked toward the front, a white knight materialized next to the building, and a blue circle lit up brightly in front of the knight, indicating where Erie should stand.
Erie stood in the blue circle, looking up at the knight, showing the difference in size between the two. Erie took note of the knight's armor, which was almost like cloth, but Erie could sense its energy. Power is compressed into clothing.
"Is this the new beast armor?"
His eyes wandered to the weapons on the knight's back, two black rods that formed an "X" across his back, though he did not move towards them.
The Circle below Erie glowed a radiant blue and surrounded Erie, creating faint lines that led to his face; the knight lowered his head, leaned forward, and whispered into Erie's ear.
"Erie Sunheart. Member of the Sunheart lineage. Residing at Western Orphanage Village. Parents: Deceased. Cause of Death: Unknown."
To Erie, the night sounded like he was reading from a script.
"He sounds robotic," Erie thought, eyes flicking between the knight's blank expression and the glowing circle on the ground.
"If this is correct," the knight said, "nod once. If incorrect, nod twice."
Erie swallowed and nodded once.
Another pause.
"Do you currently possess an ability? Nod once for yes. Twice for no."
Erie gritted his teeth and nodded twice, avoiding eye contact.
The knight straightened, letting out a soft sigh—a hint of disappointment in the movement. He placed one white-gloved hand gently on Erei's shoulder, and the world around him shifted.
A ripple distorted the air like heat over the pavement. The walls dissolved into shimmering light. His vision twisted, pulling him through.
"Where…?" Erie blinked a few times. Trying to adjust his vision, He was now standing in an open field surrounded by massive towers. The sky arched high above like a hollow dome of silver. It looked like a stadium without seats, designed for tests, not games.
He felt others nearby—footsteps, whispers, murmurs behind the veil of silence. But it wasn't as tense here. There was air to breathe.
A dark purple core hovered in the center of one transparent chamber encased in hexagonal energy walls. It pulsed like a living thing.
"Is that a beast core?"
It floated, dense and spherical, its center glowing with a deep violet light that thickened toward the core like some forbidden star.
Above it, a name blazed in bright white:
"GENE GANE"
A boy inside the chamber, known as Gene, presumably placed his palm on the core. A surge of deep blue light exploded outward, pressing against the invisible walls and clinging like mist.
"What is that?" he watched as the light engulfed the small area.
"Erie Sunheart?"
A Quiet yet composed voice called out to him, impossible to ignore. Erie turned around, caught off guard.
The man who approached was of his height, slender, and sharp around the edges. He wore a black suit, and his glasses matched it. A soft-blue hologram flickered from his wrist, narrowing out the golden streak in his brown hair.
The hologram materialized Erie's profile in shifting light. His gaze flicked over the data with narrowed eyes.
"You already have a rank?" he murmured, brows lifting slightly. "Did you attend an early academy?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
With a flick of his fingers, the glowing text on the hologram blinked once, then vanished.
"It's illegal to assign ranks without an official evaluation," he said, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Unless authorized by a government entity," he said flatly, almost bored. Then, his eyes finally met Erie's. Calm. Penetrating. Dispassionate.
A faint smile curled at the edge of his lips.
"I'm Dove Cumber," he added, like a name carried by wind through ruins. "I'm here to evaluate this sector... and you."
Erie swallowed hard. Dove's presence didn't feel hostile—but it wasn't comforting either. It was the kind of energy that measured you in silence and found you lacking before you even had a chance to speak.
"You're here because you don't have an ability," Dove continued, adjusting something on his device.
"But we'll see if you've got an affinity."
Dove swiped his finger, and the hologram closed instantly. The light faded from his wrist. Another light flashed in his palm, and a crystal ring, almost transparent, appeared in his hand.
"Put it on," he said, handing it to Erie; the man then turned and began walking.
Erie hesitated, standing the ring; the cold touch of it told Erie that it was more than just a piece of jewelry.
Still, he slid the ring on his finger and followed Dove to the center of the field.
Dove stopped at a small building in the same area Gene was standing. The building had the same texture as the small ring on his finger. The ring reacted to the building, pulling Erie's information from the ring above the doorway.
A door opened, and he pointed at the floated core in the area's center.
"This is the same place that Gene guy stood…" Erie murmured as he stepped inside. The moment he crossed the threshold, a swooshing sound filled his ears.
He turned—Dove was still there, standing just beyond the entryway—but a shimmering veil had passed between them. A thin ripple of energy, barely visible, stretched across the doorway like a transparent curtain of light. An energy wall formed, sealing him in.
"All right!"
The voice rang in his headlight, crisp, almost like birdsong. Erie blinked, startled, and looked toward Dove.
He could see him through the shimmering barrier; his lips weren't moving, but he could still hear him.
"Telepathy?" Erie wondered.
"Yes, this is telepathy, Erie." Dove remarked, "This is a simple task," the voice echoed again in his mind. "All you need to do is place your hand on the core. Make sure it's the one with the ring."
Dove didn't move. He just watched with that same unreadable gaze.
Erie placed his hand on the floating core.
A warm sensation pulsed into his palm and moved through his body, almost like running water, but that was all.
The core remained still, almost void of light.
Erie slowly turned towards Dove as if confused, and the wall opened.
"All right, that was it," he said, expressionless. "It's time to wait in the waiting area."
Dove led Erie to a neighboring building, a giant wall lined with LED lights and low-humming electrical currents. Inside, a handful of students huddle in quiet groups, conversing with one another.
Erie scanned the room, and no one looked his way; his eyes fell on a row of empty seats near the center of the building.
He went to the seats and noticed a small pulse of blue lights moving from the floor to the outer walls. Without a word, Erie sat down, waiting for instructions.
Dove lingered only a moment before turning away, returning to the waiting zone where the next student stood alone, awaiting her first evaluation.
The chatter around Erie grew louder as more recruits filled the facility, filling the hall with quiet excitement and murmurs. Erie watched silently as the evaluation process repeated itself for over an hour.
Erie noticed something unsettling: each Recruit who stepped forward after he drew a reaction from the core. Every touch illuminated a unique color, some glowing faintly and some vibrantly and strongly, but each revealed something unmistakably special.
"What does this even mean?" Erie wondered anxiously. He played with the ring on his finger and noticed that the clear coating remained dull while the other rings shone with a distinct color.
"Hey," a voice broke his thoughts, pulling him back to reality. "did you take the test yet?"
Erie glanced up and saw the boy's tousled black hair threaded with vivid blue hair strands that stood out; Erie's gaze lingered on the stranger's unusual eyes, one deep royal blue and the other ink black, both fixed on him.
"Your ring." the boy said, pointing towards Erie's hand. "It's still dull; it means you didn't take the test yet."
He turned slightly, gesturing towards Dove with a friendly smile. "You need to talk to that guy over there—General Dove... uh, Cucumber, was it?"
Erie blinked, letting out a small laugh; he glanced at the boy's hand and noticed it was glowing a deep blue.
Erie raised his hand, showing the transparent ring to him. "I took the test," he said softly.
The boy looked at Erie's ring and raised his ring, and a dark radiant blue pulsed slightly, showing off its color. "wow, so you don't have an affinity?"
Shaking his head, Erie sighed quietly. "I guess not," he admitted. "Honestly, nothing is making too much sense to me right now."
The boy sat next to Erie and introduced himself. "I'm Gene," he said. "Gene gane, and you?"
"Uh, Erie?" he glanced at Gene and moved over a seat. And he continued watching as the last person activated the core that he couldn't activate.
"Well," Gene said, stretching his arms. "I guess we both are confused."
After the last recruit finished the test, a man with a black suit appeared in the middle of the building. Erie noticed the large scar that spread across his eye; seems like he'd been in a battle before.
"Attention!" a voice boomed suddenly, echoing sharply through the hall as if amplified. Erie turned his head in slight curiosity.
All conversation instantly stopped. In perfect unison, every recruit straightened, turning sharply to face the man standing at the center of the hall.
"All of you in here will receive a grade!" the man said. "After you return from your first test, that is!" Everyone looked around the room, and the chatter began among the recruits.
"Cease!" the man yelled again. "I am not finished explaining the trial!"
The chatter stopped once more, and he provided further details to the recruits. "We have seen the arura most of you possessed, but that core in the middle." he pointed to the core that everyone has touched.
"Now," the man declared sharply, his voice resonating through the silence, "you will each be evaluated based on your skills! You will be assigned into groups at random—prepare yourselves!"
The man began listing names rapidly, sorting them into groups marked from A through G, each holding roughly thirty recruits. Erie listened closely, feeling his heartbeat quicken slightly as the names flowed by in an endless stream. When the announcer reached Group D, Erie noticed Gene's name among those called.
"And now, Group F!" the man shouted, his voice still booming across the hall.
"Lilly Mayweather! Stacy Hartford! Xavier Vax! Kight Windshield!"
Name after name echoed through the air. Erie recognized several of them from earlier, and a question tugged at his mind—how were they organizing these groups? Rank? Random chance? Then came the pause.
"And last... Erie Sunheart!"