Marcus worked in silence, hands pressed against my side, his mana slow and clinical. The pain dulled. I didn't thank him. He didn't expect me to.
Calixtus kept his back to us, eyes scanning the forest like he'd find something before it found us. Eleanor sat cross-legged nearby, chewing on dried roots she'd dug up earlier. Only Thalia hovered close—arms folded, mouth set in that sharp, unreadable line she wore like armor.
"You took longer than expected," she said, once Marcus stepped back.
"I was delayed."
She studied me for a beat. Not the wound. Me.
"I thought you were dead, to be honest, for a while."
That caught me off guard. Why would she say those words?
"And?" I asked.
She looked away, back toward the southern path. "Would've been inconvenient."
Her voice was flat, but the edge was gone. Not sarcasm. Not scorn.
Something softer. Something honest.
Was she warming up to me?
I wasn't clueless. I knew the signs when they came—small shifts in tone, the way someone lingered a moment too long before looking away. Thalia didn't waste words. She didn't do softness. We were taught to abuse romantic feelings, to exploit them when necessary. I'd praised her more than once, even if only to myself—she was above my expectations.
So what was that?
How could she allow that to herself?
Maybe it was the forest. The silence. The pressure. People cracked in strange ways when everything familiar was stripped away. Maybe I was just a familiar threat—controlled chaos she could make sense of.
Or maybe I was imagining it.
But I didn't think I was.
She didn't say anything else.
We started walking. It was time to continue.
The forest shifted around us with every step—same trees, same shadows, but the path felt thinner now, like we were being funneled somewhere. I kept my senses half-closed. Not because it was safe. Because I needed the quiet.
Eleanor caught up beside me, glancing once toward Thalia ahead.
"She waited for you, you know," she said, voice low.
I didn't answer.
"Don't ask me why. I told her it was stupid." She kicked a stone off the trail. "But she didn't move. Not until we saw your signal."
I looked at her.
She didn't meet my eyes. "I'm not saying she cares. Just that... she hesitated."
Silence again.
Then: "Don't make her do that twice."
And just like that, she drifted ahead—between the trees, like it was nothing.
It seems that everyone here was more human than they let on in the facility.
They were all so flawed. So weak.
I was getting enraged just thinking about it.
Even Calixtus had a "moment" with me. That brief flicker of vulnerability—trying to relate, to connect. Disgusting.
This entire experiment was flawed. It failed miserably.
I was the only superior being to come out of it. And yet I was the one trying to escape.
How many resources had they poured into this place? Into them? Into me?
I was just now realising the scale of it. The waste. The blind ambition of men who thought they could shape something perfect and ended up breeding sentiment instead.
The highly praised heirs of the noble houses, and yet they used this as a bonding experience. They bred survivors, not weapons.
Except for me.
Such shame for the Empire.
"Are you okay, Kaelen...? You seem tense," Calixtus said, voice lower than usual—almost hesitant. Concerned, even.
I didn't answer right away. Just kept walking.
My facade was slipping. I had to keep myself in check.
I forced my shoulders to loosen, exhaled slowly through my nose like I'd been meditating instead of cataloging failures.
"I'm fine," I said, quiet but certain. "Just tired."
He nodded, too quickly. Maybe relieved that I'd responded at all. Maybe regretting that he asked.
I didn't care.
But I did see how his eyes lingered. He was trying to decipher me.
Deciphering me wasn't something meant for him—or for anyone.
It was whatever. Soon I'd be out of here. I had to keep pushing.
...
After a while, we made camp.
Another day. Done.
Time for sleep.
The forest hadn't caught up to us tonight. No shifting branches. No distant howls. Just a thick silence and the occasional crack of settling bark. It felt almost merciful.
Marcus' healing had held. I could feel the tissue knitting itself together faster than it should've. The pain was dull now—background noise. My body was adapting. Rebuilding. Faster than theirs.
Of course it was. My regeneration had always been above the norm. Another advantage I had.
Tomorrow, I'd need to move.
Lukas should be south by now. He was smart. Observant. He'd have noticed the signs of convergence like I had. Whether I met him by chance or force, didn't matter.
It was just a matter of time.
We woke before the light.
The Veiled Forest didn't have sunrises—just different shades of shadow.
Thalia was already up, sitting at the edge of the camp. Eleanor sat beside her, half-asleep with her back against a root, chewing the last of the roots she'd stashed. Marcus rubbed at his temples, eyes closed, probably trying to force clarity into a brain that had slept too little.
Calixtus stood nearby, silent as always when it was early. I preferred him that way.
No one asked what the plan was. They looked to me without saying it, and I gave them the direction they expected.
"South," I said, preparing to go. "The forest's shifting. If there's anyone still alive out here, they'll be down there."
"You're sure?" Thalia asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
"I'm not guessing."
That was enough. She nodded.
I didn't say who I hoped we'd find. Didn't need to. If they were smart, they'd move south too. And if they weren't—well, then they didn't matter.
The path south narrowed, but not naturally. The trees were too uniform here. Too quiet.
Calixtus slowed first, hand lifting in a signal. I felt it too—faint pressure in the air. Like someone else's mana had brushed the terrain recently, then vanished.
We advanced in silence.
Not long after, we saw them.
Three figures ahead, crouched near the edge of a collapsed ridge. One stood—Isaac. He turned the moment he sensed us, hand drifting toward his weapon before recognition settled in.
"Wait—Kaelen?" he called.
So it was Team Three. Or what was left of it.
Sophie stood beside him, blood on her shoulder. Verena sat nearby, pale, clutching her side. Darius was nowhere in sight.
We approached cautiously. I didn't slow my pace.
"What happened to you?" Eleanor asked first.
Isaac exhaled, jaw clenched. "Ambush. Creatures—or something worse. Darius didn't make it."
Verena shook her head. "He's not dead. But... he might as well be."
I narrowed my eyes. "Explain."
"There was something out there," Sophie said, voice low. "It wasn't like the others. It didn't move right. Darius got separated—we tried to get to him, but whatever it was, it tore through his mana shield in seconds."
"They had to intervene," Isaac added. "The Instructors. We saw one of them break through the trees and pull him out. He's done. Going home. Failed."
I said nothing.
Not because it surprised me—failure was always an option—but because it confirmed something else.
The forest was getting worse. And now, even the Instructors were being forced to act directly.
Weakness had consequences.
"Which Instructor?" I asked.
Isaac hesitated. "Couldn't see. Fast."
That meant Justinian. His speed gave him away.
None of the others could move like that—not silently, not that efficiently. If he was the one pulled from observation to intervene, then it wasn't a simple beast that attacked them.
The forest was escalating. Fast.
That made things more complicated.
More interesting.
It seemed the final stage of the exam was coming.