The name Gustav lingered in the air longer than it should have.

It was not spoken loudly. It did not carry a threat. And yet, it shifted something inside the room. A subtle tension passed through the initiates, quiet and involuntary, like a shared instinct that something important had just been invoked. Some of them straightened without realizing it. Others avoided eye contact. Levon felt it settle in his chest, heavy and unfamiliar, like a memory that did not belong to him but insisted on being remembered.

Kenji observed them for a moment, then turned slightly toward the open edge of the field where the Academy grounds stretched outward.

“That is enough for now,” he said. “You are not machines. Your cognition needs space to recalibrate.”

He gestured outward with a small motion of his hand.

“Go outside. Walk. Sit. Breathe. There is the park and the cafeteria. Eat something if you can.”

No warmth. No cruelty. Just instruction.

Chairs shifted. Boots scraped against the ground. One by one, the initiates stood and began to move, their bodies still carrying the echo of awakening. Some walked quickly, as if distance might protect them. Others hesitated, unsure which direction felt safer. The field emptied gradually, until only silence remained.

Except for Parvati.

She had not stood. She had not even looked toward the exit. She waited until the last footstep faded, until the space no longer felt shared. Then, slowly, as if the weight had finally found somewhere to land, she leaned forward.

Her forehead rested against the desk.

Her hands curled beneath her face.

And she began to sob.

Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just small, broken sounds pressed into the surface in front of her. The kind of crying that came from exhaustion, not panic. From something giving way after being held too long.

Outside, Levon walked without direction.

The sky above Xacodia looked unchanged, and that somehow made it worse. The world was still beautiful. Still functional. Still pretending nothing irreversible had happened. His thoughts drifted back to the cafeteria. To Gustav. To the way his presence had felt wrong before Vitria ever touched him. Back then it had been instinct. Now instinct had structure.

“Would I understand it now? Levon wondered. With Vitria unlocked, with perception altered… would Gustav’s interference finally make sense?”

He let out a dry breath and shook his head.

“I don’t even understand what’s happening on a basic level,” he muttered. “Let alone whatever Gustav pulled back there.”

The absurdity of it made him chuckle quietly. A soft, humorless sound.

His gaze shifted and caught movement near the park benches.

Archie sat alone.

Not sprawled. Not joking. Not performing. Just sitting, shoulders slightly hunched, hands resting uselessly on his knees as he stared at the ground. The easy rhythm that usually surrounded him was gone. No grin. No commentary. Just stillness.

Levon slowed.

He had never been someone who sought people out. Distance had always felt cleaner. Safer. But something about Archie, like this felt wrong. It clashed too violently with the image Levon had already formed of him. The guy who joked under pressure. Who deflected horror with humor. Who stayed light because light was easier than thinking.

Seeing him empty unsettled something Levon had not expected to care about.

He stood there for a moment, debating with himself. Then exhaled, annoyed at his own hesitation, and walked over.

“Hey,” he said.

Archie looked up. For a split second, his eyes were empty, distant, like he had been pulled out of somewhere deep. Then his mouth curved into a smile. It was practiced. Too quick. The kind of expression meant to reassure others rather than reflect anything real.

“Hey,” he replied. “You stalking me, bro?”

The tone was light, but the effort behind it was visible. Levon didn’t comment on it. He just stayed there.

Archie shifted on the bench, glancing at his hands as if they still carried the memory of what had happened.

“You know,” he said, “when the puppet started bleeding… my first thought wasn’t 'this”. It was way dumber.”
He let out a quiet breath that almost passed for a laugh.
“I actually wondered if I was some kind of hemomancer. Or maybe a vampire.”

Levon’s lips curved despite himself. The absurdity cut through the tension just enough.

“A vampire,” Levon repeated.

“Hey, don’t judge. Blood everywhere, creepy atmosphere, mysterious powers. It felt like the genre fit.”

Levon nodded, then paused. Something about the word snagged in his thoughts.

“Wait,” he said slowly. “Your planet has vampires, too?”

Archie blinked, surprised. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it?”

Levon frowned slightly. “I just assumed… never mind. Tell me about it.”

Archie leaned back, considering. “They’re old myths where I’m from. Not real, obviously. Or at least, I hope not.”
He glanced upward. “They were said to originate in the northern mountains of Varenthis. Cold region. High altitude. Long winters. People used to believe the darkness up there shaped monsters.”

“Varenthis,” Levon repeated. The name sat strangely familiar and completely foreign at the same time.

Before Archie could continue, Levon cut in, quieter but more intent.

“Tell me about your planet. What was it like? And how did you end up here?”

Archie turned to him fully now, eyebrow lifting. The sudden seriousness was unexpected.

“That’s… a shift,” he said.

Levon looked away for a moment.
“I just want to know if your world was anything like mine. Or if Earth was just another version in a very large collection.”

Archie opened his mouth to answer.

“Hi.”

They both turned.

Malinda stood beside the bench, posture straight, eyes alert but not hostile. There was something grounded about her, something that felt deliberate. Like she had decided to be here rather than wandered into it.

“My name is Malinda Karsen,” she said. “I figured I should start introducing myself.”

She glanced between them.

“If we’re going to be stuck in this city, in this academy, in this… situation… then we might as well know each other properly.”

Archie smirked faintly. “That’s one way to put it.”

Malinda nodded once. “We’re not strangers by accident. Whatever this place is turning us into, we’re doing it together. So I thought I’d start with names.”

Levon studied her for a second, then gave a small nod.

“Levon Cho,” he said simply.

“Archie,” Archie said. “Just Archie”

Malinda allowed herself a small smile.

“Good. Then this is officially the beginning,” she said. “Not of classes. Of knowing who we’re standing next to.”

Archie tilted his head slightly, watching Malinda as if he were seeing her for the first time under a different light. The faint crackle of her Vitria still lingered around her, subtle now, but unmistakable.

“You know,” he said, “what you did to the puppet was actually really cool.”
He let out a small breath, half amused, half bitter.
“I mean, look at mine. It just started bleeding. That’s it. Yours looked powerful. Clean. Almost… impressive.”

He shrugged.

“I’m kind of jealous, honestly. Mine just looks terrible in comparison.”

Malinda blinked, caught off guard by the compliment. Then she exhaled softly.

“Thank you,” she said. “But I don’t think any of us should be proud yet. We don’t even know what this is.”
She lifted her own hand, studying it as if it belonged to someone else.
“Back home, this would have been called impossible. Fiction. A fantasy people write about because reality can’t support it. And now I’m standing here inside it.”

Her gaze shifted briefly toward Archie.

“And I heard what Kenji said to you. Don’t take it personally. Whatever your class is, it doesn’t define who you are. It just defines how dangerous this place thinks you might be. Which is  pretty cool if you think about it”

She straightened slightly.

“We’re strangers here. Outsiders. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from history, it’s that locals never treat outsiders gently. If we don’t stick together, we’ll get crushed by structure.”

There was no hesitation in her voice. No uncertainty. Her words landed with the weight of something already decided. She did not sound like someone testing an idea. She sounded like someone stating a rule.

Archie stared at her for a moment, then smiled again, softer this time.

“For some reason,” he said, “I’m really glad you’re here.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t know why, but you make this feel… safer. Like maybe we won’t completely fall apart.”

Levon watched them in silence.

Trusting someone this fast is stupid, he thought.
Dangerously stupid.

But another thought followed before he could dismiss it.

She’s right.

Sticking together wasn’t about comfort. It was about survival. And survival had already been defined as the currency of this world.

Malinda shifted her weight and looked around the park.

“I’ve talked to a few of the others already,” she said. “But not all of them.”
She pointed toward the main entrance of the Academy.

“There’s Artorias.”

They followed her gaze.

Artorias stood alone, rigid, facing outward as if the city itself were something to be confronted rather than explored. He wasn’t looking at people. He wasn’t looking at buildings. He was watching the horizon, expression unreadable, posture sharp and defensive.

“And there’s Zachery,” she continued, pointing toward the trees.

Zachery stood a short distance away, fists clenched, eyes locked on a tree in front of him. His posture mirrored what he had done in class, the same tension, the same focus. He was trying to replicate what he had done to the puppet, forcing his Vitria outward, waiting for the same reaction.

But nothing happened.

The tree remained still. Unaffected. Silent.

It only made his frustration more visible.

Malinda crossed her arms.

“Artorias feels… edgy. Like he’s always waiting for something to go wrong.”
She glanced at Zachery.
“And Zachery? He’s all muscle, no control.” “At least I think” she continued.

She paused.

“And there’s one more. The other girl. I haven’t seen her here. I tried to find her.”

Archie scanned the park slowly, eyes moving across benches, paths, and trees.

“You mean Parvati?” he asked.

The name landed quietly between them.

Malinda nodded when Archie said her name.

“Yes. Parvati,” she confirmed quietly.

Her gaze drifted across the park again, measuring the space, the people, the distance between them like someone mapping a battlefield rather than a garden.

“The others seem… fine,” she continued. “Not calm. But functional. I think we can work together.”
She paused, then added, “Xin and Marziah seem friendly. And Warda too. They were all heading to the cafeteria after class.”

There was no judgment in her voice, only observation. As if she were already sorting fragments into something that could one day resemble structure.

Then she turned to Levon.

“Do you know how to use weapons?”

The question landed abruptly.

Before Levon could answer, Archie leaned forward slightly.

“Is that because his puppet turned into a sword?”

Malinda nodded once, eyes still on Levon.

Levon held her gaze in silence. His eyes did not show surprise, only a brief tightening, as if he were weighing the question rather than reacting to it. It was the look of someone more interested in the intention behind the words than the words themselves, deciding whether the question was worth engaging with at all.

Malinda softened her tone.

“I’m not interrogating you. I’m just trying to see if there’s a connection. Something that shapes our classes. Background, experience, instinct. Anything.”

Levon exhaled through his nose.

“And were you in charge of lightning back home?” he asked dryly.

The sarcasm was sharp, but not cruel. It was defensive. A way of pressing against the idea that logic could be applied cleanly to what had happened to them.

For a moment, Malinda said nothing. Then she sighed.

“I see your point.”

Her shoulders lowered slightly, as if she had been holding a tension she hadn’t noticed.

Archie shifted on the bench.

“Not gonna lie,” he said, attempting a lighter tone that didn’t fully land, “I’m a little nervous about Gustav’s class.”

The name alone carried weight.

“Kenji was intense,” he continued. “But Gustav feels… different.”

He glanced between them.

“And after what happened in the cafeteria?”
He swallowed.

Malinda looked at Archie and nodded.

“I understand why you’re nervous,” she said. “But we can’t let him intimidate us. If we do, then we’ve already lost before we even start.”

Her tone was steady, grounded. She was not denying fear. She was refusing to let it rule.

Levon heard her, but the words felt hollow to him. Intimidation was not a choice with Gustav. It was a fact. He could still remember the cafeteria. The way Gustav had pinned all of them without effort, without warning, without even raising his voice. That was control.

Still, something stirred in Levon’s mind.

“Before I came to the Academy,” he said slowly, “I was attacked.”

Both turned to him at once.

“I mean… the guards escorting me were attacked. They were killed.”
He hesitated, choosing his words.
“The person leading the attack told me to run. Said I should flee while I still could.”

Archie’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?”

Malinda inhaled sharply. “Oh my god. Then what happened?”

Levon didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked at them both.

“How were you brought here?”

Archie blinked. “Straightforward. Portal from my world to the lab. Some questions. Then another portal to the Academy.”

Malinda nodded. “Same for me. Lab first. Then here.”

Levon’s thoughts slowed.

He had not gone to the lab first.

His portal had opened outside the city, at the gates of Xacodia itself. He had been picked up from there, not processed like the others.

He did not say it.
He kept it to himself.

So when Malinda and Archie explained how they were brought in, Levon only nodded, outwardly matching their rhythm, while inwardly realizing his entry into this world had never followed the same path as theirs.

“And then?” Malinda asked quietly.

Levon exhaled.

“Then this… woman showed up, her name was Johari. Strong. Military type. Honestly, kind of terrifying in her own way.”
He gave a faint smirk.
“She spoke to me like I was already part of something I didn’t understand. Talked about problems in the city. People are not doing their jobs. Politics. Tension.”

He shook his head slightly.

“I didn’t catch everything. But she told me Gustav was one of the good ones.”

Archie and Malinda exchanged a glance.

“That’s… different,” Malinda said carefully. “Your start here was completely different from ours.”

Levon nodded once.

“Guess that’s why I was late to the auditorium.”

The moment settled between them, heavy and unresolved.

Then a voice carried across the park.

“Hey, everyone.”

They all turned.

Gustav stood at the center of the park, posture relaxed.

“Class will start soon,” he said. “Make your way back.”

The three of them looked at each other. A silent understanding passed between them. They sighed almost in unison.

The break was over.