Guns blazing. Bullets echoed all around.
Kael dragged the body behind him, legs trembling under the weight—not just of flesh and blood, but pain and responsibility. His face was soaked in dirt and sweat, his arm torn and bleeding, yet he kept going. Gritting his teeth, he muttered:
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this… This isn’t what they said.
Was the intel wrong?
Did we come here to die?”
He pulled himself up to the ledge, metal scraping beneath his hands, and raised his head just enough to see the horror.
Buildings collapsed. Fires raged. Sirens wailed. Screams echoed from every corner.
The Federation’s banners, once proud, now lay in ruins—torn, bloodied, burning.
Kael closed his eyes for a moment.
To feel the silence behind the chaos.
To freeze the pain, if only for a second.
BRRRRT.
The alarm ripped through the air.
Kael jolted upright in bed, gasping.
It took a second to remember where he was: his room at the Academy.
No blood. No smoke. No screams.
Just the sterile buzz of morning.
He exhaled slowly and swung his legs out of bed.
It was the big day.
He pulled on his uniform—crisp, standard-issue Federation grey. Straightened his collar. Brushed the dust off his shoulders.
He pressed a polished name tag onto his chest.
KAEL.
The letters shimmered under the warm morning sun slipping through his window.
He marched out, head high, towards the front gate of the prestigious Federation Military Academy, directly overseen by the Founding Three.
This was the dream.
This was the future.
This was his duty.
They said the Founding Three were heroes—
the ones who fought the Beyonders and built the Federation to protect the last of humanity.
They said every child owed them everything.
He stopped by a car window on the side of the path and adjusted his hair, fixing the mess the pillow had made of it. Smirking at his reflection, he muttered:
“Lucky for an orphan like me to get in here...
I’ve got to study hard and make Director proud. He pulled every string to make this happen.”
As he stepped through the golden archway into the Academy courtyard, he paused for a moment.
The arch towered above, shining with authority. It was engraved with the words:
“Unity. Duty. Sacrifice.”
The courtyard was filled with cadets—hundreds of them.
Some came from elite families. Some had been trained since birth.
You could tell who they were: confident, composed, polished.
Kael looked down at his old boots.
Worn soles. Scuffed edges.
“I feel so out of place,” he whispered to himself.
A voice boomed across the courtyard.
“ALL NEW CADETS—ASSEMBLE!”
The crowd shifted toward the center.
In the middle stood the towering statue of the Founding Three, carved in obsidian.
Each of their faces was frozen in proud defiance, overlooking the students like silent guardians.
Beneath the statue was a great circular stone seal, etched with the Federation’s emblem.
Kael stepped onto it and looked up—his eyes scanning each of their stone faces.
There was fire in his chest.
A desire to prove himself.
To protect what they had built.
“I’ll protect the Federation just like you did,” he whispered.
He was so focused on the monument that he didn’t hear the footsteps behind him.
Suddenly, a hand yanked him backward by the collar.
He stumbled.
And a voice behind him asked the strangest question he had ever heard...
Go to Chapter Two