The second month at the Southern HPF Training Centre did not begin with a bang. It began with silence.
While Malina, Edy, and Eren were promoted to "Phase 2: Advanced Combat Tactics," Max was demoted. Instructor Jod stripped him of his uniform, his weapon access, and even his right to enter the training gym.
"You are not a soldier yet," Jod told him on the morning of Day 31. "You are a leaking nuclear reactor. Until you patch the leak, you sit in the corner."
For the first two weeks of the second month, Max's training consisted entirely of sitting in a small, white room in the center of the facility. It was soundproof, heat-proof, and completely empty except for a single candle placed in the center of the floor.
"Light the candle," Jod ordered, tossing Max a matchbook.
Max lit it. The small flame flickered, casting long, dancing shadows against the white walls.
"Now," Jod said, leaning against the doorframe. "Extinguish it."
Max blew on it.
"With the Void," Jod corrected sharply. "And here is the catch: If you melt the candle wax, you fail. If you knock the candle over, you fail. If you damage the floor, you fail. You must use the Void to consume the flame—and only the flame."
It sounded easy. It was impossible.
For days, Max sat there. Every time he reached for the Void, the "Hunger" roared to life.
EAT. CONSUME. DESTROY.
He would try to release a tiny wisp of shadow, but it would surge out like a fire hose.
WHOOSH.
The candle would vanish. The floor would crack. The air in the room would drop twenty degrees instantly.
"Fail," Jod would say, bored. "Again."
By the end of week one, Max had disintegrated over four hundred candles. He was exhausted, frustrated, and lonely.
He could hear the sounds of his friends training outside—the boom of Malina smashing targets, the zap of Eren breaking the sound barrier. They were moving forward. They were becoming a unit. And Max was stuck in a closet fighting a piece of wax.
The Whispers and the Anchor
On the night of Day 45, the breakthrough didn't come from effort. It came from exhaustion.
Max was sitting in the dark room, staring at the flickering flame. He was too tired to be angry anymore. He was too tired to be afraid of the voices in his head.
Hungry... let us out... the Void whispered.
Usually, Max fought the voices. He built mental walls. He screamed back at them. But tonight, he just sighed.
"I know you're hungry," Max whispered back to the darkness inside him. "I'm hungry too. I missed lunch."
He looked at the flame. It was eating the wick. Consuming fuel to exist.
"You're not a bomb," Max realized, talking to the power. "You're just... empty. You don't hate the world. You just want to fill the space."
Max closed his eyes. Instead of trying to push the power out like a weapon, he imagined opening a tiny, microscopic valve. He visualized the Void not as a raging ocean, but as a sink drain.
He reached out with his hand. He didn't try to grab the fire. He just offered the Void a taste.
Just a sip, Max thought.
A tendril of violet energy, no thicker than a human hair, curled off his fingertip. It didn't roar. It didn't explode. It drifted like smoke.
It touched the flame.
Snuff.
The fire vanished. The wick was cold. The wax hadn't melted. The candle was still standing.
Max sat in the darkness, stunned. The hunger in his chest settled. It felt... satisfied.
The door opened. Jod stood there, backlit by the hallway lights. He looked at the unlit candle, then at Max.
For the first time since they met, Jod smiled. A real smile.
"Welcome to Level 1, Maxwell."
Micro-Dosing the Apocalypse
Once Max understood the concept of the "Valve," training accelerated at a terrifying pace.
Jod moved him from the white room to the "Glass Garden"—a field of fragile glass sculptures.
"Move through them," Jod ordered. "Coat your skin in the Void. Create an armor. But if you shatter a single sculpture with your energy field, you run until you pass out."
Max learned to pull the Void tightly around his body like a second skin. He learned that he didn't need to release a beam to be dangerous.
Shadow Skin: By coating his fists in a millimeter of Void energy, he could punch through steel because the Void disintegrated the molecular bonds of whatever he touched.
The Vacuum Shield: By creating a small, spinning disc of Void in front of his palm, he could catch bullets. The bullets didn't bounce off; they ceased to exist the moment they touched the disc.
But the hardest lesson was "Selective Consumption."
Jod brought in a live Class 3 Guut. He restrained it.
"Put your hand on its chest," Jod ordered. "Don't kill it. Drain exactly 10% of its density. Make it heavy. Make it weak. But keep it alive."
This was torture. The Void screamed to finish the meal. It was like asking a starving shark to take one bite and swim away.
Max sweated. His veins turned black. His eyes glowed violet.
He drained the energy. The Guut shrank, its armor softening.
"Stop," Jod commanded.
Max pulled his hand away, gasping for air. The Guut was alive, but helpless.
"Good," Jod nodded. "A dead enemy is gone. A weakened enemy is a tool. You are learning the difference between a butcher and a surgeon."
Reintegration: The Duel
On Day 55, Jod decided it was time to put Max back in the pen with the others.
The atmosphere in the sparring ring was tense. Malina, Edy, and Eren were taking a water break when Jod walked in with Max.
"Look who decided to graduate from candle school," Edy joked, but his voice was wary. He remembered the explosion in the mock city. He remembered being buried in rubble.
"Team Sparring," Jod announced. "Three on One."
Malina frowned. "Sir? Three against one is illogical. We will destroy him."
"No," Jod corrected. "It's three of you... against me."
Jod took off his white tactical shirt, revealing a torso covered in scars. He cracked his neck. "And Max... you're with me. Two on three. Let's see if you can play nice with others."
Malina adjusted her gloves. "Formation Alpha. Take down the Instructor. Ignore Max; he's a non-factor."
"Begin!"
The fight was explosive.
Eren vanished, moving at Mach speeds. He went straight for Jod.
Jod didn't use powers. He used pure, terrifying skill. He anticipated Eren's path and tripped him.
Malina charged, her fists glowing with red Titan energy. She punched the ground, sending a shockwave toward Jod.
Jod backflipped, landing on a support beam.
"Edy! Mind blast!" Malina shouted.
Edy's eyes glowed green. He hit Jod with a psychic scream. Jod flinched, stumbling.
"Now!" Malina roared, winding up for a knockout blow on the instructor.
Max moved.
He didn't explode. He didn't blast.
He simply Shadow Stepped.
One second he was near the wall; the next, he dissolved into mist and reformed directly in front of Jod, shielding the instructor.
Malina's fist, capable of shattering a tank, came flying at Max's face.
Max raised his hand. Vacuum Shield.
THUD.
There was no shockwave. No explosion.
Max caught Malina's fist in his open palm. The violet energy on his hand spun like a buzzsaw, but quietly. It absorbed the kinetic energy of her punch instantly.
Malina's eyes widened. "Impossible. My force output was—"
"Nullified," Max whispered.
He didn't counter-attack. He simply twisted his wrist and pushed. He released a tiny, controlled burst of the energy he had just absorbed.
Pop.
Malina was thrown back ten feet, landing gracefully on her feet.
Eren tried to flank them. "I got him!"
Max didn't even look. He pointed a finger at the ground.
"Mire."
He turned the shadow of Eren's own body into a sticky, tar-like substance. Eren's feet got stuck in his own shadow. He tripped, crashing face-first into the mat.
Edy tried to scramble Jod's brain again.
Max looked at Edy. His eyes turned black. He didn't attack Edy's mind; he attacked the connection.
Max pulsed a wave of "Static"—pure Void noise. It wasn't painful, but it disrupted Edy's focus. Edy clutched his head, his concentration broken.
Silence fell over the gym.
Max stood next to Jod, smoke rising gently from his shoulders. He hadn't hurt anyone. He hadn't destroyed the building. He had neutralized the three strongest rookies in the HPF without taking a single step.
Jod smirked. "Not bad, vessel. Not bad."
Malina stood up, brushing dust off her uniform. She looked at Max. The cold calculation in her eyes melted for a second, replaced by genuine respect.
"You... calculated the absorption limit," she murmured. "You acted as a dampener, not a bomb."
"I told you," Max grinned, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I'm working on my control."
The Final Week: The Shadow Unit
The last week of the second month was a blur of perfect synchronization.
Max wasn't the liability anymore; he was the anchor.
When Malina needed to lift something too heavy even for a Titan, Max would touch the object and lower its density, making it light as a feather.
When Eren ran too fast and risked burning up from friction, Max would coat him in a thin "Void Sheath" to reduce air resistance.
When Edy got a headache from too much psychic noise, Max would touch his forehead and "eat" the excess static, calming his mind.
They weren't just a team of individuals anymore. They were a machine.
On the final day of the second month, Commander Zog arrived at the training grounds. He wasn't wearing bandages anymore. He was wearing his full dress uniform.
He watched them run a simulation against a hoard of holographic Class 4s. It was a massacre. Malina smashed, Eren sliced, Edy controlled, and Max moved through the battlefield like a ghost, cleaning up whatever was left, absorbing energy and feeding it back to his team.
Zog walked up to Jod.
"They're ready," Zog said, his single blue eye gleaming.
"They are," Jod agreed, crossing his arms. "Max isn't a sponge anymore, Commander."
"No?" Zog asked.
"No," Jod looked at Max, who was laughing with Eren, high-fiving him. "He's a black hole with a conscience. God help whoever stands in his way."
Zog stepped forward, his voice booming across the courtyard.
"ATTENTION!"
The four teenagers snapped to formation. They stood tall, bruised, scarred, but stronger than they had ever been.
"Training is over," Zog announced. "Pack your gear. You aren't cadets anymore. You are Special Operations Squad 5."
Max felt a shiver run down his spine. This was it.
"We have a situation," Zog continued, his face darkening. "A city on the Eastern Coast has gone dark. No comms. No satellite visuals. Just a massive dome of shadow."
Max exchanged a look with Malina. A dome. Just like the Northern District.
"This is your first active mission," Zog said. "Your orders are simple: Infiltrate the dome. Assess the threat. And if you find a Guut..."
Zog grinned, a terrifying, feral expression.
"...kill it."
Max clenched his fist. The violet energy hummed under his skin, obedient and waiting.
"Yes, sir," Max said.
The training was over. The war had begun.