The chamber trembled.
A low mechanical groan echoed through the vast combat hall as the sealed platform beneath Ayame sank fully into place. For a heartbeat, there was only silence.
Then
The massive gate on the far side of the chamber slammed open.
Metal shrieked against metal.
A wave of oppressive heat rolled outward as something stepped through.
The demon was tall its hunched frame scraping the reinforced archway. Blackened flesh stretched tight over jagged muscle, veins glowing faintly crimson beneath its skin. Two curved horns jutted from its skull like broken crowns, and its mouth split far too wide as rows of serrated teeth clicked together in anticipation.
Its eyes locked onto Ayame.
The pressure hit instantly.
Killing intent flooded the chamber, thick and suffocating, like drowning in someone else's malice.
Outside the chamber, several recruits gasped.
"Are you kidding me…?"
"That thing's not controlled..."
"We're supposed to fight that?!"
Inside, Ayame just tilted her head.
Then she laughed.
"Wow,"
She said lightly, hands on her hips.
"They really sent you out to scare me?"
The demon snarled, the sound reverberating through the chamber as it took a heavy step forward. The floor cracked beneath its weight.
Ayame didn't move.
Instead, she squinted upward.
"Huh,"
She muttered.
"Ugly and loud. That's gotta be against some kind of rule, right?"
The demon roared and lunged.
Outside the chamber, Mugen Yoru accepted a thin data slate from a nearby officer without taking his eyes off the holographic feed.
He skimmed the file quickly.
---
SUBJECT: HODHIJIMA AYAME
AGE: 16
STATUS: Orphan
AWAKENING AGE: 7
Mugen's brow furrowed.
PRIMARY MANIFESTATION: Conceptual Constellations
CLASSIFICATION: Rule-Imposition Type
He scrolled.
INCIDENT REPORT:
Unintentional rule enforcement on civilian (best friend). Fatal outcome.
Mugen's fingers paused.
AFTERMATH:
Family rejection. Subject declared anomalous threat. Avoided capture for nine years. Apprehended by Aegis Bureau one month ago.
---
He exhaled slowly through his nose.
"…Seven years old,"
He muttered.
Behind the glass, the recruits stared at the live feed. The demon filled the screen, its presence alone making some of them instinctively step back.
"We're not surviving this,"
Someone whispered.
"This is a massacre waiting to happen."
Rei didn't say anything.
His hands were clenched at his sides, knuckles pale.
He remembered the chamber. The pressure. The way reality had bent.
Please, he thought, eyes fixed on the screen.
Make it out alive.
At the top of the seating, the white haired siblings watched quietly.
The boy's lips curled slightly.
"She won't last long,"
He said flatly.
The girl didn't look away from Rei.
"Don't be too sure,"
She replied.
---
Inside the chamber, the demon's claw tore through the space where Ayame had been standing.
She had already moved.
Not fast.
Not frantic.
Just… precise.
Ayame slid backward, boots scraping against the etched floor, her gaze calm even as the demon's tail slammed down where her head had been moments before.
"Okay,"
She said, clapping her hands together once.
"Let's set some boundaries."
She raised her eyes.
The lights overhead flickered.
Then the stars appeared.
At first, they were faint pinpricks of pale white light forming high above the chamber. Lines of energy traced themselves between them, slow and deliberate, sketching an ancient shape into the air.
An eagle.
Its wings stretched across the ceiling, vast and commanding, every star burning with quiet authority.
The demon froze.
Not from fear.
From resistance.
The air changed.
Gravity felt… wrong.
Ayame lifted one finger.
"Constellation confirmed,"
She said softly.
"Aquila: Sovereignty of the Sky."
The rule activated.
Invisible pressure slammed downward, not crushing but correcting.
The demon roared and leapt.
Its body should have soared.
Instead,
It curved.
The leap bent downward unnaturally, its trajectory snapping back toward the ground as if the sky itself rejected it. The demon crashed hard, skidding across the floor in a shower of sparks and broken stone.
"What?!"
Someone shouted outside.
Ayame smiled.
"Rule one,"
She said cheerfully.
"The sky doesn't belong to you."
The demon snarled and charged, claws ripping into the floor as it accelerated. It zigzagged, feinted, vanished behind a cloud of dust.
Ayame didn't turn.
She stepped sideways.
The demon burst from the smoke exactly where she wasn't.
"No blind spots,"
Ayame added.
"Sorry."
She snapped her fingers.
One star flared brighter than the rest.
A thin, luminous mark settled over the demon's chest like a brand.
"Target designated."
The Mark of Talons.
The demon moved again faster this time but its motions left faint trails of light, every feint exposed, every shift delayed by the smallest fraction of time.
Enough.
Ayame waited.
The demon raised its claws for one final desperate strike.
"Descent enforced,"
Ayame said.
The air collapsed.
Not violently, inevitably.
The demon slammed face-first into the floor, its limbs splaying uselessly as the weight of the constellation pinned it down. Cracks spiderwebbed outward beneath its body.
Ayame walked up to it, hands in her pockets.
"Sorry,"
She said quietly.
"But this space?"
She looked up at the glowing eagle overhead.
"It answers to me."
She snapped her fingers again.
The constellation shattered into light.
The pressure vanished.
The demon dissolved into ash.
---
Silence filled the hall.
Outside the chamber, no one spoke.
Mugen stared at the screen, unreadable.
Rei finally exhaled.
The white-haired boy narrowed his eyes.
"…Interesting."
The girl smiled faintly.
"I told you."
Inside the chamber, Ayame stretched her arms above her head and yawned.
"Man,"
She muttered.
"Hope the next one's not louder."
The test had only just begun.
---
The chamber doors slid open.
Ayame walked out.
Not a scratch on her.
For a second, the room didn't breathe.
Then whispers erupted.
"Did you see that…?"
"That demon didn't even touch her."
"How did she control it like that?"
"That fight wasn't fair."
Rei stared at her, heart still pounding. He remembered the terror of the chamber, the overwhelming pressure and the sense of death hanging in the air. And yet Ayame looked exactly the same as she had before she entered. Relaxed. Smiling.
Like she'd just finished a game.
Ayame stretched her arms over her head and grinned, giving the room a casual wave.
"Whew. That thing was loud,"
She said.
"Rude too."
Mugen Yoru stepped forward.
He studied her for a moment, long enough that the room fell silent again then gave a single nod.
"…Approved."
Relief rippled through the recruits, though many still stared at Ayame with something closer to disbelief than comfort.
Mugen turned away, folding his arms as his thoughts drifted.
Mirai…
Taught her control in under a month.
That wasn't normal.
That wasn't supposed to be possible.
His gaze shifted.
"Next."
The room stiffened.
"Shirayuki Tōma."
At the top of the seating, the white haired boy rose calmly to his feet.
His sister glanced sideways at him and raised a lazy thumbs up.
"Don't embarrass me."
Tōma didn't respond.
He walked forward in silence.
The massive chamber doors opened once more, metal groaning as they parted. Cold air rolled out not from the room itself, but from him.
As Tōma stepped inside, another demon emerged from the containment fog. Larger than Ayame's. Thicker hide. Sharper claws.
It roared.
Tōma sighed.
White mist escaped his lips as he exhaled.
"…Don't bother,"
He said flatly.
"It's already over."
The air stopped.
Not froze.
Stopped.
The demon lurched forward, one step.
Then nothing.
Its body locked in place, muscles seized mid-motion. Frost crept silently across its form, not forming ice but stillness. Even its breath vanished.
Inside its chest, Its heart ceased.
The demon stood frozen, eyes wide, fear locked forever in place.
Tōma snapped his fingers.
The body shattered.
Not violently.
Cleanly.
Fragments fell like broken porcelain, clattering softly against the chamber floor.
Silence followed.
Outside the chamber, no one spoke.
Mugen stared at the monitors, then down at the file handed to him.
---
Shirayuki Tōma
Age: 17
Awakened at 9
Lineage: Shirayuki Family
Background: Bureau-affiliated Somniarch bloodline
Training: Private, elite
Status: Fully stabilized manifestation
---
Mugen pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"…Whose brilliant idea was it to put the Shirayuki kids in my class?"
The doors opened again.
Tōma exited the chamber, expression unchanged.
The recruits stared at him in stunned silence.
His sister glanced at him, unimpressed.
"Show-off."
Tōma walked past her without slowing.
Rei swallowed.
This wasn't just a class.
This was a battlefield filled with monsters.
And he wasn't sure anymore which ones were human.
---
Ayame leaned over and lightly poked Rei's arm.
"Okay, but that was brutal,"
She whispered with a grin.
"He went full edge lord."
Rei let out a shaky laugh, eyes still fixed on the chamber.
"Yeah… he's strong,"
He said honestly. Then his expression dimmed slightly.
"And I'm still here not even knowing what my abilities really are."
Ayame tilted her head, studying him.
"You'll be fine,"
She said, unusually gentle.
"Just draw concepts from your mind. Like dreams."
Rei swallowed.
That's the problem.
Before he could respond, Mugen's voice cut through the hall.
"Next."
His gaze shifted upward.
"Shirayuki Setsuna."
The white-haired girl stood, stretching lazily as if she'd just been woken from a nap.
"Took you long enough,"
She muttered.
She walked toward the chamber, yawning openly as the massive doors parted.
The moment she stepped inside, she glanced around casually.
"…You can come out already,"
Setsuna said flatly.
"I can see you."
The demon emerged slowly from the fog.
It was tall and unnaturally slim, its limbs too long, its movements hesitant. Unlike the others, its eyes darted constantly, alert, and calculating.
Fear flickered behind them.
Outside the chamber, Mugen glanced down at her profile.
And sighed.
---
Shirayuki Setsuna
Age: 16
Awakened: 7
Lineage: Shirayuki Family
Background: Bureau-affiliated Somniarch bloodline
Training: Private, elite
Status: Fully stabilized
Primary Manifestation: Snowfall of Judgment
---
"…Of course,"
Mugen muttered.
Inside the chamber, Setsuna studied the demon with mild curiosity.
"Oh,"
She said softly.
"Poor thing."
She tilted her head.
"You're scared, aren't you?"
The demon twitched.
"I can see it,"
Setsuna continued, smiling faintly.
"You can't make up your mind. Run or attack. Live or die."
Snow began to fall.
Not violently.
Not dramatically.
Just… quietly.
White flakes drifted down from nowhere, the temperature dropping with each second. The air grew heavy, pressing in on the demon's chest.
Setsuna raised one finger.
"I'll help you."
Her eyes glowed pale, almost reflective.
"…Die for me."
She smiled wider.
"That's my judgment."
The demon screamed.
Its body jerked violently as its own claws moved against its will. One stab. Then another. And another.
It thrashed, trying to stop itself, terror flooding its eyes as it lost control completely. Blood splattered the floor as it collapsed, stabbing itself over and over until its body finally went still.
The snow faded.
Silence returned.
Setsuna stepped over the corpse, crouched, and poked it once with her shoe.
"…Good,"
She said, giggling softly.
"That's a good boy."
The chamber doors opened.
She walked out, stretching again like she'd done nothing more than finish a chore.
The recruits stood frozen.
Rei felt his stomach twist.
These weren't just powerful Somniarchs.
They were something else entirely.
And he was next.