CHAPTER 20: REIGNFIELD

Lavender-purple eyes, glowing with an unsettling light, stared down at the phone in the young woman's hand. Her team assignment had come through — Squad Five.The corner of her mouth twitched downward.Wasn't I supposed to be in Squad Four?At least, that's how it should have gone.

Her head was tucked low beneath a hood, shielding her from the bustling crowds around her as she moved through the city streets. Beneath the surface of her casual pace, her mind churned, contemplating a future that now felt disjointed — almost too near.

For a fleeting moment, her pupils vanished, leaving behind a stark minimalist hourglass design in the lavender sea of her irises. It was a strange, haunting sight — there and gone again before anyone could notice.

The expression on her face remained empty, as if all the color and spirit had been drained from her soul. Lustrous black hair framed porcelain features, flawless and almost fragile in their beauty. Yet beneath the hoodie and loose clothes, her body told a different story — honed, muscular, powerful, hidden in plain sight.

She walked to an awaiting driver — a man in a black suit — who let her into the limousine idling at the curb outside the Association headquarters.

Nathaniel, meanwhile, was now dressed in more civilian attire — exercise gear. A white tracksuit jacket over a black compression shirt, black sweatpants, and grey sneakers. He had isolated himself, meditating within a distant clearing far from the noise, where the city seemed like a distant dream.

Sitting cross-legged on the grass, he focused inward, feeling the faint currents of his uratsu pathways. They were still underdeveloped — infantile compared to the honed networks he had witnessed in others. But he wasn't frustrated. Only patient.

He opened the interface with a thought, watching as the translucent window flickered to life before him. His gaze shifted to the inventory section.

There it was — the Thought Cube.

He summoned it.

The cube materialized in front of him, floating above his palm — its smooth metallic surface shifting into a teal-colored orb. It sparked once, pulsing faintly, its entire body humming with latent information. Somehow, instinctively, Nathaniel understood what it was — an inactive biome core, condensed with the minimum amount of ura necessary to function.

A simple instruction appeared across the interface, sharp and clear:

Use at abandoned factory: Arkam's Works.

the next day Nathaniel looked into his official communicator he cot from the association head quarters declaring the meeting point for him and the rest of squad four, earlier that morning he had been training doing his last set of vertical push ups having built up a kinetic charge 

45%

 he later used max regen to rejuvenate himself as he left to change out of his workout gear.

steely grey eyes looked down at her communicator telling her that this was where squad four was supposed to meet, she sighed in indignation at the chore as she got up from bed, she didn't make a sound as she moved over to the bathroom , she looked over herself facing the mirror specifically the jagged cut across her neck and eyes that seemed to bare a pain that few could understand there was a scar there were lots of scars most faint across her body but the one on her neck refused to fade were her vocal cords were severed and removed, she freshened up took a shower and changed into a turtleneck and black trousers with knee length leather boots a round her neck she wore the choker which was thicker than normal as she combed her dark grey hair down which left its length just shy from exceeding her chin.

 she put on ear bud before leaving playing a song from her phone as she left her apartment she wasn't hungry , she would grab food later

He stepped into the locker room, the faint hum of automated systems a low background noise.

Nathan changed quickly, slipping into a dark grey, almost black uniform — a modified version of the undersheath he had grown accustomed to wearing. The material was familiar, lightweight but tough, engineered for flexibility and protection.

From within his assigned locker, he found two weapon cases.He reached for the first one — a gunmetal grey case with a blue label stamped onto the surface, bearing the logo of a company he didn't recognize. Sitting on top was a small handwritten note:

Enjoy the gift, sir. Have fun on your first day of the job. Press here.

There was a single button on the side of the case, now highlighted faintly in soft blue.Nathan pressed it without hesitation.A muted hiss escaped as the seal broke, and the case opened smoothly.

Inside, resting on padded black foam, were short swords — twin blades of cold steel, their surfaces gleaming faintly under the locker room lights.The metal was unique — biome-boosted steel, sourced directly from stabilized biomes, stronger and lighter than anything standard-issue.

They weren't simple daggers — each blade measured a clean two and a half feet in length, perfectly balanced for close-quarters combat.

Nathan smiled as he picked one up, feeling its weight settle naturally in his hand.A familiar thought surfaced — her — fleeting but vivid.

He pulled on the harnesses and fitted the sheaths to his uniform with practiced efficiency.The instructions were printed on a small card inside the case. His eyes scanned over them — and in microseconds, his photographic memory committed every line to perfect recall.

Without needing to read them twice, he closed the case, ready to move forward.