Neo Mojaki -The Silent Storm

The flickering lights of Virelia Academy's underground training facility cast long, wavering shadows against the cold, steel walls. Neo Mojaki's footsteps echoed softly as he stepped deeper into the labyrinth beneath the school—a place few students ever saw, and fewer still dared to enter.

His Echo Step hummed faintly in the back of his mind, a restless pulse growing stronger, erratic. Something was wrong. The power that usually bent time and space at his will trembled like a leaf in the wind, unstable and unpredictable.

*Why now?* Neo's brow furrowed. *What's triggering this?*

A sudden vibration from his comms device snapped him back. Riko's voice, tense and low, filled the space through the earpiece.

"Neo, listen carefully. I found something. There's a traitor among us—someone feeding information to our enemies. I can't say who yet, but it's closer than we think. Be cautious. Trust no one."

The line went dead.

Neo's jaw clenched. Trust had always been a fragile thing at Virelia, but now it felt like a shattering glass, each crack widening with every secret uncovered.

He advanced toward the central chamber where Elin Raye was scheduled to meet him. When he entered, her figure was bathed in the dim glow of the control panel's monitors, calm and unreadable.

"Elin," Neo said, voice steady but eyes searching. "What's going on here?"

She didn't look up immediately. When she did, there was something in her gaze—hesitation, conflict.

"I'm caught in the middle, Neo," she admitted quietly. "Between what's expected of me... and what I truly want. There are forces pulling at every thread of this academy, and not all of them want to see us succeed."

Before Neo could respond, the shadows in the corridor thickened. From the darkness stepped a figure — cloaked, eyes cold, voice dripping with a cruel familiarity.

"Did you really think you could hide from me, Neo?"

The stranger's words struck deeper than any blade. The traitor's identity was revealed — someone Neo had trusted, someone he never suspected.

"Why?" Neo demanded, anger and disbelief twisting inside him.

"Because power demands sacrifice," the traitor sneered. "And you, Neo, are just a pawn in a much larger game."

Surrounded, Neo's Echo Step surged uncontrollably. Time folded, space bent—he warped the reality around him in a desperate escape, the energy leaving him breathless and vulnerable.

As the dust settled, Neo's resolve hardened. The fractures in his world were no longer just cracks—they were chasms threatening to swallow him whole.

But he would fight.

No matter the cost.