Re-awakening: I Ascended with an Unranked Ability

Alex sat in his empty dormitory room, staring at the wall.

Gareth's side was packed and cleared. Damien had left hours ago. The silence pressed against him like physical weight.

Sebastian was still missing. Seven hours now. Maybe eight.

Alex pulled up his status window for the third time in as many minutes, not because he needed to check his stats, but because the familiar interface provided something concrete to focus on besides the growing anxiety in his chest.

House Ashford's senior guard. Twenty years of loyal service. The man who'd taught Alex the original Kael basic sword forms when he was eight years old. Who'd escorted him to the Academy for his awakening.

Gone.

'This isn't your problem to solve,' Alex told himself firmly. 'Captain Aldric has professionals handling it. You're a student. A traumatized survivor who should be resting, not playing investigator.'

But the tactical part of his mindthe part that had kept him alive for three days in dimensional hell wouldn't stop cataloging inconsistencies.

Sebastian wouldn't just wander off. The Academy grounds were supposedly secure. Enhanced wards, Master-rank supervision, constant patrols after the rift disaster.

A knock at the door interrupted his spiraling thoughts.

"Come in."

Professor Harold entered, his expression carrying exhaustion that seemed to have aged him years in just days. "Kael. I wanted to update you personally before rumors start spreading."

Alex felt his stomach tighten. "They found him."

"No." Harold's tone was gentle but direct. "But Captain Aldric's search teams discovered evidence of struggle in the Archive Wing. Scorch marks consistent with fire essence Sebastian's specialty. Whatever happened to him, he fought back."

The information settled like lead in Alex's chest. "How long ago?"

"The essence residue suggests within the last six to eight hours. Shortly after he entered Academy grounds." Harold moved closer, his healer's instincts clearly assessing Alex's condition. "I know this is distressing. Sebastian was sent specifically to escort you home, and now he's missing on what should be secure campus. But I need you to understand this is a security matter now. Captain Aldric has Master-rank support incoming. This isn't something students should be involved with."

"I wasn't planning to get involved," Alex said quietly. Though part of him recognized the lie even as he spoke it.

"Good. Because Captain Aldric is implementing lockdown protocols effective immediately. All remaining students are confined to dormitories until further notice. Security teams will conduct comprehensive sweeps of every building." Harold's voice carried apologetic firmness. "I know you just survived three days of dimensional hell. The last thing you need is more confinement. But until we understand what happened to Sebastian"

A distant sound cut through his words.

Not loud. Not close. But sharp enough that both of them froze.

Someone screaming.

The sound cut off abruptly. Too abruptly.

Harold's essence signature flared immediately, defensive instincts triggering. "Stay here. Lock the door. Don't open it for anyone except me or Captain Aldric."

"What was "

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." Harold was already moving toward the door, his professional composure cracking slightly around the edges. "Lock. The. Door."

He left before Alex could respond.

Alex stood alone in his dormitory room, listening to the silence that had swallowed the scream.

His Combat Echo was pulsing. Not detecting immediate threat, but registering wrongness in the Academy's atmosphere. Environmental disturbance that suggested something fundamentally off about the campus tonight.

'Lock the door,' Harold had said. 'Stay here. Let professionals handle it.'

Sensible advice. The kind of instruction traumatized students should follow without question.

Alex's hand moved to the door lock mechanically. But he didn't engage it.

Because three days of survival had taught him something critical: when professionals fail, when institutional protections collapse, the only person you can truly rely on is yourself.

And right now, professionals were failing. Sebastian had disappeared despite Academy security. Someone had just screamed and been silenced in the span of heartbeats. Whatever was happening on campus, the "enhanced protections" weren't stopping it.

His tactical mind warred with survival instinct.

Staying meant safety through isolation. Following orders. Trusting that Master-rank backup would resolve whatever crisis was unfolding.

But staying also meant being trapped if whatever had taken Sebastian decided dormitories were next.

Alex stood at his door for exactly thirty seconds, weighing options with the cold efficiency that dimensional hell had carved into his decision-making process.

Then he opened the door and stepped into the corridor.

Not to investigate. Not to play hero. But because sitting in a locked room while screams echoed through campus felt too much like waiting to die.

The dormitory corridor was empty. Essence lights burned with steady illumination, creating pools of brightness that somehow made the shadows between them feel deeper.

Alex moved quietly, his enhanced perception cataloging every sound, every shift in air pressure, every minute change in ambient essence flow.

Other students' doors remained closed. Either they hadn't heard the scream, or they were following Harold's instructions better than he was.

He reached the main stairwell and paused.

Voices below. Multiple people moving with urgent purpose. Security personnel, probably, responding to whatever had caused the scream.

Alex descended carefully, keeping to the edges where old stone muffled footsteps. His Combat Echo remained active, monitoring for threats his conscious mind might miss.

He reached the ground floor just as Captain Aldric's voice cut through the organized chaos.

"three more missing. Lieutenant Lyla and her entire team. Last communication was from Archive Wing, sub-level three. They reported finding evidence of Sebastian's combat, then transmission cut off completely."

Professor Harold's response was tight with controlled panic. "Master-rank support?"

"En route. Master Vex is handling dimensional investigation at the rift site, but Master Theron should arrive within the hour." Aldric's tactical mind was clearly working overtime. "Until then, we're implementing full lockdown. No one moves without escort. All students confined to quarters immediately."

"Kael Ashford"

"I gave him specific instructions to lock his door and wait," Harold interrupted.

Alex stepped into view before they could continue the conversation about him in third person.

Both men turned, expressions shifting from tactical focus to something between frustration and grudging recognition.

"I told you to stay in your room," Harold said.

"I heard screaming. Decided locked room felt more like trap than safety." Alex met Aldric's calculating gaze directly. "What's taking your people?"

The Captain's jaw tightened. "We don't know. Something that doesn't trigger wards, doesn't leave conventional traces, and is capable of eliminating trained security personnel in seconds." His tactical assessment swept over Alex with uncomfortable intensity. "You survived three days in dimensional hell. Your threat detection abilities might be more refined than standard Academy training. Can you sense anything unusual in the ambient essence?"

Alex's Combat Echo had been screaming wrongness since the lights flickered earlier. But articulating what his skill was detecting felt impossible like trying to describe color to someone who'd never seen.

"Something's here," he said carefully. "Not beast. Not human. The essence pattern is... wrong. Fragmented. Like it doesn't belong to normal reality."

Aldric and Harold exchanged glances that carried weight.

"Dimensional contamination," Harold said quietly.

"Or dimensional entity," Aldric corrected. "Something that crossed through during the rift incident and has been hiding on campus since extraction."

The possibility Alex had considered earlier, now spoken aloud by professionals who'd reached the same conclusion.

"If it's been here for three days," Alex observed, "why start hunting now?"

Neither man had immediate answer.

Then Alex's dimensional marker pulsed.

Not painfully. Not obviously. Just... actively. Responding to something in the immediate environment with awareness that made his skin crawl.

And in that moment, standing in the Academy's entrance hall with two professionals who'd just lost multiple security personnel, Alex understood something that made cold settle in his stomach:

Whatever was hunting on Academy grounds wasn't random predator.

It was looking for something specific.

And the Masters' marker in his essence was reacting to its presence.

Alex's fingers twitched at his side. The marker pulsed again, stronger this time. Recognition flooding through the connection the Masters had forced into his essence.

They were watching. Not with passive observation like usual. With focused intensity.

"We need to evacuate the remaining students," Harold said. His medical training overriding other considerations. "If something is hunting on campus..."

"Evacuation takes time we don't have." Aldric's military pragmatism cut through the suggestion. "Moving students in groups makes them targets. Right now they're dispersed, locked in rooms. We contain the threat first, then we evacuate."

"Contain with what?" Harold's frustration bled through his professional composure. "Your security teams are disappearing. Your wards aren't detecting anything. Master-rank support is an hour away. What exactly are you planning to contain this with?"

Aldric's expression darkened. He had no answer. No tactical solution presenting itself.

Alex felt the marker pulse a third time. The Masters weren't observing random events. They knew what was happening. They knew what hunted through the Academy's corridors.

And they were waiting to see how their marked specimen would respond.

"The Archive Wing," Alex said quietly. Both men turned to him. "Whatever's here, the wrongness is strongest there. Sub-level three, where Vess disappeared."