Reborn as an SSS-Rank Guide in the Sentinel Academy [BL]

The roar rolled across the battlefield like a physical wave, and Julian felt his knees actually buckle for a second, not from fear exactly, more like his whole body remembered something his mind was trying hard to bury.

’that roar. that’s the same roar. that’s the exact same roar...’

[Host. Heart rate critical. Recommend host focus on present moment.]

’I heard that roar the night the wall fell. the night I lost...’

He didn’t finish that thought either. Some things still didn’t have room to be finished, not even three years and one whole world later.

The massive thing dragged itself the rest of the way out of the breach, and up close it was worse than Julian’s memory painted it, black cracks running across gray skin like something had shattered it and put it back together wrong, limbs too long, too many joints bending in directions that made his stomach twist just looking at them. Every Sentinel on that field had gone still, weapons half-raised, nobody moving, nobody breathing too loud.

"that’s the source," Julian said, voice shaking but steady enough to carry. "that’s what’s feeding all of them. Reid, that’s the core, we need..."

"I heard you the first time," Reid snapped, already shouting formation orders, voice cutting sharp through the frozen silence of the battlefield. "squad leaders, converge on my position, we’re punching a corridor straight through..."

Jayden was still holding ground against Marcus’s twisted echo, blade flashing gold, but the creature had gone eerily calm now, head tilted, watching the massive thing behind it like it was waiting for permission to move again.

Then it did move, and it wasn’t slow this time, wasn’t lurching, it came at Jayden with a speed that shouldn’t have belonged to something that size, and Jayden barely got his blade up in time to block it, the force of the impact driving him back a full ten feet through the dirt.

"Jayden!" Julian’s voice cracked out before he even thought about it, already moving, already reaching for that door in his chest again despite every part of him screaming this was a bad idea, an untested idea, an idea that could get him killed in a world he’d only been alive in for a handful of hours.

[Host. Power reserves at forty percent. Recommend caution.]

’noted. moving anyway.’

Jayden shoved himself back up, blood at the corner of his mouth, eyes blazing as he squared back up against the creature, but Julian could see it now, see the way his movements had slowed just slightly, the fight from earlier already taking its toll.

"get back," Jayden barked at him without even turning around. "I told you, stay behind... "

"you’re bleeding," Julian shot back, already closing the distance, hands already glowing.

"I’m fine... "

"you’re not fine, shut up and let me help... "

The massive creature let out another roar, and this time the ground itself split further, more Aberrations pouring up out of the widening breach, dozens more, the swarm doubling in size in the span of a few seconds. Reid’s squad leaders were converging, forming up into a tight wedge formation, but the numbers pouring out of that breach were climbing faster than they could organize against them.

’this is it’ Julian thought, cold clarity settling in even as his hands shook pumping healing energy into Jayden’s wound. ’this is exactly how the west wall fell. too many too fast, and everybody realizing too late that holding the line wasn’t gonna be enough this time.’

[Host. Alternative strategy required. Direct confrontation with core creature carries extremely high mortality risk for all present Sentinels.]

’yeah I know that, I lived through it once already... ’

Jayden’s wound closed under Julian’s hands, color rushing back into him, and he shot Julian a look that was somewhere between annoyed and something Julian didn’t have time to name. "you’re very reckless," Jayden said.

"you’re welcome," Julian shot back.

The core creature’s head swiveled slowly, deliberately, past Jayden, past Reid’s forming squads, and locked directly onto Julian for the second time that day, and this time when it opened its massive jaw, the sound that came out wasn’t a roar at all.

It was Julian’s own name, dragged out low and wrong and impossibly clear across the entire battlefield, in a voice that belonged to absolutely nobody who should have known it.

"Julian Valerian."

Every single Sentinel on that field turned to stare at him at once, and Reid’s voice cut through the silence, sharp and furious and terrified all at the same time...

"how does that thing know your name?!".