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

Julian didn’t have an answer. Not a real one, not one that would make sense to anybody standing on that field right now, and every single second he stood there silent just made it worse, made more Sentinels turn and stare at him with that same question written across their faces.

’I don’t know. I genuinely don’t know how it knows that’

[Host. Analysis in progress.]

’well hurry up with that’

The core creature took one slow, heavy step forward, ground shaking under its weight, and its head tilted at an angle that looked almost curious, almost thoughtful, in a way that made Julian’s skin crawl worse than any roar could have.

"you carry it," the creature said, voice grinding out low and wrong, "the mark. the hunger. I can smell it on you, little wall-keeper."

Julian’s stomach dropped straight through the floor.

’wall-keeper. Did that thing just called me wall-keeper. that’s... that’s what they used to call me back home, that’s not something anybody in this world should know... ’

[Host. New data. This creature is not simply mimicking memories like the smaller echo did. It appears to possess independent knowledge of host’s previous world.]

’how is that even possible I mean I died and got Transmigrated here... ’

[Unknown. However, System hypothesizes this creature may have transmigrated alongside host, or arrived through the same breach mechanism that brought host to this world.]

Julian felt something cold and sick twist in his gut. ’you’re saying this thing is from my real world.’

[Hypothesis. Not confirmed.]

Reid was still staring at him, weapon half-raised, torn between watching the creature and watching Julian like he wasn’t entirely sure anymore which one was the bigger threat standing on that field. "Julian," he said, voice low and hard, "explain. now."

"I don’t know how it knows me," Julian said, and for once that was the complete truth. "I swear to you, I don’t know."

The creature let out a sound that might have been a laugh if anything about it still remembered how laughing worked, dry and grinding and wrong. "you don’t remember me," it said, dragging itself another step closer, Sentinels around it tensing, weapons raised but nobody striking yet, too unnerved by a monster that talked in full sentences. "but I remember you. I remember the wall. I remember watching it fall."

Julian’s breath caught hard in his chest.

’What the... no way. there’s no way...’

"you left them there," the creature continued, and something about its voice shifted, twisted, dragging up an old memory that hit Julian like a physical blow, "you held the gate, and you told yourself it was enough, but it wasn’t enough, was it, wall-keeper. it was never enough."

"shut up," Julian said, voice cracking, hands curling into fists at his sides.

"I was there too," the creature said, closer now, close enough that Julian could see something horribly familiar buried deep in the wreckage of its face, something he hadn’t let himself think about in three years, something he buried right alongside Marcus and everyone else he lost that night. "don’t you recognize your own commander?"

Julian’s whole world tilted sideways.

’What... no... that’s not... he can’t be... I watched him... I watched the wall come down on top of him myself...’

"Captain Hale," Julian whispered, the name tearing out of him before he could stop it, and the field went dead silent around him, every Sentinel present staring between Julian and the creature, completely lost, completely out of their depth in a conversation that belonged to a world none of them had ever set foot in.

The creature’s ruined mouth pulled into something that might have once been a smile.

"that’s right," it said. "and I’ve been waiting a very, very long time to finish our conversation."

Reid’s grip tightened on his weapon, stepping half in front of Julian on pure instinct, voice dropping into something low and dangerous. "whatever this thing is to you," he said, "we don’t have time for a reunion. Julian, I need to know right now... can we kill it, or not."

And behind them, the swarm of smaller Aberrations, the ones that had been circling, testing, waiting, suddenly all turned their heads toward Julian at exactly the same moment, and began closing in from every single direction at once.