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

Julian spun around fast, too fast, his boots skidding in the dirt, and the three Aberrations were already almost on him, mouths open, arms reaching, and there wasn’t time to run and there wasn’t time to think, there was only time to do the one thing his body already knew how to do after three years of practice. He threw both hands out in front of him.

’please work please work please work...’

Light exploded out of his palms, not the warm golden healing light from earlier, something sharper this time, something that came out white and jagged like it had teeth of its own, and it slammed into all three Aberrations at once, throwing them backward through the air like they weighed nothing at all.

[Offensive application detected. This is a new function. System is recalibrating host’s ability profile.]

’yeah great, recalibrate later, are they down...

’

Two of them hit the ground and didn’t get back up, bodies twitching once, twice, then going still. The third one staggered up onto its knees, snarling, and Julian didn’t even think about it, just pushed his hand out again, and another burst of that white light caught it clean in the chest and dropped it for good.

Silence, for one second. Just Julian standing there, chest heaving, hands still glowing faint at the edges, staring at three bodies in the dirt that he’d taken down without a single weapon in his hands..

Jayden skidded to a stop a few feet away, blade still raised, eyes wide taking in the scene. "you," he said, "just did that with your bare hands."

"apparently yeah," Julian said, and his own voice sounded distant to him, like it was coming from somewhere outside his body.

[Host. Power reserves at eighteen percent. Recommend immediate disengagement from combat.]

’I can’t do that. not yet. the core’s still standing.’

The core creature... Hale, or whatever was left wearing Hale’s ruined voice... hadn’t moved through any of that, just stood there watching Julian with something horribly patient in its broken eyes, like it already knew exactly how this was going to end and was in no hurry to get there.

"good," it said, voice grinding out low across the field. "you remember how to fight. I was starting to worry you’d forgotten everything that mattered."

"shut up you piece of shit," Julian said again, and this time there was less shake in it, more heat.

Reid’s formation was holding, barely, the wedge of Sentinels grinding through the outer swarm one body at a time, but more kept climbing up out of that breach behind the core, and Julian could see it now, could see the shape of how this went if nobody did something about the source. They’d hold for a while. Then they wouldn’t. Then it would be the west wall all over again, just with different names on the casualty list.

’not gonna happen this time’ Julian thought, and something cold and absolute settled into him. ’not again. I’m not watching it happen again.’

"Reid!" Julian shouted, voice cutting across the noise. "I need an opening to the core, right now, whatever you’ve got now!"

Reid didn’t argue this time, didn’t ask how or why, just barked something sharp to his squad leaders, and the wedge shifted, Sentinels peeling off in a tight formation, cutting a rough corridor through the outer swarm toward where the core stood waiting.

Jayden grabbed Julian’s arm before he could move. "your reserves," he said, low and urgent. "you’re at what, twenty percent? less? you go in there and push past your limit, you’re not walking back out of it."

"then I won’t walk," Julian said. "I’ll crawl if I have to. If that thing doesn’t die today, this doesn’t stop today, it will just get bigger tomorrow."

Jayden stared at him for one long second, jaw tight, and then let go. "I’m coming with you."

"I didn’t ask you."

"you didn’t need to." They ran through the corridor Reid’s squads cut open, gray hands reaching for them from both sides, and Jayden’s blade cut down anything that got too close while Julian kept pushing forward, breath burning in his chest, every step feeling heavier than the last like his own body was starting to argue with him about this.

[Host. Power reserves at twelve percent. This is below recommended safety threshold.]

’noted that, I will be fine thank you’

[Host is not stopping.]

’also noted, now shut up will ya, you are disturbing me’

They broke through the last line of smaller Aberrations and there it was, right in front of them, the core creature standing tall and broken and horribly patient, black cracks running down its massive body, and up close Julian could see something underneath all that wrongness, something that used to be a man who taught him how to hold a blade the right way, who dragged him out of a collapsing building once and never once let him say thank you for it.

"Hale," Julian said, and his voice cracked on the name even now. "I’m sorry it ended like this for you. I really am. but you’re not him anymore, and I’m not letting you wear his face to hurt anybody else."

"then finish it," the creature said, almost gentle now, almost like the old Hale had for one second clawed his way back up to the surface just to say it. "you always were better at endings than I was."

Julian’s hands came up, both of them shaking now, power gathering at his palms thin and strained, nowhere near what it took down the smaller ones, but it was what he had left and it was going to have to be enough.

[Host. Warning. Current output combined with reserve levels creates significant risk of total collapse.]

’I know that...Just shut up for god sake’

[Host may not survive unconsciousness in an active combat zone.]

’How annoying, don’t worry. Jayden’s here. Reid’s here. I trust them to get me out or maybe if they are willing to.’

The System didn’t answer that, and somehow the silence felt like agreement.

Julian pushed everything he had left straight into his hands, every last drop, all the way down to whatever sat underneath even the reserves the System could measure, and the light that came out of him this time wasn’t white anymore, it was pure and blinding and it screamed out of him like something that had been locked away for three long years finally found a door wide enough to leave through.

It slammed into the core creature dead center, and the whole battlefield lit up like daylight for one long, endless second.

The creature let out a scream that wasn’t Hale’s voice anymore, wasn’t anything human at all, just raw sound tearing out of something finally breaking apart at the seams, and the cracks running through its body split wider and wider until light was pouring out through every single one of them.

"wall-keeper," it said, one last time, almost soft, almost like a goodbye instead of a threat, "hold the line better this time."

And then it came apart entirely, black and gray dissolving into nothing, and the second it did, every smaller Aberration on the field froze mid-motion, heads twitching, movements going erratic and confused without the signal that had been holding them together.

"they’re breaking formation!" somebody screamed from Reid’s line. "push, push now, they’re not coordinating anymore!"

The Sentinels surged forward, and what had been a losing fight a minute ago turned into a rout, Aberrations falling one after another without the core’s guidance keeping them sharp and unified, and Julian stood there in the middle of it all, watching it happen, feeling something enormous and relieved crack open in his chest.

’I did it’ he thought. ’I actually... ’

His legs stopped working. The ground rushed up at him fast, and the last thing Julian registered clearly was Jayden’s voice, sharp with panic, closer than it should have been able to get so fast, and arms catching him before he hit the dirt.

"Julian... Julian, hey, stay with me, don’t you dare..."

[Host. Power reserves at zero percent. Emergency shutdown of non-essential functions initiated.]

’oh wow’ Julian thought, distant and floating and strange. ’that’s not good.’

"his pulse is dropping," Jayden’s voice said, somewhere above him, sounding very far away now. "Reid! REID, get over here now..."

Reid’s voice joined in a second later, sharp and commanding even through the haze settling over everything. "get a medic, get every Guide we’ve got left standing over here immediately..."

"he used everything," Jayden said, and something in his voice cracked in a way Julian had never heard from him before, not once, not even facing down a monster three times his size. "he used everything he had and then he kept going anyway, why would he..."

’because I promised’ Julian thought, sinking down into something dark and warm and quiet. ’I promised I wouldn’t watch a wall fall again. not this time. not while I’ve still got something left to give.’

The last thing he heard, faint and fading, was Reid’s voice, rough in a way that didn’t match the cold, guarded commander from a few hours ago at all.

"stay with us, kid. that’s an order." Then everything went black, and this time, for the first time since he woke up in this world, Julian let it..