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

The alarm kept blaring, red light washing over the balcony in slow pulses, and down below the training grounds erupted into chaos, Sentinels scrambling for weapons, shouting orders back and forth, some of them already sprinting toward the main gates without even waiting for backup.

’here we go’ Julian thought, and something in his chest that had been sitting heavy since Reid’s question a minute ago suddenly went very, very still. Calm. The kind of calm that only showed up right before things got bad.

Reid was already moving, pulling some kind of communication device from his belt, barking orders into it before Julian even got a word out. "how many, what class, give me numbers," he snapped, and whatever answer came back through it made his jaw go tight.

"how bad," Jayden asked, all the easy charm from a minute ago gone completely, replaced with something sharper, more focused.

"bad enough," Reid said, already turning to leave. "eight confirmed, breach point’s expanding. we need every Sentinel we’ve got out there in the next five minutes."

’eight’ Julian thought. ’eight aberrations, breaking through, moving slow, not stopping, not feeling pain’

[Host’s heart rate has increased significantly]

’no shit’

Reid was already halfway to the door when Julian’s mouth moved before his brain caught up with it. "I’m coming with you guys too."

Reid stopped. Turned around slow, staring at him like Julian just said something in a language he didn’t understand. "you’re an F..." he started, then caught himself, correcting mid-sentence, "you’re an SSS-Rank Guide who got his rank literally an hour ago. you’ve got zero combat experience in this world and you want to walk into an active breach."

"I didn’t say I wanted to fight them with my fists," Julian said, already moving toward the door himself. "I said I’m coming."

[Host. This is inadvisable. Host has not tested guiding abilities in combat scenario]

’yeah well there’s no better time to start than right now is there’

Jayden actually laughed, short and sharp, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. "he’s got the nerve, I’ll give him that."

"this isn’t about nerve," Reid said, voice hard, stepping right up into Julian’s space, scars pulling tight across his face. "this is about people dying because some rookie thought this was the moment to prove something."

Julian didn’t back down. "I’m not trying to prove anything. I’ve handled worse than eight of these things before. and if my ability can help even one Sentinel out there not die today, then I’m not standing around up here doing nothing while it happens."

Something shifted in Reid’s expression, just barely, like he was recalculating something in his head. "wait, what did you just say. worse than eight," he repeated slowly.

Julian didn’t answer that. He didn’t need to.

Reid stared at him for one more long second, then let out a breath through his nose, sharp and frustrated, before jerking his head toward the door. "stay behind the front line. you use that ability the second I tell you to and not a second before. you disobey me out there, I will personally drag you back myself, rank or no rank. understood?"

"Yeah I understood."

"then move." They ran. The hallways blurred past, Sentinels pouring out of every corridor now, armor snapping into place, weapons materializing out of thin air in flashes of light Julian didn’t have time to properly process. The alarm kept screaming overhead the whole way, red light flooding every window they passed, and somewhere out past the walls Julian could already hear it, faint but growing louder with every step closer they got.

That sound. Low. Guttural. Wrong in a way that lived somewhere deep in his bones no matter what world he was standing in.

They burst out through the front doors into open air, and the northern gate came into view down the hill, already swarmed with Sentinels forming up into defensive lines, fire and lightning crackling in the air above them, and past all of that, past the gate itself where the stone had cracked wide open like something tore straight through it...

Julian froze. Because standing in that breach, past a wall of Sentinels who didn’t have the first clue what they were actually looking at, were eight shapes moving slow and wrong, skin gray and peeling, heads twitching side to side like they were hunting by sound alone.

Zombies. Real, actual, unmistakable zombies, standing in a world that was never supposed to have them.

And right as Julian’s whole body went cold with recognition, one of the Sentinels at the front line screamed something that made his blood run even colder...

"there’s more coming out of the breach... it’s not eight, it’s dozens!"