The wail of the sirens was growing dangerously loud. Red and blue emergency lights were already beginning to reflect off the glass of the surrounding high-rises, painting the ruined park in frantic, strobing colors.

Hide stood in the center of the devastated park, the cool night wind tugging at his silver hair. He didn’t have much time.

He opened his spatial inventory. With a mere thought, a glowing, pristine crystal materialized in the palm of his hand. It was the Core he had been given by Elara back in the gate.

The core of the D-Rank gate keeper who could fly.

Hide held the core out in front of him, ready to forge a new soldier.

Focusing inward, Hide closed his eyes for a fraction of a second and located the dense, freezing center of his being—the Dark Abyssal Core.

Instantly, the environment reacted. The heavy, corrupted ambient mana leaking from the newly forming gate blocks away rushed to him like a tidal wave responding to a black hole.

It was the reason why Hide had even tried creating a phantom here, because a gate was opening and it was the only time when he could find Dark mana on earth.

Hide didn’t want another heavy unit like Aegis, and he didn’t need another close-quarters executioner like Zenith. He fed his absolute intent into the violently swirling dark mana, picturing the ancient, long-lost predators of the sky he had seen in old history textbooks back at the school.

Thick, violet mists violently spiraled around the D-Rank core in his hand, expanding outward into the empty air.

The darkness rapidly condensed, hardening into biological perfection.

A colossal, terrifying beast materialized in the center of the park. It was a massive Pteranodon, forged entirely of compressed, midnight-black mana and armored in sleek, dark-steel plating.

Its leathery, razor-sharp wings easily spanned over twenty feet, completely plunging the immediate area into an oppressive shadow. Its head was an aerodynamic spear ending in a wickedly sharp, jagged beak, and its hollow, featureless eyes looked at Hide.

The downdraft from the beast’s initial, experimental wing flap flattened the tall grass, completely uprooted a nearby bush, and sent heavy debris flying across the alleyway.

A translucent blue holographic window immediately flickered into his vision, awaiting the designation.

[Phantom Soldier Formation Successful]

Please assign a name to the newly formed Phantom Soldier.

"Ugh," Hide stroked his hair. "I will call you Petra"

The system window updated immediately, displaying the full stats.

Name: Petra

Designation: Soldier

Anchor Rank: D

Current Level: 1

Rank Evolution : 1/20

Skills:

[Sonic Flight] (Passive): allows the user to travel close to the speed of sound while airborne and completely silences the sound of the user’s wings and atmospheric displacement, rendering flight undetectable.

[Paralyzing Screech] (Active): Allows the user to let out a screech that can not be heard, but paralyzes anyone within the effective range for 3 seconds.

Hide read through the glowing stats twice, a fierce, genuine grin breaking across his face. He dismissed the system window with a flick of his wrist.

"Petra," Hide commanded, his voice cutting through the whistling wind.

The massive beast let out a low, vibrating screech of acknowledgment. The sound could not be heard at all. Petra lowered its sleek, armored head, bowing in absolute submission to its liege.

Hide didn’t waste another second. The heavy rumble of Exterminator armored transport vehicles could now be heard turning the corner just two streets down.

He ordered Zenith and Aegis to return.

The two towering phantom soldiers dissolved into thick wisps of dense violet smoke, slipping seamlessly back into Hide’s body.

Hide reached down and grabbed the unconscious, bleeding assassin by the collar of his ruined, expensive suit. He hauled the grown man up as easily as if he were a ragdoll and leaped onto Petra’s broad, shadowy back, tossing the assassin down in front of him.

"Get us out of here," Hide commanded, gripping the thick, armor-plated ridges on the beast’s neck.

Petra’s massive wings beat downward with explosive force. Thanks to its passive skill, the launch produced absolutely no sound, but the force of the takeoff cratered the earth beneath them.

They launched straight into the night sky like a dark missile. Within seconds, they breached the low-hanging, smog-tinted clouds of Area 17, entirely vanishing from the sight.

The flight back was violently fast and eerily silent. Hide watched the sprawling, decaying grid of Area 17 pass beneath him, flickering streetlights reduced to blurry, insignificant specks. Up here, surrounded by the freezing, biting wind of the upper atmosphere, Hide felt a profound sense of control.

He directed the phantom toward his residential block, choosing a secluded, flat rooftop on an abandoned warehouse just two streets away from his own apartment building.

Petra reached there within two blinks of his eyes and landed with the grace of a falling feather.

Hide grabbed the assassin, throwing the man roughly over his shoulder, and dismissed Petra. The colossal flying beast broke apart into dark mana, storing itself back inside his core.

Hide quickly navigated the shadows of the residential block, moving through the rusted fire escapes and avoiding the flickering streetlamps until he reached his flat unit.

He pressed his thumb to the digital lock. It chimed green, and the door slid open with a soft hiss.

"Welcome back, Hide," CASS’s robotic voice chimed. The AI’s tone was perfectly pleasant, sharply contrasting with the trail of blood dripping from the man on Hide’s shoulder.

"Disable all communication signals, close the blast shutters on the windows, and engage the front door locks to maximum security."

"Understood, Hide. Modifying security parameters now," CASS replied as it was starting.

Hide crossed the living room in a blur of motion, before the device fully started, kicked open the door to his small, cramped bathroom, and violently hurled the unconscious assassin onto the tiled floor. The man groaned weakly upon impact, but he didn’t wake up.

Hide stepped inside, kicking the bathroom door firmly shut behind him, completely isolating them.

Hide let out a long, exhausted sigh, leaning the back of his head against the solid wood of the door.

He looked down at the bleeding man. Aegis had crushed the veins in the man’s severed wrists to act as a brutal tourniquet, but the wounds were still slowly oozing blood onto the cheap bathroom tiles.

He needed to bandage the stumps properly and force a low grade recovery potion down the bastard’s throat. He couldn’t let the man die. Not yet.

Hide pushed himself off the door, reaching toward the medicine cabinet above the sink for some heavy-duty gauze and medical tape.

But before his fingers could even brush the handle of the cabinet, the absolute silence of the apartment was shattered.

Bzzzz. Bzzzz.

Hide froze. The sleek, black communicator buried deep in the pocket of his pants was vibrating.

He slowly pulled his hand back from the cabinet, reached into his pocket, and pulled the device out. The screen illuminated the dark, blood-stained bathroom with a harsh, pale light, casting long shadows across Hide’s face. His brow furrowed in deep, profound confusion.

And he let out a long disappointed breath. He had changed his communicator again after coming out of the gate... and he still didn’t have all the numbers back.

It was an unknown caller.

Who the hell could be calling him at this hour?