“Wasn’t expecting that,” Dara called, leaning against a low rubble pile.
“Did I fall down that?” he asked, indicating the pile.
Dara laughed softly. The warmth of her laughter contrasted strangely with the desolation around them, echoing slightly against crumbling walls. In the distance, the faint crackle of burning buildings persisted, a muted reminder of the devastation.
“Fall down? It’s shorter than me while I’m sitting against it. But sure mate, you fell down it. You were in a pretty bad way. What happened?”
“The Warhound-”
“Logan? Is he still alive?”
Caelin pulled the sidearm from his Inventory and tossed it to her.
“How did you—”
“We fought.”
“Can I—”
“It’s yours.”
Dara held the weapon to her chest then it disappeared into her Inventory.
“Thank you. There aren’t many things I want more than to see Logan and Kael dead.”
Caelin nodded then forced himself up onto his feet, testing his body, expecting pain. There was none. Instead, a soothing warmth radiated gently beneath his armor, faint but reassuring, a stark contrast to the agonizing cold fire he remembered from earlier. A drastic counterpoint to any feeling he could remember across the eons.
“What happened to the other Originals?”
Dara looked in the direction of the open area that seemed to be on fire and sighed deeply. The air grew heavier, thick with the acrid scent of burnt flesh and scorched earth drifting slowly from distant fires. Smoke lingered, filtering daylight into a muted, grey haze that seemed to mourn alongside her.
“Dead. Poor bastards. Those Reap-”
“False Reapers.”
Caelin didn’t turn around, his new perception ability tracking that Dara nodded slowly, her eyes going wide.
“False? How… what? Who are you?”
“Caelin.”
“You don’t speak much do you?”
Caelin turned and looked Dara in the eyes.
“I’m a Silenced One, I spent millenia not speaking out loud.”
“Millenia? How…” her eyes went wide. “You’re one of them.”
Dara waved a hand and a pop-up appeared between them.
Earth 784G457 - Silenced Ones - 3
PRIORITY EXECUTION ORDER - ELIMINATE THEM ALL
“One more dead.”
“Why does the System want you dead?”
“Because we shouldn’t exist.”
Dara threw her hands up. “You need to be less cryptic. That’s not an answer.”
Caelin finally turned. “We were forged by the Harbinger of Death, once the strongest of the System’s Harbingers. When he rebelled and fell, the System set out to erase everything he had created. That includes us.”
Caelin looked off to the side when Life appeared, causing his adrenaline to spike. A sudden chill surged over Caelin’s skin, an instinctual dread coiling tightly in his chest even before Life fully manifested. His pulse quickened sharply, and the edges of his vision darkened, briefly flickering with remembered shadows.
“Caelin. Remember your place.”
“What's happening? You’re reacting to something.”
Dara was looking in the same direction but couldn’t see Life.
“It’s nothing, just remembering something,” Caelin replied.
“Good.”
With that Life disappeared. Caelin’s breath steadied, but a lingering tension remained, muscles tight as if anticipating another strike. The smell of decay faded slowly, replaced again by the harsh yet grounding scents of burning wood and concrete dust.
“So, the System wants you dead because… beings with Souls should’ve been created by the System? Beings like me?”
Caelin nodded slowly.
“Originals. There are also Echoes, forced into being by Death to destabilize the Multiverse through overpopulation.”
“Did it work?”
“Was overpopulation a problem on your world?”
“Point taken. That wasn’t natural?”
“Left to themselves, worlds wouldn’t exceed certain limits. We, the Silenced Ones, were used to upset the balance in certain ways.”
A faint breeze stirred ash and dust at their feet, swirling gently, momentarily disrupting the trails of dried blood. Caelin felt strangely disconnected, as if discussing someone else’s past, a distant memory far removed from the broken landscape around them.
“What now?”
Caelin shrugged and knelt beside the false Reaper he had killed. Extending a hand he engaged Absorption, dragging her Original Soul to the surface.
Soul Stability - 55%
A subtle warmth flowed through him, soft and revitalizing, tinged with a haunting whisper of the Reaper’s memories. It faded quickly, leaving behind a brief yet poignant sensation of loss and desperation.
“There’s something else,” Dara said, voice low and deliberate. “Before we got hit, one of the Reapers, an Original, mentioned their leader. Said he knew where we’d be. No one else knew.”
She glanced at Caelin.
“That suggests access. Tactical profiles. Up-to-date team movements. Our weaknesses. That isn’t intel you scrape from a battlefield or pull off a grunt you drag out of the ruins. That’s high-level access. Someone behind the curtain.” She paused. “They called him Ansen.”
A sudden, unnatural stillness settled over them, as if even the distant flames had paused to listen. Dara’s voice lingered heavily, charged with suspicion and dread, magnifying the tension between them. Still, he said nothing.
Dara let out a breath. “Didn’t mean anything to me at the time. But after seeing what’s wrapped around your Soul... it fits.” She turned away briefly, shoulders tight. “I’ve seen this before. Back in the 2CO. Officers double-dipping. Selling information. Cutting deals behind closed doors.” A bitter smile ghosted across her face. “That’s why I left. Why I stopped trusting Kael. Why Logan and I never saw eye to eye.” She looked back at him. “If Ansen’s got access to System data... Originals aren’t just being hunted. They’re being set up to feed his advancement.” She hesitated, watching his expression. “And if the System’s already tracking you,” she trailed off. “Then he’s using you too. Letting the targets come to you, like they’re following a trail of blood.”
A sudden, unnatural stillness settled over them, as if even the distant flames had paused to listen. Dara’s voice lingered heavily, charged with suspicion and dread, magnifying the tension between them. Still he said nothing.
Dara let out a breath. “Didn’t mean anything to me at the time. But after seeing what’s wrapped around your Soul... it fits.” She turned away briefly, shoulders tight. “I’ve seen this before. Back in the 2CO. Officers double-dipping. Selling information. Cutting deals behind closed doors.” A bitter smile ghosted across her face. “That’s why I left. Why I stopped trusting. Kael. Why Logan and I never saw eye to eye.” She looked back at him. “If Ansen’s got access to System data... Originals aren’t just being hunted. They’re being set up to feed his advancement.” She hesitated, watching his expression. “And if the System’s already tracking you,” she trailed off. “Then he’s using you too. Letting the targets come to you, like they’re following a trail of blood.”
Caelin's stomach tightened as the implications settled like a leaden weight. Could this be why the Network pop-ups had felt wrong from the start? The clinical precision, the System-like clarity. it wasn't paranoia; it had been a warning. His instincts had recognized the intrusion before he consciously understood it.
Silenced Network Alert External Intrusion Detected... Thread Interference Identified: Ansen Origin: System-Linked Process [Unknown Node] Access Method: Obfuscated Packet Injection Firewall Status: Active. Silenced Nature Insulating Core Threads Response Options: None Available
A wave of cold nausea rolled over Caelin, his vision briefly dimming as the intrusion pierced deeper, unsettling him at the core. Ambient sounds faded momentarily, replaced by a faint, static hiss echoing softly in his ears. The alert pulsed once more, then folded in on itself like a memory it hadn’t meant to show. Dara stared at the space where the projection had been. Her weapon shifted slightly, just off-line, as if her instincts had stalled while her mind caught up.
“That timing can’t be a coincidence.” The Seraphic Vanguard got to her feet, weapon held at patrol ready while her eyes scanned the area around them. “That wasn't a user profile,” she murmured. “That was command-level access.”
He didn’t respond. Just stared past her, jaw tight. It was real. his earlier discomfort had been justified. The Network had been compromised, infiltrated at the highest level. Ansen wasn’t just selling them out; he was actively enabling the System’s hunt. Caelin's uncertainty vanished, replaced by grim acceptance.
If the System was hunting the Silenced Ones, but Ansen was getting stronger… was the System feeding Ansen’s ascension? Was the System setting Ansen up as Death’s successor?
Instead of replying, he rose from the corpse and looked straight at Dara, like he was reading her Soul. The Ethereal Blade suddenly flickered into his left hand causing both Caelin and Dara to look down. His fingers slowly clenched around the softly glowing hilt as he nodded to himself. Dara didn’t move, she waited for Caelin’s reaction, expression unreadable.
“So nothing’s changed.” He didn’t look at her, but his voice hardened. “They’ll keep sending disposable Souls after me and I’ll keep getting stronger.”
“Disposable Souls?”
“Souls from your world.”
Dara just looked at Caelin, her expression was still unreadable.
“People like me?”
Caelin opened his mouth to reply then pulled up Dara's tag again.
Sergeant Dara Valkerys
Class: Seraphic Vanguard
Level: 18
Faction: Unaffiliated
“No.”
Dara took a deep breath and her hands gripped her weapon tighter. Her knuckles whitened visibly, grip tense enough to tremble slightly. The ambient temperature seemed to drop sharply, a chill settling between them as her unease became palpable. All the while her eyes continued to scan the area, never pausing for longer than a second on the Silenced One before her.
“You need to do more than that, Caelin.”
“Your Class. Ansen would cultivate your potential, as Death did before him. He’d either force you into his service until you were strong enough to be of use, or orchestrate events from the shadows. Then he'd absorb your Soul.”
“That's… that makes sense, from a power perspective. What about my Class?”
Caelin focussed on Dara's tag.
Class: Seraphic Vanguard
“Seraphic Vanguard isn't a Class-”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“It's a unique Class. The information the System gave me when it selected my Class said it was the only one in the Multiverse.”
Caelin nodded slowly, then paused. His jaw clenched, as if the words were fighting their way through a barricade. When he finally spoke, his voice was quieter. Not uncertain, just... unused.
“Across every world I've served on, every Soul I've reaped… you’re the first Seraphic Vanguard. But not the first Seraphic Class. This is what I wanted to avoid, but you need context. Before the System there was Chaos, the only light within that Chaos was the Order of Nephilim. Seraphic was the highest Rank within that Order.”
Dara’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she said nothing. Dust swirled at her boots, kicked by a breeze that didn’t reach her face. The words lingered solemnly, heavy with ancient significance. For a brief instant, the oppressive haze cleared slightly, sunlight filtering down to touch their surroundings softly, offering Dara a subtle yet reassuring warmth before fading back into gloom, Caelin flinched as the sun hit his face. The Silenced One turned to look up at the sky, confusion plain to see.
“I can’t remember the last time I felt the sun.”
“Ignoring that last comment for now. That's it? Some vague connection to a long dead Order?”
Caelin sighed and looked away. His gaze settled on the ruined skyline, where charred and twisted remains of buildings stood as grim monuments to the devastation wrought by both the Leviathan and those who allied themselves with the System. The distant groan of collapsing metal echoed softly, reinforcing the how fragile this Earth was. For a long moment, he didn’t continue. As if giving shape to the past might make it real again.
“The Nine, or, The Original Nine, were the most powerful beings in existence. At the height of their power they looked across the Cosmos and decided that, even together, they weren’t enough to drive back Chaos. They combined their power to create the System, sacrificing themselves and in turn, the Order.”
The air grew heavier. Not hotter, not colder, just dense, like the weight of what had been buried was pressing upward from beneath the broken earth.
“The System then created Nine Harbingers, creations so powerful that the Cosmos split to create the Multiverse in order to contain them.”
Caelin’s voice didn’t waver, but his eyes unfocused, as if remembering something older than time took real effort. Dara’s mouth opened, then shut again. No quip. No theory. Just silence. She looked at Caelin who was now holding a dark blade while looking up at the sky.
“Death was their head, their Leader, the most powerful.”
“Not anymore,” whispered a voice in his head.
Caelin shook his head like he was trying to dispel Life.
“I know of Void, Life, Time and I've heard whispers of Technology. They make up the upper echelons on the Harbingers, the others, not even whispers.
Instead of words, Caelin heard Life’s soft chuckle, baiting him to ask who the others were.
“Then Death created The Nine. Death’s own Order, forged from the memory of the Order of Nephilim. Ansen is, or was, the leader of The Nine, Death's inner circle.”
At Ansen’s name, Dara’s jaw tensed. She didn’t speak, but her weapon shifted, barely noticeable, but deliberate. Caelin’s perception tracked the minute change in the weapon’s movement, and he stopped speaking, just leaving his words to hang in the space between them. The silence stretched. Dara finally broke it.
“Three Orders of Nine?”
“All different, but the same. All balancing Chaos.”
“So the Chaos is still there?”
“Yes and no. Chaos is now under the System’s control. As much as you can control Chaos.”
Dara shook her head slowly, watching as Caelin sheathed the black blade which disappeared, she then snapped her eyes up to continue scanning the area.
“This is too much.”
“You asked.”
“There are other Seraphics?”
“Yes.” Dara just stared at him until he continued. “I know of two others that Death was leaving, allowing them to get stronger, until they reached a certain level. One of The Nine would’ve been dispatched to reap them, all to funnel their power into Death… I shouldn’t remember this. Any of this.”
“Your memory? I saw there was something blocking it when Final Benediction was working. The Ability, or the Soul… unlocking, might’ve opened it up a little.”
Caelin shivered involuntarily, the sensation of gentle warmth from Dara’s healing still fresh in his memory, contrasted sharply by a lingering chill deep within. It was like ice forming around a wound that refused to heal.
“Since the System asserted itself, my memories have been locked away behind an impenetrable wall.” Caelin paused, again his Ethereal Blade reappeared, “save for moments, typically in combat, where certain memories floors over the wall. Serrakia for example.”
“That just surfaced? Without warning?” Her tone sharpened. “You’ve got gods know what buried in there, and we’re just waiting to see what spills out next?”
Her words landed like a knife between ribs, sharp, deliberate, oddly familiar. Caelin didn’t flinch. His eyes turned distant, his Soul reliving the final moments on a doomed world.
“In the Soulspire, silence isn’t a tactic. It’s survival.” Caelin turned back to Dara. “Yes. I have no control over what… spills out. Your ability, your Seraphic Ability likely touched on something and pulled it free, otherwise that might not have surfaced for a millenia or more.”
His voice was calm, but his eyes were hollow. Dara almost stepped forward; she'd seen that look before, right before a soldier walked off and didn’t come back. Dara nodded slowly, her eyes stayed on Caelin before they flicked back to scan the area.
“Serrakia?”
Caelin shuddered and the Ethereal Blade flickered ominously before disappearing entirely, his HUD flashed the way it did prior to Death’s failed rebellion. A Silenced One Network notification.
Objective: Cleanse Zone 47
Caelin blinked. The text was gone as quickly as it appeared. Checking the log there was no history that it had ever appeared. There was no Zone 47. Not here, not on Earth 784G457. Zone 47 had been the Tower Bastion, the final line against the Void on Serrakia. The only time he had fought alongside Natives. Someone, Death? Ansen? Had sent through a final onjective before the world was consumed and he had followed it. He had reaped the last survivors of a doomed world… for what?
Caelin staggered at those two words. He remembered asking them when he returned to the Soulspire. He remembered the pain. The Reindoctrination within the Surgical Ward. He remembered… something. They had… pain shot through him, soul deep pain and he collapsed in on himself, falling to one knee. When the pain passed he got unsteadily to his feet.
“You would do well to forget you heard me mention… that place.” Life shimmered into being, unseen by Dara, but very visible to Caelin. “Those of us that remember it… wish we didn’t.”
Life raised a hand threateningly while locking eyes with Caelin. Then with a slow nod, the Soul Projection ceased. A voice slithered into his mind.
“Serrakia will be avenged, even if I have to tear the Multiverse apart to do so. You saw what Void did to my world, my experiments. The System did nothing. Nothing! Death watched on from their Soulspire and laughed.. The others… no one lifted a finger. Serrakia was mine. Just as no one lifted a finger to save you. Except me.”
Caelin’s heart seemed to stop for a moment, then he spun, looking for the projection but Life was nowhere to be seen.
“You saved me on Serrakia?”
“Of course. I’ve protected you for centuries.”
“I… how…?”
A pressure built behind his eyes, like memory wanted to surface, but the words weren’t enough to pull it through the wall in his mind. His knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists, willing his mind to open. Then the feeling passed, the fleeting memory just out of reach.
“Death left you to die. Death’s Nine would never aid you, even now their leader, the strongest of you, turns his back on the remaining Silenced Ones and aids another. Who else do you have? This… native?”
“A Seraphim.”
Life’s laugh cut at Caelin’s mind, the mockery of it felt like blades tearing against his flesh.
“A Seraphim? An error not even the System can control. Something left over from the dawn of the Multiverse. To think one appeared on this back water world. She’ll betray you. Come, Caelin. You know I am your only chance. I’ve proved it, again and again.”
“I’ll take my chance. But, Life… thank you. For Serrakia. When the Void Moon appeared above the final tower… when those tendrils lashed against the ground… I thought I was done. I thought my eternal service was at an end. Thank you.”
Life didn’t respond. Silence hung between the two, familiar yet antagonistic.
“Caelin?”
Caelin spun back to Dara, both blades appeared in his hands. Without fliching she just raised a single eyebrow. Releasing a pent up breath Caelin sighed, allowed his weapons to disappear then nodded to Dara, the closest she’d get to an apology.
“You’re back? From…” she gave a small shrug, “whatever the hell that was?”
Caelin nodded, then looked down at his empty hands and sighed.
“Silence wasn’t just a tactic, or purely survival. Even amongst my kind… even within the Silenced Ones, I was,” Caelin paused then lifted his left hand up and called the Etheral Blade into existence, “different.”
Dara chuckled softly, then waved Caelin down before he could speak.
“Sorry. Not laughing at you. Just recognising a pattern.”
She moved the stock of her weapon between them.
“In the 2CO I was the only female doctor. Only woman in my unit. Only grunt on the frontlines with tits who could save a life. Being different? Not a curse. It’s a crucible. Harder than war some days.”
Dara gave Caelin a small nod.
“Sounds like the Silenced Ones are just like any elite unit, mostly pricks, and one or two of them are worth sharing a drink with.”
Caelin looked at Dara, then down at her weapon before turning back to where her allies had fallen against the false Reapers.
“Silenced Ones aren’t known for drinking.”
“Bartenders would hate you. Now,” She turned and started walking in the direction of the fallen Originals. “You coming, or you gonna stand there brooding all day? From what I saw of your Abilities, you can do more with this lot than I can.”
Caelin hesitated, torn between two worlds.
The Soulspire clung to his thoughts. Cold. Absolute. It had consumed his long life. Endless, and hollow servitude to a being he meant nothing to. There was a legacy, one earned on countless worlds, but also pain. Obedience had been carved into his bones until orders were followed without question. Torture when the obedience wore away under the weight of the pain, death and blood.
Yet more memories waited in the dark. Not gone. Just buried. Waiting to surface when he was weakest or when combat pulled them through the wall.
Then there was Earth. A fractured world. One of millions. Yet something here stirred a response within his Soul. Not a directive. Not learned instinct. Something else. A flicker he hadn’t known was there. Not strength. Not hope. Just something unclaimed.
Not enough to change him. But enough to make him pause.
He looked up, again seeing the sun through a break in the smoke..
He felt something, a reaction that was his, not one trained into him. Not one he was forced to feel. That was enough.
He breathed slow and steady, sealing his thoughts where Life couldn't slip through. It was still there. Always watching. Always patient. Remembering Serrakia had opened that door.
He owed it something. Or maybe he didn’t.
That world should have ended him. Life had intervened. Why? Why save a soldier forged by Death? He was a number. A weapon. A tool already discarded. Even Death had left him to die. Survive, or don’t return. That had been the message, the last until the objective had followed. The objective he followed, the one that led to him being dragged to the Surgical Ward.
Not corrected. Not questioned. Stripped down. Rebuilt. Reeducated.
Life had claimed him, whether that had happening in the ruins of Serrakia, or the ruins of Earth, either way, now it waited, quiet and calculating, for its chance to collect.
He locked it out. Not with rage. With silence.
He looked ahead.
Dara moved through the ruins, steady and sure. No fear. No hesitation.
She was different. That much, he could trust. It wasn’t just her Class. It was the way she spoke. The way she met his gaze, when she wasn't scanning for threats. She didn’t ask for protection. She didn’t treat him like a weapon. She didn’t flinch when he lost control.
The last people who had looked at him like that had stood beside him at the Tower. They had fought with him against the Void. And when the Soulspire’s Objective came, he had killed them.
His fingers twitched. Not at the memory of battle. At the aftermath.
Their screams. Their blood. Their confusion. The way they reached for him, even as he obeyed. The had pleaded with him, the last has just fallen to his knees. He had given everything, then a monster, then Caelin had stolen any chance they had. It had changed nothing. That couldn’t happen again.
Dara had seen what he was. What he could be, she had pulled him back without fear. Without demand. She didn’t want anything. Not for herself. He could almost believe she saw something more.
Almost.
Earth would be his path, for now. Eventually, he would have to look beyond it. This world wouldn’t be enough. It couldn’t give him what he needed, what his service to Death owed him.
He looked to the sky, then to the fractured horizon, then to Dara.
His voice was low. Meant only for himself, no one else was close enough to hear.
“Send your best against me, brother. I survived Serrakia. I can survive you.”
---------------------------------------------
Class: Seraphic Vanguard
Class Type: System-Originated | Combat-Healer Hybrid Rarity: Unique within the Multiverse Assigned To: Sergeant Dara Valkerys
Role: Frontline Healer | Combat Support | Defensive Radiant Core
The Seraphic Vanguard is a frontline healing class designed for exceptional combat medics who refuse to stand at the rear. It synchronises with radiant energy drawn from both internal reserves and external stimuli, enabling high-output healing and defense even in high-intensity engagements.
Designed to operate in chaotic and hostile environments, the class provides rapid battlefield triage, scalable healing output, and protective bursts that activate under threat. Its compatibility with command-tier operatives and advanced physical training allows the bearer to stand shoulder to shoulder with elite warriors.
Core Features:
- Radiant Conduction: Generates healing output through sustained combat movement and direct engagement with allies.
- Seraphic Protocols: Automatically triggers defensive auras when defending wounded targets or downed allies.
- Judgement Core Sync: Can amplify ranged weaponry to project radiant healing fields while maintaining offensive pressure.
- Unique Status: No other Seraphic Vanguard class has been recorded in the Multiversal schema.
Contextual Addendum – Caelin’s Knowledge
Lore Fragment – The Order of the Seraphim
The title Seraphic predates the System.
Long before the Multiverse was forged, the cosmos was consumed by Chaos. From that void emerged a single unifying force, an ancient collective called the Order of Nephilim. The highest tier within that Order were known as the Seraphim. They were beings of radiant judgment, charged with holding the line against Chaos in all its forms.
When Chaos became uncontainable, the Nephilim gave everything. Their final act was to create the System, merging their essence into its framework. Their legacy survived only in fragments.
Death, the strongest of the Harbingers, remembered. In time, he created his own inner circle, The Nine, a dark reflection modeled after what had come before. The echoes of the Seraphim still stir, re-emerging across time and space when the balance tilts too far. Dara’s class is one such emergence.
The Seraphim – The Nine Pillars of Light
Forged within the Order of Nephilim before the System existed, the Seraphim were the most powerful of the Nephilim. Each represented a core function of order, purpose, or defiance against the void of Chaos. Though the System claims their mythos was extinguished, fragments of their legacy continue to resurface through rare Class designations and soul-linked memories.
Seraphic Vanguard
Pillar of Preservation
Role: Healer / Frontline Medic
Domain: Restoration, Soul Stabilisation, Aegis Creation
Legacy of the protector who healed the wounded and held the line against impossible odds against the forces of Chaos.
Seraphic Titan
Details Unknown
Seraphic Acendent
Details Unknown
Seraphic Judicator
Details Unknown
Five other members - details unknown