Deep within the corridors of the Ward academic complex, where the ambient mana felt stagnant and cold, a small, fragile sound cut through the silence.“Over here... I called for you...”The voice was tiny, trembling, and so pathetically thin it barely carried over the low hum of the magical vents along the outer wall.Silarias came to a dead stop. He did not turn his body; he simply shifted his weight, his heavy boots locking onto the cool stone floor. Behind him, the Goats expanded with a fluid, natural synchronization, surrounding the dark alcove hidden behind a massive marble pillar. The reclusive students huddled in the shadows shrank even deeper against the cold stone, their eyes wide with instinctual dread.In the center of the shivering group sat a small, hunched figure, completely swallowed by a ragged, oversized cloak.With a frantic, shaky movement, a tiny hand emerged from the dark fabric, grasping the edge of the hood and slowly pulling it back.The heavy cloth slid down, revealing the pale, innocent face of a young beast human boy bearing the distinct features of a juvenile owl. Two colossal, golden yellow eyes blinked rapidly in the dim light, staring up in absolute awe and terror at the towering silhouette of Silarias. Soft, brown and white down feathers poked out erratically from his messy hair.“I... I am Fukarou,” the owl boy stammered, his small paws wringing the edges of his frayed sleeves in a desperate bid for composure. “Welcome... I can tell you everything about this school... what is truly happening behind the curtains. We... we are the Ciphers...”From behind him, another Cipher leaned out of the dark. He was a scrawny boy with thick, crooked spectacles and a bitter, lisping voice.“Don’t even try, Fukarou,” he snapped in a harsh whisper, yanking his own hood lower over his eyes. “They aren’t going to talk to garbage like us...”“Oh, we would love to!”The cynical Cipher froze.Silarias stepped directly through the perimeter without a single second of hesitation. He bent his massive frame down and extended a hand wrapped in heavy leather, grabbing Fukarou’s tiny, trembling paw and shaking it with a broad, booming laugh.Silarias tilted his head a fraction, casting a side glance toward Nicola. A manic, dangerous spark ignited deep within his amber eyes. This is our guy.Nicola caught the look in a microsecond. A matching, razor sharp smirk curled along his jawline.Before the little owl boy could even register what was happening, Silarias and Nicola slammed their heavy arms around Fukarou’s narrow shoulders at the exact same time. The sheer physical weight nearly lifted the poor kid clean out of his boots.“W... what... what is happening?” Fukarou squeaked in total shock, his massive eyes darting frantically between the two broadly grinning figures sandwiching him.“Oh, nothing at all, brother! Hahaha!” Silarias laughed jovially, squeezing the boy against his side with a grip that threatened to crack a rib. “We just happen to want to know absolutely everything.”Fukarou tried to catch his breath, clearing his squeaking throat as his eyes darted nervously toward the passing crowds of Vipers and Griffins further down the main hall.“Not... not here,” he whispered frantically, his voice dropping into a panicked hiss. “Follow me.”He scrambled to his feet and darted into the deep, suffocating shadows of the outer wall with rapid, short strides. The Goats fell into formation behind the strange band of recluses without a word.As they wove through the quietest, most forgotten arteries of the academy, the group caught their first unfiltered glimpses of the subterranean ecosystem thriving beneath the surface.Through a heavy basement archway, Miki paused, her sharp eyes catching a group of sweat drenched students from the Scrap Smiths hauling massive copper plates and illicit, black market tuning arrays into an unmapped workshop.“Look at that, Nyx,” Miki whispered, rising slightly onto her toes. “Those guys are literally building heavy siege engines in the dark. Why don’t we have gear like that in our Ward?”“Because we are here for real combat training, Miki, not to weld scrap metal together,” Nyx replied, her voice smooth, dry, and entirely unbothered as she kept her gaze locked forward.High above them, across the towering stone arches and floating walkways, a streak of purple light tore through the air. A squad of Phase Runners blurred past at terrifying speeds, shouting rapid fire tactical jargon about spatial parkour routes as they vanished into the high rafters. And deep below the stone floor, where the rich scent of spiced steam drifted upward, the heavy iron doors of The Black Lotus Diner remained tightly shut, radiating a subtle, terrifying aura of absolute authority.Eventually, Fukarou halted before a massive, seamless stone wall at the dead end of a forgotten corridor.Hanging upon the ancient stone was a colossal, grotesquely painted oil canvas. The surface was dull, murky, and appeared to be nothing more than an amateurish smear of dark, tar like brushstrokes.Fukarou stepped forward, lifted his small chin, and spoke with a sudden, startlingly clear cadence:“Ciphers for Ciphers... and Knowledge is Gold.”The reaction was instantaneous.The massive canvas violently shuddered. The murky oil paint began to liquefy, swirling across the fabric in a rapid, mesmerizing tide. From deep within the stone behind the painting, the heavy, mechanical grinding of ancient gears and shifting staircases echoed through the hall.Then... a sharp, frantic, and extremely impatient hammering sounded from inside the canvas, as if someone was violently punching the back of the frame.The colors snapped into hyper definition. The painting morphed into a lavish, classical study where an aristocratic man stood in the middle of the room. It was Sir Cipher the 1st.He wore the opulent attire of an ancient duke, but it was an absolute disaster. His stiff collar was crooked, his embroidered coat hung awkwardly off one shoulder, his hair stuck out in wild, static tufts, and his slippers were jammed onto the wrong feet. He looked like a man who had frantically thrown on his clothes in a blind panic just to look somewhat presentable.“WELL?! What kind of scam is it this ti...” Sir Cipher snarled in an arrogant, upper class accent, frantically trying to button his vest.The words died in his throat.At the exact moment his eyes swept across the group standing in the corridor, the old duke felt the raw, titan like, and ancient energy radiating from Silarias, Nyx, and the rest of the Goats.Every shred of color drained from his painted face in a single heartbeat. His eyes nearly bulged out of his skull in sheer, unadulterated terror. He whipped his head violently toward little Fukarou.“YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID IT WAS THIS KIND OF VISIT, YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!” Sir Cipher shrieked, his voice cracking into a high pitched scream.With a frantic, panicked lunging motion, he grabbed a heavy, black velvet curtain from within the painted room and yanked it violently across the canvas. Total darkness.Behind the curtain, absolute chaos erupted. The sound of shattering crystal goblets, heavy wardrobes being dragged across floorboards, and the frantic, cursing mutters of the duke tripping over his own boots echoed loudly through the stone wall.“My God... if I had known I would see them in the flesh again... Where is my armor?! Where is my blade?!” his muffled voice screamed from behind the black velvet.The magical mechanics behind the wall accelerated into an overdrive hum. The painting began to physically restructure itself; the pigments grew rich and deep, the gold leafing along the frame ignited with a brilliant sheen, and the oil paint smoothed out like polished glass.With a dramatic, sweeping flourish, the curtain was thrown back open.Sir Cipher stood chest out, clad in a breathtaking, silver grey battle plate, an immaculate cape draped over his shoulder, and an intricately engraved longsword resting at his hip. He looked every bit the legendary warrior, even if a single, stubborn tuft of messy hair still poked out from beneath his polished helmet.“It appears...” Sir Cipher began, his voice dropping into a low, theatrical resonance as he executed a deep, impeccably formal bow, “...that the Goats have returned to the land of the living. So, the cycle begins anew.”As he straightened his back, his sharp gaze drifted toward the rear of the group, where young Renuardo and Miki stood watching the magical painting with cautious, wide eyed curiosity. The duke’s rigid battle expression softened instantly.“Mmm... Little Prince... Little Princess,” he murmured, a warm, surprisingly gentle chuckle escaping his lips. “Do not fear. Perhaps you would like to meet him...”Sir Cipher raised two fingers to his lips and let out a sharp, piercing whistle.From the dark, painted depths of the background, a colossal, muscular hound came charging forward. The beast tore across the canvas at breakneck speed, growing massive in the frame. But instead of slamming into the flat surface, the beast violently breached the magical barrier of the canvas itself!With a joyful, thunderous bark, the massive, fur covered creature landed heavily on the marble floor of the corridor. It immediately trotted straight up to Miki and Renuardo, its thick tail thumping against the stone so hard it whipped up small gusts of wind.All caution melted away from Miki in a fraction of a second. She let out a tiny gasp of pure delight and immediately buried her hands into the dense fur behind the hound’s ears, while Renuardo grinned broadly, slapping the beast’s broad, muscular flank.“Look at him, Ren!” Miki squealed, her eyes sparkling. “He is giant! Can we keep him? Can he come with us, Silarias?”“Don’t let that monster ruin your uniform with drool, Miki,” Nyx deadpanned, though the subtle tension in her straight shoulders relaxed slightly at the sight.Sir Cipher gave another soft whistle. The massive hound gave Miki a wet, sloppy lick across her cheek before leaping seamlessly back into the frame, coming to a sharp, disciplined heel right beside the warrior’s greaves.The solid stone wall behind the painting split down the center with a heavy thud. The canvas swung wide like a massive, iron reinforced portal.“Step forward,” Sir Cipher commanded, bowing once more. “Welcome to the sanctum of the Ciphers.”Silarias gave a short nod and stepped over the threshold first, his boots echoing sharply. The Goats filed into a wide corridor illuminated by the cold, pulsing light of blue mana crystals embedded in the rock. After several dozen paces, the tunnel expanded into a colossal, cavernous subterranean hall bathed in an eerie, deep purple glow.The sheer scale of the operation was suffocating. Across the vast, multi leveled hall, dozens of dark cloaked students were hunched over floating scrying orbs, ancient parchment maps, and pulsing frequency monitors.To the left, an entire intelligence division was working frantically to decode the offensive spells of the Thung Zu Ward, tracing the mana signatures of hidden spy beetles to construct immediate countermeasures.“Look at these spikes,” one analyst muttered urgently to his partner, his fingers flying across a glowing purple interface. “The deflection waves out of Thung Zu are strengthening every three minutes. If their strike team breaches the outer barrier, our frontlines will fold.”To the right, senior scouts were mapping out the fresh, lingering trails of Cryptid entities and lethal Anomalies along the border zones, while in the deep rear of the hall, Occult practitioners systematically dissected the dark soul frequencies of the Hellverse.Fukarou stepped onto the center of a massive stone bridge spanning the upper level of the hall. He took a deep, shaky breath, puffed out his chest, and yelled with all the force his tiny lungs could muster:“EVERYONE! We... we have guests!”The effect was as if someone had physically severed the flow of time.The scratching of quills, the hum of magical arrays, and the low chatter of a hundred minds instantly died. Dead silence slammed over the massive chamber. Hundreds of hooded heads snapped around in perfect, terrifying unison, locking onto the entrance.From the shadows along the edges of the high bridge, the elite leaders of the Ciphers materialized one by one.Vane emerged first, a scrawny, intense analyst adjusting three different magical monocles resting on his forehead, his eyes never leaving his Cryptid maps. Beside him stepped Kaelen, an unnervingly calm figure bearing a stylized open eye tattoo across his throat, the primary authority on Occult frequencies. And leaning casually against the far archway was Lyra, a girl with short cropped silver hair who held the tapped communication lines of the academy professors in the palm of her hand.“Who in the hell are these people, Fukarou?” Vane muttered, his eyes narrowing in intense suspicion. “You don’t just drag unvetted armed strangers into the core of our headquarters.”“I... I was just looking for people who would actually listen!” Fukarou stammered, backing up a pace.Fukarou opened his beak to defend himself further, but before a single sound could escape, a raw, dominant, and terrifyingly powerful female voice thundered down from the absolute highest balcony of the hall:“YES! Who do we have here...?!”Every eye in the room shot upward.Standing upon the high stone balustrade was a towering, heavily built silhouette. And before anyone could even take a breath, a violent, whistling gale tore through the cavernous air.The figure dropped off the edge of the balcony, plummeting straight down with terrifying, reckless velocity!The atmospheric pressure in the hall compressed violently. She did not float down; she fell like a meteor.BOOM!The impact onto the stone bridge was so catastrophic that a visible shockwave hammered through the entire subterranean complex. The heavy marble tiles beneath her boots pulverized into a fine, grey powder, exploding upward in a dense cloud of dust. Floating screens rattled violently against their mana anchors, and reams of parchment were swept into the air like dry leaves.From the heart of the smoking crater, the figure slowly rose to her full, imposing height.She was an exceptionally tall, heavily muscled warrior with a sharp, predatory gaze. Her dark combat attire was reinforced with thick plates of blackened leather, and a heavy, battle scarred mantle hung from her broad shoulders. She scanned the newcomers with eyes that radiated absolute dominance and physical violence, ready to crush the entire group where they stood.But the exact moment the dust settled and her golden eyes locked onto the Goats, her aggressive posture shattered into absolute nothingness in a microsecond.Her eyes dilated. She stared dead at Apollo, who was leaning casually against a pillar near the back of the group.“Ohhh... look what the rat brought in!” Athena roared suddenly, the dangerous, lethal tone vanishing in an instant, replaced by a booming, infectious laugh that echoed off the vaulted ceiling.She began stomping directly toward him, kicking shattered stone out of her way with every step.Apollo, his hands shoved deep into his coat pockets as he casually admired the destruction on the bridge, smirked broadly and slouched forward to meet her.“Ooh... Daddy’s little girl, out rescuing owls again?” Apollo drawled mockingly, pointing a lazy thumb toward the hyperventilating Fukarou.Fukarou, standing between the two titan like figures with his downy feathers standing on end, took a tiny, frantic step backward.“Rude... no offense taken,” Fukarou squeaked, frantically smoothing down his frayed cloak.Apollo flicked a casual hand gesture toward the little bird boy in a silent apology.“Sorry man, that is just how she is,” Apollo whispered beneath his breath, never taking his sharp eyes off the imposing woman marching toward him.The entire hall remained frozen in dead, suffocating silence. Dozens of Ciphers stared with their mouths wide open as their feared, ruthless commander Athena and this random guy from the Goats stood right in front of each other, throwing high stakes insults back and forth as if a hundred armed operatives were not watching them.And then, after a long second of razor sharp smirks and arrogant glares, both of them broke at the exact same time. The tension evaporated into pure, unyielding warmth.“LITTLE BROTHER!” Apollo laughed loudly, throwing his arms wide open.“SISTER!” Athena yelled with a radiant, ferocious grin, slamming into him and pulling him into a violent, bone crushing bear hug that knocked the remaining dust right out of their clothes.After the brutal embrace, she shoved him back a step, her grin slowly shifting back into a sharp, analytical glare. She tilted her head, her golden eyes slowly tracking across the rest of the group. The raw, heavy aura radiating from Silarias, Nyx, and the others was parsed and measured by her sharp instincts in a matter of seconds.She crossed her heavily armored arms over her chest, raised a single dark eyebrow, and cast a side glance back at her brother.“So, Apollo...” Athena began, her voice dropping into a heavy, intense purr as the entire room held its collective breath. “Who are they?”Apollo looked at Silarias, looked at Nyx, scanned the rest of the Goats, and suddenly burst into a loud, unhinged laugh.“Haha! You had better take a seat, sister,” Apollo smirked, shoving his hands back into his pockets. “Because this... is going to be a very long story.”