Modern earth with supernatural military fighting with humanoid intelligent creatures and monsters.

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Humanoid monsters rank: Echoforms usually hang around between normal humans and after finding the right place, their body explodes which tears through the fabric of space, creating a rift between the creature realm and the human realm. From there 'Riftborns' come out and attack the area around the torn space.

Power hierarchy between humans with powers:

Types of resonance principles between humans: In easier language, it is someone's attribute or element that they can control.

Special military force, named 'The Rifthound Authority''s ranking system:

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These are some of the important characters, might update this later is it’s relevant to the story. I hope It’ll be a wonderful journey writing them. And I’m also hopping for y’all’s support which I barely get usually, my works just don’t usually get seen by people, maybe cause of the algorithm lol.

A century ago, the boundaries between a different world, now known as the creatures' realm, and the human world were disturbed by a group of archaeologists and scientists during an excavation in a cave. Though strange things started to occur when the sealed rift was discovered, humankind's tendency to venture into the unknown in order to do good for the world came at a cost. A huge sacrifice.

That rift, known as the origin of mass destruction, released five orbs of different attributes all around the world, which worked as energy cores for nearby rifts and for the 'mindless' creatures born within, named 'The Riftborns'. They hunted the orbs to resurrect their gods, but some humans, also receiving the attributes of certain orbs, slaughtered the creatures to protect humanity. Thus began the war.

"Ughhhaaaaa!" A groan was heard amidst the countless new recruits on the bus, where the history of 'Dimensional Breach Event: The Cataclysm' was playing on repeat through the speakers.

The sound broke the intensity of the rigid postures of the soon-to-be cadets, a little distraction from the future that was to come to them. A few looked around to figure out the source of their annoyance, only to be met with another loud groan which was coming from the back of the bus.

A redhead cracked her neck before yawning. "This shit's going on for over an hour now, and there's still an hour of journey left till we reach the base. Let the newbies have their quiet time before hell!" She yelled, taking everyone's attention, including the warden in charge.

The buff woman who was sitting at the front of the bus looked unfazed, as though she were used to getting such new recruits once in a while. "I don't recall giving you the permission to speak let alone yell." Her authoritative voice thundered throughout the bus. The other newbies budged, straightening their spines in fear, but the redhead yawned, looking bored. She was really sleepy, but the voice narrating the history kept her awake, especially since she was right beside the speaker.

"You've been booming the history like we haven't been told about it since the day we were born. We get it, okay! Just playing it once is enough, let some of us calm our nerves down, will you?" She sighed.

The new recruits gulped, some even telling the redhead to shut up if she valued her future. The warden raised an eyebrow. "You, come here." She asserted.

The red short-haired woman crossed her arms before sitting back more comfortably, showing her defiance against the instruction from the warden.

"Don't make me repeat myself." The warden commanded before standing up to face the rebellious woman. Their eyes locked, red against brown. The newbie didn't budge and maintained her ground, which was a mistake. Instantly, her head started to throb, followed by a loud screeching that rang in her eardrums violently, and by the looks of it, only she could hear it.

'A pulser!' The redhead internally groaned while wincing in pain, and though reluctant, she finally got up from her seat. At that time, the running bus hit a bump and she tripped towards the front, making the warden smile in mockery at her.

"Name." She barked at the redhead.

"Ardyn." The redhead spat. "Ardyn Ashford."

The warden stepped close to her, like a predator approaching its prey, dominating.

"Look Ashford, I don't fucking care what you think, but you better keep it low when I'm around. As for the history, it's to remind you," she stopped and looked at all the other recruits. "All of you, that you're not in diapers, hiding behind mommy and daddy anymore. It's a damn reality check that the world is in ruin and you have a duty to protect it. So, get that drilled into those skulls!"

The warden looked at Ardyn with her piercing gaze. "And watch that mouth, princess. You might get in trouble for it."

Ardyn smirked, "Sure." She mock-pouted before stepping back towards her seat. The weird redhead found it fun to mess with the instructor.

Ardyn found the whole history to be sugarcoated, bragging about humanity's goodwill towards ending the war as if its own tendency to forcefully harness power and cross the line didn't bring all this in the first place. Why did the scientists need to tamper with an ancient rift when it clearly possessed some kind of threat? If they had left the rift alone after knowing its danger, then the creatures wouldn't have been unleashed into the world, and Ardyn's mother wouldn't have died fighting against something that wasn't even her own choice.

As Ardyn retreated back to her seat, she heard whispers from people around her that she'd be a troublemaker, a hassle, a barrier, blah blah... and even the girl who was sitting beside her avoided eye contact. It made her scoff at them. Ardyn wasn't even saying something wrong in the first place; she was just thinking about everyone. Maybe a little bit more about herself, but it was for everyone's peace of mind, which was now a mess.

It took a little less than an hour to reach the base of the Rifthound Authority. It wasn't shocking that they weren't the only recruits, as 20 more buses packed with newbies were brought in, though Ardyn doubted if even more than half of them would be of use in the army. Some would be unworthy, some would fail to even become cadets, some would die, or some would straight up burn in the long run. There was no peace, only struggle and death waiting at the end.

"Stay in line!" Wardens in their military formal outfits barked through their megaphones as all the new recruits made their way to the large entrance where around 15 checking stations were placed to inquire about a person's resonance principle, power hierarchy, assign dog tags, and determine whether they were worthy to continue forward or go home, although the latter was more preferred.

When it was Ardyn's time to be inquired about, a bald woman started roughly cuffing her with a special device. "Channel your resonance into the cuffs." She commanded. Ardyn obliged, focusing on the task. "Whatcha think your resonance principle's gonna be?" The bald woman asked, looking disinterested as though it were just her job which it were. Ardyn wanted to scoff and make a snarky remark, but her dad's voice echoed through her.

Don't be irrational, be sensible.

"Bind." She calmly replied. The bald woman, who was now checking something on the screen, snorted hearing Ardyn's reply.

"You wish." She scoffed.

Ardyn squinted her eyes at the woman as if she were crazy before a dog tag was thrown her way, followed by a map and a handbook.

"High ambition for a cadet. You're an anchor-class vectre." She dropped. The redhead now genuinely looked confused. She stepped forward.

"Check again."

"What?"

"I am a binder. I've always been." Ardyn pressed on, but the bald woman ignored her. "There are people behind you, GET GOING." The woman emphasized more on the latter part. Ardyn didn't budge.

"But—"

"Do we have a problem here?" They were interrupted by a warden, and much to Ardyn's liking, the warden was the same woman as the one she had a problem with on the bus.

"Do we have a problem, private?" She asked in her authoritative voice when her eyes landed on Ardyn. Before Ardyn could reply, the bald woman intervened. "Warden Vance, my apologies for the delay. This newcomer insists that she is a binder even though her resonance level clearly shows she's a vectre."

Vance looked at Ardyn with a sour expression. "Having a hard time swallowing your pride, princess?" She asked in mockery. Ardyn just rolled her eyes, "Yeah, really having it rough here." She shot back in the same tone.

The warden raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Look missy, talks don't work here. You prove it, not whine like a fucking child."

Ardyn was starting to have a headache from all this. So, she did the most sane thing she could find at that moment: flip the warden off.

"I don't need to prove anything to you—Urgh!" The redhead groaned as her head started throbbing with the same screeching, vibrating through her head, but it was more excruciating this time. It seemed Warden Vance had used her resonance on her again.

Ardyn cursed under her breath, biting her bottom lip so hard that it drew blood. But she held her ground, not giving in to the pressure that made her want to crawl on the ground while holding her ears. At one point, the pressure became so high that her nose and ears started bleeding. It was then when the intense screeching stopped.

When Ardyn looked back at Vance, a surprised expression had placed itself there; however, it soon was gone. Vance gave an amused smirk. "Impressive." She mumbled, checking the girl out.

"Go to the infirmary, private." Vance shooed her off before going on her own way, whistling as if she hadn't just busted a newcomer's eardrums. Ardyn only cursed the warden under her breath before finally making her way inside, ignoring all the stares she was receiving from the officials and recruits alike. She collected her luggage and bag with a bloody face and took out a handkerchief from the front pocket before wiping the blood off.

"What a way to start your happy life in the army."

To be continued...