The carriage ride to the capital felt like a funeral procession.
I sat in the corner of the velvet-lined interior, my eyes fixed on Elena as she slept against the opposite door. She looked so small, her breathing soft and rhythmic—the only peaceful thing in a world currently screaming for blood.
Under my shirt, the bandages on my back were stiff with dried ichor. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the cold weight in my chest.
[SYSTEM STATUS UPDATED]
[CURRENT CONDITION: MAGICAL MALNUTRITION]
[VOID CORE IS CONSUMING RESIDUAL MANA TO STABILIZE...]
[WARNING: WITHOUT A STEADY SOURCE OF ENERGY, THE CORE WILL BEGIN CONSUMING THE HOST'S VITALITY.]
Of course, I thought, a bitter smile touching my lips. Power doesn't come for free. Not this kind.
"She'll be safe at the Saint Selene Academy," Lyra said, her voice cutting through the rattle of the wheels. She wasn't looking at me; she was sharpening a small silver dagger, her movements hypnotic. "The Headmistress owes me a life. Elena will be taught history, mathematics, and basic self-defense. She will be a lady, not a soldier."
"Good," I rasped. "If she ever has to pick up a sword, I've already failed."
Lyra finally looked up, her violet eyes scanning me like a predator judging the health of its meal. "You're shaking, Kael. The Void is hungry, isn't it?"
I clenched my fists to hide the tremors. "I can handle it."
"No, you can't. Not yet." She reached into a hidden compartment in the carriage seat and pulled out a small, pulsing blue stone—a high-grade Mana Crystal. "Eat it."
"What?"
"Don't actually chew it, idiot. Channel your intent into it. Let the Void find the energy. If you don't, you'll be dead before we reach the Iron Citadel."
I took the stone. It was cold, vibrating with pure magical energy. I closed my eyes, reaching inward to that place where the black sphere lived—the hole in my soul where my magic used to be.
The moment I made the connection, I didn't just "channel" the energy. I inhaled it.
The crystal in my hand didn't shatter; it simply ceased to exist. One second it was there, and the next, there was a vacuum where it had been. The energy rushed into my marrow like liquid fire, quenching the agonizing thirst that had been clawing at my insides.
[VOID CORE SATIATED: 12%]
[PERMANENT STAT INCREASE: MAGIC +2]
[CURRENT MAGIC: 14]
"Better?" Lyra asked, her eyebrows raised. "That was a thousand-gold-mark crystal. You consumed it in three seconds. You're going to be an expensive investment, Kael Vorn."
"I'll pay you back," I said, my voice stronger. "In results."
"We'll see. We're here."
The Iron Citadel didn't look like a school. It looked like a meat grinder.
Massive walls of black basalt loomed over us, topped with jagged iron spikes. Thousands of young men and women—the "trash" of the Empire, the orphans of the demon wars—stood in neat, silent rows in the courtyard.
This was the Imperial Vanguard Academy. In my first life, I'd arrived here in rags, shivering with fever, grateful for the bowl of thin gruel they gave me. I'd looked at the instructors with awe. I'd looked at the noble-born cadets with envy.
Now, I only looked at them as obstacles.
"This is where we part ways for now," Lyra said as the carriage stopped. She handed me a small, heavy iron coin engraved with a crow. "You will be placed in the 'Dregs'—the bottom-tier barracks. Don't show your Void affinity. Don't show your Combat Memories. Be average. Be invisible."
"Why?"
"Because Rylen is already here," she whispered, her eyes turning cold.
My heart stopped.
"He's not a hero yet," she continued. "He's just a star pupil in the First-Tier barracks. If he sees a 'village boy' with legendary potential, his 'heroic instinct' will tell him to eliminate the threat before it grows. Do you understand?"
"He'll try to 'save' me," I muttered, the words tasting like ash. "He'll offer to mentor me, bring me into his circle, and then find a way to make sure I have an 'accident' during training."
Lyra nodded. "Precisely. He's already building his cult of personality. Stay in the shadows, Kael. Grow strong in the dark. I will send for you when it's time."
I stepped out of the carriage. The air was thick with the smell of sweat, oil, and the metallic tang of blood from the sparring pits.
I didn't look back as the carriage pulled away, carrying Elena to safety and Lyra back to her palace of secrets. I stood among the hundreds of unwashed, desperate teenagers, my iron coin clutched in my hand.
"Name?" a scarred instructor barked, holding a ledger.
"Kael," I said.
"Surname?"
"None."
He looked at my thin frame, my pale skin, and the hollow look in my eyes. He scoffed, marking a 'D' on my hand with a charcoal stick. "Barracks four. Move it, Dreg. Try not to die in the first week; the janitors hate hauling out the small ones."
I walked toward the barracks, my head down.
Average. Invisible.
But as I passed the main sparring grounds—the ones reserved for the elite cadets—I felt a familiar ripple in the air. A surge of Holy Mana.
I stopped. I couldn't help it.
There, in the center of the ring, surrounded by a cheering crowd of nobles, was a boy with golden hair and a smile that looked like it was made of sunshine. He was fifteen, radiating confidence as he easily parried the strikes of three older students at once.
Rylen.
He looked so innocent. So pure. The "Golden Child" of the Empire. He hadn't yet learned how to twist the knife. He hadn't yet decided that my life was a fair price for his divinity.
As if sensing my gaze, Rylen turned.
His eyes met mine across the courtyard. For a second, his perfect smile faltered. A flash of confusion—maybe even a flicker of primal fear—crossed his face. The "Hero" within him was sensing the "Void" within me.
Then, he did exactly what I knew he would do.
He waved. A friendly, welcoming wave to the "poor orphan" standing in the dirt.
"Hey, you!" he called out, his voice carrying clearly. "Don't look so down! Work hard, and maybe one day you'll be up here with us!"
The crowd laughed. Some of the nobles threw copper coins at my feet, mocking my status.
I didn't pick them up. I didn't even blink.
I just turned and walked into the darkness of the Dregs' barracks.
Enjoy the light while you can, Rylen, I thought, my heart beating with a slow, murderous rhythm. Because I'm coming to put it out.
NIGHT ONE: THE FIRST KILL
The Dregs' barracks were a nightmare.
Forty boys crammed into a space meant for twenty. The straw mattresses were infested with lice, and the air was so thin it felt like breathing through a wet rag.
I sat on my bunk, staring at the ceiling, waiting.
I knew how this worked. The "Dregs" weren't just the weakest students; we were the dumping ground for the Academy's bullies. The older boys who couldn't make it to the higher tiers stayed here to rule over the newcomers like kings of a trash heap.
"You're the one Rylen spoke to," a voice growled.
Three boys stepped out of the shadows. They were older, maybe nineteen, with the thick necks and dull eyes of career thugs. The leader, a boy with a broken nose named Jax, stood over me.
"Rylen's a nice guy," Jax said, spitting on the floor. "Giving words of encouragement to a piece of shit like you. But see, in the Dregs, we have a tax. You got any coins? Or maybe that shirt of yours? Looks like it's actually made of cotton."
I didn't look at him. I was looking at the System window that had just flickered to life.
[QUEST: THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE]
[OBJECTIVE: ESTABLISH DOMINANCE]
[REWARD: SOUL-BOUND WEAPON AWAKENING]
[WARNING: LETHAL FORCE IS PERMITTED IN THE DREGS BARRACKS AFTER LIGHTS-OUT.]
Lethal force.
The System was testing me. It wanted to see if I still had the stomach for it.
"I asked you a question, rat," Jax said, reaching out to grab my throat.
I didn't use my Void power. I didn't use a Skill.
I used six years of fighting in the trenches of the World Spire.
I caught his wrist. It wasn't about strength—I had none. It was about torque and timing. I twisted, the sound of his radius snapping like a dry twig echoing through the silent barracks.
Jax didn't even have time to scream before I was off the bunk. I slammed my palm into his chin, rattling his brain, and then swept his legs. As he hit the floor, I dropped my knee into his solar plexus, silencing the air in his lungs.
The other two froze.
"He's... he's just a kid," one whispered, reaching for a shiv in his belt.
I looked at them. Really looked at them.
In my first life, I would have begged for mercy. I would have let them beat me and steal my clothes, and I would have spent the night crying in the dark.
That boy was dead. Rylen had killed him.
"Come," I said, my voice cold and hollow. "I haven't slept in three days. I'm in a very bad mood."
The one with the shiv lunged. He was slow. Telegraphed.
I stepped inside his guard, my fingers forming a rigid spear. I struck him in the throat—not hard enough to crush the windpipe, but enough to paralyze the vocal cords. As he gasped, I took the shiv from his hand and drove it into his thigh.
He fell, clutching the wound.
The third boy backed away, his face pale. "Wait—we were just joking! We—"
I didn't let him finish. I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face into the stone wall. Once. Twice. Until he went limp.
Silence returned to the barracks. The other thirty-some boys were all awake now, staring from their bunks with wide, terrified eyes.
I stood in the center of the room, blood on my hands, my chest heaving. Jax was whimpering on the floor, cradling his broken arm.
"Listen to me," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, yet reaching every corner of the room. "I don't care about your 'taxes.' I don't care about your 'kings.' From now on, this barracks is mine. If you touch me, I break you. If you touch my things, I break you. If you breathe too loud while I'm trying to sleep..."
I looked at Jax.
"...I'll make sure you never breathe again."
[QUEST COMPLETE]
[DOMINANCE ESTABLISHED]
[REWARD: SOUL-BOUND WEAPON AWAKENING...]
[ERROR: VOID AFFINITY DETECTED]
[SOUL-BOUND WEAPON CONSUMED BY VOID]
[NEW REWARD GENERATED: 'THE HUNGRY EDGE' (PASSIVE)]
[THE HUNGRY EDGE: Any weapon you wield will now act as an extension of the Void. It will never dull, never break, and will drain the life force of those it cuts to replenish your mana.]
I sat back down on my mattress. The lice seemed to steer clear of me now.
I closed my eyes, but I didn't sleep. I practiced the first lesson Lyra had taught me: Internalization.
I reached into my core and pulled a tiny thread of the Void power. I didn't let it explode. I didn't let it erase anything. I simply wrapped it around my heart, using the coldness to numb the grief, the rage, and the memory of Elena's crying face.
I was no longer Kael, the village boy.
I was a ghost haunting my own life.
And ghosts didn't feel pain.