The morning after he'd dealt with Victor's goons, Kane didn't go back to the mining barracks.
He knew better.
Word would've spread like wildfire by now. Two of Victor's toughest underlings had run out of the abandoned tunnel white as sheets, stammering about a broken boy who'd turned off their power like blowing out a candle. The miners would whisper. The foremen would report it. Victor wouldn't just send thugs next time—he'd send someone with real authority, someone who could drag Kane to the Church and label him a monster.
So Kane stayed hidden.
He huddled in the deepest part of the old tunnel, the one that reeked of damp earth and forgotten spirit ore, and trained.
"Relax," Kael's voice grumbled in his head. "You're tensing up so hard you're gonna strangle your own power. Breathe. Let the energy in the walls flow into you."
Kane exhaled slowly.
Ever since the watch shattered, he'd felt something new inside him—warm, sharp, unshakable. It wasn't the wild, hungry pull of a normal spirit contract. It was quiet. Steady. Like a blade sheathed at his waist.
He focused again, and the world shifted.
Faint glowing lines appeared everywhere: crawling up the stone, weaving through the cracks in the wood, even drifting in the air. Those were the loose strands of spirit energy, leftover from decades of miners using their contracts near the ore veins.
"See those threads?" Kael said. "Everyone else binds themselves to that power. You… you command it. You don't borrow strength. You take it. You shape it. You cut what you don't like."
"Cut," Kane repeated.
He extended a hand. A thin golden light leaked from his fingertips, soft at first, then sharpening into a tiny, translucent blade.
It wasn't big. It wasn't flashy.
But when he swept it at a loose spirit thread floating in front of him, the thread snapped clean in two.
Kane's eyes lit up.
"I did it," he muttered.
"Congratulations," Kael deadpanned. "You cut string. Now do it to something that can fight back."
Before Kane could reply, distant voices cut through the tunnel.
Footsteps. Heavy, deliberate, not running away this time.
Kane tensed immediately. He extinguished the light on his hand and pressed his back against the cold stone, heart hammering. He peeked around the corner.
Three men stood at the tunnel mouth.
One was a foreman he recognized—brutal, greedy, always willing to do Victor's dirty work. The other two wore black robes trimmed with silver, the uniform of the Church of the Veil—the ones who enforced contract laws, who labeled anyone with weird power a heretic.
A Church enforcer.
Kane's blood ran cold.
Victor had already ratted him out.
"Search every corner," the foreman barked. "The Church says anyone who can sever contracts is a violation of the natural order. If we find him, we get a reward. If we don't… Victor will have our skins."
The enforcer's voice was cold, emotionless.
"Contract Breakers are not human. They are abominations. If he resists—kill him."
Kane held his breath.
He was strong enough to take down two thugs. But Church enforcers had real contracts. Real training. Real killing experience. If they found him here, he didn't stand a chance—not yet.
He backed deeper into the tunnel, eyes darting for an exit. But the only way out was past them.
"Wait," Kael said suddenly. "Don't run. Look."
Kane hesitated, then did as he was told.
He focused again, and the enforcer's body blazed with light.
Thick, ugly purple threads coiled around his torso, burning bright. But at the base of his neck, hidden under the robe's collar, was a dark knot—twisted, rotten, pulsing like a wound.
"That's his contract core," Kael explained. "Every contract has one weak spot. You don't need to beat him. You just need to cut that."
The enforcer's footsteps grew closer.
Kane's mind raced.
Run, and they'd hunt him forever. Hide, and they'd find him eventually. Fight… and he might die.
But for the first time in his life, he didn't feel like a scared little kid waiting to be beaten.
He felt like someone who could fight back.
The enforcer turned the corner.
Their eyes locked.
The man's face twisted into a cruel smile.
"There you are, abomination."
He raised a hand. Purple light exploded from his palm, sharp and crushing, aimed straight at Kane's chest.
Kane didn't flinch.
He ducked to the side, the blast slamming into the stone behind him, spraying rock shrapnel everywhere. The enforcer blinked in surprise—no one dodged his power that easily.
Especially not a broken miner boy.
Kane charged.
The enforcer sneered and prepared another attack.
But Kane wasn't aiming for his body.
He was aiming for his neck.
In one fluid motion, he leaped up, extended his glowing finger, and pressed it directly into the dark, twisted knot under the man's robe.
SNAP.
A sound like a bone breaking echoed through the tunnel.
The purple light vanished instantly.
The enforcer froze. His eyes went wide, then blank. All the strength drained from his limbs. He collapsed to his knees, then face-first into the mud, unconscious.
The foreman and the other lackey stared in absolute terror.
They'd just watched a Church enforcer—someone they thought was untouchable—get shut down like a broken machine.
"Run," someone whimpered.
They didn't need to be told twice.
They turned and fled, screaming, not even bothering to drag their unconscious comrade away.
Kane stood there, chest heaving, hand still glowing.
He'd just taken down a Church enforcer.
On his first real try.
"Not bad," Kael said, sounding genuinely impressed. "For a kid who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag three days ago, that was almost respectable."
Kane didn't answer. He was staring at his own hand, unable to believe what he'd just done.
For three years, everyone had told him he was trash. Broken. Useless.
Now he'd just defeated someone the entire mine feared.
He wasn't weak anymore.
He was dangerous.
Once his breathing calmed, Kane knew he couldn't stay.
The Church would send more men. Stronger men. Victor would double down. The mine was no longer a prison—it was a death trap.
He had to leave.
But before he went, there was one last thing he needed to do.
Kane stepped out of the tunnel into the open. The morning mist had lifted, revealing the grey, lifeless buildings of the mining camp. A few miners glanced his way, then quickly looked away, terrified.
Word had spread.
They knew what he was now.
Kane ignored them. He walked straight toward the main office, where Victor was almost certainly waiting, fuming and plotting.
The large wooden doors were locked.
Kane raised his hand, golden light flaring, and sliced through the lock like it was paper.
He pushed the door open.
Victor jumped to his feet, face red with rage. Lila stood beside him, her expression cold and distant, like she didn't even know him.
"You," Victor snarled. "You dare come here after attacking my men? After attacking a Church enforcer? Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"I've done nothing but defend myself," Kane said calmly. "Something I couldn't do three years ago, when you and your father shattered my contract."
Victor's face paled slightly. He hadn't expected Kane to say that out loud.
"Lies," he snapped. "You were born broken. A failure."
Kane smiled, cold and sharp.
"Keep telling yourself that. In three months, we fight. Grey Mist City Arena. One-on-one. You remember that, right?"
Victor laughed, but it was hollow now. He'd heard what happened in the tunnel. He knew Kane wasn't the same boy anymore.
"You won't live that long," Victor threatened. "The Church will hunt you to the ends of the realm."
"Let them try," Kane said. "Every person you send after me will lose their power. Every contract you rely on will break. By the time we fight… you won't have anyone left to hide behind."
He turned to Lila.
She didn't meet his eyes.
"You chose power," Kane said quietly. "I hope it's worth it. Because when I come back, everything you think you have will be gone."
Lila flinched, but said nothing.
Kane didn't wait for a response.
He walked out of the office, past the staring miners, past the empty guard posts, and toward the only road that led out of the mine—toward Grey Mist City. Toward training. Toward power.
Toward revenge.
The sun broke through the clouds as he stepped onto the open road, warm on his face. For the first time in his life, he wasn't walking toward a cage.
He was walking toward freedom.
Kael's voice echoed softly in his head.
"Ready to become strong enough to burn everything that hurt you?"
Kane looked ahead, at the endless road stretching into the distance, and smiled.
"I was ready the second my watch broke."
And with that, he took his first step on the path that would turn a broken miner into the most feared Contract Breaker the Shattered Spiral had ever known.