The training ground was in ruins. Stone tiles cracked. Dust still hung in the air. No one dared move.Leo stood at the center, his body still faintly glowing, holding Elaine close. Her breath had returned—barely—but she was unconscious, limp in his arms.The black energy that had once surrounded him had vanished, but the fear it left behind still lingered in every heart watching him. Not a whisper. Not a sound. Just stunned silence and wide, disbelieving eyes.Ethan was the first to move—just a step back.His legs trembled.That wasn’t the same Leo Carter. This was something else… something monstrous.SSS rank? That wasn’t supposed to be real. Not for someone like Leo. And yet, everyone had seen it ….felt it. The power. The rage. The earthquake. The scream.Leo looked down at Elaine’s face. Her skin was pale, her heartbeat faint beneath his fingers.“She’s alive,” he whispered to himself, a breath of relief escaping him.Then, his expression shifted rage melting into guilt. He hadn't

The remand room was nothing like the rest of Avalon Academy. Hidden deep beneath the institution’s sprawling campus, it was more prison than dormitory. The air was cold, heavy with silence…….the kind that weighed on your chest and made it hard to breathe. Thick walls of reinforced steel, lined with rune markings, suppressed any ability usage, draining energy and hope alike. There were no windows, no clocks. Only a single, flickering overhead light and a steel door with no handle on the inside.Leo Carter sat in the far corner of the room, knees drawn up to his chest, head resting on his arms. He’d stopped keeping track of time hours ago… or maybe days. Down here, it was impossible to know. The silence bit at him worse than the cold.His mind was a storm. Everything that had happened since the incident on the training grounds played in a loop behind his eyes……. Elaine’s blood, the scream, the knife, and the burst of power that had erupted from inside him like a beast finally unchained

{Back at the Hospital}The moment the Grandmaster stepped into the ward, the suffocating energy that had filled the room began to dissipate. The swirling wind that had churned through every corner of the hospital faded into silence. Lights flickered once more to life. The oppressive pressure lifted like a fog parting at dawn.Elaine's body lay at the center of the chaos—limp, glowing embers fading slowly from her skin. Blood pooled beneath her, staining the sheets she had once used to meditate. The light was gone, but the memory of it pulsed in the walls like an aftershock.The doctors rushed to her, hands trembling as they worked quickly to stop the bleeding. One nurse pressed cloth to her side while another checked her vitals. Her pulse was weak. Faint. But it was there.“Stabilize her,” the Grandmaster said with quiet command. His voice carried weight—an ancient one that calmed even the most panicked heart in the room. “I want a full containment barrier around this wing. No one ent

It was a day of grandeur and glory.Avalon Academy stood bathed in light, the towering spires gleaming beneath a clear azure sky. Banners bearing the sigils of the Five Houses fluttered across every corridor, balcony, and rooftop. Students and instructors alike wore ceremonial robes embroidered with magical threads that shimmered in the sun. The scent of roasted meat and sweetcakes drifted through the air from open pavilions near the stadium, where food stalls and vendors catered to the crowd gathering in celebration.The entire campus buzzed with energy—for today marked the Anniversary of Founding, a sacred tradition where the academy not only celebrated its origins but also paid tribute to the forces of magic and the warriors who protected the realm. The Grandmaster and the High Council were in attendance, and so were numerous SSS-ranked heroes of old, returning to witness the next generation rise.The enormous stadium at the heart of Avalon was filled to its brim. Thousands of stud

They say the strongest flames are born from the coldest winters and Leo Carter was no exception.He first opened his eyes in the blue-gray light of dawn, on a morning weighed down by the hush of rain against the window. His mother’s arms, warm and trembling, were the only comfort he knew. In that moment, she held her breath....both for him and for the life that had changed forever.“Leo Carter,” his mother whispered for the first time, her voice thick with wonder and worry. “You are safe now.”Behind them lay a life she would never speak of again. His parents two extraordinary individuals...... once shared love and power beyond compare, but that love had fractured. His mother, an elemental sorceress whose fire sparked legends, had carried Leo without letting his father know. When the truth slipped free, the marriage collapsed. He vanished from their lives. She chose to leave him that way.Alone, she raised Leo. At first, strength came easily—crafted by youthful hope and magic born of