2025-08-06 08:19:10The sun was nearly gone, its final red strokes disappearing into the horizon. Zarek Vonn gazed at the spires of the academy for the last time, then turned away. "Another day, and nothing yet," he said under his breath, squeezing his satchel tightly in his hand as the chill wind seeped through his meager robes. "How much longer can I keep pretending it'll change?"
His steps rumbled down the deserted street, lopsided and slow. "Everyone else is calling down fire, twisting water, splitting the accursed sky with lightning…" He kicked at a stray rock, and it went flying. "And I can't even light a candle."
Banners snapped overhead—fire, water, air, earth. Magic flowed like a crown on the city's head, proud and aglow. Even the runes beneath his feet throbbed softly, living with power. "It's everywhere. Around me. In the stones, the air… everyone but me." He shifted the satchel on his shoulder, feeling the strain. Books bulged from its seams—tomes on elemental theory, handwritten notes, diagrams he had studied until his eyes blurred.
“I’ve read every damn thing. Twice.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “If knowledge was power, I’d be a god by now.” Silence answered him, save for the whisper of the wind and the dull thud of his boots on stone.
“No spark. No gift. Just me.” He exhaled, long and quiet. “Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe I’m just too stubborn to stop trying.” His thoughts swirled, tangled with memories of today’s merciless taunts. Then the mocking voices broke through the dusk like knives.
"Well, if it isn't Arcvale's beloved ghost," Kellan Dross said, lounging against the darkened alleyway wall. Fire danced around his hands like serpents, the warm glow licking at the stone. "Straying in the darkness once more, Vonn? Afraid you'd succeed in finding some magic?"
The loud crack of laughter chased after him like a shadow. Kellan's friends, Therin and Gorran, stood beside him with self-satisfied grins—Therin's pale eyes sparkling maliciously, and Gorran's massive presence hovering like a thundercloud waiting to smash. Zarek's chest constricted. He braked but did not halt, trying to drift by unseen.
"Not so quick, dirt boy," Kellan taunted with a grin. "We have some loose ends."
Therin threw up his hand, launching a lash of water flying toward Zarek's legs. The cold hit like a whip, and Zarek lurched, catching himself against the alleyway wall by inches.
"Nice stunt," Zarek grumbled, low but even.
Gorran cracked his knuckles, advancing like a battering ram. "Let's see if you can fight as well as you read."
Zarek's heart pounded. He was outnumbered, outarmed—his one tool was desperation. He dodged beneath a savage swing from Gorran, the harsh scratch of rock rubbing his arm. He spun, thrusting a fist at Kellan's side, but the fire user sidestepped with ease, flames dancing higher in amusement.
"Cute," Kellan muttered, closing his fingers around Zarek's wrist in a swift jerk. "You’re trying, I’ll give you that."
"Trying’s not enough," Therin spat. "Not when you have nothing."
Zarek wrenched free, flailing wildly as adrenaline hit. He caught a fist on Kellan's jaw—hard and pointy—and time slowed. The flames danced uncertainly.
"Whoa!" Kellan grinned, wiping away blood from his lip. "Ow. You're less pathetic than I thought."
But then Kellan's flames blazed, a burning whip flashing toward Zarek's side. He hardly managed to twist out of the way, the fire burning his skin and scorching the hem of his robes.
Gorran struck a massive fist into Zarek's back, sending him slamming into the cold stone wall. Pain flashed through his ribs, breath frozen in a choking gasp. "Had enough?" he snarled.
“No,” Zarek rasped, pushing off the wall, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “I’m done running.”
Kellan’s grin turned feral. “Good. Because you’re about to learn the price of failure.”
The fight exploded into a frenzy of fists, flame, water, and raw survival. Kellan’s fire twisted and snapped with brutal precision, Therin’s water surged like icy blades, and Gorran’s earth-shattering strength crushed and battered with relentless force.
Zarek dodged and rolled, fought back with what little he had — swift blows driven by determination and sheer will. He hurt, ribs crying out in agony with each breath, and blood congealed in his eyes, but he would not give in. And then, in a moment of savage intent, Gorran stamped down upon Zarek's flung-out hand.
Crack!!
The gagging snap shut down everything. Zarek clenched hard to prevent screaming, vision blurring with tears of pain and anger.
Kellan knelt next to him, fire crackling perilously close to his bruised face. "Still breathing, huh? Let's take that away from you."
Zarek Vonn was strewn out on the courtyard floor, his blood mingling with dust and broken pages from the ripped books. Agony coursed through his frame like fire, each breath a blade stabbing in his ribs. Cold stone beneath his cheek as the world whirled around him, cold and uncaring.
Kellan loomed over him, flames dancing in his hand like a killing halo, eyes blazing with brutal satisfaction. “Still playing the noble failure, huh?” he spat. “You don’t belong at Arcvale, trash.”
Zarek coughed violently, blood bubbling at the edges of his lips, and barely managed to lift his head. “I didn’t… ask to be here,” he whispered.
Therin stepped closer, water shimmering faintly as he crossed his arms. “Exactly,” he said coldly. “You weren’t chosen by any element. You’re an accident.”
Gorran’s boot crushed down hard on Zarek’s broken hand again. The agony was excruciating, but Zarek didn't cry out. His body shook, but within, a chill of greater pain held him in its grip — the knowledge he could not escape.
"Why me? Why am I so pathetic? Why was I even born in the first place?"
Kellan's voice pierced the hush with wicked amusement. "You realize Dreadfall Cliff is just beyond the city."
He knelt beside Zarek, fingers stroking away a streak of blood from his cheek. "Why don't you do the world a favor and take the jump?"
Zarek's eyes fell to the bruised floor. He didn't reply.
Kellan rose, flames flicking higher. "Let's go. He's done."
Their laughter rang through the cold stone halls, dying as they walked away, leaving Zarek shattered, bleeding, and alone.
Zarek pulled himself through the dimly lit corridors of Arcvale, each footfall ringing with the ache of rejection. The guttering torchlight sent long shadows dancing on the rune-covered walls, but no hand came out to guide him, no voice provided solace. His jaw was bruised and swollen, his pride crushed like shattered glass. Outside the heavy academy gates, the night was quiet. The stars of Lystara twinkled dimly against the immense, uncaring sky. The chill night air gnawed at his skin as he walked past the old, weathered stone signs warning passersby from the edge:
DREADFALL CLIFF – FORBIDDEN
"Those who fall do not return."
"Magic dies here."
The wind screamed, bringing the smell of ancient stone and forgotten truths. Zarek stopped at the precipice, staring into the abyss. The black void yawned beneath him, endless and merciless.
The whispers began — harsh and relentless:
"No one’s coming to save you."
"You’ll never awaken."
"They were right about you."
Tears traced silent paths down his cheeks. The wind tugged at his robes, the stars watched silently.
“No one… ever believed in me,” he whispered, voice cracking. “Not even me.”
One step.
The ground vanished beneath him.
He fell.
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Chapter 010 – The Steel Door
The heavy steel door slammed shut behind Zarek. The loud, metal sound broke the silence like a scream trapped in iron, echoing down the dark, narrow halls underground. This wasn’t just a door closing—it felt like his fate was being sealed. The air smelled of rust and old wet stone, the kind of smell that clings to your skin and reminds you of death. Zarek didn’t move. He leaned against the freezing concrete wall, the cold sinking into his bones like something alive, slowly eating at him. He breathed through clenched teeth, each breath tasting of mold, metal, and something sharp and strange—a scent he feared without knowing why. Even in the darkness, small flames danced around his knuckles. They gave off no warmth and brought no comfort. They flickered silently, like they were feeding on old memories, refusing to disappear—just like the past he couldn’t forget.The visions came back, as they always did—unwanted and cruel. He saw the villagers again. Their faces were frozen, lifeless an
Chapter 009 – Frozen Souls
Zarek's boots clattered against the icy steel floor, each step echoing crisply in the cold deadness of the interminable corridor. The air was artificially cooled, nipping at his flesh under the frayed leather of his jacket. In front of him, the silent escort glided with mechanical movement—no words, no hesitation—only a shadow moving through the narrow, seemingly endless tunnel. The walls were covered with strips of cold metal paneling, so highly polished that they cast shadows of faint glimmers from the sickly blue light throbbing in the narrow crevices between floor tiles. Not light, but a rhythmic, soft pulse, such as the slow, deliberate breathing of some sleeping creature deep within the earth.Runic symbols glowed with a faint sheen along the walls—age-old markings etched into metal, pulsating with an inner hum. They curled and sinuated, thinly glowing with a magical energy that seemed both foreign and treacherous. Zarek couldn't decipher them, but the thrumming beneath his fee
Chapter 008 – The White Room
The walls were too white. A surgical, oppressive white that hurt the eyes if you stared too long. They gave no comfort, no warmth, no imperfection to rest the gaze. And the silence — not peaceful, but clinical — was loud in its absence of life. Not a whisper, not a creak. Just the low thrum of unseen machines humming beneath the obsidian floors.Zarek Vonn stood at the heart of a subterranean vault buried miles beneath the volcanic ridges of Vhal Tarren — far from the rotting timber of his childhood home, far from the tangled roots of the Sylmara forest where magic still breathed wild and unbound. Down here, the magic felt different. Thin. Cold. Stripped of soul and bound to machines.He shifted his weight slightly, boots scuffing across a floor like black glass, where pale runes pulsed dimly beneath the surface. They blinked in arrhythmic patterns, like the heartbeat of something not quite alive.Then came the voice. “Sixty million daren.”It didn’t echo — it sliced. Every syllable i
Chapter 007 – They Came for Blood
Zarek hadn’t slept, not even for a moment.The straw mattress beneath him felt like packed stone, the rough blanket more a shroud than a comfort. He stared at the splintered ceiling of his small room, eyes dry and burning. Every breath rattled in his ribs, every movement sent aches pulsing through his muscles like echoes of yesterday’s war. It hadn’t been a war, not officially. Just a street fight, a confrontation, a defense. But for Zarek, it had been a battlefield—of fists, of stone, of something deeper. Earth had risen to his command, bones had cracked beneath the force of his will, and when the dust settled, the world no longer felt the same.The sky outside his window was heavy with slate-gray clouds, as if the morning itself was reluctant to rise. Lowhollow murmured in the distance—doors creaking open, hooves clopping on wet cobblestone, vendors barking half-hearted greetings in the marketplace.But beneath the normalcy, there was tension. He could feel it.“Zarek Vonn used ear
Chapter 006 – You Have Magic?
It began just after noon — a knock, but not the kind one answered.BANG. BANG. BANG.Each strike landed like a war drum on the thin wooden door, echoing through the cottage and rattling the bones of the place. Dust spilled from the rafters in lazy streams, stirred by the tremble of the brittle beams overhead. The crooked table — barely held together by rusted nails and desperation — gave a groan, its legs shifting with the tension coiling in the room.Zarek sat in the far corner, half-shadowed, his bowl of stew untouched and congealed, a silver film crusted over the broth. His spoon slipped from his fingers and clinked against the bowl’s rim with a brittle, accusing sound.Outside, gravel crunched under boots. Low voices muttered — casual, amused, ugly men who came often, and never alone.Joren Vonn flinched.The old man was halfway to rising, his hands gripping the table so hard the knuckles turned pale, almost translucent. His face — creased by sun and sorrow — was ashen. He looked
Chapter 005 – Aven’s Warning
At dawn, Arcvale Academy slept. The towers, carved from pale stone and etched with ancient runes, stood shrouded in mist like monuments to forgotten gods. Soft light filtered through crystalline windows, catching on dust motes drifting silently through the grand halls. Elemental wards hummed faintly in the background — unseen but omnipresent — pulsing with layered enchantments to protect the academy from intrusions both magical and mundane.But beyond the wards… in the untamed wildwood where Arcvale’s control began to fade… the earth stirred — slowly, unevenly, like a creature still learning to breathe.A tremor rolled through the roots and moss, more uncertain than violent. And at the center of that fragile disturbance stood Zarek Vonn — barefoot, breathless, and shaking — locked in a clumsy struggle not against an enemy, but against his own weakness. His heel dug into the soil with effort, knees wobbling as he braced himself. He let out a grunt, not of power — but frustration.A sm
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