From Trash to Their King

The coarse wooden broom was slowly wearing away the skin on Kelvin’s palms. He pushed the scrub-brush across the grand obsidian tiles of the Grand Refectory, his back aching with a dull, persistent throbbing. Around him, high vaulted ceilings stretched into shadows, laced with shifting constellations of light spellcraft that illuminated the hall in faint blues and amethysts.

 Three agonizing months had passed since he woke up on the icy marble steps of the Academy of Arcane Arts.

He didn't belong here, he wasn't from this realm of floating spires, glowing elemental incantations, or aristocratic bloodlines. Kelvin was from Earth, a world where electricity ran through copper wires, not ether through veins. When he had first awakened, breathless and disoriented, he couldn't speak their language or comprehend their strange, glowing sigils. The faculty hadn't treated him as a miraculous dimensional traveler; they treated him as a stray pest. Lacking a single drop of mana in his body, he was deemed ‘Arcane-Blind’ and stripped of any status. His only option to avoid execution as an illegal trespasser was absolute servitude.

“Missed a spot, trash,” a slick, sneering voice echoed through the high-ceilinged hall.

Kelvin paused, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his frayed sleeve. Standing before him was Alaric, a third-year noble prodigy clad in crisp, silver-trimmed silk robes. Beside him stood Noah, his perpetual shadow, grinning with cruel amusement, accompanied by two noble female students Seraphina and Chloe, both giggling behind delicate, silk-gloved hands.

Alaric flicked his wrist. A small, fiery orb materialized at the tip of his finger a simple Ignis spark, basic enough for a child, yet bright enough to sing. With a casual wave, Alaric flicked the flame onto the pristine wooden bucket of soapy water Kelvin had spent twenty minutes hauling up three flights of stairs.

The bucket burst into ash and boiling foam, splashing across Kelvin’s boots and scalding his ankles. Kelvin bit his tongue so hard he tasted copper, keeping his eyes locked onto the floor. Experience had taught him that looking a noble student in the eye was an invitation for a harsher punishment.

“Look at him,” Noah mocked, stepping forward with a smirk. Without warning, Noah threw a sharp, heavy punch straight into Kelvin’s stomach.

The air blew out of Kelvin’s lungs as he collapsed to his knees, clutching his ribs on the cold stone floor, gasping for breath.

“Doesn't even have enough power to reinforce his own skin” Noah scoffed, casually wiping his knuckles on a handkerchief

“How does something so completely useless even breathe the same air as us?” He added 

Seraphina stepped up, her high heels clicking sharply against the tile. She looked down at Kelvin with utter disgust, tossing her half-eaten golden mana-fruit directly onto his head. Sticky juice and pulp ran down his unkempt hair and face. 

“Careful, Noah. Don't get his filth on your uniform. He’s lower than the stray dogs in the outer slums. At least they can sense ambient magic” she giggled nastily

“I heard the elders tried to test his core when he arrived” Chloe added with a high-pitched laugh, using a small wind spell to blow dirty ash and floor dust directly into Kelvin's eyes and open mouth. 

Kelvin coughed violently, blinded and choking on the grit. 

“But they couldn't even find a spark! He’s empty, just as a dead, broken husk. He belongs on his knees sweeping up after real human beings” Chloe hissed loudly as she added

Noah grabbed Kelvin by the hair, forcing his head back so he was forced to look up at their contemptuous faces, “hear that, worm? You are nothing here than a useless parasite” He slammed Kelvin’s face back down against the obsidian floor before delivering a brutal kick to his ribs, leaving Kelvin curled in a tight ball, bruised, bleeding, and humiliated.

“That is quite enough, young gentlemen”

The booming, resonance-filled voice echoed off the hall walls, carrying an immediate pressure that made the air feel thick and heavy. The students instantly straightened, bowing their heads in rigid respect.

Dean Martins glided into the hall. He was a tall, imposing man with immaculate crimson robes that billowed despite the lack of wind. His sharp beard was peppered with grey, and his amber eyes flickered with the terrifying glow of a high-tier Arch-Mage.

Kelvin slowly pulled his bruised, trembling body up, kneeling on the wet floor and holding his fractured ribs. 

“Dean Martin” he slowly called but Martins didn't look down at Kelvin. He looked through him, as if evaluating a smudge of mud on a carpet.

“Alaric, Noah, Seraphina, Chloe, return to the main amphitheater immediately” Martins commanded, his tone smooth yet absolute.

“The emergency bell has not been rung lightly. The ward-lines at the perimeter have breached”

The four noble students paled, their arrogance instantly evaporating, “A breach, sir? The barrier?” Noah stammered.

“Move” Martins barked. As the students scrambled toward the double doors, Martins finally dropped his gaze down to Kelvin. The disdain in his eyes was colder than the void between stars.

“Stop making a spectacle of your pitiful existence. Clean this filth up and report to the central courtyard to haul the spell-pylons. If you prove useless at even that, I will personally throw you into the alchemy slop-pits” Martins said, his voice dropping into a razor-thin growl. 

“Yes, Dean” Kelvin muttered through clenched teeth, blood dripping from his lip.

He waited until the heavy footsteps faded before slumping back against the stone column. His body was beaten, his boots soaked, his face sticky with trash, and his chest burning with a quiet, dangerous rage. He hated this place. He hated their glowing wands, their bloodline arrogance, and their total lack of empathy but without a drop of magic, he was completely powerless, made utterly useless in their eyes.

★★★

Twenty minutes later, the central courtyard was a chaotic sea of panic. Hundreds of students had gathered under the darkening sky. The shimmering blue barrier that usually enveloped the entire academy was flickering violently, spiderwebbed with deep, jagged purple fractures.

 Shockwaves rumbled through the earth, vibrating straight through Kelvin's soles as he stood at the back of the crowd, clutching a heavy iron crate of the crystals despite his bruised ribs.

Dean Martins stood atop the raised marble dais, his staff glowing with an intense, blinding radiance as he addressed the terrified crowd.

“quite” Martins’ voice echoed across the courtyard, amplified by air magic

“The outer border of the forest has fallen to a Void-Rift invasion. A pack of Shadow-Stalkers has breached our territorial boundaries but do not panic, The senior faculty is reinforcing the perimeter, and the student council will form defensive circles around the main spire!” He announced 

Panic, however, was already spreading like wildfire. Whispers swept through the ranks of students. Shadow-Stalkers were rank-B magical beasts, savage, ravenous creatures that fed directly on humans and animals.

Before Martins could issue another order, the grand stained-glass windows of the library tower above exploded inward with a deafening crash. Huge shards of sharp glass rained down on the screaming crowd. From the billowing dust, two terrifying monstrous forms vaulted down onto the courtyard floor, slamming into the stone with bone-shattering force.

They were horrific. Eight feet tall, covered in pitch-black, chitinous armor that seemed to absorb the light around them. Their eyes burned like dying stars, and instead of teeth, their maw was an array of razor-sharp mandibles dripping with corrosive black venom.

“Invasive species! Cast your barriers and Shield!” Alaric screamed from the front line, instinctively thrusting his hand forward alongside Noah and Seraphina.

A glowing golden shield manifested, but the larger of the two Shadow-Stalkers didn't even slow down. It lashed out with a razor-tipped claw, shattering Alaric’s barrier like fragile glass. The sheer force sent Alaric, Noah, and the girls crashing backward into the dirt, crying out in terror as their spellcasting collapsed.

“Hold the line, you fools!” Dean Martins roared, sweeping his staff to launch a massive bolt of lightning at the second beast. The lightning struck the monster's chest, forcing it back a few paces, but the dark creature roared, its hide absorbing more than half of the arcane energy.

The first beast turned its glowing eyes toward the dais, snarling as it sensed the massive concentration of the enrrgy flowing from Martins. It lunged forward with terrifying speed.

Martins’ eyes narrowed. He was a master of high-tier magic, but casting a grand containment spell required several seconds of uninterrupted chanting. He needed a distraction or a decoy to buy him time to weave his spellwork.

His sharp amber eyes swept over the scattering students, instantly bypassing the noble sons and powerful mages, until they landed on the bruised, non-magical cleaner standing near the edge of the dais, a non-magical worm. Before Kelvin could even comprehend the shift in the air, Martins flicked his hand toward him. A wave of force magic slammed into Kelvin’s chest like a speeding truck.

“W-what”Kelvin choked out as he was lifted off his feet.

“Serve your purpose to this academy, trash” Martins' cold voice echoed in Kelvin’s ear through a sound-transmission spell. With a brutal shove of kinetic energy, Martins hurled Kelvin directly through the air, sending him tumbling across the bloody stone tiles landing squarely in the space between the two roaring monsters, thrown out as live bait to be devoured.

“serve him right!” Noah screamed from his stand