LEGACY OF THE FORBIDDEN ARCHMAGE

3

Michael Dorian walked through the gates of the Ivory Tower with his head lowered. In this world, medical education was everything, and this place was its summit. But to Michael, these pristine white marble corridors felt more stifling than the filthy alley where he had been beaten the night before.

The biometric sensors at the entrance chirped every time he passed, scanning his health data and social status. On the public holographic screens, his name appeared with a red flag: Tuition Credit Arrears – Status Endangered.

Several students passing by deliberately moved away, as if Michael’s poverty were a contagious disease that could ruin their expensive white coats.

"Still have the nerve to show your face here, Michael?"

Michael’s pace came to a halt. Standing before him was a man in an official uniform far too smooth for someone working in a hospital. Lucien Osiris. He wasn't a doctor; he was a bureaucrat from the oversight department—the kind of person who cared more about the numbers on a screen than human lives.

Lucien approached, the scent of his expensive cologne stinging Michael’s nose, which was still blocked with dried blood. "I just read your report. Your father’s debt has been transferred to your name. With today’s interest rates, you’d have to work three hundred years as a lab assistant just to pay off the interest alone."

Michael stared at Lucien. His eyes no longer showed fear, only a deep, hollow emptiness. "I’ll settle it. Move."

Lucien laughed, a dry and mocking sound. "Move? Who do you think you’re talking to? In this place, you’re just a failed government asset. And damaged assets must be discarded immediately before they burden the budget."

Lucien signaled the two guards behind him. One guard stepped forward and slammed an electric baton directly into Michael’s solar plexus.

The pain was different from the thugs' punches the night before. This was a sting that scorched the nerves. Michael fell to his knees, his breath hitching. But amidst the torture, the Ichor Astralis within his blood boiled. He could feel a drop of purple energy trying to force its way through his weak cardiac circuit.

"Stop," Michael hissed, his voice raw.

"What? What did you say, trash?" Lucien kicked Michael’s shoulder, sending him sprawling. "Hit him again until he realizes where he stands."

The guard swung his baton once more. But this time, Michael’s hand moved faster than the ordinary human eye could follow. He grabbed the end of the electric baton. His bare hand burned, the smell of scorched skin filling the air, but Michael did not let go.

A thin purple flicker appeared in his pupils. Michael forced his mana to collide with the electrical current from the baton. A small surge occurred, throwing the guard backward until he slammed into the marble wall.

The entire corridor suddenly went silent. Passing students stopped in their tracks. Lucien backed away three steps, his face deathly pale.

"You... do you have an illegal artifact in your body?" Lucien’s voice trembled. "Only the military has access to energy like that!"

Michael stood up slowly. He felt like a giant trapped in a dwarf's body. He wanted to crush Lucien’s neck right then and there. However, just as he stepped forward, his chest felt as if it had been struck by a sledgehammer.

He coughed violently. Thick, black blood splattered onto the pristine white marble floor.

Michael Dorian’s body betrayed him. His heart couldn't withstand the surge of Ichor energy that was far too pure. His vision blurred; his nerve circuits felt like they were on fire. He wasn't defeated by Lucien; he was defeated by his own body, which was already too broken.

Michael collapsed, his hand reaching for the floor before everything went dark.

Lucien, realizing Michael was now defenseless, immediately turned vicious again. He kicked Michael’s face with his expensive shoes to vent his earlier terror.

"Drag him away!" Lucien screamed maniacally. "Put him in the underground isolation cell! Revoke his scholarship right now! I’ll make sure this kid ends up on a dissection table as experimental material!"

The guards dragged the unconscious Michael away. His head thudded against the floor every few steps, leaving a long trail of blood across the luxurious corridor of the Ivory Tower.