The VoidBorn Ascension

“Your existence is a mistake.”

The words cut deeper than the cheers echoing through Ironvale Square. Deeper than the gasps of awe as the last flame-wielding prodigy ignited the sky with a mere thought.

Seventeen-year-old Kai Arclight didn’t flinch. He’d heard worse,much worse.

A loud smack landed on the back of his head. Jarid.

“Oops. Sorry, Null-boy,” Jarid chuckled, walking past with his arm looped around a girl whose eyes gleamed like fire opals. “Maybe next year, you’ll awaken something useful. Like, I dunno… sock-folding magic?”

The crowd burst into laughter. It was so cruel, loud and unrelenting.

Kai didn’t turn. Didn’t rise to the bait. His eyes stayed fixed on the Mystic Crystal,still glowing faintly blue from the last successful awakening. It pulsed like a heartbeat. Just not his.

Because minutes ago, he’d stood exactly where the prodigy had. Palms sweat and his Knees shaking. Hoping, no, begging,that this would be the moment his life changed.

But the crystal hadn’t flickered. Not even a spark.

Null Affinity.

Not low. Not weak. Just… fucking nothing.

“Knew he’d be a flop,” someone snorted behind him.

“He’s a gutter rat. Probably doesn’t even have real blood,” another added with a sneer.

“He shouldn’t even be allowed at the ceremony.”

He let the voices bury him. Let them claw at whatever hope he’d foolishly carried here. And still, beneath the flood of shame, something hot and coiled stirred in his chest.

Anger.

Not at them. Not even at the Elders who refused to meet his eyes.

No,Kai was furious at himself.

Because, for a second… a heartbeat… he had believed.

He had thought maybe,just maybe,he was special but unfortunately he was just a piece of shit, or so he thought.

***

The walk home was quiet, but the silence didn’t feel kind. It was the kind that made every footstep sound like a drumbeat announcing your failure.

Ironvale wasn’t large, but as Kai headed toward the slums, the city changed. The lanterns disappeared first, then the chatter. Hope seemed to evaporate with every corner turned.

Aru the beggar waved his one good hand as Kai passed. “Rough one, eh, boy?”

Kai nodded silently.

He saw two kids fighting over what looked like a crust of bread. He kept walking.

This part of the city wasn’t just starving for food,it was starving for meaning.

Respect. Power. Survival.

He reached the shack he called home,patchy metal roof, crooked walls of warped wood, the smell of rust lingering in the air,and slammed the door shut behind him.

“Null Affinity,” he muttered bitterly, yanking off his cloak. “Might as well tattoo ‘useless’ on my damn forehead.”

He sank to the floor, eyes falling on the only thing in this world that meant something.

A wooden sword.

Scarred. Splintered. But solid.

His mother’s.

She had once said, “This sword isn’t just for training. One day, you’ll know when to open it.”

He had rolled his eyes back then. Thought it was just one of her mystic riddles.

But now…

Now felt different.

He picked it up, turned it over, fingertips grazing the worn hilt.

Click.

His breath caught. A tiny piece of the hilt shifted. Hollow.

His fingers trembled as he pulled it open.

A coin dropped into his palm.

Ash-gray. Warm. Ancient runes carved across it,runes that shifted like mist on water.

“The hell is this…” he whispered.

As if in answer, pain exploded in his chest.

He doubled over, gasping. His body seized, fingers twitching, vision darkening. His veins,black. His breath,gone.

“What the hell is happening to me?!”

His scream never escaped.

His voice,trapped. His limbs,paralyzed. Every nerve screamed in agony.

Then…

A whisper. Not spoken. Thought.

“The Void stirs. The chains weaken. Do not break before you rise.”

And the world shattered.

He was standing in the middle of a battlefield.

Mountains torn in half. Flames colliding with howling winds. Armies clashing mid-air, eyes glowing like dying suns.

Shadows twisted into beasts. And beyond it all, a figure loomed,titanic, robed in stars and smoke, its face veiled.

It looked at him.

It saw him.

And then…

It bowed.

Darkness swallowed him again.

Kai woke with a ragged gasp, chest heaving, heart in chaos.

The coin,gone.

But something still burned beneath his ribs.

He ripped open his shirt.

And froze.

A mark. Black. Jagged. Etched into his chest in the shape of the rune he had seen on the coin.

“No. No, no,what did you do to me?” he whispered.

His hands shook.

The mark pulsed once.

A whisper followed.

“It begins.”

The room was deathly silent,until he heard it.

A footstep.

Soft. Deliberate. Just outside.

He stilled.

And then another step.

He lunged for the door and flung it open, he looked outside and looked outside but to his surprised he saw nothing. 

“Fuck” he sighed and went back in but little did he know that something was watching him instead.