The Weakest Mage at the World's Greatest Academy

Chapter 2: Zero Mana, Impossible Power

“We have been waiting for you, Awesome.”

The voice continued to echo inside Awesome’s mind long after its final words had faded, leaving him staring at the shattered healing crystal above his bed. Tiny fragments of glowing glass lay scattered across his blanket, while the three heavy knocks that had sounded beneath the infirmary floor continued to reverberate through his bones. He could not explain how he had heard the voice, much less how something beneath the academy seemed to know his name.

Before he could make sense of what had happened, Professor Elara Veyne seized his wrist with surprising force.

“Whatever you do, don’t answer that voice,” she warned.

Awesome turned toward her, alarm spreading across his face. “You heard it too?”

Elara’s grip tightened briefly before she shook her head. “Heard what?”

“The voice that just spoke to me. It said they had been waiting for me.”

For a moment, the professor looked as though his words had struck her harder than any physical blow. She released his wrist and stepped away from the bed, her gaze drifting toward the floor as another faint tremor passed through the infirmary. The diagnostic instruments along the wall rattled softly, and one of the remaining healing crystals flickered as though its energy supply had suddenly become unstable.

“That isn’t possible,” she whispered.

Awesome leaned forward, determined to get an explanation. “What isn’t possible? Who is waiting for me, and why do you look as though you already know the answer?”

Before Elara could respond, someone struck the infirmary door so violently that its frame shuddered.

“Professor Veyne!” a man shouted from the corridor. “Open this door immediately! By order of the academy’s deputy headmaster, the student must be transferred to a secure examination chamber.”

Elara’s expression hardened as she moved toward the entrance.

“Who authorized this transfer?” she demanded.

“Master Corvin himself. We have also received direct instructions from the High Council.”

Awesome felt his stomach tighten. Only minutes earlier, he had been an ordinary student waiting for an explanation after surviving an impossible magical incident. Now the academy’s senior officials wanted to remove him from the infirmary, and the professor who had been examining him seemed more frightened of their arrival than she was of his mysterious ability.

Elara returned to his bedside and lowered her voice so that only he could hear her.

“Listen carefully, Awesome. Whatever happens next, do not demonstrate what you can do. Avoid touching any magical artifact unless I specifically tell you to, and never follow anyone who claims to know what you are without questioning their intentions.”

Awesome caught her arm before she could turn away.

“What am I?” he demanded. “You keep warning me about things you refuse to explain. If you know something, then tell me!”

The professor opened her mouth, but another violent blow against the door interrupted her. She stared at him for a moment, her expression troubled, before placing the diagnostic crystal inside her robes.

“Stay here,” she instructed.

She unlocked the door and opened it only far enough to step into the corridor, keeping her body between Awesome and the people waiting outside.

Three academy security officers stood beyond the threshold, their dark uniforms reinforced with glowing protective runes. The tallest officer carried a silver restraint device designed to suppress a person’s mana, while the other two held enchanted weapons that emitted a low, steady hum. Their rigid postures and watchful expressions suggested that they had not come to escort an ordinary student to a medical examination.

“Professor,” the tall officer said, “we have our orders, and we intend to carry them out.”

“And I have medical authority over this patient,” Elara replied firmly. “He has suffered a serious magical shock, and moving him before I understand his condition could cause permanent damage.”

“The Council considers him a potential threat.”

“On what evidence?”

The officer glanced past her toward Awesome, who had risen slightly on the bed to hear their exchange.

“Our evidence is that an unawakened student erased a high-level fire spell without producing a measurable trace of mana. Until we determine how that happened, we cannot allow him to remain unmonitored.”

The officer’s words drew every pair of eyes toward Awesome. He had spent years enduring the humiliation of being labelled powerless, yet the same people who had ignored his weakness were now treating him as a dangerous anomaly.

The tall officer stepped into the infirmary and raised the silver restraint device.

“Student Awesome, stand up and come with us.”

For the first time since waking, Awesome understood that the academy might not be interested in helping him discover what had happened. Its officials might intend to take control of him before he could understand his own abilities, and whatever awaited him in the examination chamber might be far worse than another humiliating assessment.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and planted his feet on the cold floor.

“Where exactly are you taking me?” he asked.

“To a secure facility where your condition can be properly examined.”

“And what happens if I refuse?”

The officer’s expression remained cold. “Then we will have to assume that you are deliberately resisting a lawful order.”

Awesome glanced at Elara, hoping she would intervene, but the professor remained unusually still. Her reluctance to challenge the officers told him that she was weighing her options and that none of them offered an easy escape.

After a moment, he pushed himself to his feet.

“Fine,” he said, struggling to hide the pain that still lingered in his body. “But if you intend to treat me like a criminal, I would at least like to know what crime I have committed.”

The officer reached for his arm.

The instant his fingers closed around Awesome’s wrist, the silver restraint device exploded in a burst of blinding white light.

The officer stumbled backward with a cry of pain, clutching his hand as the device shattered into smoking fragments. Both guards immediately raised their weapons, their protective runes flaring as they prepared to subdue Awesome. Elara shouted at them to lower their arms before they turned an unexplained accident into a full-scale confrontation.

Awesome stared at his wrist in disbelief.

“I didn’t do anything!” he protested.

Yet as he spoke, the black symbol embedded in his palm began to glow beneath his skin.

Far below the infirmary, the ancient chamber continued its awakening.

The black stone suspended above the circular platform had developed several new cracks, and silver light spilled through them like water escaping from a broken vessel. The chains surrounding the stone strained against an invisible force as their ancient enchantments struggled to preserve a seal that was rapidly losing its strength. Dust drifted from the ceiling, and the symbols carved into the chamber walls flickered in a sequence that had not occurred for centuries.

A message appeared across the floor in pale letters.

EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE DETECTED.

The system paused briefly before displaying another warning.

SUBJECT UNDER RESTRAINT ATTEMPT.

A low, mechanical voice emerged from the darkness, carrying an authority that seemed to resonate through the chamber itself.

“Protect the authority.”

At the command, energy surged from the black stone and raced upward through the academy’s foundations.

Back in the infirmary, every magical device began malfunctioning at once.

The security officers’ weapons flickered as their protective runes changed from blue to a sickly white. Overhead, the lights flashed rapidly before shutting down, plunging the room into darkness. The broken pieces of the silver restraint device began vibrating against the floor, and the remaining healing crystals emitted a high-pitched whine that made Awesome’s teeth ache.

Elara seized his shoulder and pulled him away from the guards.

“Don’t move!” she ordered.

Awesome twisted toward her, frustration breaking through his fear. “How am I supposed to control something I don’t understand?”

“I don’t know what you’re doing, but the entire magical network is responding to you!”

“I’ve already told you that I’m not doing anything!”

Before Elara could answer, a violent pulse swept through the room and hurled one of the guards against the wall. His companion tried to activate a defensive barrier, but the spell collapsed before its structure could fully form, leaving him exposed as the magical energy continued to fluctuate around them.

Then Awesome saw the golden lines again.

They stretched across the infirmary, connecting the lamps, the weapons, the protective runes, and even the floor beneath his feet. Unlike the lines he had seen inside Damian’s fireball, these formed an enormous interconnected network that appeared to extend far beyond the room. The golden threads overlapped and branched into countless pathways, each one carrying energy through the academy like blood flowing through a living body.

Awesome could not understand what he was seeing, but he sensed that something had gone wrong.

One connection near the doorway had twisted out of alignment, forcing energy through a narrow junction that flickered dangerously. He had no idea what would happen if the connection broke completely, yet an instinctive certainty told him that the instability was spreading through the entire network.

Without knowing why, he raised his hand toward the twisted connection.

The network immediately went still.

Every malfunctioning device stopped vibrating, and the white light surrounding the room gradually faded. One by one, the magical lamps returned to their normal blue glow, revealing the guards staring at their weapons as though the objects had betrayed them.

Elara slowly turned toward Awesome, her face drained of colour.

“You didn’t cast a spell,” she said, her voice barely audible above the officers’ unsteady breathing. “You issued a command.”

Awesome lowered his hand and examined his palm, where the black symbol had already faded back beneath his skin.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

Before Elara could explain, the infirmary door opened again.

Master Corvin entered with two senior instructors, his expression stern and unreadable. His gaze moved from the shattered restraint device to the guards, then settled on Awesome with an intensity that made the young student instinctively straighten.

“So,” Corvin said quietly, “the reports were accurate.”

Awesome frowned. “What reports?”

Rather than answer, Corvin turned toward Elara.

“Prepare him for immediate transfer. The Council has authorized a full diagnostic examination, and we cannot afford any further delays.”

Elara stepped between the deputy headmaster and Awesome, refusing to move aside.

“If you take him downstairs, you may trigger another reaction. We have no idea what his ability is doing to the academy’s magical network, and forcing him into an unfamiliar environment could make the situation considerably worse.”

Corvin’s eyes hardened.

“Then perhaps you should have discovered what he was before allowing the situation to escalate.”

Elara’s jaw tightened, but she did not immediately respond. The two senior instructors exchanged uneasy glances, apparently unwilling to interfere in an argument between their superiors.

Awesome watched them carefully and began to understand that both Elara and Corvin were concealing information from him. Elara seemed genuinely concerned about what might happen to him, while Corvin appeared far more interested in reaching a particular destination than in protecting the student he intended to transfer.

“What is beneath the academy?” Awesome asked.

Corvin went still.

The change lasted only a moment, but Awesome noticed it immediately. The deputy headmaster’s fingers tightened around the silver staff in his hand, and his gaze flicked toward the floor before returning to Awesome’s face.

“Who told you to ask that question?” Corvin demanded.

“No one,” Awesome replied. “Your reaction answered it for me.”

Corvin stepped closer, and the atmosphere in the infirmary grew heavier as mana gathered around his staff.

“You have no understanding of the forces you are interfering with, boy. If you value your life, you will stop asking questions and do exactly as you are told.”

Fear tightened Awesome’s chest, but he forced himself to meet the older man’s gaze.

“That would be easier if someone would explain what is happening to me instead of treating me like a weapon that needs to be locked away.”

For several seconds, Corvin studied him without speaking. Then he turned toward the security officers and ordered them to leave the infirmary with the damaged equipment. The guards hesitated before obeying, clearly unsettled by what had happened to their restraint device.

Once the door closed behind them, Corvin reached into his robes and produced a small black crystal. He placed it carefully on the bedside table, where its dark surface absorbed the light rather than reflecting it.

“Touch this,” he instructed.

Elara immediately stepped forward. “You cannot be serious. We have no idea how he will react to another magical artifact.”

“The crystal is older than the academy,” Corvin replied. “If his ability is connected to the foundation, it may reveal its nature without forcing him to use it.”

Awesome stared at the object, uncertain whether touching it would bring him closer to the truth or put him in even greater danger. Unlike the other magical devices he had encountered, the crystal produced no visible light and gave off no measurable energy. Nevertheless, when he focused on its dark surface, he noticed faint golden lines moving beneath the stone as though something were alive inside it.

A message appeared before his eyes.

ARCHIVE ACCESS AVAILABLE.

Awesome leaned closer, his breath catching as a second message materialized beneath the first.

MEMORY SEAL DETECTED.

He had barely begun to process the words when another line appeared, brighter and more urgent than the others.

WARNING: SUBJECT IDENTITY CONFLICT.

“What is this thing?” Awesome whispered.

Neither Corvin nor Elara answered. Their attention had shifted to the crystal, and the expressions on their faces suggested that neither had expected the messages to appear so quickly.

Awesome reached toward the object, intending to pull it away from himself, but the instant his fingertips touched its surface, a sharp current raced through his arm. His muscles locked, and a strange pressure formed behind his eyes as unfamiliar images flashed through his mind: a vast chamber, towering black pillars, and a figure standing beneath a sky filled with golden fractures.

Before he could withdraw his hand, the crystal spoke.

Its voice sounded exactly like his own, down to the faint uncertainty that coloured his words.

“Welcome back, First Authority.”

Corvin dropped his silver staff, and the metallic impact echoed across the infirmary floor. Elara stumbled away from the bedside, staring at Awesome as though the student she had been examining had suddenly become someone—or something—entirely different.

Awesome remained frozen, his fingertips still pressed against the black crystal.

He had spent his entire life believing that he possessed no magic, that he was an ordinary boy trapped in a world where power determined a person’s worth. Yet the crystal had greeted him as though he had returned from a long absence, and the ancient chamber beneath the academy had recognised him before he had even known it existed.

As the words continued to echo inside his mind, Awesome realised that the greatest mystery was no longer how he could interfere with magic despite having zero mana.

The real question was why an ancient power beneath the academy seemed to remember him—and what had happened to the person he was supposed to have been before he was born.