Kael's hands were calloused, cracked by years of labor. The sweat dripping from his forehead was nothing compared to the sting in his chest every time he looked at his Status Window.
[Name: Kael Ardent]
[Age: 32]
[Mana: 1]
That number — one.A curse. A sentence that had chained him since birth.
In a world where strength, recognition, and survival depended on mana, Kael was nothing more than a shadow. People with even a small amount of talent could aspire to join guilds, to stand on the frontlines against the endless rifts that tore open across the land. But Kael? He was bound to construction sites, carrying stones heavier than his dignity.
"Hey, one mana!" one of the foremen laughed, pointing as Kael struggled to lift a beam. "Careful, don't waste your whole reservoir on that!"
The workers erupted in laughter.
Kael tightened his grip, veins bulging in his arms. He didn't answer. He never did. He swallowed his rage, his humiliation, the same way he had for years.
Still, their words cut deeper than any blade. Not because they mocked him—he had grown used to that. But because their sneers reached his wife, Aria, and their three children. His daughters, Selene and Lyra, and his son, Eryx, inherited the same stigma: weak mana veins. They became targets of ridicule, whispers following them like shadows in the school corridors.
And every night Kael asked himself the same question:Why was I cursed to drag them down with me?
He wiped his hands on his dirt-stained trousers when a sudden crackle filled the air. A voice, sharp and urgent, burst through the site's loudspeakers.
"Attention! Attention! This is the Central Emergency Broadcast. A rift has opened near the Silvermist Academy. All civilians in the surrounding districts are to evacuate immediately. Repeat: evacuate immediately. This is not a drill!"
Kael froze. His heart stopped.Silvermist Academy.
His children's school.
The workers around him dropped tools, panicked voices rising.
"Silvermist? Isn't that where your kids are?" someone muttered, almost pitying.
Kael's blood ran cold. His hands trembled, but only for a second. Then instinct slammed into him like lightning. He bolted, ignoring the shouts behind him.
Selene. Lyra. Eryx. Hold on.
The streets were chaos. Civilians screamed, rushing in the opposite direction, soldiers pushing people back as the sky above cracked with streaks of mana. A tear in reality shimmered like broken glass, oozing dark mist.
"Sir, you can't go that way!" a soldier shouted, blocking the road.
Kael's mind screamed back, but his lips never moved. His legs didn't stop. He shoved past, ignoring curses, ignoring the terror that swelled in his chest.
I'm useless. I have no mana. What can I do?
But then the faces of his children flashed before him. Selene's shy smile, Lyra's fiery eyes, Eryx's laughter.
Even if I die… I'll die running to them.
Every step tore through his lungs, his body screaming at him to stop. But Kael only ran faster, weaving through crowds, pushing past terrified citizens. The world blurred, his vision narrowed, until one truth remained:
He would reach Silvermist Academy.
Even if the heavens themselves collapsed, he would not stop.
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Meanwhile, inside the academy, the three siblings huddled among their classmates in the trembling corridors.
"Selene, they're saying the rift's beasts are already inside the district," a boy sneered, his voice shaking but cruel. "Figures… your family's all the same. Weak. One mana brats. You'll be the first to die."
Lyra clenched her fists. "Shut your mouth!" she snapped, her fiery temper blazing even as fear gripped her heart.
Selene grabbed her hand. "Lyra, don't… not now…"
Eryx swallowed hard, trying to act brave though his legs shook. "Dad will come. He'll find us."
But in his heart, even he wondered… what can a man with one mana do against a rift?
And out there, racing through smoke and screams, Kael asked himself the same thing. His heart thundered, not with power, but with desperation.
What can I do?
He didn't know.But he refused to stop.
Because some chains weren't meant to bind.They were meant to break.