There is a specific kind of agony in seeing a dead person breathe.
It isn't a sharp pain, like a blade slipping between your ribs. It's a dull, heavy ache—a phantom weight that settles in the back of your throat and refuses to be swallowed.
I stood at the edge of the subterranean training grounds assigned to Group B, the air thick with the smell of damp earth and burning incense. But I didn't notice the damp. I didn't notice the other twenty cadets whispering about the 'Dreg' who had just been transferred.
I only noticed her.
Sera Valerius.
She was sitting by the stone wall, trying to bandage her own hands. She looked so young—sixteen, maybe. Her pale blonde hair was tied back in a messy braid, and her academy uniform was a size too large, swallowing her fragile frame.
In my previous life, she had been the Saint of the Dawn. The woman who could reknit severed limbs and cure terminal poisons with a single prayer.
But my last memory of her wasn't of a saint.
It was of a broken girl coughing up black blood, clutching my armor as the cursed poison of the 80th Floor dissolved her veins. 'I'm sorry, Kael,' she had sobbed, her tears leaving clean tracks through the grime on her face. 'He's changing. Rylen is changing. Please… don't let him consume you too.'
She had died trying to warn me. And I had been too blind, too loyal to Rylen, to understand what she meant until a sword was sticking through my spine.
"You're staring, Dreg."
A harsh voice snapped me out of the memory. I blinked, my hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of the wooden practice sword at my waist.
The man who had spoken stepped out of the shadows. He didn't walk; he flowed. He wore dark leather armor stripped of any Imperial insignia, and his face was a map of thin, pale scars.
"I'm Instructor Thorne," he said, his voice barely a murmur, yet it carried across the cavern. The other cadets instantly fell silent, scrambling to line up. "Welcome to Group B. The Vanguard up top learns how to break down doors. We learn how to pick the locks, poison the guards, and burn the house down from the inside. We are the Support, the Scouts, the Shadows."
He stopped in front of me. His eyes were completely black—a rare mutation caused by excessive use of Shadow Magic.
"You're the one who drained Krell of his stamina," Thorne murmured, leaning in close. He smelled of ash and dried blood. "Rumor says you have a parasite class. A leech."
I kept my face perfectly blank. Let them think that. A leech class was frowned upon, considered dishonorable, but it wasn't a threat to the world order like the Void.
"I use what I have, sir."
Thorne smiled, a terrifying expression. "Good. Honor is for dead men. Line up."
I took my place in the back row. As I moved, I realized I was standing right next to Sera.
Up close, I could see the fresh blisters on her fingers. Her hands were trembling. She caught me looking and quickly hid her hands behind her back, her cheeks flushing pink.
"I-I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice like a tiny bell. "I'm not used to the physical drills yet. I keep messing up the rope climbs."
My chest tightened. It took every ounce of my willpower not to reach out and heal her—not that I could. My magic only destroyed.
"Keep your thumbs tucked," I said softly, staring straight ahead. "When you grip the rope, use the heel of your palms, not your fingers. The friction won't tear your skin that way."
Sera blinked, looking down at her hands in surprise. "Oh. Thank you. I'm Sera."
"Kael."
I didn't offer my hand. I couldn't. If I touched her, I was afraid the Void would react. I was a walking black hole, and she was made of light.
"Listen up!" Thorne clapped his hands, plunging the cavern into sudden, absolute darkness. Someone yelped in panic.
"First lesson of the shadows: Presence Suppression," Thorne's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "Every living thing leaks mana. It's a scent. Monsters can smell it. Assassins can see it. If you cannot hide your presence, you are already dead. Your task is simple: I am going to walk through this room. If I can sense your mana, I will strike you. Hide."
Panic erupted in the dark. I heard cadets shuffling, trying to quiet their breathing, desperately trying to pull their leaking magic back into their bodies.
Beside me, the air suddenly felt warm.
I glanced over. Even in the pitch black, Sera was practically glowing to my senses. Her mana was Holy—bright, pure, and utterly impossible to hide in a dark room. It was like trying to conceal a sunbeam under a thin blanket.
Thorne was going to spot her instantly.
I heard the soft swish of a cane moving through the air, followed by a sharp crack and a groan of pain from a cadet a few feet away. Thorne was moving fast, weeding out the weak.
Damn it.
I couldn't just stand here. I shifted my stance, taking a half-step so I was standing directly in front of Sera.
Then, I closed my eyes and opened the cage around the Void core.
[SKILL ACTIVATION: ECHO OF THE FALLEN]
[INTEGRATING VOID MANA WITH STEALTH MUSCLE MEMORY]
[WARNING: VOID MANA CONSUMES LIGHT AND SOUND. DO NOT OVERDRAW.]
I didn't pull the energy out. I pulled the surrounding reality in.
I let the Void swallow my heartbeat. I let it eat the sound of my breathing, the heat of my skin, and the ambient mana leaking from my pores. Then, carefully, I extended that aura of negation just a few inches backward—just enough to drape over Sera like a black cloak.
Sera gasped softly behind me. "It's... cold."
"Don't move," I breathed.
A second later, Thorne materialized right in front of us.
I couldn't see him, but I felt the displacement of air. He paused. He was standing less than a foot away from my face. I could hear his slow, measured breathing. He was searching. He knew there should be two cadets in this corner.
But to his senses, we didn't exist. We were simply a gap in the world.
For ten agonizing seconds, Thorne stood there. The Void greedily licked at my mana reserves, threatening to consume my vitality if I held it much longer.
Finally, Thorne turned and moved on.
Smack. Another cadet cried out in the distance.
I released the Void. Warmth rushed back into my limbs, and I stumbled slightly, catching myself on the damp stone wall.
"Lights," Thorne commanded.
The magical torches flared to life. Half the class was on the floor, clutching bruised ribs or shoulders.
Thorne stood in the center of the room, his black eyes scanning the crowd. When his gaze landed on me, he didn't smile. He just stared.
"Fifteen of you failed," Thorne said coldly. "Five of you passed. And two of you..." His eyes locked onto mine. "...simply vanished."
Sera looked at me, her wide blue eyes filled with awe. "How did you do that?" she whispered. "My mana... it felt like it was wrapped in ice. But he didn't see me."
"Don't rely on it," I replied, my voice harsher than I intended. "I won't always be there to cover for you."
She flinched, looking down at her boots.
Guilt pierced me, sharp and sudden. But I forced myself to turn away. I couldn't be her friend. Not yet. In this world, a connection was a vulnerability. And until I was strong enough to kill the gods themselves, anyone standing near me was in the blast radius.
Suddenly, the heavy iron doors at the top of the stairs groaned open.
Daylight spilled down into our subterranean gloom, blindingly bright. And standing in the center of that light, flanked by two academy instructors, was a silhouette I would know in my nightmares.
"Instructor Thorne!" a cheerful, melodic voice rang out. "Sorry to interrupt!"
The air in my lungs turned to ash.
My Void core violently spasmed, tearing at my insides like a caged beast smelling blood. I had to bite my tongue so hard I tasted copper just to keep from groaning aloud.
[WARNING: HOSTILE INTENT DETECTED]
[KARMA RESONANCE: EXTREME]
[THE VOID DEMANDS RETRIBUTION]
Rylen walked down the stone steps.
He was dressed in the pristine white-and-gold uniform of the First-Tier Vanguard. His golden hair caught the torchlight, making him look like a descending angel. He smiled warmly at the bruised, battered Support cadets, looking upon us with an expression of gentle pity.
"Cadet Rylen," Thorne said, his tone perfectly flat. "To what do I owe the pleasure of the Vanguard's shining star?"
"My squad has been given permission to run the Lower Labyrinth tomorrow," Rylen said, his voice brimming with humble confidence. "But we lack a dedicated healer. The Headmaster suggested I come down here and see if any of your cadets have an aptitude for Holy Magic."
Rylen's eyes swept over the crowd.
He was looking for a tool. A battery to keep him fighting while he gathered all the glory.
And then, his eyes stopped.
They locked onto the small, trembling girl standing right behind me.
Rylen's smile widened. It was the same smile he had given me right before he twisted the blade into my spine.
"Well," Rylen said softly, his gaze entirely fixed on Sera. "Who do we have here?"