It was three o'clock in the morning. A guy with long, messy hair down to his shoulders was walking along a dark alley between two tall buildings. This guy's name was Mirak Rozier. He was an ordinary high school student: just a month ago he had started his first year of senior high school.
He was wearing his favorite clothes: loose dark-gray jeans, a black T-shirt, and a brown sweater on top. He liked his clothes, so at home he had several of each item. The only thing was that he had just one pair of sneakers — ordinary white ones for every occasion.
"Come on, where are you? Come out already. I have school in the morning and I haven't slept properly at all," he thought, yawning.
Finally, a figure appeared behind him. Mirak turned around. He saw only a tall, unnaturally elongated, thin human-like figure standing about twenty meters away from him. The figure was dressed in what looked like ordinary office clothes, but strangely — Mirak couldn't make out its face at all. He immediately understood: this creature had no face. Its head, and its entire body, looked like smooth black plastic.
"A voidborn, huh. They usually gather in groups since they're one of the weakest demon species. Most likely he's not alone here," Mirak began analyzing the situation.
The voidborn ran toward him. Because of its long legs, its strides were twice as long as a normal person's. In just a couple of seconds the voidborn was right in front of Mirak.
Mirak didn't move from his spot. The voidborn, which had already swung its long arm to strike, suddenly fell apart — all of its long, thin limbs crashed to the ground, separated from each other. The cuts were clean and perfectly even, as if someone had sliced the voidborn into pieces with an extremely sharp knife.
This was one of Mirak's techniques. Even though he was still just a schoolboy, he worked part-time as a hired mage and took on various jobs, most of which were given to him without much difficulty, since he was quite a powerful mage, even though he didn't belong to any magical clan.
The voidborn that Mirak had just cut apart melted away in a few seconds and turned into a dark, almost completely light-absorbing liquid substance. The severed limbs merged back into a single mass, and in just one second, right in front of Mirak, the exact same figure grew again — the one he had just sliced into pieces.
"Ah, right. They can only be killed with fire," Mirak thought, and in his right hand a dark liquid substance suddenly appeared. In a second it shaped itself into a katana that was as black as the voidborn's body, with unknown white symbols drawn on the hilt.
The voidborn looked at the katana.
"You understood correctly," Mirak said. "This katana was made from a voidborn."
"But it's impossible to craft weapons from voidborns," the voidborn replied.
"Correct. This katana is the only one of its kind."
The lower half of the katana began to glow a bright orange, like steel heated almost to melting point. The voidborn immediately stepped back and started running away, but Mirak reinforced his body with magical energy, which allowed him to move much faster. He quickly caught up to the voidborn before it could leave the alley and slashed it with the katana, cutting it in two at the abdomen.
"Now you won't regenerate," Mirak said.
Suddenly he sensed someone's presence behind him and at the last moment managed to dodge a strike that another voidborn — one that had come to help its companion — tried to land. The voidborn swung for another blow. Mirak dodged, did a sharp roll, ended up behind it, and then cut it apart with the katana.
The third voidborn, seeing this, tried to escape by climbing up the wall of the building. Mirak used his cutting technique, dismembering the voidborn. It fell to the ground and turned into liquid. When all the liquid gathered back together, Mirak thrust his katana — with its glowing tip — straight into the center.
All the voidborns that Mirak had killed dried up and began to look like thin, dried nori leaves, only black.
Mirak took out his phone and made a call. A girl from the support team picked up.
"Hello, how may I help you?" she said in a pleasant voice.
"Rank A mage Mirak Rozier. Request for three voidborns completed," Mirak replied.
"Request acknowledged! Funds will be transferred to your account within twenty-four hours. Thank you for your work!" the girl said.
"Mm," Mirak answered shortly and hung up.
In the morning Mirak came to school. He looked sleepy and unrested. At the entrance he noticed his friend — Leon. Leon quickly walked up to him.
Leon was a blond with pale skin, bright hazel eyes, and a sharp straight nose. As always, his hair was messy. He was wearing black trousers, a green blazer, and a white T-shirt with a red tie, even though the school uniform required a regular white dress shirt instead of a T-shirt. Mirak noticed that on his feet Leon wasn't wearing the standard white sneakers everyone else had, but white indoor slippers. Surprisingly, the whole combination looked completely natural and ordinary on him.
"Hunting demons all night again?" Leon asked casually, giving Mirak a hard slap on the shoulder.
"Quiet down," Mirak replied and glanced around, checking if anyone had heard. "You know I don't want extra attention."
"You're missing out," Leon said. "I chatted a bit yesterday with the other first-years and found out that Kael, a Rank B mage, is super popular with the girls even though he's a first-year just like us. You're stronger than him, and your face is way better-looking. You'd be way more popular than him if you didn't hide your power."
"I don't need that," Mirak answered. "I don't want to attract extra attention. I just want to live quietly."
"Fair enough," Leon said as they both entered the classroom.
Mirak sat down at his usual seat — third row by the window. At that moment a notification arrived on his phone.
"You have a new request."