The archive doors didn't creak—they shattered.
A thunderclap of wood and magic burst inward as Brix crashed through, half on fire and half blind from smoke. His right sleeve had already burned off. His hands were blackened, not from injury, but from magic that refused to be quiet.
He didn't even register the echo of the guards behind him anymore. All he knew was the quiet—thick, ancient, suffocating quiet. The kind of silence you weren't supposed to break.
He took one step in and nearly fell to his knees.
Not from pain. From the stillness.
His breath hitched.
"Stop that boy!" a voice bellowed behind him.
"No spells—contain him physically!"
Brix's eyes burned. Not just from smoke, but from shame. He hadn't meant to lash out. The fire just came. Again. As it always did.
He looked up—and saw someone lying across a stack of scrolls like he owned them.
A man.
Mid-nap.
Wearing a coat too nice for a squatter and using a cursed relic for a pillow.
"What the hell…" Brix whispered.
The door slammed open again. Guards poured in.
A spear came flying toward his head.
Brix moved.
He rolled behind a pillar, flames flickering at his fingertips. He didn't want to fight. He really didn't. But if they got close—if they grabbed him—he wouldn't be able to control it.
"Last chance, boy!" a knight growled.
"I didn't do anything!" Brix shouted back, but his hands were already glowing.
A binding rune flashed under his feet.
He shattered it with a stomp and fire burst outward—too strong, too wide. One of the guards yelped and hit the wall, his armor seared.
Another lunged with a baton.
Brix caught the blow on his forearm, redirected it, and knocked the knight down with a backhanded explosion that left a crack in the marble.
The third didn't hesitate.
His blade came fast.
Too fast.
Brix spun, caught his heel on a scroll—and fell.
Hard.
He crashed chest-first into the body on the scroll pile.
Everything stopped.
[Host Waking Detected.][Sleep Duration: 2 hours, 16 minutes.][EXP Generated: 1,280,000.][Touch Detected – Target: BRIX.][Warning: No Student Slot Assigned. Transfer Halted.][System Prompt: Would you like to register this individual as Student #1? Capacity Remaining: 7.]
The guards froze. Magic buzzed faintly in the air.
The sleeping man opened one eye.
His gaze swept the room once—taking in the shattered floor, the unconscious guards, the fire curling off Brix's arms.
Then, with a sigh, he said,
"Let him stay. The world's too noisy already. Maybe he'll learn to listen."
[Consent Registered.][Student #1 Assigned: BRIX – WRATH.][Transfer Initiated: 1,280,000 EXP Delivered.][Wrath Tree Tier 1 Unlocked.]
Brix flinched—but not in pain. He felt it. All of it. Power sliding into place like bones snapping into alignment. Control. Balance. His fire didn't scream anymore—it waited.
The man—Kairon—pulled off his coat, tossed it onto Brix's chest, and lay back down.
"Try not to burn the shelves," he murmured. "I'm using the peace."
Then he slept.
The room was silent again.
Brix didn't speak. He just sank to one knee, his fists unclenching for the first time in years. The heat in his veins no longer raged—it listened.
He clutched the coat like a lifeline and breathed in its warmth.
A single thought anchored itself in his chest:If this man is silence, I will become his fire—and guard his peace.