They called me a Void.
Now they pray I stay one.
They say the gods give magic to the people they love.
If that's true…
Then the gods must hate me.
I was born with no mana. No light. No gift.
In a world where magic is everything, I was nothing.
People call us Voids.
It means you're cursed. Broken. A mistake.
You can't train. You can't join a guild. You can't even go to school.
You live your whole life in the dirt… if you're lucky.
I stopped hoping for luck a long time ago.
Now here I am — on my knees, chained to a stone platform, in front of a huge crowd that wants me dead.
Some are quiet.
Some are cheering.
One guy throws a fruit at my head. It hits. Pretty solid shot.
"DIE, TRASH!" a kid yells.
I smile at him. "Nice haircut. Your mom blind?"
The crowd gasps. Someone laughs and tries to hide it.
The man in charge — the High Judge — doesn't laugh.
He's holding a golden staff glowing with holy blue mana. His robes shine like he thinks he's a gift from the gods.
"Kairo Vale," he says. "Seventeen years old. No mana. No value. A true Void. You are hereby sentenced to death."
The blue spell circle under me begins to glow.
The Mana Erasure Rite.
A spell made to erase Voids from the world. Fast, clean, no pain.
Or so they say.
I look up and meet his eyes.
"Let me guess," I say. "You're gonna make a long speech, then fry me like a chicken nugget?"
He scowls. "You speak boldly for someone so empty."
"Yeah, well… I've had a lot of time to practice."
The truth is…
I've always known the test would say I'm a Void.
But what nobody knows is that something inside me changed five years ago.
I was twelve. Beaten in an alley. Bleeding and left to die.
And then —
I heard a voice.
"Do you want power?"
I said yes.
I blacked out. When I woke up, the boys who beat me were unconscious. Their eyes were burned. Their mouths wouldn't move.
But the next day, when I took the mana test?
Still nothing.
The power inside me… didn't show.
Now, the Judge raises his staff.
"Any last words?" he asks.
I grin.
"Yeah. Tell the gods I said they suck."
He slams the staff down.
The spell hits me—
And then everything explodes.
The platform cracks. The air shakes.
The mana circle under me falls apart like glass.
The Judge stumbles back in shock.
"What—?! That spell should've—!"
My chains break.
I stand.
The ground is burning, but not with fire.
A black energy rises from under my feet.
It's not light. It's not normal magic.
It's cold. Heavy. Hungry.
My fingers glow dark. Shadows crawl up my arm like ink in water.
I hear the voice again — louder this time.
"Do you want to live, Kairo Vale?"
I don't answer.
I don't need to.
I already made my choice five years ago.
The Judge looks terrified.
"You… you shouldn't be able to move," he says. "You're a Void!"
I look down at my hand. It's covered in strange black marks.
Then I look at him.
"I'm not a Void," I say. "I'm just full of the wrong kind of magic."
The crowd panics.
"Demon magic!" someone yells.
"No—! That's forbidden!"
Knights draw swords. Mages start charging spells.
"By order of the Crown, contain the anomaly!" a royal guard shouts.
Anomaly. That's what they're calling me now.
Cute.
I lift my hand. The black power builds like a storm.
The Judge tries to run—
Too slow.
BOOM.
The platform explodes.
Smoke rises.
The Judge is out cold.
Half the plaza is in chaos.
I stand in the center, calm, breathing slow.
The black marks on my arm glow, then fade.
The voice in my head is quiet… for now.
I look around.
People are scared.
Good.
"You wanted a Void," I whisper. "You should've left me as one."