Fear didn't claw at me anymore; it was just another variable to manage. Mercy? Hesitation? Those were luxuries for someone who didn't have people worth killing for.
The me from before would have flinched at the blood still drying on my hands. The me now? I only wondered why I'd wasted time leaving the last cultist alive.
The shift wasn't gentle. It was like someone had scraped away the dull edge of my mind, leaving only the blade underneath.
And if I was going to be a blade… I needed to know just how sharp I'd become.
I flexed my fingers, rolling my shoulders. The temple's interior was a graveyard of broken pillars and collapsed stone, a perfect testing ground. My eyes landed on one column still standing, thick as a tree trunk.
"Alright," I muttered. "Let's see what we're working with."
I took a few steps forward and drove a punch straight into the pillar.
CRACK.
Stone groaned and split under my fist, a jagged fracture running up its length. My hand? Barely sore.
I blinked, then let out a low whistle. "Okay… either I got stronger, or this place was built by people who thought 'structural integrity' was a myth."
Curiosity lit in my chest. I braced, then gave the column a second punch, harder this time.
The pillar snapped in half and collapsed like a drunk at closing time.
I couldn't stop the grin tugging at my mouth.
Alright, strength test: passed.
Now for speed. I crouched slightly, picked a point across the room, and launched myself. The ground blurred beneath me, cracking slightly as I jumped over debris, bounced off a wall, and landed at my target in less than three seconds. I wasn't even breathing hard.
And here's the fun part, I'm not even an Awakened yet.
Awakening happens at seventeen. That's when your mana core forms and your elemental affinity gets revealed. Fire, lightning, water, earth, the classics… or one of the rare ones, like space, time, or fate. After that, your training begins in earnest.
Until then, you're just a regular human.
But me? No mana core. No elemental magic. And I just punched through solid stone and ran like a drug-inhanced lunatic.
That's… not normal.
I eyed a chunk of collapsed roof the size of a car. The kind of thing people in my old world would need cranes to move. I walked over, got a decent grip, and lifted. My muscles tensed, but the slab rose clean off the ground.
I stared at it in my hands, and a little thrill shot through me.
When I finally awaken? I'm going to break this world in half.
But until then, I have to train.
Half a year.
That's how long until I hit seventeen and get my mana core. Six months of waiting to find out if I'll get something flashy like lightning, or something lame like… moss. Yeah, that's a thing. I saw a guy use it once. He tried to rob a store and got taken out by a mop.
And two months after awakening? The Ironwill Academy entrance exam.
The shining jewel of the Human Empire. Number one in the world. People call it 'The devil's nest' because of how brutal they are to the cadets who attend. Yet people still kill for a shot at getting in. Literally. Every noble, warlord, and third rate villain wants their little prodigies there, because Ironwill churns out legends like other schools churn out cafeteria food poisoning.
The thing is, they only let you try the exam if your potential is S-rank or higher. That's the kind of talent most people would sell their souls for.
And if I'm getting in, Lyra's getting in with me. No discussion. She's smart, talented, dangerous when she wants to be, and let's be honest, I trust her to watch my back more than anyone else in this world.
The only other name I know who'll be there is Adrian Stormwell. My little brother used to talk about him all the time in my… other life. The so-called protagonist. The "chosen one." The guy Fate loves to hand plot armor to. Yeah, he's going to be attending too.
I just don't know yet if that's a good thing… or a problem waiting to happen.
Still, if I pass the exam, when I pass the exam, well, that's when the real story will start.
Then the real fun begins dorm life. Ironwill locks you in like it's a luxury prison. You can send letters, sure, but visits, or just walking out for a snack run? Forget it. They say it's to keep students "focused" and "safe," but I know a control measure when I see one.
Still… if it means Lyra's there with me, maybe I can deal with it.
I shook off the thought, wiping the last of the blood from my hands on the ragged edge of my shirt. The temple was nothing but cracked stone and lingering mana residue now, and I'd had enough of both for one day.
Time to go home.
The road back to Solara wasn't far, but it was always strange approaching it from the outside. The closer I got, the more the wilderness gave way to the kind of infrastructure only the Imperial Capital could pull off, gleaming mana-streetlamps, grav-lift checkpoints, and the distant shimmer of skyrails overhead.
And then that massive silhouette.
Even from kilometers out, the skyscrapers rose like titans from the earth, their glass and steel spines catching the afternoon sun. Hover cars traced silver arcs between them, like fireflies caught in an invisible web. The air hummed faintly with the passage of mana trains streaking across elevated rails and smelled like ozone, and far above, the faint glow of the Grand Portal Spire dominated the horizon.
It should've been overwhelming. Too loud. Too bright. Too… much.
But to me, it was just home.
---
Even with the imperial capital Solara's noise pressing in from every direction, my mind kept wandering back to the last few days.
Getting kidnapped by a bunch of robed lunatics hadn't exactly been on my to-do list. But, somewhere out there, there's a club full of people who think strapping someone to an altar and chanting about "blessings from the Void Father" is a valid life choice.
Spoiler: it's not.
And these guys weren't just insane, they were crazy insane. A whole temple full. Dozens of them. All with the same glassy-eyed conviction that spilling my blood would please some god that only exists in the fever dreams of people who need a hobby. Well, I was lucky that only 3 people were sent to kidnap me
Still, jokes on them. They didn't get their sacrifice. I walked out. They… didn't.
I stepped off the mana-rail platform and started weaving through the familiar maze of side streets toward our apartment, the exact opposite of the imperial castle at the center of the city. The further I went, the less Solara's shining image held up cracked pavement, flickering streetlights, and laundry lines sagging between buildings. The same old, stubborn neighborhood that chewed people up and spat them out if they weren't careful.
And somewhere in the middle of it, Lyra and Anakin were waiting.
———
Lyra Blessborne
I'd scrubbed the kitchen counter three times already. Not because it needed it, it was already cleaner than it had any right to be, but because standing still made my chest feel tight.
Three days. Three. Whole. Days.
Zane was nowhere. No note. No message. No one in the neighborhood had seen him. And I'd taken the day off work, which, given how little that place paid me, basically meant I'd traded a week's worth of groceries just to keep pacing our cramped apartment like a caged animal.
I'd already checked the door lock twice. Peered out the window five times. Made tea. Let it go cold. Made another.
Where in bloody hell was he?
This part of the city wasn't safe; it never had been. Too many people with too much power and not enough reason to care about the weak and powerless. And Zane… Zane was reckless. He was careful when it came to Anakin and me, but with himself? Not even a little.
I chewed the inside of my cheek, arms crossed tight. Every time I thought about calling the city watch, I remembered how useless they'd been the last time we needed help. No witnesses, no mana trace, no case, and no help, we'd get absolutely nothing.
Anakin had asked where he was this morning. I'd told him Zane was fine. That he'd just gotten caught up with something related to work. My voice hadn't sounded convincing even to me.
I caught myself staring at the clock again. Every second was unbearably slow, as if time itself refused to move
If he wasn't back by tonight, I was going to start looking for him myself.