Tyren was a forgotten little village nestled on the kingdom's edge, swallowed by endless forest.
Days passed in quiet simplicity—magic watered the fields, lifted market crates, and sent children's laughter spiraling on playful gusts of wind.
Everyone's left wrist carried glowing numbers and colors: black for the common, blue for the rare, red for legends that almost never came.
At the village's outermost house lived Lior and Althea—happy, content… except for the one ache no spell could heal: a child.
"Who could forget that night sixteen years ago? The night two infants were left at our door…"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Who the hell is knocking at this hour?" Lior's voice cracked.
No answer.
Heart hammering, he cracked the door open—and froze.
Two baskets. Two tiny babies.
A cloaked woman was already sprinting toward the treeline.
"Wait!" Lior gave chase, but the darkness swallowed her whole.
When he returned, Althea cradled the infants, tears shining.
A single note lay beside the baskets:
The first is Rion.
The second is Alen.
Lior knelt. "Fate brought them. They are ours."
No questions. No hesitation.
Sixteen years later.
The village square buzzed. Today was the Magic Awakening.
Rion thumped his chest. "Watch me surpass everyone! One day I'll be Knight Commander—I'll crush the Admins and bring real peace!"
Little Reno snickered. "You'll be the weakest ever!"
Alen stepped between them and ended the fight with a single calm look.
From the porch, Lior and Althea smiled.
"Rion's still a child at heart," Althea whispered.
"And Alen already carries the weight of a man," Lior replied.
The next day, the crowd gathered before the ancient library crystal.
One by one they went.
Black 78. Black 152. Blue 43…
"Alen!"
He touched the crystal.
The sky split.
A pillar of crimson light crashed down.
Red 341—Wind Sovereign.
Gasps. Cheers. Tears.
A Supreme Grade—something the kingdom hadn't seen in twenty years.
Rion barreled forward, grinning ear-to-ear. "That's my brother! But just wait—I'm next!"
He slammed his palm onto the crystal.
For one impossible heartbeat, a forbidden green flash erupted—then vanished.
The elder examiner went white as death.
"Impossible… that color is forbidden… why is it showing zero?"
Black 0 slowly burned itself onto Rion's wrist.
Laughter exploded.
"Zero?"
"He has nothing!"
A bratty kid screamed, "Level Zero trash! Give up and go plow fields!"
Rion's smile died.
Lior tried to comfort him, but his son only stared at the empty mark, silent.
Alen walked away without a word.
Two sides of the same coin.
Night.
The village slept.
Rion sat alone beneath the moon, shadow stretching long.
His left eye twitched.
A voice—ancient, hungry—whispered inside his skull:
"You are not zero.
You are the Void that will devour everything.
Thousands are waiting for you… remember?"
A tiny green circle appeared on his wrist, a black dot pulsing at its heart.
The grass around him blackened and withered.