The Echo Ruins were not the majestic sight Kael had read about in his textbooks. Instead of white marble and soaring towers, he found a skeletal graveyard of gray stone, half-buried under a forest that felt inherently wrong. The trees were twisted, their branches reaching out like crooked fingers, and a strange, violet mist clung to the ground. It didn't smell like nature; it smelled like ozone, ancient dust, and something metallic that made Kael's tongue feel dry.
For Kael, the beauty of the ruins was secondary to the agony in his shoulders.
As the "Resonance Monitor," his unofficial title was actually "the pack mule." He was currently carrying three massive leather rucksacks filled with measuring crystals, survival gear, and Alaric's personal tent. The straps bit deep into his shoulders, cutting through his thin tunic and chafing his skin raw. Every step was a battle against gravity, and every breath came in ragged, shallow gasps that burned his throat.
"Faster, Zero," Alaric called out from several yards ahead. He was walking effortlessly, his hands casually tucked into his pockets, occasionally conjuring a small flame to burn away a stray cobweb or simply to show off his perfect control. "If the monsters smell your sweat, they'll think we're bringing them a free lunch. Try not to embarrass the Valerius name more than you already have. Even a servant should have some dignity."
The other students laughed, their voices echoing off the silent stones like shards of glass. Kael didn't look up. He focused on the mud-caked boots of the student in front of him. One step. Then another. He felt like a glitch in a beautiful painting, a dirty, struggling speck in a line of shining young mages who moved with a grace he would never know.
"Kael, let me... let me help," a soft voice whispered.
Mina had slowed down to walk beside him. Her blue eyes were wide with a pity that felt like a hot iron against his skin. She reached out, her fingers glowing with a soft, watery light, intending to cast a minor weight-reduction spell on his bags. It was a simple spell, something a child could do, but it would have felt like a miracle to Kael's aching muscles.
Kael flinched away, nearly stumbling over a gnarled tree root. "I don't need your help, Mina. Focus on your training. You're supposed to be sensing the mana veins, remember? Don't waste your energy on me."
"You're shaking, Kael," she insisted, her voice trembling slightly with genuine concern. "It's not charity. We've known each other since we were five. We're friends. Or at least, we used to be."
"Are we?" Kael hissed, finally meeting her eyes. His gaze was cold, fueled by a mixture of exhaustion and deep-seated shame. "You're an A-Rank prodigy destined for the High Council. I'm a porter who can't even light a match. Go back to Alaric. That's where your future is. Stop looking back at me. You're only making it harder."
The look of hurt on her face was almost enough to make him apologize, but the bitterness in his heart was stronger. He turned his head away and forced his leaden legs to move faster, ignoring the dull ache in his knees. He couldn't stand the way she looked at him, like he was something broken that needed fixing.
They finally reached the heart of the ruins: a sunken courtyard where a massive Source Crystal sat atop a jagged pedestal. This was the goal of the expedition. The crystal was supposed to pulse with a steady, rhythmic white light, but as the group stepped into the clearing, the atmosphere shifted instantly.
The air became dense and heavy. Kael felt a sudden, sharp pressure in his ears, like he was sinking to the bottom of a deep, dark lake. The birds in the twisted forest went silent all at once, as if a hand had been clamped over the woods. Even the wind stopped.
"Something is wrong," Master Thorne whispered. He drew his sword, the runes on the blade glowing a fierce, warning orange. He looked around the clearing, his eyes darting toward the long shadows cast by the pillars. "The mana... it's being suppressed. It's like the very air is being drained of its life."
The students stopped laughing. The bravado they had shown on the trail vanished in an instant. They huddled together, their hands glowing as they instinctively prepared defensive spells. Kael dropped the heavy bags, the sudden release of weight making his body feel strangely light and disconnected. He scanned the ruins, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He felt it too—a sensation of being watched by something immense, ancient, and ravenous.
"Everyone! Formation Delta! Now!" Thorne screamed, his voice cracking with an urgency that terrified the students.
But he was too late.
The ground erupted in the center of the courtyard. A shockwave of raw, purple energy shattered the stone floor, sending shards of marble flying like shrapnel. From the darkness beneath the ruins, a creature rose that defied every law of biology. It was a beast of pure, corrupted mana, a mountain of shifting shadows and jagged crystal scales. It looked vaguely like a wolf, but it was the size of a carriage, with six eyes that glowed like dying, baleful stars.
"A Corrupted Mana Beast!" Thorne shouted, stepping forward to intercept it. "Retreat! Run back to the gates! This is beyond you!"
Panic exploded like a wildfire. The students, who had been so arrogant an hour ago, turned into a screaming mob. They tripped over each other, their spells misfiring or fizzling out in their terror. Alaric was the first to run, his "fire-mastery" forgotten as he vanished into the dark tree line without a second thought for anyone else.
"Mina, move!" Kael yelled, his voice barely audible over the creature's roar.
Mina was frozen. She was staring up at the beast, her hands raised to cast a shield, but the creature's mere presence was draining her mana faster than she could channel it. Her blue shield flickered and died. As she turned to run, her foot caught on one of the discarded leather straps of Kael's bags.
She fell hard, her knee striking the stone with a sickening crack.
The beast let out a roar that felt like it was tearing Kael's soul apart. It ignored Master Thorne's fireballs, which dissipated against its hide like raindrops. Its six eyes locked onto the girl on the ground. To the beast, she was the brightest source of mana in the clearing—a perfect, concentrated meal.
The creature leaped, its massive form blotting out the sun.
Kael saw it in slow motion. He saw Mina looking up, her face pale, her eyes wide with the absolute realization that her life was over. He saw the beast's massive, crystalline claws unsheathing, shimmering with purple energy.
In that moment, Kael didn't think about his lack of mana. He didn't think about Alaric's bullying or the cold, disappointed eyes of his father. He didn't think about his own survival. He only knew that the only person who had ever looked at him and seen a human being was about to be erased from existence.
"NO!"
Kael lunged forward, his legs finding a sudden, desperate strength. He didn't run away; he ran straight into the shadow of death.
With a raw, animalistic cry, Kael threw himself through the air. He slammed into Mina, his momentum pushing her several meters across the stone, out of the path of the killing blow. He interposed his body between the monster and the girl, bracing for the end.
The beast's massive claw struck him mid-air.
The force was unimaginable. Kael felt his ribs snap like dry twigs. He was launched backward, his body flying ten meters through the air like a broken doll.
THUD.
He slammed violently into a thick, ancient tree at the edge of the clearing. The impact was so hard it knocked the remaining air from his lungs. His head snapped back, hitting the bark with a sickening thud. Kael slumped to the ground, his body a map of agony. Every inch of him screamed in pain. His vision began to blur, the edges of the world turning into a thick, suffocating black ink.
This is it, he thought, his consciousness slipping away. I'm going to die. But she's safe.
As his mind began to sink into the final darkness, something happened. He could still feel the beast nearby, a majestic, millenary presence that pulsed with a power older than the city itself. In that final moment of proximity to such an ancient existence, Kael felt a strange resonance.
It wasn't a shock or a jolt. It was an awakening.
The presence of the creature seemed to reach into the very depths of his being, touching something that had been dormant since the day he was born. It was as if the beast's raw, ancient mana had acted as a key, turning a lock deep inside Kael's soul. Something fundamental in his essence stirred, stretching out after years of silence.
For a fleeting second, he felt a strange, cold clarity ripple through his mind—a feeling that he was no longer just a "Zero."
Then, the light faded. The connection snapped, and Kael fell into the silent, empty dark.