Kael woke up in a room that felt too bright and too quiet.
The first thing he felt was the pain. It wasn't a sharp, sudden sting, but a heavy, crushing weight that seemed to have replaced his bones. Every breath felt like a struggle against a heavy stone sitting on his chest. His ribs ached with a dull, pulsing heat, and a sharp throb behind his eyes made even the act of looking around feel like a battle. The air smelled of sharp antiseptic herbs and the faint, metallic scent of ozone that always lingered near high-level magic.
He opened his eyes slowly, blinking against the soft light coming from the ceiling. Above him, the infirmary of the Academy was carved from pale, polished stone. Glowing runes were etched into the arches, their soft blue light designed to calm the mind and stabilize the body. Only a few days ago, during the initiation ceremony, those same runes had felt like a promise of greatness. Now, they were a bitter reminder of everything he wasn't.
He remembered the Prism. It had happened so recently that he could still feel the cold silence of the ceremony as the crystal stayed dark. In that single moment, just a week ago, he had gone from a hopeful student to a "mana-less" anomaly. The stares of the other students, the whispers of "defective," the look of disappointment on the instructors' faces, it was all still a raw, bleeding wound in his mind.
"Kael? Are you with me?"
The voice was small and cautious. He turned his head slowly, a process that sent a wave of nausea through his stomach. Mina Everlight was sitting in a wooden chair right next to his bed.
The prodigy looked like a shadow of herself. Her silver-gold hair was messy, and her eyes were red from lack of sleep. Her Academy uniform was wrinkled, and she was clutching a small piece of fabric in her hands, twisting it nervously. Mina was supposed to be the pride of their new class, a mage of incredible potential, yet here she was, looking at him with an expression of pure, unfiltered guilt.
"Mina..." Kael's voice was a dry rasp, barely more than a whisper. His throat felt like it had been scraped with hot iron.
She stood up immediately, nearly knocking her chair over. She reached for a glass of water on the side table and held it to his lips. The cool water felt like a miracle as it touched his tongue, but he couldn't help but notice how much her hands were shaking. She wasn't looking at him with the usual pity he received from others; she was looking at him like he was a ghost she had created during their disastrous first field excursion.
"The healers said you were lucky," she said, her voice trembling. "They said the impact should have killed someone without mana. Kael, I don't understand. Why did you do it? You saw that thing. You knew you couldn't defend yourself. Why would you throw your life away for me?"
Kael didn't answer right away. He couldn't. He remembered the beast's roar and the feeling of the wind as it lunged. He hadn't thought about ranks or potential. He had just seen a friend in danger. But as he lay there, he also remembered a strange sensation just before the impact—a moment of absolute, freezing stillness that he couldn't explain.
"I didn't think," he finally said. "I just moved."
The door of the infirmary opened with a sharp, professional click. An older woman in dark green robes entered. She had a sharp face and grey hair pulled back into a tight bun. On her collar, she wore a bronze pin: the mark of a Rank D+ Healer.
"Back away, Miss Everlight," the healer said, her voice brisk. "The boy needs treatment, not conversation."
Mina stepped back, her fingers lingering on the edge of the bed for a second before she retreated to the corner of the room. She looked small against the tall stone walls of the infirmary.
The healer didn't waste time. She stood over Kael and raised her hands. Her palms began to glow with a soft, emerald light. This was a standard restorative spell, the kind of magic that could knit bones together in minutes and erase bruises in seconds. To a healer of her rank, this was as simple as breathing.
Kael watched the green light as it descended toward his chest. As the magic got closer, he felt a strange chill. It wasn't a physical cold, but a sensation of deep, heavy silence. It felt like a pressure building up inside him, pushing back against the world.
The emerald light touched his skin.
The healer's eyes widened. For a moment, the light flickered. It didn't flow into Kael's body to start the healing process. Instead, the green glow simply began to fade. It didn't pop or spark; it just lost its color, turning into a dull, grey mist before vanishing entirely.
"That's... unusual," the healer muttered. She adjusted her stance and gathered her mana again.
This time, she focused harder. The emerald light became much brighter, filling the space between them with a warm, vibrant energy. She pushed her hands forward, forcing the magic toward Kael's broken ribs. Kael felt a dull thud in his chest, a sensation of something hitting a solid, invisible wall.
The light died instantly. One moment the room was filled with the glow of healing magic, and the next, there was only the dim, natural light of the infirmary. The spell had failed completely.
"Is something wrong?" Mina asked from the corner, her voice filled with alarm.
"The mana is disappearing," the healer said, her voice shaking with frustration. "I am casting the spell, I am providing the energy, but the moment it touches him, it's gone. It's like trying to light a fire in the middle of a vacuum. There is no resistance, no struggle... the magic just ceases to be."
She tried a third time, pouring a massive amount of energy into the effort. She was a professional; she had healed hundreds of students. But no matter how much mana she used, the result remained the same. Kael's body remained broken, and the magic simply vanished into nothingness.
"I can't heal him," the healer finally said, stepping back. She looked at Kael with a mix of confusion and a hint of fear. "My magic won't take. I've never seen anything like it. Even a student with the lowest potential should be able to receive healing. But he... it's like he's a void."
Mina stepped forward, her eyes wide. "But he's still hurt. You can't just leave him like this."
"I have no choice," the healer sighed, wiping sweat from her brow. "Since magic is useless, we will have to use traditional medicine. Bandages, herbal pastes, and rest. It will be a slow, agonizing recovery. His body simply refuses the blessing of mana. It's as if he's not even part of the same world we live in."
When the healer left to fetch the supplies, the silence in the room felt heavier than before. Kael looked down at his pale, trembling hands. He was mana-less. The Academy had confirmed it only days ago, and he was still reeling from the shock. He was the zero in a world of heroes.
He looked at Mina Everlight. She was staring at him, her expression a mix of awe and terror. She had seen the magic disappear. She had seen him survive something impossible.
Kael knew his life at the Academy was about to get much harder. Without magic to heal him, he would have to endure every second of the pain. Without magic to protect him, he would have to find another way to survive in a place that already wanted him gone.
He looked at his reflection in the dark window. He looked fragile, but his eyes were different. The despair he had felt since the ceremony was being replaced by a cold, hard determination. If the world was built on mana, and he had none, then he would have to build himself into something that didn't need it.
He would train. He would forge his muscles and his mind until they were as solid as the wall that had just stopped the healer's magic. He would find a way to stand, even if the whole world told him he should stay on the ground.
His journey was no longer about finding mana. It was about surviving without it.