The Combat Arena was silent. A sea of student faces stared out, eyes wide, at the body on the floor. Crimson seeped out from beneath it. The tension was crushing, broken only by the hitched breaths of onlooking students still in the air.
> ◇ Human (Rank D/Aspirant) Eliminated. 150 VRP Gained.
The words remained in Kael's vision. He stood still, hand still shaking from the adrenaline. He looked down at the boy's body. Not guilty. Not sorry. Instead he felt confused. Blank. His hand... it had moved before he even knew what he was doing. As if it had a mind of its own. That wasn't him.
Or was it?
The whispers spread.
"Did he just... kill him?"
"How is that even possible? He was last place!"
"No, this isn't normal. He's not normal."
Dean Aeryn Velstral's voice cut through the chatter. "Class dismissed. Get back to your dorms. No talking. Anyone caught spreading rumors will be disciplined." Her eyes scanned the room, hard and unyielding, before flicking to Kael.
He had no idea what she was thinking. Approval? Disgust? Fear? She said nothing to him as she motioned for the instructors to take the body away. They moved with the practiced efficiency of people who had done this many times before.
Kael walked out of the arena to a sea of staring faces and hushed conversations. The whispers didn't stop when he was out of earshot. They just got louder.
---
By the time he got to the dorms, the rumors were already flying, getting bigger and more outlandish. Some said he had planned it all along, others claimed he used some forbidden power. Kael was the name on everyone's lips, and with it, fear, intrigue and disgust.
Kael was unbothered. Alone in his room, he relived the moment in his head. The rush of Blight through his body, the instinct that had overridden thought, and then the sickening crack as his hand had gone through flesh. The boy's face flashed in his mind, not clear but blurry—a detail that didn't matter.
It wasn't regret. It wasn't even pity. Just a lingering question: How did I do that? And why did it feel... so easy?
---
The lab was a sterile cube compared to the arena. Kael who was summoned here sat in a metal chair near the wall, watching as Dr. Levi typed away on one of her many consoles. The screens around her were filled with data—results from the tests she had run on him since he'd gotten to Black Haven. She barely looked up at him at first, her eyes fixed on the monitors.
She finally spoke, her voice flat and conversational. "You killed a kid? Really?" She didn't look at him as she said it, her fingers still typing away. "You said you wouldn't let them get under your skin."
Kael shrugged. "I didn't. It was an accident."
That stopped her. She turned to him, arms crossed, a small frown on her face.
"You didn't?" she repeated. "How do you accidentally kill someone, Kael?"
He looked down. "I don't know."
Levi sighed and rubbed her nose, adjusting her glasses. "You don't know," she said again, her voice incredulous and annoyed. "You have to give me more than that."
The silence was thick between them. Kael shifted in his chair, his fingers tapping on the armrest. "I guess I'm really in trouble this time," he muttered to himself.
Levi laughed dryly and shook her head. "No, you're not," she said. "He died in a sanctioned combat. There won't be any charges."
Kael's forehead creased and he looked up at her. "Sanctioned combat?" he repeated. "So, we can just kill each other as long as it's 'sanctioned'?"
Levi's face went cold, her sarcastic tone replaced by something much more serious. "Kael," she said, her voice low and measured. "You and the other first years don't understand where you are yet. Over seventy percent of you will die. That's not an estimate. It's a fact."
Kael's eyes narrowed but he didn't say anything, let her words sink in.
"Less than thirty percent of Black Haven students make it to their second year," she went on. "Most of them die in the Nexus, others in breaches. And yes, some of you will die at the hands of your fellow students. It's simple, for the weak…Death is inevitable."
Her words hung in the air, coldly above. Kael sat back in his chair, his face blank. There was a time, maybe, when he would have thought that was cruel and unfair. But that time had past. He wasn't the naive kid from the outskirts anymore.
He had recovered enough of his memories to know now that survival wasn't a right—it was something you earned, something you fought for. If you didn't have the strength to take it, to hold onto it, then you didn't deserve it.
This was the way of life. Harsh. Unforgiving. And in its own sick way, fair.
Levi looked at him. "You're not freaking out at all," she said, her voice almost accusatory.
Kael shrugged. "It is what it is."
Her face scrunched up and for a moment she looked almost... uneasy. She turned back to her monitors and typed something into the console. The machines hummed softly.
Then, without looking at him, she asked the question she'd been asking since the incident. "What exactly are you, Kael?" she said, her voice low and serious. "Because it's certainly not a Lightforged."
Kael stiffened slightly, her words striking a chord he hadn't expected. He opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. What was he supposed to say? That he didn't know? That he was an ancient being who slayed Gods?
Levi turned to face him again, her gaze piercing. "You moved like someone who's done this a hundred times before," she said. "That wasn't instinct. That was skill. Precision. And the way you used whatever you did, cause it was not etheriron… it doesn't match any Lightforged profile I've ever seen."
Kael clenched his fists. He couldn't tell her the truth—not all of it, at least.
"I'm not sure why either," he said finally, his voice quiet but firm.
Levi shifted in her seat as she spoke "I'll tell you why, because Etherion doesnt flow through you…Blight does"
"Are you a ravager Kael? Lie to me and you will die at the push of a button"