The morning light in the High Tower was too bright, too sterile, and far too loud with the humming of mana-conduits. I rolled out of my thin cot in the basement, my joints popping with a dull ache. The Fragility Draught I had swallowed the night before was now in full effect; every breath felt like pulling air through a wet cloth, and my skin had taken on a sickly, translucent grey tint.
I stood before the cracked mirror in the washroom and activated the Void-Skin. I watched in grim fascination as the dark, ink-like threads of the void crawled up my neck and arms, settling into patterns that mimicked shattered mana-channels. To anyone with "Vein-Sense," I looked like a dying battery.
"Perfect," I whispered, my voice raspy and thin.
I threw on my uniform, making sure the collar was slightly askew. I needed to look like a boy who was struggling to keep up with the basic dignity of an S-Rank student.
When I pushed open the Mithril doors of Classroom 1-S, the conversation died instantly. Kaelen Voss was already there, leaning against the front podium, his blue lightning mana sparking idly between his fingers. He looked at me, his eyes tracking the dark, bruised lines peeking out from my sleeves.
"Look at that," Kaelen sneered to Isolde. "The 'Hero' looks like he's ready for a funeral. Are you sure you shouldn't be in the infirmary, Valerius? Or is the air in the High Tower too rich for a Dud?"
I didn't answer. I just shuffled to my seat in the back, leaning heavily on the marble desks. I let my hand shake as I pulled out my notebook.
Professor Hecate shimmered into the room. She didn't offer a greeting. She simply waved her hand, and ten obsidian spheres rose from the floor, floating in front of each student.
"Today is a test of Internal Anchoring," Hecate announced, her silver eyes scanning the room. "You will place your hand on the sphere. It will attempt to drain your mana. Your task is to anchor your core so that the sphere remains inert. If your anchor fails, the sphere will pull until you lose consciousness."
One by one, the elites began. Kaelen's sphere didn't move an inch; his blue lightning formed a cage around it, locking it in place. Isolde's sphere frosted over, frozen by her sheer willpower.
Then, Hecate walked toward me. "Mr. Valerius. Since you are our 'Hero,' perhaps you can show us how a Null handles an anchor."
I reached out. My fingers touched the cold, hungry stone of the obsidian sphere.
The Internal Strategy:
The Bait: I didn't resist. I opened a microscopic "valve" in my Void-Core.
The Reaction: The sphere didn't just pull; it screamed. It had never encountered a void before. It began to hum violently, trying to fill the bottomless pit inside me.
The Mask: I let my knees buckle. I allowed the yellowish tint of the Fragility Draught to flush my face. I wheezed, my hand trembling against the stone.
"He's failing!" one of the students shouted.
The sphere turned a deep, angry purple. In the eyes of the class, it looked like the sphere was sucking the very life out of me. I let out a choked sound and collapsed to one knee, my hand staying glued to the stone as if I were paralyzed by the drain.
"Enough!" Hecate shouted, deactivating the device with a snap of her fingers.
I fell backward, breathing hard, my chest heaving in a way that looked dangerously erratic. The dark lines on my arms—the Void-Skin—flickered and dimmed.
"He can't even hold a basic anchor for ten seconds," Kaelen laughed, walking past me to the door. "He's not a hero. He's a parasite that's finally running out of host."
The afternoon was reserved for Combat Exercises in the Grand Arena. The sun was high, baking the sand of the arena floor. This wasn't a duel; it was a "Hunt and Harvest" drill.
"The rules are simple," Hecate said, standing on the observation deck. "One student is the Prey. Four are the Hunters. The Prey must cross the arena. The Hunters must 'tag' them with a non-lethal spell. Cassian Valerius, you are the Prey."
Kaelen, Isolde, and two other S-Ranks stepped forward. They looked like lions watching a limping gazelle.
"Don't worry, Cassian," Kaelen whispered, his hands crackling with ozone. "I'll make it quick. I'd hate for you to have a heart attack before I get to hit you."
The whistle blew.
I didn't run. I shuffled. I used the stone pillars for cover, moving with a clumsy, desperate energy. But inside, my mind was a cold machine. I wasn't just hiding; I was using Void-Sense to feel the ripples of mana in the air.
Lightning bolt from the left. I "tripped" over a loose stone, face-planting into the sand just as the blue streak whistled over my head. To the teachers watching, it looked like a pathetic accident.
Ice spike from the right. I "doubled over" in a fake fit of coughing. The spike shattered against the pillar where my head had been a second ago.
For eight minutes, I "accidentally" evaded every high-level spell they threw. I looked like a mess—covered in sand, wheezing, clutching my chest—but I hadn't been touched.
"Stay still, you rat!" Kaelen roared. He was humiliated. An S-Rank elite was being eluded by a "Dud" who looked like he could barely stand. He unleashed a Nova Pulse, a circular wave of electricity meant to cover the entire floor.
I couldn't "trip" out of this one.
"Void-Skin, Phase Two," I thought.
I let the electricity hit me. As it touched my skin, I used a microscopic layer of Erasure to delete the heat and the voltage, leaving only the impact. I flew backward, tumbling across the sand like a ragdoll, and slammed into the stone wall with a sickening thud.
I stayed down. The dark lines on my skin flared bright purple before "burning out."
"Target tagged," Hecate called out, her voice filled with a strange mix of pity and suspicion. "Medical team, get in there. He took a direct hit from a Voss Nova-Pulse."
As the healers rushed over with their glowing green mana, Kaelen stood in the center of the arena, his chest heaving. He had won, but the look on his face said otherwise. He had used a massive spell on a "dying" boy, and somehow, it felt like he had lost.
I let the healers carry me to the sidelines. I kept my eyes closed, my breathing shallow.