That night when everything had settled, Cedric appeared at Kyle's door but he didn't come alone.
He came with three of his personal bootlickers, all drunk off their own arrogance. They pushed into Kyle's small room without knocking, the door crashing against the wall hard enough to dent it.
Kyle barely had time to sit up on his bed.
"Look at you," Cedric sneered, stepping in. "Acting like you belong here."
One of his boys tugged Kyle off the bed and slammed him into the floor. Another kicked the drawer open, rummaging through Kyle's few belongings.
Cedric grinned when he saw the pendant, the only thing Kyle had left from his father.
"Oh? This cheap little trinket means something to you?"
Kyle's eyes widened. "No... don't touch that!"
Cedric held it up between two fingers, mocking him.
"What are you gonna do about it?"
Before Kyle could even reach out, Cedric crushed it in his hand and a loud crack echoing through the room.
The pendant shattered into pieces.
The moment it did, something invisible snapped.
A pulse. A ripple. A shockwave only Kyle's body felt.
Then the beating began.
Insults. Kicks. Laughter.
Eventually Kyle went silent on the floor.
Out cold. Pendant broken beside him.
But deep inside him
the seal around his mana unraveled.
Energy he never knew he had surged through his veins, blazing awake like a sleeping dragon.
The boy who slept on the floor was not the same boy who would wake up.
The following morning, Kyle jolted awake, breath sharp. His body… didn't hurt.
At all.
No bruises. No soreness. No aches.
In fact, he felt light. Balanced. Clear.
"What… happened to me?"
He didn't have the words. Just an instinct telling him to move.
His feet carried him straight to the training grounds without knowing he'd meet someone who would push him to new heights.