Kami placed his hands on the woman's fevered skin and opened his Devourer senses fully.
What he encountered was unlike anything he had experienced before. The Pneuma plague was not merely a disease—it was a living corruption, a twisted entity that had evolved to spread through life-force itself. It writhed within the woman's Pneuma network like a serpent, consuming her vital energy and converting it into more plague, creating an exponential infection that would spread to anyone who touched her with their Pneuma.
The moment Kami's Devourer nature made contact, the plague surged toward him.
It wanted to infect him, to spread into this new host, to corrupt his vast Pneuma capacity and turn him into a vector that could infect thousands. Kami felt it rushing through the connection between his hands and the woman's body, felt it trying to burrow into his own life-force.
And then his Devourer nature responded.
The plague was Pneuma—corrupted, twisted, malevolent, but still Pneuma. And Pneuma was what Kami consumed.
He did not try to resist the plague's invasion. Instead, he welcomed it. Drew it in. Let it flow into the void at his core where his hunger waited.
And the hunger devoured it.
The plague entity had evolved to corrupt, to spread, to transform healthy Pneuma into diseased copies of itself. But it had never encountered a Devourer. It had never met something that could consume Pneuma itself, that could break down life-force into raw energy and absorb it completely.
Kami pulled the plague from the woman in a steady stream, drawing the corruption out through every point of contact. The black veins on her skin began to recede. Her gray pallor faded. Her breathing, which had been shallow and labored, gradually steadied.
But the plague fought back.
As Kami consumed it, the entity learned. Adapted. It began to concentrate itself, to resist being drawn out, to dig deeper into the woman's Pneuma network and anchor itself to her vital organs.
"It knows what you are doing," Master Hadrian whispered, watching in horrified fascination. "It is trying to make itself too dangerous to extract. If you pull it from her heart or brain, you might kill her in the process."
"Then I will be more precise," Kami replied through gritted teeth.
He narrowed his focus, targeting individual threads of the plague rather than trying to drain it all at once. Thread by thread, cell by cell, he extracted the corruption from the woman's deepest tissues. It was exhausting work—surgical precision maintained over minutes that felt like hours, fighting his own hunger which screamed at him to just consume everything, woman and plague together.
But he did not. He chose. Controlled. Separated disease from patient with microscopic care.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he pulled the last thread of plague from her body. The woman gasped, her eyes flying open, her skin returning to healthy color as her Pneuma network stabilized.
Kami stumbled backward, the consumed plague churning inside him. His Devourer nature was breaking it down, destroying it, but the sheer volume of corrupted Pneuma he had absorbed made him feel sick and bloated, as though he had gorged himself on rotten meat.
"The plague is inside you now," Hadrian said urgently. "Can you... can you contain it?"
"I am not containing it," Kami gasped. "I am digesting it. My hunger breaks down all Pneuma, even corrupted Pneuma. Give me... a moment..."
He knelt on the hospital floor, focusing inward, watching as his Devourer nature systematically destroyed the plague entity. It tried to resist, tried to infect him from within, but it could not corrupt something that was already fundamentally contrary to natural Pneuma. Within his void-like core, the plague was torn apart and reduced to raw energy that fed his hunger.
After several minutes, Kami stood. The plague was gone—not suppressed, not quarantined, but completely destroyed.
"Impossible," Hadrian breathed. "You just consumed a Pneuma plague that should have killed you and converted it into... into nothing. Into yourself."
"Not nothing," Kami corrected tiredly. "Into me. My hunger is absolute, Master Hadrian. It does not discriminate. Disease, corruption, even plague entities—all are Pneuma, and all can be consumed."
The woman on the stretcher was weeping with relief and confusion. "What happened? I was dying, I felt the darkness consuming me, and then... this boy... he pulled it out of me. Pulled it all out."
"You had Pneuma plague," Hadrian told her gently. "A death sentence. But this boy is Kami Van Hellsin, and he has saved your life. Now we must find everyone you have had contact with and see if the infection has spread."
Over the next three days, Kami worked without rest. The plague had indeed spread—seventeen people in the Copper District showed early signs of infection. Under normal circumstances, this would have required evacuating thousands, quarantining entire blocks, letting the infected die in isolation to prevent further spread.
Instead, Kami cured them all.
One by one, he drained the plague from their bodies, consumed the corruption, destroyed the disease. It grew easier with each patient as he learned the plague's patterns, understood how it tried to resist extraction. By the seventeenth patient, he could cure the infection in minutes rather than hours.
When the last patient was healed, when the plague outbreak had been completely contained without a single death, the news spread through Aurelius like wildfire.
The Devourer had saved the Copper District. The monster had chosen mercy. The abomination had proved itself a healer.
Even the nobility took notice. Senator Marcus Tiberion himself—Cassius's father—came to the hospital to observe Kami treating patients. He watched in silence for an hour, his expression unreadable, then left without speaking. But three days later, a formal letter arrived at the Academy bearing the Tiberion seal.
Grand Master Maximus read it aloud to Kami in his office:
"'While the Tiberion family maintains that Devourers represent an inherent threat to civilized society, we acknowledge that Kami Van Hellsin has demonstrated abilities of potential value to the Empire. We withdraw our petition for his expulsion and will not oppose his continued training, provided he remains under appropriate supervision and control.'"
"It is not forgiveness," Maximus observed. "But it is a cessation of active hostility. The Tiberions no longer seek your destruction. That is... significant."
"What changed?" Kami asked.
"You demonstrated value that outweighs risk. The Senate fears Pneuma plague more than they fear you. You have become useful, and useful things are tolerated even when they are dangerous."
But there were other consequences as well.
Two weeks after the plague incident, three figures in black robes arrived at the Academy. They bore no insignia, carried no identification, but their authority was absolute. Even Grand Master Maximus treated them with wary respect.
The Silent Legion had come to evaluate Kami Van Hellsin.
The evaluation took place in a sealed chamber deep beneath the Academy, where no one could observe or interfere. Kami was brought before three Legion operatives who wore masks that concealed their faces and distorted their voices.
"Kami Van Hellsin," the center operative spoke, their voice a mechanical whisper. "You have been identified as a potential asset to Imperial security. We will ask questions. You will answer truthfully. Deception will be detected and punished. Do you understand?"
"I understand," Kami replied, keeping his voice steady despite his racing heart.
"Have you ever deliberately killed a human being?"
"Once. When I was five. A merchant who tried to strike me. I did not know what I was doing. It was instinct, not intention."
"Since then?"
"No deliberate killings. I have consumed disease, corruption, plague entities. But no human lives."
"Could you kill a human being if ordered to do so?"
Kami paused. The question was a trap—answer yes and they would use him as an assassin; answer no and they would deem him useless or insubordinate.
"I could drain a human being of their Pneuma completely," he said carefully. "Whether I would do so if ordered depends on the circumstances. I am not a mindless weapon. I am a person who makes choices."
The operatives conferred in whispers too quiet to hear. Then:
"You cured a Pneuma plague outbreak. How many similar outbreaks could you cure?"
"As many as I encounter. My Devourer nature can consume any form of corrupted Pneuma."
"And if we unleashed such plagues deliberately, in enemy territory, could you then cure our own forces while leaving the enemy to die?"
Horror flooded through Kami. They were asking if he could be used as part of biological warfare—spread plague among enemies, then selectively cure Imperial forces.
"I could," he admitted. "But I will not. That would be using disease as a weapon. It would be monstrous."
"The Empire does what it must to survive. Morality is a luxury of the strong."
"Then make me strong enough to have that luxury," Kami replied. "Use me to cure diseases, to remove corruption, to heal rather than harm. I will serve the Empire, but I will not become a monster to do so."
More whispered consultation. Then the operatives stood.
"Your evaluation is complete. You will not be conscripted into the Silent Legion at this time. However, you remain a person of interest to Imperial security. Should the Empire face threats that require your unique capabilities, you will be summoned. Refusal of such summons will be considered treason."
"I understand," Kami said.
They left without another word, disappearing into the Academy's shadows as silently as they had arrived.
When Kami reported the evaluation to Grand Master Maximus, the old man's expression was grim.
"They have marked you, boy. You are now a resource to be called upon when needed. That is better than being conscripted as an assassin, but it is still a chain around your neck."
"At least it is a chain I can live with," Kami replied. "They will use me for healing, for combating corruption. I can accept that."
"For now. But if the Empire faces true existential threat, they will not care about your moral reservations. They will use you however they must." Maximus sighed. "You have bought yourself time, Kami. Use it wisely."
The remainder of Kami's second year passed more peacefully. His work in the Copper District continued, his reputation as a healer growing. The other students still feared him, but that fear was now tempered with a grudging respect. Even Cassius Tiberion, while maintaining his cold distance, no longer actively worked against him.
Thorwald thrived, rising to become one of the Academy's most promising warriors. By year's end, he had been awarded the Silver Spear—an honor given to the most exceptional second-year combat student.
At the award ceremony, Thorwald stood before the assembled Academy and made a statement that surprised everyone:
"I am honored to receive this recognition. But I am not the most exceptional student in my year. That honor belongs to my brother, Kami Van Hellsin, who has saved more lives than all of us combined. He has proven that power can be used for protection rather than domination, that the greatest strength lies not in conquest but in choosing mercy when you have the capacity for cruelty. He is the example I follow. He is the standard I measure myself against."
The Academy stood in stunned silence. Then, slowly, hesitantly, someone began to applaud. Then another. And another.
Not everyone joined in—Cassius and his faction remained pointedly silent—but for the first time, Kami Van Hellsin received public recognition not as a monster to be feared but as a person to be respected.
He stood in the audience, uncomfortable with the attention, but when he met Thorwald's eyes across the hall, his brother smiled with such pride and love that Kami felt something warm break through the ice that had surrounded his heart for so long.
Perhaps, he thought, there was hope after all. Perhaps a Devourer could be more than his hunger.
Perhaps he could be human.