Within a peaceful infirmary, a man sat in front of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. The man was none other than Ragnar, the Principal of Ascension Academy while the boy was Raze, who had just regained consciousness.

  Nearly a day had passed since the battle and during that time, Ragnar hadn’t left Raze’s side even once, choosing instead to meditate inside the infirmary for the entire day.

  Such a short span of time was no more than a passing second to someone like him, someone who had already reached the Ascendant Rank in martial arts, the second-highest rank that existed in this world.

  Normally, someone like Raze wouldn’t have mattered much to him, but the energy he had emitted, even if only for a few seconds, had genuinely amused him to make him stay.

  Raze’s eyes slowly opened, his vision blurred at first before gradually focusing on the unfamiliar white ceiling above him.

  His body felt heavy, every muscle aching as if he had been trampled by a herd of stampeding beasts but the pain was manageable, dulled by what he assumed was some kind of healing magic or medicine.

  He tried to sit up but his arms trembled under his own weight.

  “Easy there, kiddo.” A familiar voice came from his right. “You have been out for a full day and your body is still recovering.”

  Raze turned his head and saw him, Principal Ragnar, sitting casually in a chair beside his bed with his feet up on a small table. The man was smoking a cigar, the smoke drifting lazily out of the window without going anywhere else as if it had will of its own.

  When a person reached the demi-god ranks in martial arts, every word they spoke carried a fragment of their will, making it far more imposing than that of ordinary people. Raze felt it clearly, the immense aura Ragnar unconsciously radiated but he had experienced far worse from his mother. So, he ignored it and kept his calm.

  Raze didn’t respond immediately either, instead he forced his broken body to sit up properly before glancing around the clean and sterile room which clearly looked to be part of some high-end medical facility.

  “Where am I, sir?” Raze asked politely.

  “You are in Ascension Academy’s medical wing.” Ragnar replied, taking another drag from his cigar. “The best healers in the kingdom work here so you are in good hands.”

  Raze nodded slowly as memories of the battle flooded back, the mage, the desperate attack, the dark energy that had erupted from within him and the moment he had asked Ragnar to spare his enemy.

  “Lyla… Ellara…” Raze muttered. “Are they okay?”

  Ragnar’s expression softened slightly.

  “They are fine. The other girl, Lyla is still recovering but she will pull through and Ellara is already up and about, worried sick about you.” He paused. “And I didn’t kill your enemy either.”

  Raze didn’t show any expression on his face as he bowed slightly towards the man.

  “Thank you for saving us, sir.” He said politely.

  “Hoho, but what makes you think I saved you, huh?” Ragnar said with sharp eyes as his aura intensified. “What if I plan to kill you?”

  Raze’s body stiffened immediately as sweat rolled down his forehead, his mouth went dry and his heart pounded violently. Still, he didn’t let the fear show on his face.

  “You are immensely stronger than me, sir.” Raze replied calmly. “If you wished to kill me, you wouldn’t have brought me to the infirmary and even if you decided to kill me now, I wouldn’t be able to resist anyway. So, I can only assume you saved us.”

  Ragnar chuckled after a pause before he started speaking. “You are smart for someone who has lost his memories.”

  Raze understood that Ellara and Lyla might have already told Ragnar about him.

  “Thanks for the praise, sir.” He replied after a moment.

  For a moment, silence filled the room as Ragnar simply observed him with an unreadable expression while Raze simply waited, knowing something else was coming and then, Ragnar finally leaned forward slightly.

  “I want to ask you something, kid.” Ragnar said, his tone more serious now. “That energy you released during the fight, what was it?”

  Raze had expected this question but that didn’t make it any easier to answer as he didn’t even fully understand what had happened himself.

  Raze looked straight into Ragnar’s eyes. “I don’t know, sir.”

  Ragnar studied him for a long moment and Raze could feel the weight of the man’s scrutiny as if he was trying to see through every layer, to find the truth under but then, unexpectedly, Ragnar leaned back in his chair and chuckled.

  “Fair enough.” He said casually. “I’m not gonna force you to talk about something you don’t want to and honestly, even if you did know, it’s your business.”

  Raze blinked, surprised by such a response.

  “You’re not going to press further?” He asked.

  Ragnar shrugged. “Why would I pressure a kid? Everyone’s got their secrets, kid and you have earned the right to keep yours but do hide your secrets well because not everyone you meet would be like me.”

  He stood up, stretching lazily before extinguishing his cigar in a nearby ashtray.

  Raze meanwhile didn’t know how to respond to that.

  Ragnar turned toward the door but paused before leaving as he glanced back at Raze with a thoughtful expression.

  “Ahh, right,” Ragnar said. “I have something to give you.”

  He reached into his coat and tossed something across the room. It floated through the air with unnatural precision and settled gently into Raze’s hand.

  A golden shield badge.

  “This is the registration batch for the academy's entrance exam which will take place in two days?”

  Raze looked down at it for a moment before Ragnar’s voice pulled his attention back.

  “If you don’t have anywhere else to stay, you can stay in the infirmary till then because I am sure, you will become a student here soon anyway.”

  Raze hesitated but accepted the badge without protest because getting into the academy was his goal all along anyway.

  “Thank you very much for all the help, sir.” He said finally.

  Ragnar smirked. “Don’t worry about it.”

  With that, he opened the door and stepped out, leaving Raze alone in the quiet infirmary.

  Raze sat there for a moment, processing everything as his body still ached and his mind still reeling from the events of the past day but for the first time since waking up, he allowed himself to relax.

  He was alive and he was finally close to his goal and that was enough for now.

  Just then, something flickering at the edge of his vision.

  A few translucent windows appeared before him, hovering in the air. These were the status windows from the world’s will, the ones he had ignored during the battle

  He stared at them for a moment before finally focusing his attention on the first one.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was time to see what the world wanted to tell him.????????????????

  —

  Raze’s eyes moved across the windows one by one without rushing. He didn’t know why there were so many of them, but the moment his gaze landed on them, he paused.

  [Your Heavenly Malice Physique Has Awakened Completely Due To the Influence of Combined Aura, Mana, and Innate Mana]

  [A New Element: Malice Has Been Created]

  A new physique…?

  He had known about his Zenith Physique since he was old enough to understand what a physique meant but the Heavenly Malice Physique was something else entirely. He had never heard of it before today and yet physiques were innate, something present from birth, which meant it had always been inside him without him ever knowing.

  But there was something even more surprising than that.

  A new element.

  He had never heard or read about something like this even being possible, but from the name alone he could guess that it had something to do with his physique.

  He looked at his hands wrapped in bandages. They looked as pale and scarred as they always had from years of training that had never been his choice

  Nothing had changed, but he could feel it in his body. Something was coursing through it, something which wasn’t mana nor did it feel like aura. It was something different, something that refused to follow any kind of order.

  Raze didn’t know what this Malice exactly was, but whatever it was, it felt alive.

  He wanted to test it immediately, but he had many other status windows, so he decided to push the testing back until he had enough information.

  With that, he focused his attention on the next system window.

  [You Have Created A New Path To Godhood.]

  [TITLE: THE THIRTEENTH PATHHOLDER HAS BEEN CREATED]

  [The Path of Malice Has Been Created]

  [Your World Authority Has Increased To Second Tier]

  [You Can Now See More Details In Status Window As The World’s Will Favours You]

  He stared at it for a moment.

  ‘Godhood?’

  From what Luna had taught him, gods weren’t just abstract beings talked about in old legends and myths. They were real and ruled over different elements. These beings were said to have been born when the universe itself took its first breath, and entire churches existed in their name.

  And yet here was the world’s will, telling him that he had somehow created a path toward becoming one of them.

  He couldn’t understand how that was even possible.

  Raze read through each line twice.

  The Thirteenth Pathholder.

  World authority…

  None of it felt real and yet the weight of each word felt heavier than anything.

  He sighed.

  The information was just too much to process. Still, right now he needed as many answers as he could get, so he decided to check his status window because he had a feeling that it would have answers to most of his questions.

  “Status.”

  He muttered as his full status window appeared before him instantly. He was curious to see what the Second Tier World Authority had actually changed.

  ◆ STATUS WINDOW ◆

  Name: Raze Ruinard

  Path: Malice

  Title: The Thirteenth Pathholder

  World Authority: Second Tier

  Core: Gray (One Ring)

  Physique: Zenith / Heavenly Malice

  Skills

  Swordsmanship (A)

  Perception (D)

  Basic Martial Arts (B)

  Basic Footwork (B)

  Mana Sense (D)

  Spells

  Mana Shield (Mid Tier-1)

  Mana Burst (Low Tier-1)

  Mana Chain (Advanced Tier-1)

  Abilities

  Malice Manifestation (Basic)

  Veil of Pathholders

  He scanned through it slowly as he noticed some changes immediately.

  The colour of the window had changed from blue to red and now… there was no affinity section. Instead, a new section called Path had appeared, but that wasn’t the only addition, as a few more sections had appeared as well.

  As soon as he focused slightly on the section named Path, a smaller window appeared, showing its details.

  Raze was slightly surprised, as the status window only showed details and never explained them, and here it was doing exactly that.

  ‘Is this because of my World Authority leveling up…?’

  He wondered as he scanned the newly appeared window showcasing the details of his path.

  [Path of Malice:

  A unique path that allows its user to harness the energy of Malice. The path is a miracle brought forth by a walking anomaly with two completely contradicting physiques, a miracle of a nature that should never have been possible, as most users are devoured by it before awakening.]

  He read the description twice.

  ‘A walking anomaly.’

  He had been called many things since childhood, a stain, filth, a tool, but he had never been called an anomaly before. Still, he wasn’t entirely sure it was any different.

  But that also explained why he had never heard of this physique because, if the details were accurate, then that meant most wielders of this physique died before even awakening it.

  ‘Did the Duchess know?’

  The thought surfaced before he could stop it.

  ‘Is that why she hated me so much, thinking I could never survive past a certain point, that I could never grow past a level and would only put the family to shame?’

  He didn’t let himself wander in that direction for long because he had learned early that some answers didn’t make the wound any smaller.

  Raze closed the small detail window and moved his eyes across the other sections but most of the details were plain and basic, just like what he had known before and he couldn’t see a detailed window for his physiques.

  ‘Is this because my authority level is still low…?’

  Without wasting any time, he moved on to the newly added sections, starting with his title first.

  A detailed window appeared immediately.

  [Title: The Thirteenth Pathholder]

  [Description: Twelve people before you have walked the same path by either creating or mastering an element to the utmost perfection, and you, who have awakened Malice, have become one of them.]

  ‘Twelve…?’

  According to what Luna had taught him, there were six Gods worshipped across the world of Fabloth, each controlling a different element, which meant there were six more at the same level or with the potential to reach the same level.

  ‘Is Ravelle one of them…?’

  The thought appeared all of a sudden, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. She was the one who was prophesied to destroy the whole cosmos, the one whom even the empire wouldn’t be able to handle, so her not being a Pathholder didn’t make sense.

  Either she was already a Pathholder, or maybe she would awaken as one soon.

  He simply shook his head.

  ‘No point in thinking about it for now…’

  With that thought, he moved on to his abilities.

  Luna hadn’t mentioned anything about abilities during her lessons, which meant either she didn’t know about them, or this was something exclusive to Pathholders, something that existed entirely outside the ordinary framework of mana and aura she had taught him.

  Soon enough, two detailed windows appeared, showing information about his awakened abilities.

  [Veil of Pathholders: An ability granted to beginning Pathholders to allow growth without divine interference by concealing the unique energy signature of Malice entirely, regardless of the observer’s rank.]

  [Malice Manifestation (Rank: Basic): Channel Malice energy into a mana spell or aura projection. The shape and strength of the manifestation depend on the user’s will and mastery.]

  The first ability sounded simple, but Raze couldn’t be more thankful for it because it solved his biggest concern while the second ability simply helped him manipulate Malice.

  He had already read enough information and knowing that his energy would be concealed, he decided to give it a try.

  Still, he glanced around the infirmary once, confirming he was alone. Then he extended his right hand and focused inward. He didn’t understand where the source of it was, but his mind followed instinctively before he felt a pitch-black void within himself.

  A chill crawled down his spine as he understood this was all Malice… but he didn’t give up and instead tried to manipulate a small part of it. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as, after a few minutes of concentration, he finally managed to chip a small part of it down.

  He opened his eyes immediately as he saw a faint black wisp begin to form above his palm, flickering unevenly like a candle struggling against the wind.

  The energy was weak and before he could even understand how it worked, an immense wave of pain hit him. It coursed through his arm from the inside as he cut the flow of energy immediately.

  The wisp vanished as countless faint black veins appeared across his skin before fading as though they had never been there.

  Raze breathed out roughly.

  ‘I couldn’t even sustain it for ten seconds.’

  He noted calmly.

  The energy wasn’t like mana, which could be shaped easily, nor was it like aura, which felt like a part of himself, this felt ominous as if it hated even its wielder.

  With a sigh, he leaned back slightly.

  ‘But at least it’s not unleashing that ominous presence outward.’

  He had already noticed strangeness about the energy as it didn’t feel ominous like how it had been back in the forest. If anything, its presence resembled mana more than anything else.

  Raze understood why.

  The Veil of Pathholders.

  The ability was hiding the true nature of Malice, masking it so completely that even he struggled to feel its full hostility unless he focused on it directly.

  He wanted to experiment further, to test what the new power could actually do but the sound of hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway, growing closer to the infirmary.

  Someone was coming.

  Raze dismissed the windows.

  There were still too many things he didn’t understand and each answer seemed to open even more questions but one thing was certain, he had arrived in this world with nothing but a body trained beyond its limits and a mission he had never chosen but now he had awakened something none had before.

  Raze looked down at his scarred hands one more time.

  He still didn’t know if this power was a blessing… or a curse but it was his now whether he had wanted it or not and if he was going to survive everything that was coming, understanding it wasn’t optional.