Night draped over Veyl Academy, quiet and cold.
Most students were asleep.
But not Kaen.
Out on the empty field, alone under flickering training lights, Kaen stood, breath sharp, hands scraped.
Flickers of flame sparked at his fingertips then fizzled out, again and again.
Nothing held.
No heat. No control. Just sparks and anger.
"Dammit…"
He punched the ground, knuckles cracking against the cold stone.
"Why… can't I use this!?"
The silence answered him.
Until—
"Kaen… you're still training."
Kaen stiffened.
He turned.
Sensei Shun Asamaru stood nearby long coat rippling in the wind, Echo-inscribed blade at his hip catching moonlight.
Kaen looked away, bitter.
"Hmph."
Shun sighed.
He stepped forward, slow.
"I'm sorry… about what I said earlier in class."
"Believe me—I don't want you expelled. It's just… the committee—"
"The committee decided what?" Kaen snapped, his voice sharp and rising.
"That anyone who can't use their power is just pathetic? That they should be kicked out and forgotten?"
Shun didn't speak.
His eye lowered.
The truth was heavier than Kaen realized.
He wasn't just some instructor.
He was the one who brought Kaen here.
Years ago, when Kaen lost his parents it was Shun who found him. Years later that orphan boy mimic the fire of a full-grown Echo user (Shun). Shun saw in him some raw or maybe impossible potential.
Yes... Shun believed in him. Recommended him. Fought for him.
And now… Kaen was slipping through his fingers.
Shun looked up slowly.
"I still remember…" he said quietly.
"That day in the valley. You copied my Echo movement like it was nothing. I thought… maybe you were the one. The one who could do what I never could."
Kaen's eyes narrowed. He didn't interrupt.
Shun continued.
"I wanted you to succeed because… I failed."
He drew in a breath.
"I was this close to becoming an Eclipse Vanguard. I made it to Crimson Veinwalker... led squads into the northern breach… then…"
His hand hovered over his hip—where the scar was hidden under his coat.
"One bad mission. One injury. That was it. Dream over."
Kaen's anger slowly dulled into something more vulnerable.
"You told me once," he muttered, "that if I became an Eclipse Vanguard… people would respect me. See my worth. Think I was strong."
Shun nodded, barely.
"I did."
"I still do."
Kaen stood up, bruised but unbowed.
"Then I'll do it."
His voice was steady now.
"I'll become what you couldn't. And I'll make everyone respect me."
The wind shifted.
A strange chill swept the field.
Both turned slightly just enough to notice it.
Faint… echo distortions.
The Vein Tower in the distance flickered with a ripple of energy.
Shun's eye narrowed.
"Something's wrong."
Kaen's heart pounded.
He didn't know why but something inside him twitched.
Like it was waking up.
…..
[Meanwhile – Atop the North Wall]
The cold air stirred Khael's cloak as he stood motionless, watching the distant field lit only by faint Echo lights.
Far below, the trees beyond the Vein Tower shimmered bent unnaturally.
Something pulsed.
Something broke.
And Khael felt it in his bones.
A ripple across Shinrei itself.
He exhaled.
"…The Voidborn are here."
"This is where it begins."
His fingers curled slightly.
But he didn't move.
Not yet.
(This was the page. This was the moment.
The spark before Kaen burns.)
..
[Back at the Echo Training Field]
A hum filled the air—low, suffocating.
Like reality was breathing wrong.
Then—
A tear split the edge of space.
The Voidborn stepped through.
Long limbs. Hollow eyes. Skin like fractured glass with veins of violet Echo swirling beneath it.
The thing was tall twice a man's height its form flickering like half-light, half-liquid.
Its voice crept across the stone like oil:
"Well… look who we have."
It tilted its head, eyes glowing faintly.
"Why, I can smell void… on you."
Kaen's body stiffened.
"What…?"
He stepped back instinctively.
The air around him grew heavy, and the spark in his hands refused to light.
Shun's blade was already drawn.
Its inscribed runes lit crimson-red as it met the chill.
His eyes never left the creature.
"Kaen."
His voice was low but sharp.
"Run."
Kaen turned to him, confused.
"What are you talking about—?"
Shun's expression was steel.
"You can't handle this."
"This… thing… is beyond your level."
The Voidborn stepped closer.
"Ohhh… how nostalgic."
"That scent… that cursed emotion..."
Its gaze narrowed.
"The power of the void."
Kaen's eyes widened.
"What did you just say?"
The Voidborn snarled with teeth too sharp for a man.
"The darkness inside you… it belongs to us."
"Let me… rip it open for you."
It lunged.
"KAEN!" Shun shouted, surging forward to intercept, blade meeting claw in an explosion of Echo light.
The ground cracked beneath their clash.
Kaen staggered back, eyes wide.
Hands shaking.
Powerless.
From the rooftop far above, Khael watched, eyes glowing faintly.
(This is it.
This is where the seal breaks.
Don't let me down… Protagonist.)
The Voidborn lunged.
A blur of jagged claws and seething echo-rage surged toward Kaen—
But Shun moved first.
His Echo blade met the strike mid-air with a crack of light and force that shattered the stone beneath them.
Sparks flew.
The clash echoed across the entire academy's outer field.
Kaen staggered back as dust and shards whipped around him.
"SENSEI!"
Shun didn't answer.
His entire body was pushed back, skidding across the ground, blade locked against the Voidborn's claws his boots dragging deep into the dirt.
But he held.
"Damn it…" Shun hissed through clenched teeth.
"It's stronger than the last one…"
The Voidborn twisted, grinning inches from his face.
"How noble… and how foolish."
It raised its other claw aiming for Kaen.
Shun's eyes widened.
He pushed off with a roar, intercepting again—
SLASH!
The second claw sliced across his side deep, brutal.
Blood sprayed across the stone.
Kaen froze.
"NO!"
Shun dropped to one knee, blade trembling in his grip.
But still he shielded Kaen.
Still, he stood between him and death.
"Kaen… you need to RUN!"
Kaen's voice cracked.
"I'm not leaving you!"
Shun turned slightly, blood dripping from his coat.
And in that moment, he smiled.
A faint, nostalgic smile.
"You're just like I was…"
"Stubborn… foolish… always wanting to prove something."
He stood tall again, bloodied but defiant.
"But this isn't your fight. Not yet."
The Voidborn hissed.
"How foolish"
Kaen dropped to his knees behind Sensei Shun.
The world blurred around him.
His fists trembled against the stone.
His chest tight, burning.
But not from power.
Not yet.
Only from something worse.
Helplessness.
Rage.
Fear.
"Sensei… the man who believed in me… the one who gave me a place…"
"He's bleeding out to protect someone who can't even light a spark."
His throat tightened.
The fire he tried to summon all his life was nowhere.
No flame.
No light.
Just silence, and that awful, suffocating darkness.
"WHY!?" Kaen screamed into the night.
His voice cracked. Broke.
"WHY CAN'T I DO ANYTHING!?"
A sound pulsed inside him.
It wasn't an Echo.
Not a memory.
It was older.
A vibration deep in his soul.
Low. Deep. Cracking.
From the rooftop above, Khael's eyes widened.
The wind around him stilled unnaturally.
He felt it.
The moment the script cracked.
"It's starting…"
Kaen gasped.
He fell forward.
Both hands dug into the earth.
And then—
it hit.
A surge of fire erupted from Kaen's chest.
Black and crimson. Swirling. Screaming. Alive.
Flames tore upward, spiraling around his body in a violent storm.
The ground beneath him cracked.
The trees nearby ignited without heat.
His clothes burned but his skin did not.
It wasn't normal fire.
It was Shadowfire.
Wild. Hungry. Beautiful. Terrifying.
And then—
A symbol glowed on Kaen's chest, burning through his torn shirt.
A seal.
Its runes were ancient and chaotic changing with each pulse.
Buried power, now breaking loose.
Shun turned to him, blood dripping from his side.
His blade lowered in stunned awe.
"…It can't be."
His voice trembled.
"The Forbidden Seal…"
Kaen slowly rose to his feet.
The flames danced like beasts around him.
His eyes normally deep crimson now glowed with an impossible mix of ember and void.
"Get away from my sensei."
His voice was layered—not just his own.
A second voice echoed beneath it.
Older. Deeper. Ancient.
Something sealed was speaking through him.
The Voidborn stepped back, its twisted face frozen in sudden confusion.
It sniffed the air then snarled.
"You…" it hissed.
"You reek of contradiction."
It pointed a jagged claw at Kaen.
"You—are half void… half Shinrei? What are you!?"
Kaen said nothing.
He simply raised his hand.
The flames followed.
Not as a weapon.
But as an extension of his rage.
Of his soul.
Of his will.
And for the first time—
He didn't just spark.
He BURNED.
As the field was fire.
Black and crimson flames roared across the cracked stone as the Voidborn lunged—but
Kaen met it without hesitation.
No stance.
No technique.
Just raw fury made real.
The two forces collided in an explosion of flame and void, lighting up the night sky with a blinding flash.
High above, on the academy's observation wall, Khael watched silently, the wind around him dead still.
Kaen moved like a beast, not a boy.
The Shadowfire wrapped around his limbs like living snakes lashing, piercing, devouring.
The Voidborn hissed in agony, staggered, tried to flee
But Kaen didn't stop.
"RAAHHH!"
He slammed a flame-wrapped fist into the creature's chest.
The core shattered.
The Voidborn let out a wail that shook the air.
Then erupted in a burst of purple-black particles, dissolving into the night.
Silence fell.
The creature was gone.
But Kaen remained.
And that was the problem.
The fire didn't vanish.
It grew worse.
Wilder.
His breathing turned shallow. His eyes blazed brighter.
The seal on his chest pulsed faster, its runes glowing void-black now, not crimson.
The edges of his arms began to fracture, black vein-like cracks running across his skin.
Khael's eyes narrowed.
"Oh no…At this rate…He's going to turn into a Voidborn himself."
Kaen stood hunched over.
Chest heaving.
The flames twisted around him, feeding on his confusion, his fear, his pain.
He didn't recognize the battlefield anymore.
Didn't recognize himself.
"This power—this isn't what I wanted…"
"What… am I?"
Suddenly, a hand gripped his shoulder.
Firm. Familiar.
Grounding.
"Kaen."
It was Sensei Shun bruised, bleeding, staggering but still standing.
Still there.
Kaen turned, his flames flaring instinctively—but Shun didn't move.
Didn't flinch.
His voice was quiet—but sharp.
"You're still you."
Kaen's body trembled.
The power within him screamed.
It wanted more.
It wanted to consume.
To keep burning.
To erase everything.
But Shun didn't look afraid.
Only… proud.
"You stopped the Voidborn, Kaen."
"You did what even I couldn't."
He tightened his grip on Kaen's shoulder.
"So don't let that power become you."
Kaen's breath hitched.
The fire snarled.
But slowly—
Painfully—
He pulled it back.
The flames hissed.
The seal dimmed.
The black cracks on his skin faded.
And finally…
the Shadowfire vanished.
Kaen dropped to his knees, gasping.
His hair was scorched, his clothes torn.
But this time…
There was no void in his eyes.
Only red. Pure. Burning.
Shinrei Fire.
Shun knelt beside him, putting a hand on his back.
Kaen whispered, voice hoarse—
"The shadow… the void… I don't want it."
Shun nodded.
"Then don't use it."
Kaen looked at his hands.
The black flames were gone.
Only flickers of red remained.
"From now on…"
"I'll fight with this."
He held out his palm.
A small, steady flame danced on his fingertips.
Not shadow. Not corruption.
Just Shinrei.
Just him.
High above, Khael smiled faintly.
"Good… You're not ready for the shade yet."
"But now… now you've stepped into the spotlight."
To be continue