As the battle was about to begin, Lee smirked and called out to Ron.
"Hey,you better not hold back—because I'm about to kick your ass into the dirt. I swear on the name bestowed upon me, Virell, I'll knock your teeth out."
Ron's eyes burned with fury at the insult. His grip on his sword tightened, his aura flaring dangerously.
"I wanted to kill you myself, Kaelen," Ron spat, his voice laced with venom. "But you're lucky. Kris will be the one to take your pathetic life. If it were up to me, I'd rip your limbs off one by one."
The battle began.
Ron, a master swordsman with five mana circles and complete control over aura, was one of the strongest knights in the empire. His speed was unmatched.
In an instant, he speed-blitzed Kim Lee, his sword slicing through the air like a streak of light.
Sensing the shift in mana, Kaelen's body reacted purely on instinct. His leg moved before he could think, a kick shrouded in mana colliding with Ron's torso.
Boom!
Ron was sent flying across the field.
Though he was faster, the unexpected counter took him by surprise. If he hadn't managed to block at the last second, the fight might have been over right then.
Fury twisted Ron's expression. Enough.
Enraged, he went all out.
His aura flared violently as he disappeared—his speed reaching its peak.
This time, Kim Lee wasn't fast enough.
He couldn't dodge.
He couldn't block.
He couldn't counter.
A sharp pain ripped through his chest.
Ron's sword had stabbed through his heart.
A chilling silence fell over the battlefield.
But then—
A spark.
A surge of energy ignited within Kim Lee's core.
With everything he had left, he forged his second mana circle.
And with his final burst of strength—
He threw a punch.
CRACK!
Ron's body reeled back from the sheer force, his breath knocked out of him.
Kim Lee staggered, blood dripping from his chest.
And then—
His vision blurred.
His body collapsed.
The victor was clear.
Ron had struck down Kaelen.
Yet, despite his triumph, it was a total defeat.
A hush fell over the battlefield as the realization sank in.
Ron—one of the strongest knights in the empire, the prodigy of the Virell family—had been scratched by the weakest of the weak.
The disgrace of the family.
The boy who once couldn't even lift a finger without collapsing.
And yet, he had drawn blood.
Kris's golden eyes darkened with undiluted disappointment.
For a knight of Ron's caliber to be touched—even once—by Kaelen, of all people…
It was pathetic.
A voice, deep and commanding, surged through the battlefield.
For the first time, the Headmaster spoke:
"Treat Kaelen. Feed him. Until he is fully healed, no one is to lay a hand on him."
Ron, his heart consumed by unrelenting rage, clenched his fists.
His pride was shattered.
Humiliated by the very person he despised the most.
His breath came in ragged bursts as fury coursed through his veins.
"I swear..." he growled under his breath.
"I will be the one to take that bastard's head. No one else will stand in my way."
Darkness.
A suffocating, endless void.
Kim Lee's consciousness drifted in the abyss, his thoughts clouded, his mind sluggish.
Everything felt... distant.
His body was weightless. He couldn't tell if he was standing or falling.
Then, from the void, a figure emerged.
Kaelen.
His face was eerily calm.
His once vibrant emerald eyes—now faded into a dull, lifeless gray—held no trace of warmth. No anger. No sorrow.
Only emptiness.
He stepped forward, reaching out.
A hand, cold and relentless, pressed against Kim Lee's chest—right over his heart.
A whisper echoed through the void, crawling into his very soul.
"Kill them."
His voice was a ghostly whisper, yet it carried an undeniable weight.
"Make them pay... once and for all."
Gasping for air, Lee shot up from the bed.
His body was drenched in cold sweat, his breath ragged, his fingers instinctively clutching at his chest.
"What the f*ck…?"
His mind reeled, teetering on the edge of collapse.
Something was wrong.
He could feel it—the warmth in his heart, but not the comforting kind. This was something else.
Burning.
It seared through him, threatening to consume everything in its path.
Panicked, he reached inward with his senses—and froze.
Not two mana circles.
Five.
FIVE MANA CIRCLES were now engraved onto his heart.
Impossible.
A surge of unfamiliar energy pulsed through his veins, raw and untamed. This wasn't normal mana. It was something ancient, something alive.
His heart… it was radiating a force that felt nothing like his own. It wasn't just power—it was destruction. A primal, unrelenting force that screamed to burn everything in its wake.
And then, a flicker of memory surfaced.
Kaelen's past—still fragmented, still incomplete.
Like pieces of a puzzle scattered beyond reach, as if someone—or something—had deliberately erased them, ensuring he would never remember.
But there was one thing he knew for certain.
This heart… was a dragon's heart.
A relic of unimaginable power.
A magic artifact unique to the Virell bloodline.
But he wasn't from the main bloodline.
So then…
How the hell did he have one?