Chapter 2
The next morning, Kael and I headed to the supply depot to collect our monthly rations.
Under the Academy's rules, even students banished to the Howling Tower were entitled to basic sustenance draughts and mana recovery potions.
But when we handed our badges to the quartermaster on duty, he didn't even glance at them before tossing them back.
"Nothing for you." The clerk rolled his eyes, still fiddling with a bottle of high-grade mana recovery potion.
"What do you mean, nothing?" Kael's brow furrowed. "Our allotment was set by the Academy."
"Instructor Vane's orders. Class One's resources are tight. Can't waste them on failures." A voice dripping with contempt sounded behind us.
I turned to see Draco strolling over with a few of his lackeys in tow.
He'd traded up to a brand-new set of high-tier mage robes, the First Seat badge of Class One pinned proudly to his chest, looking like he'd just won the lottery.
"You make mistakes, you learn to live with the consequences. Every time you two drag down the average, it's a favor to the rest of us." Draco stopped in front of me, eyes full of scorn.
"Lyra, without your family's protection, you're worth less than a stray dog now. Get on your knees and beg me, and maybe—maybe—I'll toss you some scraps."
His lackeys burst into laughter.
Kael's fist clenched so hard the mana around him started to spike out of control, crackling faintly in the air.
I put a hand on his shoulder before he could go off. Looking at Draco, I felt nothing. No anger. Just cold, empty calm.
"Draco, you still talk too much." My voice came out flat. "Too much barking in here. Let's go, Kael."
Draco's face went stone-cold. "You're calling me a dog? Lyra, how much longer do you think you can keep this act up? Instructor Vane already assigned your punishment—clearing out the Feral Crystal Cavern behind the mountain. The mana radiation in there will tear two washouts like you apart."
At the mention of the Feral Crystal Cavern, the students nearby shot us pitying looks.
It was an abandoned mine soaked in wild, unattuned mana so violent that a normal mage's channels would start breaking down after an hour inside.
I lowered my head, shoulders trembling slightly.
Everyone assumed I was terrified, on the verge of tears. Draco grinned wider, thoroughly pleased with himself.
But I was just biting back a grin, fighting not to laugh out loud.
The Feral Crystal Cavern? No supervision? An endless supply of raw wild mana?
This wasn't a punishment. It was a gift-wrapped goldmine.
Half an hour later, Kael and I were standing at the mouth of the cavern.
Purple mana turbulence, visible to the naked eye, spilled out from the entrance in slow, churning waves. Even Kael shivered.
"You sure this is a good idea?" He swallowed hard. "My mana's unstable enough as it is. If I start absorbing that stuff, I'm gonna go off like a firework."
"You won't. Not with me here." I walked straight in.
Deep inside, purple mana crystals studded the rock walls like a field of stars, and the mana density in the air was thick enough to make breathing feel like trying to breathe underwater.
"Sit." I pointed to a flat stone.
Kael obeyed without a word. I moved behind him, pressing both palms against his back.
"Now. Drop your channel defenses. Hand your mana over to me completely." I closed my eyes, and my mental force shot into his body like a hundred grasping tendrils.
The instant it touched his mana pool, I saw it—a churning, violent sea.
Kael's mana reserves were staggering, far bigger than they had any right to be, but chaotic beyond belief, like a stampede of wild horses smashing into each other with no direction at all.
"Ngh—that hurts!" Kael's teeth clenched.
"Hold still." My voice came out flat and cold.
SSS-class mental control, unleashed in full.
My mental force spun itself into countless precise threads, cutting straight into that raging current.
I became something like a commander with absolute authority, forcing the chaos into order, compressing it, rebuilding it into something usable.
"Link established."
A blinding blue light burst from both of us at once.
In that moment, I felt power flood into my own starved channels in an endless stream, while Kael felt the energy that had been threatening to blow him apart suddenly go still, obedient, as easy to move as his own hand.
"This feeling... what is this?" Kael's eyes went wide.
"Don't waste time being amazed. Try pulling in the mana around us." I gave the order.
Kael immediately cycled his mana flow. The lethal purple mana came pouring into him—enough to kill him outright under normal circumstances.
But the moment it entered his body, my mental force filtered it, refined it, and stored the purified result in his mana pool.
We were a perfect system. He devoured. I processed.
"This is insane!" Kael shouted, grinning. "Lyra, you're a genius! My reserves are still climbing!"
"Don't get cocky yet. Now try building a spell." I guided his mana along my threads, channeling it out through my fingertips.
In my mind, the spell-matrix for the advanced spell Explosive Fireball took shape. Before, it had only ever existed in theory. But now—
The mana flowed along a flawless path, not a drop wasted.
A crackling boom, and a sphere of deep red flame, nearly six feet across, formed at my fingertip, radiating heat that made the air shimmer.
Kael stared at it, breath catching. "Are you kidding me—that's a first-tier spell?"
"That's an Explosive Fireball compressed with ten times the normal mana load." A cold smile crossed my lips as I flicked it toward a boulder deep in the cavern.
The explosion that followed vaporized the rock. Not even dust remained.
For the entire month that followed, we ate and slept in that cavern.
Vane assumed we were suffering. Draco assumed we were dead.
In reality, we were locked away in the one place no one would think to check, grinding our skills without limit.
Kael's monstrous mana pool, once completely unmanageable, was fully tamed under my control.
And the high-tier spells that had only ever existed in my head—things I could theorize about but never cast—came to life, one after another, through the two of us working as one.
Alone, either of us was a broken half. Together, we were something neither the Academy nor Draco had a name for yet.
"Next week's the monthly trial." Kael leaned back against the cavern wall, tossing a ball of pure condensed mana light between his hands—proof of just how far his control had come.
I stood, brushed the dust off my robes, and looked toward the faint light seeping in from the cavern entrance.
"Yeah." My voice was cold, certain. "Time to give them a little shock."
