CHAPTER 4: THE HUNTERS OF HERESY

The city did not celebrate House Valtherion’s fall.

It trembled.

Official statements called it an act of terrorism. A foreign destabilization attempt. An attack on noble sovereignty.

But in the lower districts, people whispered prayers of gratitude into the dark.

Children returned home.

Food appeared where shelves had been empty.

Mana stabilizers were delivered without names.

No one knew who to thank.

They only knew something had changed.

And the Magic Council hated change.

Inside the Grand Spire Academy’s highest chamber, twelve archmages stood around a circular sigil table. In the center hovered a fragment of corrupted residue recovered from the Valtherion vault.

It pulsed faintly.

Dark.

Unclassified.

“This is not elemental deviation,” one mage said.

“It’s not abyssal either,” another added. “No known demonic contracts match this signature.”

A third archmage leaned forward.

“It corrupts magic structure itself.”

Silence settled heavily.

“This cannot spread.”

And so it was decided.

A specialized division would be activated.

Codename: Exorcist.

Its purpose: locate and eliminate the unknown entity destabilizing noble order.

Among the recommended candidates for future field command training—

Ragnel Arcturus.

Ragnel stood in the courtyard later that afternoon, staring at the sky.

The sunlight reflected off floating mana constructs drifting above the academy towers.

He felt restless.

Axel approached casually, hands in his pockets.

“You look like someone just told you the world’s ending.”

Ragnel didn’t smile this time.

“I was assigned to a task force.”

Axel’s heartbeat slowed deliberately.

“Oh?”

“They’re investigating the Valtherion incident.”

Axel shrugged lightly. “Good. Someone should.”

Ragnel’s eyes locked onto him.

“This wasn’t ordinary.”

Axel tilted his head. “Rich family exploiting kids. Someone hit back. Sounds ordinary to me.”

“It wasn’t magic,” Ragnel said quietly.

There it was.

The edge.

Axel held his gaze evenly.

“Then what was it?”

Ragnel hesitated.

“…I don’t know.”

That uncertainty unsettled him more than any answer would have.

They walked in silence for a while.

Finally, Ragnel spoke again.

“If something like that exists… something outside the system… it could destabilize everything.”

Axel looked toward the lower districts in the distance.

“Maybe everything needs destabilizing.”

Ragnel stopped walking.

“That’s dangerous thinking.”

“Is it wrong?”

Ragnel didn’t respond immediately.

“Change from chaos creates more victims,” he said finally. “Power vacuums get filled by worse things.”

Axel’s expression softened just slightly.

“I’m not talking about chaos.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

Axel met his eyes.

“Correction.”

Ragnel searched his face, as if trying to peel back layers.

For a moment, Axel felt exposed.

But then Ragnel sighed.

“You’ve always hated the hierarchy.”

“And you’ve always benefited from it.”

The words hung heavier than intended.

Ragnel didn’t look offended.

Just tired.

“I didn’t choose my birth.”

“I know.”

That was the problem.

They stood on opposite sides of a system neither fully controlled.

That night, the first Exorcist patrol swept through the lower districts.

Four elite mages.

Detection arrays scanning for corrupted energy signatures.

Axel watched from a rooftop.

The devil stirred inside him.

“They hunt you.”

“Of course they do.”

“You could slaughter them.”

“And prove them right?”

The patrol paused near the alley where Axel had lost control days earlier.

One mage activated a resonance orb.

It pulsed faintly.

Axel felt it.

A tug at his core.

His power reacted instinctively, flaring in response.

The orb glowed brighter.

One Exorcist frowned.

“There. Minor spike.”

Axel clenched his teeth.

Suppress.

Not anger.

Focus.

He inhaled slowly and compressed the energy inward, forcing the reaction flat.

The orb dimmed.

“False echo,” the mage muttered.

They moved on.

Axel remained still long after they left.

Sweat ran down his neck.

The suppression hurt more than release.

The devil’s voice grew sharper.

“You weaken yourself.”

“I refine myself.”

“They will corner you eventually.”

“Then I’ll be ready.”

But the real danger didn’t come from patrols.

It came from proximity.

The next day during combat training, Ragnel sparred against two upper-tier students simultaneously.

His celestial affinity manifested in precise arcs of silver light.

Clean. Elegant. Controlled.

Axel watched quietly from the sidelines.

That control.

That stability.

It irritated something inside him.

The devil whispered.

“He stands above you.”

Axel ignored it.

After the match, Ragnel approached him.

“Want to spar?”

Murmurs erupted nearby.

Zero? Spar with Rank S?

Axel hesitated.

If he refused, it would seem strange.

If he accepted—

He stepped forward.

“Don’t cry when I lose.”

They faced each other inside the practice ring.

No devil power.

No shadows.

Just physical movement.

Ragnel attacked first — light, testing strikes.

Axel dodged smoothly.

His reflexes had improved. Not magically.

Physically.

Sharpened by night training.

Ragnel increased speed.

Axel blocked.

Redirected.

The crowd quieted.

Then Ragnel activated a minor mana pulse — controlled, non-lethal.

Axel felt it approaching.

Instinct screamed.

The devil surged reflexively.

For a split second—

Darkness flickered around Axel’s arm.

He deflected the mana pulse effortlessly.

Too effortlessly.

Silence fell over the ring.

Ragnel stepped back slowly.

“That wasn’t normal.”

Axel’s chest tightened.

He forced a grin.

“Lucky timing.”

Ragnel stared at him.

Longer than comfortable.

But then an instructor intervened, ending the session.

The whispers began immediately.

“Did you see that?”

“Zero blocked celestial mana?”

Ragnel didn’t join the gossip.

He just watched Axel walk away.

That night, Axel returned to the cathedral ruins.

He dropped to one knee, breathing hard.

“You reacted without permission,” he said inwardly.

“You were threatened.”

“It was controlled.”

“It was instinct.”

Axel gripped his head.

“I can’t lose control near him.”

The devil was silent for a moment.

Then:

“You fear harming him.”

“Yes.”

“Interesting.”

Axel stood and raised his hand.

He summoned a small sphere of corrupted energy — stable, contained.

He compressed it further.

Smaller.

Sharper.

The effort made his vision blur.

Blood ran from his nose.

But he didn’t release it wildly.

He shaped it.

Until it dissolved into nothing.

Control.

Earned through pain.

Elsewhere in the academy, Ragnel stood alone on a balcony overlooking the city.

He replayed the spar in his mind.

The way Axel moved.

The flicker of darkness.

The impossible deflection.

It didn’t align with zero mana.

It didn’t align with logic.

But it aligned with the energy residue found in Valtherion’s vault.

A thought formed.

Unwelcome.

Impossible.

“…No.”

He clenched his fists.

Axel was weak.

Axel was human.

Axel was his friend.

But something was changing.

And Ragnel, trained to observe magic anomalies, could not ignore patterns.

Below the floating city, in the spaces between light and stone, whispers continued to spread.

A devil walks the slums.

A shadow hunts nobles.

Magic cannot bind him.

And now—

The hunters were watching more closely.

On a rooftop at the edge of the district, Axel stood beneath the night sky.

He felt pressure tightening around him.

Exorcists patrolling.

Ragnel questioning.

The devil waiting.

This wasn’t just about protecting the weak anymore.

It was about surviving the system itself.

The devil spoke one last time before silence.

“They are closing in.”

Axel’s eyes glowed faint red, but steady.

“Let them.”

Because for the first time in his life—

He wasn’t powerless.

And he wasn’t alone inside his darkness.

But the next move would decide everything.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***