Alex rested beneath the shade of the trees.
His body—rebuilt, reborn—ached with quiet pain.
He looked down at the remains of the grimoire.Only the cover remained. The rest had been eaten, shredded, burned.
Still, he held onto it.
Then, he walked toward the nearby stream.
He bent down to drink.
But when he looked into the water… he saw something else.
A boy.
White hair.A scar across one eye.Eyes as black as a starless night.Ash-colored skin, like death itself.
Was it him?A ghost? A monster?
He pulled away.
And then—he felt it again.That strange power inside him.It crackled like electricity, but darker. Wilder.
It surged through his muscles.His bones.His blood.
Each time he tried to control it, agony tore through him.
It was as if his own cells were alive, reshaping, strengthening—becoming something more than human.
A dark energy flowed through him like lightning,enhancing his muscles, fusing his broken parts.
He understood it now.
His magic didn't protect.
It amplified.
It increased strength… at the cost of unbearable pain.
He should've cried.
Instead, he laughed.
Mad, bitter laughter echoed through the forest.
He laughed for five minutes straight.Then silence.
Total, unnatural silence.
Even the forest listened.
He stood.
Left the woods.
Not toward the church.Not toward comfort.
Toward the capital.
Toward the Magic Knight Entrance Exam.
"I will find you, noble bastard…""I'll tear you apart limb by limb…""And I'll show the rest what it means to step on the poor."
What Alex didn't know…
Was that the more he hated,the stronger his magic became.
When he arrived in the capital, the streets were alive with celebration.The new Magic Knights had just been chosen.
From a distance, he saw them—
Asta. Yuno.
They stood apart.Quiet.Their eyes full of grief.
They'd lost someone.
Of course, Alex knew.They were mourning him.
But he didn't want to go back.Didn't want to bring more sadness into their lives.
"Alex is dead."
"From now on… I'm Ryan."
Ryan.
The name of his brother.
The one who was stolen from him.
And now, he would use that name to burn the system down.
He walked toward the exam gate.
The grimoire examiner looked at him with disgust as Alex handed him the torn book.
"What is this trash?" the man said.
"Throw that thing away."
Luckily… the book wasn't inspected.
He didn't need it anyway.
He just needed to get inside.