The Academy had forgotten him.
Forgotten the boy they laughed at.
Forgotten the body they left bleeding in the dirt.
Forgotten the powerless insect they thought would just disappear.
But Asura hadn't forgotten.
And tonight, he had returned.
The heavy iron gates creaked as he stepped through the Academy's main entrance.
The guards didn't even react at first —
after all, who would dare attack one of the most powerful institutions in the city?
By the time they noticed the unnatural cold in the air,
it was already too late.
The first guard's throat opened silently, a line of black slicing through the air faster than the eye could follow.
The second stumbled backward, trying to activate a defensive Sigil —
but shadows exploded from the ground, ripping the life from his body before the rune even glowed.
[Targets Eliminated: 2]
[Abyss Resonance: +2%]
Asura moved through the courtyard like a living nightmare.
The moonlight warped around him.
His bloodline markings burned faintly under his coat, visible only to those seconds away from death.
The students inside the Academy walls felt it first.
A pressure.
A silence so thick it felt like drowning.
"Is… is that a monster?" one whispered.
The alarms hadn't even finished blaring before the screaming began.
Classrooms erupted into chaos.
Students scrambled to activate their Sigils.
Some tried to flee.
Some tried to fight.
All of them failed.
Asura walked the marble halls, ignoring the desperate attacks thrown at him.
Flames?
They curled uselessly around his abyssal armor.
Lightning bolts?
Absorbed into the veins of his corrupted blood.
Barrier spells?
Shattered like glass under the weight of his existence.
He found them one by one:
The students who kicked him when he was down.
The teachers who looked away when he begged for help.
The elites who spat on him like trash.
None of them were spared.
In the central atrium, a desperate counterattack formed.
Over a dozen top Sigil Users — students armed with mid-level elemental powers, barrier reinforcement, enhanced strength.
Together, they might have stood a chance against a normal invader.
But Asura wasn't normal anymore.
He was the Abyss made flesh.
The strongest student among them — Shinji, wielder of the Platinum Flame Sigil — stepped forward, trying to rally the others.
"You think you can come back here and destroy what we built?" Shinji roared, summoning a lance of searing white fire. "You're NOTHING, Kai Arashi! NOTHING!"
The old name stung for a heartbeat.
But then Asura smiled.
A cold, broken, terrifying smile.
"I am not Kai," he whispered.
The shadows around him exploded outward.
"I am Asura."
In a single breath, he crossed the gap between them.
The Platinum Flame Lance never even touched him —
his bloodline tendrils wrapped around it, snuffing it out like a candle flame.
Shinji barely had time to scream before Asura's hand punched clean through his chest.
The others scattered, panic overriding their training.
The System chimed:
[Target Eliminated: Elite Rank Sigil User.]
[New Ability Unlocked: Platinum Embers (Corrupted).]
[Abyss Crown Progress: 34%.]
Asura inhaled slowly, feeling the new corrupted fire dance across his skin.
It was not just strength he stole anymore.
It was destiny.
Their fate.
Their hope.
Their dreams.
All consumed by him.
He would not stop.
Not until every last one of them bowed…
or burned.
The Academy had created a monster when it chose to betray him.
And now it would drown in the very darkness it had mocked.
Asura stepped forward, his corrupted flames igniting the blood-soaked marble beneath his feet.
The massacre had just begun.