They found the demon the same day — barely an hour after the fight ended. No surprise there. The thing had screamed so loud you couldn't not hear it. Its roaring woke up every street on the outskirts, and the signal artifacts at the local Order of Justice outpost flagged both a demonic breach and blood magic. While the warriors dealt with the aftermath, I was casually washing myself off in a nearby river.

  The whole time, I was thinking about whether I should've left Chloe alive. Had I scared her enough to keep her mouth shut? The main problem was that she thought what I'd done was good — I'd killed a demon, and if I were just a regular practitioner, that would be something to brag about. But...

  First, I was condemned, and everyone knew it. The demon had come specifically for me, and I'd killed it. Which meant every theory about some other person with the same name would collapse. Second, there was the matter of how I'd killed it. I'd used demonic techniques, and the immediate question would be — where did a five-year-old learn those? Using them was practically a crime.

  No. If Chloe talked, nobody would call me a hero. They'd just have questions I didn't want to answer.

  I hid the demon's heart in the woods, then went home. By that point, my parents already knew what had happened at the warehouse. The rest of the day was strange. I saw something in their eyes, but neither Mom nor Dad asked a single question about it. Maybe they were afraid of the answer.

  "If anyone asks, tell them I was in my room all night," I told them, then crashed into bed. Spiral's spirit as my witness, I was completely spent.

  The official story was that someone had summoned a demon on the edge of town and then killed it. Everyone was convinced it was some fanatic from a demonic cult — possibly even that same Nathaniel Crane, since I had turned out to be alive and well.

  That day permanently changed something between me and my parents. We drifted apart. But I could hardly tell them the truth about what I'd been through, so I just let it go and started living a normal life. Someday they'd forget about that day. At least, I hoped they would.

  But someone who definitely wouldn't forget — and wouldn't let me forget either — was Chloe. After that day, the girl changed completely. She went from being a mean little bully to just being... a pest. She stopped teasing me, stopped provoking me, but she followed me around like a shadow, constantly trying to figure out what I was doing. Half the time I couldn't leave the house without spotting her lurking nearby.

  Annoying.

  Especially during meditation, when I'd be doing breathing exercises with the Unity symbol, and she'd plop down next to me and start chattering nonstop, wrecking my concentration.

  "Doesn't this get boring?"

  "No."

  "Will you teach me?"

  "No."

  "Can I just copy what you're doing?"

  "No."

  Every single time.

  I stopped pushing my Ascension, because I knew I wasn't ready. Practitioners rarely form their focus before fifteen. That's considered the optimal age — when the body is prepared to create a vessel for Spiral energy. Start practicing at ten or twelve, have the energy system fully formed by fifteen. That's the standard path.

  After dealing with the demon, I realized there was no need to rush and create my focus right now, even though I knew how. I decided to wait at least until I was ten, though I kept up the basic strengthening exercises.

  And then, apparently, I'd miscalculated somewhere.

  "Oh!" Chloe suddenly yelped as I stood up from meditation.

  "What?" I gave her a look.

  "Your eyes!"

  "Hm?"

  "They're light!"

  "Holy Spiral Lords!" I swore, staring at my reflection in the mirror. I honestly didn't know whether to be happy or furious. My eyes. My goddamn eyes. They were light. And that could only mean one thing — my focus had completed itself. Or rather, it had formed on its own, despite the fact that I'd stopped doing any exercises to develop it. And that was a problem. The focus itself, fine — I could just not fill it with power. But the eyes were a dead giveaway. You can't hide those. For now they were just a pale gray, but once I started working with my primary element, it would show in the eyes.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I swore again, took a deep breath, and went to my room. Sat on the bed and sank into meditation, this time looking inward. Sure enough — the focus was complete. Yesterday there'd been nothing, and now here it was. And from it, awakened meridians branched outward through my limbs.

  Tenth step. First stage.

  Should I start forming power nodes on the meridians? And if so, what kind? Should I use the hidden gatekeeper core and absorb its energy?

  No. Definitely not.

  I needed nodes for the technique of true balance of power. Without it, there was no point even trying to absorb demonic energy — I wouldn't be able to conceal it. Any practitioner at the second or third stage would immediately sense something was off about me. But with true balance, I could hide the demonic energy, and once I reached the second stage, I'd form reverse demonic meridians that would let me use it properly. Sure, in a straight fight against a practitioner at the same stage I'd be weaker — they'd have more power nodes — but that only mattered if the fight wasn't to the death.

  And why was I so fixated on demonic meridians anyway? I was on the upper rings now. There were barely any demons here, and the complications could be enormous. A real dilemma. In hell, I could use the demonic technique of essence devouring — absorbing the power of slain demons. But it didn't work on regular practitioners, and demons up here were hard to come by.

  It all came down to techniques. My strongest techniques were demonic — based on blood magic and demonic energy. Mirion had only passed on what we could master at the time, plus descriptions of some advanced techniques I'd only partially learned.

  But again — how was I supposed to gather enough power from demons in this world?

  Unless I summoned them myself...

  A tempting and extremely dangerous thought. Could I pull lesser demons from the nearest rings? With the gatekeeper's stone, it was doable. Risky, but doable...

  I shook my head and shelved the thought, settling in to wait for my parents. I had big news for them.

  "Our son is a genius!" Dad was practically shouting.

  "Is this really happening? Am I dreaming?" Mom kept saying, dabbing at tears. And I sat there like an idiot, staring at them. I honestly hadn't expected them to react this strongly to me reaching the first stage of the tenth step of Ascension.

  That evening, my older sister showed up and, barely saying hello, grabbed my face and studied my eyes for a few seconds.

  "Incredible. I've never seen anything like this..." Mia muttered, then barked an order. "Strip."

  Sighing, I pulled off my shirt and sat on the floor. I didn't need an explanation — Mirion had done this to me plenty of times. Mia sat behind me and placed both hands on my chest.

  "Now focus on your focus," she said. "Just breathe and imagine pushing energy through yourself."

  I did as she asked, letting her take control of the energy flow inside me. The key was not to resist — that could damage the meridians, especially fragile ones like mine.

  It lasted about ten minutes before she finally released the energy and stood, wiping sweat from her forehead.

  "Well, Mia? What do you think?" Mom asked anxiously.

  "He's formed a focus. No question about it," Mia nodded. Dad handed her a glass of water. "At first I thought it might just be a manifestation — that happens sometimes when a focus is forming, where energy gathers but can't stabilize and disperses. It's common with students in training. But Nate's is fully formed and stable. Unbelievable! How old is he, five?"

  "He'll be six in three weeks."

  "Remarkable. But also concerning. He's still too young to try controlling energy in his body. He's in an active growth phase, and that could cause serious meridian damage. From now on, we need his body and internal energy to develop in harmony until he's older."

  This was exactly what I'd been afraid of. Too much attention.

  If I'd been at least ten, everything would've been simpler...

  But at the same time, it was a good thing I hadn't tried absorbing demonic energy from the core. Mia might have detected traces of it. I probably wouldn't be able to properly use the true balance of power technique anytime soon.

  "I think I should show Nate to my teacher, so he can decide how to proceed."

  "You'll bring him here?"

  "Bring him? Oh, no. I'll take Nate to Varander, and the teacher will examine him there."

  "Isn't he too young for a journey like that? It takes weeks to get there."

  "Don't worry, it'll be fine. We'll head to the nearest Crimson Retribution outpost — they have gates there," Mia smiled. "I'll deliver him safe and sound. He's my genius little brother, after all."

  The very next morning, they had me packed and ready. Mom gathered my things, and Mia stored them in a spatial ring — which surprised me a little. That was a very high-rank artifact. Where'd she get it?

  When I asked, the answer was simple enough.

  "From the school. It belongs to Crimson Retribution. Every student who survives the first year gets one on loan. We have to return it when we graduate."

  "Interesting..." I murmured. I'd love to get my hands on one — then I could store the demon's heart inside it without worrying about someone finding it.

  "If you enroll, you'll get one eventually too. It's incredibly convenient. You can keep a whole pile of stuff on hand."

  "How big is the storage?" I asked immediately.

  "About the size of that wardrobe," she said, pointing at the one where I kept my clothes. Not that big, when you thought about it. "The order's magister and senior masters have rings the size of this room."

  I supposed that was meant to impress me, but I'd had one of my own once — and it was so large you could've fit all of Daiward inside it. A little gift from Yutatos, Yul's father. Made specifically so I could store "materials" for my weapon techniques.

  "So, you ready?"

  "Think so."

  "Then hop on my back."

  "Your back? Why?"

  "How did you think we were getting to the outpost? I'm going to show you how martial practitioners travel!"