Zephyros stood tall above the students, a towering figure bathed in divine radiance. His presence was overwhelming, his cold gaze piercing through the air with a calculated sense of authority. There was no mercy in his eyes—only a deep, unyielding disappointment. It was as though he had already known how this would end, as though Travis''s failure had been written in the stars. The very atmosphere seemed to grow heavy, as if the world itself mourned the fate that had just unfolded.


    Zephyros''s head tilted ever so slightly, his disappointment palpable. Slowly, almost regretfully, he shook his head. It was a gesture that seemed to freeze time, and with it, any hope Travis might have held.


    With a deliberate wave of his hand, Zephyros directed a stream of pure, radiant energy toward Kael Varyn. The light enveloped him, swirling around him like a storm of divine fire. As the light receded, Kael stood taller, his posture straighter, his aura pulsing with an intensity that was almost intoxicating. The transformation was instant. His eyes gleamed with a newfound power, a confidence he had never known before. He felt invincible, and the realization of what he had just taken from Travis hit him like a drug.


    Kael let out a low, cruel laugh, savoring the moment. "This is it," he muttered to himself, his voice dripping with malicious satisfaction. "This is what I’ve been waiting for."


    Zephyros’s voice rang out, cutting through the tension in the room with the finality of a judge’s gavel. "You," he announced, his tone reverberating with divine weight, "are now the sixth strongest."


    The words crashed down upon Travis like a physical blow. They replayed in his mind over and over, each repetition like a cruel reminder of his complete and utter defeat. The silence that followed was deafening. The other students stood frozen, their mouths agape as they absorbed the shock of what had just transpired.


    The whispers began almost immediately. Gasps filled the room, reverberating off the walls as the students stared at Kael, now brimming with power that had once belonged to Travis. The cruel irony of the situation was impossible to ignore. The world that had seemed so full of promise, the dream of rising to greatness, was now slipping away from Travis like water running through his fingers.


    Travis, still on his knees, felt the weight of the world press down on him. His chest tightened as if an invisible hand were squeezing the very life out of him. His head throbbed with the sting of loss, but it wasn’t just physical pain—it was the emotional devastation that cut through him like a blade. The power he had once held, the potential that had made him feel like something more than just another face in the crowd, was gone. It had slipped away in an instant.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    His system, once a vibrant display of his potential, now lay shattered before him, its fragments vanishing into the ether. He was empty. He was powerless.


    Zephyros''s voice boomed above him, not with malice, but with a cold, unsettling truth. "Life is unfair, Travis," he said, each word dripping with a finality that seemed to echo in the deepest recesses of Travis''s soul. "The weak are destined to lay beneath the strong."


    The words stung, cutting into Travis''s already broken spirit. He looked around, helpless, and that’s when he heard it—the laughter. It wasn’t just the sound of a few students snickering in the background. It was the laughter of the entire room, growing louder, more mocking, more venomous. It pierced through the silence like a thousand needles, each one sinking into his skin.


    His classmates, once comrades, now stood as towering figures of mockery. They were no longer the people he had trained with. They were strangers, distant and cruel. Their laughter wasn’t just an expression of amusement—it was the sound of his failure, his pain. It was a physical weight that crushed him from all sides.


    Why? Travis thought, the question gnawing at him relentlessly. Why am I so weak? Why can’t I do anything?


    His heart felt like it was being torn in two. He wanted to scream, to fight back, but his body refused to move. He could only lie there, staring up at the mockery of the world he had hoped to conquer. He was nothing now. His power was gone. His future, shattered. His classmates, the ones who had once stood beside him, now laughed at his misery.


    Kael stood among them, his grin widening with every second, relishing in the humiliation he had caused. He wasn’t just stronger now—he had won, and Travis was nothing more than a broken memory in the wake of his victory.


    Zephyros''s gaze shifted, and the God’s eyes locked onto Travis, as if sensing his despair. "Now," Zephyros continued, his tone unfazed by the tragedy unfolding before him, "all of you will be taken to the Empire, where you’ll be molded into powerful heroes—warriors who will shape the world in your image."


    The words hung in the air, but they meant nothing to Travis. The Empire, the dream of becoming a hero, it all felt distant and irrelevant. He couldn’t grasp it. The only thing he could feel was the raw, unrelenting pain in his chest. The fear that this might be his fate forever—forgotten, discarded, nothing.


    "Except you, Travis," Zephyros''s voice turned sharp, and for a moment, it seemed to carry a weight far greater than all the others. "You’ll be left behind."


    Travis felt the blood drain from his face. In that moment, he understood. Zephyros wasn’t just dismissing him—he was erasing him. The finality of it hit him like a freight train, his body trembling with a mixture of anger, sorrow, and the crushing weight of being abandoned.


    Before he could process the enormity of it, the world around him began to dissolve, blurring into a whirlwind of light and shadows. His vision spun, the laughter of his classmates fading into the distance. The weight of the moment was unbearable.


    '' Is this it?'' Travis thought, the words echoing in his mind. '' Am I just... nothing? ''


    The light engulfed him, and then, in an instant, everything went dark. The world faded away, leaving him alone in the cold, empty silence. The mocking laughter of his classmates still rang in his ears, the last sound of a world he could no longer touch. A world that had moved on without him, leaving him in the vast emptiness of his own failure.


    TO BE CONTINUED