In the next few hours Leon's life continued to take a catastrophic downwards spiral, the ceremony had abruptly ended after the revelation of a forsaken being born in their town and the townspeople soon began getting violent, shouting from the sidelines that Leon should leave Pavos, as scum like him wasn't welcome in their town.

Some angrier spectators even began to throw rocks and anything they could find at Leon. Despite this, no one stepped in to help Leon, for in everyone's opinion it was only natural that he getting ostracized.

As for Jake, once the ceremony had concluded he had been quickly whisked away by Father Mason after he had been contacted by Herman that the Volcans were interested in the boy.

This left Leon utterly alone in the street under the barrage of insults and the occasional rock. At this point, Leon was terrified for his life and looked around in panic.

'I've got to get out of here, anywhere is better than here.' Leon thought.

He picked himself up off the ground and ran for a small opening in the crowd, he tried to rush through the mob protecting his head as people shoved him from left to right whilst directing a multitude of slurs and insults in his direction. However, one adult had even slugged Leon in the stomach, causing him to cry out in pain and fall to his knees before it was swiftly followed up by a kick to his chest. Leon fell to the ground screaming in pain for when the kick had landed on his chest he felt a couple of his ribs splintering.

This savage beating of an 8-year-old child continued for the next five minutes before everyone seemed to have had their fill and the crowd dispersed. Once the mob of people left the area, the sun began to set over the town square, and the warm orange light of dusk illuminated the last figure that remained.

On the floor lay a child, beaten beyond recognition and covered in cuts and bruises. His eyes were swollen and his fingers bent in an awkward direction. Even his ribcage seemed to be slightly out of place with broken ribs pushing against his flesh. Leon was in such a bad shape at this point he couldn't even cry, he just lay there, trembling and gasping as the short breaths brought him a new wave of pain.

'I just want it to stop... Please, I don't want to be in pain anymore.' Leon sobbed internally.

---

Jake sat in the coach next to Lord Herman and the two Volcans in deep thought. He didn't know what to think as he saw his friend get insulted by the entirety of Pavos, it didn't once cross his mind that Leon wouldn't get an ability. To be honest, he was worried about what would happen to him now as the orphanage would kick him out onto the streets and no family would foster a forsaken.

"-ake, Lord Volcan asked you a question," said Herman, nudging Jake on the arm.

"Oh?" replied Jake, "sorry I was deep in thought, would you mind repeating it?"

Herman looked anxious, he was worried how the Volcans would react to seemingly being ignored, but to his surprise, they didn't seem all the bothered.

"Hmmm?" said the red-haired man with a quizzical eyebrow raised, "I guess you must be thinking about that forsaken child, I noticed he came from the orphanage like you, did you happen to know him?"

Honestly, Jake was scared to think about what they would say if he was to tell them that Leon had been his best friend ever since he entered the orphanage.

"Kind of... I talked to him a few times" Jake said, looking down at his hands.

"Well it's no matter now, we have more important things to discuss." replied the red-haired man, "Firstly, let me formally introduce myself. My name is Oliver Volcan, Overseer of the Volcan family forces."

Jake nodded and turned to the red-haired girl, honestly, he hadn't seen anyone as beautiful as her in his life and could feel his cheeks reddening when he looked at her. Noticing Jake was looking at her Iris gave a curt introduction.

"Iris Volcan, daughter of Highlord Volcan."

"I-I'm Jake, just Jake I guess, it's a pleasure to meet you both."

"Haha, well met just Jake," chuckled Oliver, "well I'm sure you've got an idea of why we invited you to talk to us today."

Jake could think of the reason but he didn't say anything as the thought in his head seemed completely incredulous to him. Seeing this Oliver smiled and spoke once again.

"I'm sure you have a pretty good guess, we want to invite you to join the Volcan family."

Hearing these words a shiver went down Jakes's spine, an orphan becoming a Volcan? A noble whose family governed the entire region? He couldn't believe it at all and yet the words came right out of his mouth.

"I-It Would be my honor!" replied Jake a bit too quickly.

"Brilliant!" Oliver said, with a large smile across his face, "Highlord Volcan will be very happy with us bringing in a rough diamond such as yourself!"

Jake smiled as the formalities died down slightly and the members of the coach chatted about various matters, mainly about Jake's life at the orphanage.

---

Leon had painstakingly dragged himself over to an alleyway over the past couple of hours, each inch of progress causing him to groan and wail in agony. As the sunset and the cold night descended over Pavos, the events that had happened sunk in for Leon.

There, in that alleyway, for the first time in years, Leon balled his eyes out. Angry at the people for crippling him and angry at the world for crushing his small dream. His body began getting weak and he felt the frosty hands of death grip hold of him.

"H-Ha ha, I guess this life wasn't meant to be..." Leon groaned.

He looked up at the stars in the night sky, he felt a pang of jealousy of how something could be so free and so beautiful.

'At least I'll finally get to leave this place.' He thought.

Suddenly a dark figure loomed over him, Leon's vision was... blurry at best. His eyes were swollen to the point seeing anything was a challenge.

Leon spat on the ground, morphing his toothless smile into one of defiance.

"You didn't get enough earlier?" Leon snarled, "Go ahead, kill me, you'll only be doing me a favor."

"Do you want power?" said the dark figure.

Leon recognized this voice, even though he couldn't properly see him, he knew the voice as he had heard it clearly in the town square earlier, it was Herman Dest the current Lord of Pavos.

Leon's confused expression showed, and Herman asked another question.

"Do you want revenge on those who have forsaken you? Do you want to feel the pain and anguish you felt today?"

Leon was dumbfounded by his questions. What did he mean by power? He was forsaken by God, to never wield ability and on top of that he was crippled, his legs were broken in too many places to count and his hands were shattered. How could he have the power to achieve revenge when he could barely even move a muscle?

"How?" were the only words Leon managed to muster, he was getting even weaker now and he was sure he wouldn't live much longer.

"I'll show you. Just say yes," said Herman.

Leon didn't know what to do, he wanted revenge, but he no longer wanted to be at the mercy of other people. To be honest, he thought dying here would be the escape he was searching for. However, just as he was deciding to give in, he saw the face of Jake looking at him in the square, his pitiful eyes staring down at him and a feeling welled up inside Leon.

Hate.

He didn't know what he would have to go through to get the power to take on someone like Jake and the powers that now backed him, but at that moment he decided as long as he had breath in his body, his fate would be his own.

"Show me how."