1 A Hellish Start

"Mom! Dad!" a young boy which seemed to be at the age of 7 yelled out as he looked for his parents in an urgent manner as their house was in flames. The same 2 story house that the little boy had called home his entire life. Everything was so perfect until just moments ago; yet, something seemed to have gone horribly wrong. No one knew where the fire had come from. All that the boy knew was that he needed to get out of the house as fast as possible.

After running around for what seemed like ages, the boy's mind finally clicked as it gave him the logical idea to check inside his parents' bedroom. Although he did find his parents inside the room he instantly regretted it.

After opening the door, the boy's heart sank at the sight of blood for the first time. His eyes opened wide in fear and horror as he wanted to believe that what he saw was an illusion. Unfortunately for him, everything there was nothing but reality. There was no lie in what he saw in that moment.

Inside the room were both his mother and father as they laid dead on the ground with blood pouring out of their chest in the burning room. A single figure stood above their lifeless bodies that was wearing a cloak which covered most of his face. After hearing the boy open the door, the figure turned back to see the horrified child as he stared in disbelief. The figure simply glanced back at the boy's eyes and let out a terrifying grin which would engrave itself inside the mind of the boy. The figure's sharp white teeth and its abnormally large smile, if it could be described, it would be named the true devil. On the figure's right hand was a knife the length of a ruler which was covered in red blood.

Although it would have made sense for the figure to kill the boy, he let him soak in what he saw like a sponge. He wanted him to feel every single emotion that was possible. To cause nothing but pure agony. The figure believed that either the fire or the smoke would kill the boy. Even if the child wanted to escape, the stairs which led to the second floor of the wooden house had already caught on fire which meant that there was no possible way of escape. Not that the boy would try that in the first place as he was already too mentally scarred to move. As such, the figure decided to seemingly teleport away, leaving the bloody knife on the ground for added effect.

In the moments that followed, the boy's heart began to beat faster and faster until all he could hear was the endless beating of his heart in distress. This went on until the smoke began to suffocate the boy and he was forced to pass out.

…

A moment later, a boy about the age of 16 woke up with a gasp as he pushed his face out of the water. After doing so, he began to breathe fast as he had almost died while taking a bath.

"Damn, that was pretty close. Although I don't know what I'm so concerned about, it would be better for this world if I just died right now. If only I woke up a minute later, then I wouldn't have to live in this world any longer. All the people that hate me can live peacefully and I can move on in peace as well. It would be a win-win situation," Arthur said to himself as he began to clear his eyes not only of the water in them but the dream he just had and got out of the bath he was in. He quickly put on his towel and got out of his bathroom as he walked into his one room dorm which acted as both a bedroom and a living room along with any other room that a person would have in a house.

The place had no windows and was more of a prison than a dorm. That was because Arthur's room was located on the lowest floor of the one of the many massive buildings that were owned by the prestigious school he went to. Of course these buildings were all constructed to house all of the students that attended the school year long.

The school which Arthur attended was no regular one since his world was not regular in the least. In his world, magic was as common as a person's other senses.

The school that Arthur attended was one which trained kids of all ages to perfect their magical powers all so that they could become important figure heads in the future. What was odd was that although Arthur quite literally had no amount of money nor status, he somehow attended the most prestigious school in the world. One which people would kill every single member of their family to attend. Even those with unimaginable wealth had to put everything on the line to send their children to the school, however Arthur got this opportunity for free. Although everything must come at a cost.

This all took place the day after Arthur's home was burned. The unconscious Arthur laid on the rubble of the burned house. There was nothing but odd pieces of wood on the grass. It had been quite the rainy day and as such no one dared to come near the burned home. Instead, they thought it would be better to visit on a better day.

This applied to everyone except a single man who came right up to the front of the burned house inside his royal caravan.

The man exited his caravan and walked around the house as if he was doing an inspection. This was because he was in fact doing that; an inspection.

As he looked around in a rather bored manner, something caught his eyes. Something that seemed like a human. The man quickly ran up to inspect that object and was caught off guard to see that he was correct. The thing that was in front of him was a human. The most spectacular part about it being that it was completely unharmed. That human being 7 year old Arthur which did not have so much as a scratch in his body even though he was inside that blazing fire.

The man doing the inspection quickly picked Arthur up and took him inside the caravan before taking him else where. During this entire time, Arthur was unconscious.

The man doing the inspection had taken him to an unknown location before later taking him to the school which Arthur attended now. Since that day, Arthur had continued to live inside the school's building's basement as that was the only place he was allowed to live in. However this was not because Arthur was some nobility. That was far from the truth.

The truth was that the inspector had taken Arthur to his superiors which were known throughout the world as the council of sorcery and informed them of how Arthur had lived through a burning house and came out without a single scratch. Finding this interesting, they sent Arthur to the best school in the world hoping to see any results from him. They believed that it was worth a shot to see if the boy was special since he did survive a burning house without a single scratch on his body.

Unbeknownst to Arthur though, his parents were not very cooperative with the council of sorcery in the past since they had been invited to work for the council due to their extraordinary strength even amongst the greats. However, they had refused on multiple occasions. As such, the council commanded that everyone in the school treat Arthur like utter trash and forced him to live inside the cold basement which could have acted as a fridge to gain some sort of revenge.

After many years of this hell, Arthur finally gave up. He stopped trying. He became a shut in. He didn't want to ever leave his room and no one bothered to force him. After all, not a single person cared if he was alive or not.

This had gone on for 3 years and a couple months. The only time anyone bothered to call him out of his room was when an annual event known as the "Genius Magic Competition" took place. Once a year, Arthur would be called out of his room to participate as it was a requirement for all students. Although people would have preferred it if Arthur did not come outside during that event since many looked forward to it, they had no choice but to allow him to participate since it was the school's rules.

Although Arthur's hair had grown long over the years, he didn't have any facial hair. It was a genetic trait passed on through his family which he inherited. As such, all Arthur needed to do was take a bath and leave his room for the first time in a year so that he could participate in the event since it was the day that everyone looked forward to for a whole year.

That was right, it was the day which the "Genius Magic Competition" would take place. As such, after quickly drying his body, Arthur left his room and began to climb towards the first floor of his building so that he could start heading towards his school field where the event would take place. Due to how massive the population of the school's students was, there were separate buildings for the students to stay at from the school and they would travel to their school from there.

Arthur wore a boring plain brown zip up hoodie, black trousers and slippers as he walked towards his school since it was the only day he was required to go there. While walking outside, several students from his school spotted him and began to whisper amongst each other as they figured out who the man in the hoodie was. However Arthur was used to this and decided to keep moving forward so that he could take part in the event.

Arthur's hair covered most of his face as his hair parted towards the sides and a single line of hair went in the front while it curled at the tips of it which made it quite hard to recognize him. Even so, some people seemed to recognize him off of his plain clothing as opposed to everyone else's luxurious clothing style.

Nevertheless, Arthur quickly made it to the field where the competition was being held and he was already late. This was because Arthur knew the exact time he needed to arrive so that he wouldn't stay too long.

"The next match up is between the infamously hated Arthur against …" the announcer began to speak as he declared the match while Arthur walked up inside the grass field which was the area that students would battle to see who would move on to the next round. The field itself was around twice as large as a football field in most schools but did not contain any sort of posts.

While the announcer was speaking, someone had interrupted him.

"Hold on, leave this piece of trash to me, as the current holder of the title of being strongest magic user in this school, I believe it's my duty to clean up trash from here!" a man in a silver suit said as he walked up to the front. The most prominent detail about him being his red tie. After hearing only his voice, the crowd went wild while cheering even if it was mostly girls.

"Great, Leon, even though he's 4 years older than me, he's still willing to beat me to death. Well, I might as well let him win," said Arthur with a sigh.

Right after Arthur said this to himself, Leon pulled out a 50 inch blade which he planned to use against Arthur.

"Wait, aren't sharp weapons against the rules?" Arthur asked to which no one even bothered to answer.

"Oh right, how could I forget, I'm worthless here," Arthur said with another sigh of disappointment as he knew no one cared about what happened to him.

"Hey Arthur! I'll be your girlfriend if you win this!" said a girl from far in the crowd before laughing as to make fun of Arthur. Arthur recognized her to be the female which every man had fallen in love with, including himself but he knew that she obviously didn't feel the same way about him.

Although… after Arthur realized it was her who had said that statement, things took a complete turn.

Within a single moment, everyone had gone quiet. No one even dared to breathe. It was as if the grim reaper had come himself as he began to pull out everyone's souls out of their bodies.

"Kneel," said Arthur as he forced Leon to get on his knees with his words alone which was the mark of defeat.

Arthur had won.