My F-Rank Sagea is Secretly an EX-Rank Calamity

Chapter 7: The Power I Never Knew

​"Every single remaining faction has successfully cleared the perimeter.

Congratulations," Lord Malovik announced as the final teams gathered at the forest gates.

​Asher stood at the back of the crowd, his mind completely numb.

Suddenly, Malovik caught his eye, gesturing privately. "Report to my quarters after resting, young one."

Asher gave a silent, tense nod.

​Before the crowd could disperse, a loud, mocking voice cut through the courtyard.

"Hey! This is a complete joke! That team didn’t track down a griffin—the egg was literal handed to them by a rogue spirit!"

​It was Edgar Salmore—a prominent freshman from an ultra-wealthy, highly influential aristocratic family in Ravenwood.

His status and immense family fortune made him look down on anyone beneath his rank.

​Remi flinched, her fists clenching.

​"Yeah! That’s totally cheating!" another student chimed in.

"He already has a registered Sagea, so why is he competing in the Umbrax faction anyway? The whole team should be disqualified!"

​Marnie stepped away from Asher, looking thoroughly embarrassed.

"This is exactly what I was trying to warn you about, Asher. But you just had to bring the ghost egg back. Can’t believe you’re that guy too."

​Hearing the toxic insults pouring from his peers, Asher felt a cold, suffocating weight wrap around his chest.

He gripped the fabric of his cloak, his entire frame shaking violently with suppressed rage and shame.

​"Silence!" Lord Malovik’s voice boomed like thunder, instantly shattering the courtyard’s unrest.

"You have zero authority within these parameters! Their confrontation with a high-tier Darkling required far greater spiritual fortitude than stealing an egg from a common avian nest. Their unit will receive maximum merit points, and my decision is final. Any further dissent will result in an immediate failing grade for the term!"

​Despite the headmaster’s protection, Asher felt utterly miserable. The one thing he had desperately tried to avoid had happened: everyone now recognized him.

​’I was too reckless’ he thought bitterly. ’Was I completely invisible until I became a target for mockery?’

The crushing weight of their judgmental stares made him want to claw his own skin off.

​By afternoon, the official roster updates were finalized.

Surprisingly, several prominent students from the Terra and Argentum tiers had completely botched their practical exams, losing their academic standing.

​Naturally, rumors regarding Asher’s "ghost egg" spread through the campus like wildfire.

When Rowan heard the whispers in the Auric dorms, a mixture of profound relief and deep worry hit his chest.

"He’s just going to have to survive the scrutiny," he murmured to Erebus.

>>>><<<<

​"Seriously, who cares if your official partner is a squirrel?" Remi sighed later that evening, sitting across from Asher in the crowded cafeteria.

​Dozens of passing students continuously snickered, throwing mocking glances at their table. "Look, it’s the legendary squirrel master."

​Asher stared blankly down at his dinner.

The food had sat untouched for a while, the steam completely evaporating into the cold air.

His chest felt completely hollow, his hands clenching into white-knuckled fists beneath the table.

​"Hey! Shut your pathetic mouths, you cowards!" Remi suddenly roared across the dining hall, slamming her glass down and drawing the attention of the entire room.

​Edgar Salmore stood up from the elite section, a cruel smirk on his face as he sauntered over to their table.

He was exceptionally tall, with a perfectly sculpted athletic build that filled out his premium uniform flawlessly, radiating an aroma of expensive, fresh floral cologne.

​"Remi, you’re way too talented to be playing babysitter to a pathetic fraud," Edgar scoffed, looking down his nose at Asher.

​Asher didn’t move a muscle. ’Just make it stop’, he prayed silently, his vision tunnelling.

’I want to disappear. I want to end everything right now’.

The surrounding crowd murmured in excitement as Edgar casually reached down, grabbed Asher’s bowl of rice, and slowly dumped the contents directly over Asher’s ginger hair.

​"Look at him! The absolute peak of the Flynn family talent!" Edgar laughed aloud. "He actually thought he could cheat his way through a High Lord’s exam! You’re an absolute disgrace."

​Seething with raw fury, Remi grabbed a heavy glass of water, preparing to smash it into Edgar’s face, but an iron-tight grip instantly locked around her wrist.

​"Don’t," Asher whispered.

​"Are you completely insane?!" Remi screamed, struggling against his hold. "Let go of me! Let me show this arrogant prick what a real spell feels like!"

​Edgar burst into continuous laughter, leaning in close to Asher’s ear.

"Oh, look at that. The little failure needs a girl to fight his battles. I wonder if your dead grandfather handed you that egg out of pure, pathetic pity."

​Something violently snapped inside Asher’s psyche.

​He released his grip on Remi’s wrist, his head dropping forward. Suddenly, his public status interface materialised in mid-air, flickering and glitching violently into a deep, bloody crimson hue:

​[CRITICAL SYSTEM OVERLOAD]

[LEGENDARY ATTRIBUTE: IGNIFAX

INFERNO — UNLOCKED]

​A thick, scalding torrent of steam suddenly erupted from Asher’s pores.

Inside his chest, his internal organs felt like they were being subjected to a molten, volcanic furnace.

​"Inferno..." he whispered.

​An explosive, superheated shockwave of wind violently detonated from his body, tearing across the cafeteria.

Massive heavy tables were thrown backward, sending dozens of students crashing into the stone walls, while Edgar was blasted off his feet, sliding across the floor on his back.

​Asher’s physical transformation was nothing short of apocalyptic. Bright, luminous orange veins pulsed violently beneath his skin, searing the very air around him.

Flickering, ethereal crimson flames danced through his ginger hair, and his irises burned with a terrifying, unearthly blood-red intensity. The absolute, undiluted essence of the Ignifax Dragon had been unleashed.

​Remi stumbled backwards, her eyes wide with sheer terror. "Ig... Ignifax Inferno?" she stammered, shielding her face from the blistering heat.

​Asher’s skin began to harden, reflecting the golden, glassy light of dragon scales.

​"What the hell is that monster?!" Edgar screamed, desperately crawling backwards along the floor.

​"He’s going to burn the entire academy to ash!" a student shrieked.

​Suddenly, the heavy iron doors of the cafeteria flew open.

High Lord Malovik, Headmaster Maverick, Fang, and Rowan sprinted into the burning room.

​"That is enough!" Maverick roared, channelling a massive wave of suppressive ice mana into the air.

​The moment Asher’s burning, blood-red eyes locked onto his older brother’s terrified face, the apocalyptic transformation violently faltered.

The golden scales receded, the crimson flames instantly vanished, and Asher’s body collapsed heavily onto the stone floor, his consciousness plunging into total darkness.

​"Asher!" Remi screamed, lunging forward to catch him, but the residual heat radiating from his clothes severely blistered her palms, forcing her back.

​"I call upon the eternal pact! Erebus!" Rowan roared. The colossal silver wolf materialised instantly, gently scooping Asher’s motionless body onto its back.

​Maverick turned his icy glare onto the trembling aristocrat on the floor.

"Edgar Salmore! You are under official arrest by the Order of the Veil! Move!" The elite guards lunged forward, dragging a screaming Edgar out of the facility.

​When the ancient Ignifax Dragon had intervened the night before, it hadn’t been a random act of salvation.

The mythical entity had been waiting for generations to re-establish its bloodline contract, and through Asher’s near-death experience, the ancient link had successfully fused with the boy’s core.

​Hours later, Asher lay motionless inside a heavily secured intensive care unit within the Arcane Ward.

​"I swear I saw it," Remi whispered, her hands wrapped in thick medical bandages as she sat beside his bed.

"The dragon... it completely vanished the second I asked if Asher was going to be okay."

​Fang stood near the window, his arms crossed as he monitored Rowan’s deeply troubled expression.

"Hey, look at me. He’s perfectly stable. The medical mages healed the internal burns. It all turned out fine."

​"I know that," Rowan whispered, tightly gripping his younger brother’s cold hand.

"But... his human core isn’t designed to contain that level of cataclysmic dragon mana. It could literally tear him apart from the inside out."

​High Lord Malovik walked into the room, a mysterious, knowing smile playing on his lips. "The boy has been designated for greatness since the exact moment of his birth, Captain."

​The Ignifax was no ordinary dragon summon; it was the original, apex partner of the first male Sagea Master in human history—the very icon immortalized by the golden statue at the academy gates.

​Maverick frowned deeply from the doorway, his arms crossed. "Are you entirely certain, Malovik? A fifteen-year-old unbonded freshman?"

​"Rowan, dear boy," Malovik chuckled softly, patting Rowan’s shoulder.

"Your brother is under our official jurisdiction now. Sleep easy."

​Rowan stared down at Asher. Deep down, he knew the High Lord was right; even when they were children, Asher had always possessed an uncanny, miraculous ability to pull off the impossible whenever their family was in danger.

​Sitting in the corner, a slow, triumphant smile finally crept onto Remi’s face. That’s exactly what those arrogant higher-tier brats deserve, she thought happily.