Grandpa, watching him closely, now felt the tension rise.
"He's almost ready... he's learned so much, so fast. His strikes... they're leaving marks. His mana... it's powerful. More powerful than I expected."
Lucas stood motionless, breath ragged, eyes fixed on the ground. His thoughts screamed inside him.
"I... I don't have much strength left. If I waste what remains just trying to escape from Grandpa, I'll lose this final test. And that—I cannot allow."
But then, something stirred deep within him. A fire. A storm. A surge of willpower that shattered doubt.
A new determination lit up his soul like a blazing sun.
"No," he whispered to himself.
"This ends now. I will launch my final attack. I'll gather every last drop of my Mana—focus it, shape it, and strike with all that I am."
Lucas closed his eyes. The world around him faded. All that remained was silence... and his Mana, swirling like a wild river inside him. He began to draw it inward, compressing it into a single, unstoppable force.
And then it happened.
A strange, crimson energy flowed into the stream of his Mana—intense, alive. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt. It wasn't just power. It was something ancient. Something other.
His eyes snapped open—glowing bright red like twin flames.
"What… is happening to me?" he gasped.
"My body… it feels so heavy. It's like I'm carrying the weight of a thousand worlds. What is this Mana? This… thing inside me?"
Far ahead, Grandpa sensed the shift. He froze. The air had changed. The ground trembled faintly beneath his feet. His instincts flared with warning.
This wasn't the first time he had felt such energy. It was the second—or maybe the third. But this time, it was stronger. Deeper. More dangerous.
And it was coming from Lucas.
"This power... it's not from anywhere else," Grandpa muttered. "It's his. He's using that power—in the middle of a test!"
For a moment, even the great warrior's heart skipped a beat.
Lucas let out a roar—more animal than human—as his energy erupted around him. He charged with terrifying speed, red light trailing behind him like a comet.
"THIS IS MY FINAL ATTACK!" he screamed.
Grandpa braced himself. The force coming at him was beyond anything he had anticipated. At the last second, he shifted his stance—dodging the blow by barely an inch.
And then—silence.
Lucas collapsed, unconscious, directly into Grandpa's arms. The boy's body was burning hot, his face pale. He had given everything.
Grandpa looked at Lucas, then at the land behind them.
His eyes widened in horror.
Half the jungle was simply… gone.
An entire stretch of forest had been vaporized—erased by Lucas's single, desperate attack. The trees, the earth, the very essence of nature—it was as if it had never been there.
"What… what is this power?" Grandpa breathed.
"That Mana… that energy… it wasn't just deep. It was ancient. Primordial. It felt like I was in the presence of an omnipotent being..."
He turned to gaze at the devastation one last time.
"Lucas… you're no ordinary child."
Cradling the unconscious boy, Grandpa slowly raised his hand. The wind stilled. The skies dimmed.
In a voice that echoed through the silence, he whispered:
"Verdant Genesis."
A glowing sigil formed above his palm, pulsing with emerald energy. From the scorched earth, roots burst forth like veins of light. Trees unfurled in seconds, leaves shimmering with dew. Flowers bloomed in radiant spirals. The jungle returned—not just as it was, but even more alive, as if nature itself had been reborn.
And yet, even as the forest healed, Grandpa's heart remained uneasy.
Something inside Lucas had awakened.
After that, Grandpa gently lifted Lucas into his arms, his face etched with concern, and began walking toward the house. As he reached the doorstep and knocked, Luna rushed out — and the moment her eyes fell on Lucas, her heart dropped.
"Lucas?! Why is he unconscious? What happened to him?" she cried out, panic gripping her voice.
Grandpa, calm but heavy with emotion, looked at her and said,
"Don't worry, child. Lucas... will pass his test."
Those words brought a faint glimmer of hope — a small smile touched Luna's lips, but her eyes still swam with unease. The question haunted her: why was Lucas unconscious?
Time passed slowly. Lucas remained still, resting. Grandpa sat alone in his room, flipping through the fragile pages of an ancient book. The flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows on the walls. Just then, Luna stepped in — hesitant, nervous, her voice barely a whisper.
"Grandpa... will you teach me how to control magic too?"
Grandpa froze. Shock rippled across his face. Luna — who had never once spoken of magic, who always stayed away from it — was now asking to learn? For a moment, he couldn't believe what he'd heard.
"But child," he said slowly, "why ask this all of a sudden?"
Tears shimmered in Luna's eyes, but her voice held firm.
"I don't want to be a burden on Lucas. I know he's risking everything to protect me. I heard the two of you that night… I know the truth. I am the manifestation of the Wind of Life."
Grandpa's eyes widened. So she knew.
For a heartbeat, the room was silent.
Then, gently, he placed his hand on Luna's head, his voice filled with love and quiet strength.
"Yes, my child. I will teach you to control magic. But promise me this — never again think of yourself as a burden. You are so much more than that."
Luna smiled — just a small, trembling smile — but it was enough. That single smile lit up Grandpa's heart like dawn breaking through the darkest night.
A while later, when Luna quietly leaves the room, Grandpa gently closes his eyes, pushes away all lingering thoughts, and lets himself be consumed by the book in his hands. Its title, written in bold, commanding letters, read: The Disaster Wave.
As Grandpa begins to read, the words seem to echo deep within him. Where there is joy, sorrow must follow. In this world, happiness cannot exist without its shadow — pain. To preserve this delicate balance, nature sends forth a mysterious force known only as The Wind of Life. But if joy tips the scale too far, sorrow must rise to restore balance.
And so, from the depths of nature, emerges something far more terrifying — something ancient, inevitable, and relentless:
The Calamity Waves.
Their very existence is to flood the world with anguish, to spread grief and despair, ensuring that the equilibrium between light and dark, hope and ruin, never breaks.
Every year, without fail, when The Wind of Life returns, so too do The Calamity Waves. A partnership forged not in harmony, but in necessity. Together, they dance the eternal dance of life and destruction.
Grandpa's eyes widen as he reads tales of villages erased in a single night, of entire communities swallowed by the fury of the Calamity Waves. No trace. No warning. Just silence. Some say these waves are so powerful, they can ignite wars between nations. Others believe they infect hearts — filling them with dark emotions, pushing people toward violence, betrayal, and chaos.
And yet, amid this horror, a chilling truth emerges: without The Calamity Waves, The Wind of Life cannot survive. And if even one of them fails to appear, the Earth itself could crumble into oblivion.
Grandpa freezes. Something clicks in his mind like a bolt of lightning tearing through the dark.
"If both forces are meant to exist together," he whispers to himself, "then something is wrong… very wrong."
He stares into the empty room, a sense of unease rising in his chest. "I don't just have The Wind of Life under this roof… no, I feel it — something else is here too."
Legend has it that ever since The Wind of Life took human form and arrived on Earth, The Calamity Waves vanished. The world rejoiced, believing sorrow was finally over. But perhaps, just perhaps… nature doesn't forget. And nature never forgives imbalance.
Grandpa's hands tremble as a thought begins to claw its way into his mind — terrifying and impossible. The power he's sensed in Lucas… it isn't ordinary. It isn't just intense.
It's dark.
A haunting suspicion rises in Grandpa's heart: Lucas… might be the human embodiment of The Calamity Waves.
But he dares not speak it. Not yet. Because the truth is — even he doesn't fully understand what The Calamity Waves truly are.
Not yet.