From the moment the thoughts of Mira had find it way back into Kale's mind, a darker idea had taken root.
He had learned the rules now. Understood how the game was played. It wasn't just about collecting Sin Mana like candy, feeding off a broken moment here and there. No, it was about the architecture of destruction. Strategy. Sequencing. Precision.
Sin Mana wasn't just about what people did. It was about what they felt. And feelings unlike actions always lingered, festered and could be repeated. A wound you inflicted once could be reopened a hundred times if the right memories or doubts were planted.
So he thought, what if one emotion sparked another? What if guilt gave way to shame, then to isolation, then despair? If played just right, those chains wouldn't just create moments. They would become storms. Build-up of brokenness. Pyramids of sin, where each brick fed the next.
He called it The Domino Effect.
And so, Kale returned to Emma first.
Emma had always been one of his earlier threads, and now she was falling apart perfectly. Since the betrayal, her guilt had grown into something deeper, sharp-edged and personal. The kind of pain that bled from the inside out.
She hated herself even when no one accused her. Her silences screamed louder than words ever could. She avoided her partner. Avoided her friends. Missed classes. Her dorm room became less of a space and more of a tomb. The mirrors became enemies. Every time she looked into one, her own reflection judged her more harshly than any outsider could.
Kale would leaned in and whisper. He made sure every mirror she passed reflected not just her face, but her guilt. Every silence in conversation transformed into judgment. Every unanswered message became a subtle confirmation: They've given up on you. You're alone.
You're a failure. You always ruin things. They don't care anymore, Kale whispered, in that subtle psychic way he had learned, nudging thoughts, warping perceptions, shaping the lens through which she viewed the world.
Under Kale's influence, Emma began to push people away. She snapped at a friend who tried to check in. She left kind messages unread. She didn't show up to study groups. Her world shrank, and in that shrinking, Kale felt the air change.
He fed on her despair. Every hesitation. Every self-inflicted wound of self-doubt. Every pang of loneliness that stabbed when she saw others laughing in the cafeteria.
And it worked. He reached 25% of his mana core, more than he had ever taken from a single person before.
But Kale wasn't done. Emma was a starting point, not the apex. The real power, he suspected, came from overlapping storms.
He circled back to James.
James had been harder resilient. He had tried to fix what he broke. Made apologies with late-night texts and stammered promises. For a while, he even held it together. But forgiveness never truly erased pain. It only buried it.
And Kale knew how to dig.
He whispered again.
'She said she forgave you, but do you believe that? Really? What if she's pretending? Waiting for the right moment to dump you? What if she cheated first? What if you're just the fool in all of this?'
Thoughts. Just thoughts. And since kale was working now in chains, he made sure some whispers get to Jame's girlfriend to tighten the chain.
James started sleeping less. Then not at all. He drank. A little at first, then more. The shadows under his eyes darkened. He skipped lectures. Ignored messages. Some nights, he stared at the ceiling until dawn. Other nights, he imagined screaming just to feel something. One night, he punched a wall. The next, he cursed out a student who laughed too loudly behind him in the library.
Each crack in his composure was a crack in the world. It formed a portal and from it, Sin Mana spilled like liquid gold.
But Kale wasn't just hunting, he was studying and he learned something important.
The stronger the emotional overlap, the more that different feelings merged bled into each other, and the more potent the Mana became. Emma's guilt didn't just lead to despair. It fermented into shame. James's anger calcified into hatred. A deep, corrosive loathing that ate him from within.
Every emotion was part of a sequence.
A Chain.
A lie led to guilt.
Guilt to shame.
Shame to isolation.
Isolation to despair.
Betrayal led to blame.
Blame to anger.
Anger to violence.
Violence to regret. Or worse.
It wasn't about picking the right victim. It was about setting them in motion, pushing that first domino and watching the rest collapse under their own weight.
And that changed everything.
Kale realized he didn't need a dozen students to fall apart. He only needed a few that were already cracking. The fragile ones. The ones clinging to routine like it was all they had. With the right pressure, everything works
He became meticulous.
He chose targets like a sniper, precise and patient. Kale look for stress lines, weak points and potential.
The girl who always smiled in the halls, but cried when she thought no one noticed.
The boy who made everyone laugh, but deep down he's falling apart.
The one who always sat in the library but never touched a book, just to find a quiet place to think.
Each of them was already bleeding quietly. Kale only had to find the vein.
He whispered again. Just enough to raise a doubt. A worry. A tremor in the chest. And with that whisper, the dominos fell.
One of them broke first.
Kale was there when she finally collapsed in her dorm. Silent tears soaking her blanket. Her phone buzzing unanswered. Her heartbeat heavy in her ears like a war drum.
They would be better off without you, he whispered.You're the weight. You're the reason they're all unhappy. You. You. You.
That night, Kale drank in the despair Mana like it was nectar. Thick. Sweet. Overwhelming. He hit 50% of his mana core, and it changed him.
The rush wasn't like feeding before. It wasn't momentary. It was expansive. He felt it in his limbs, his chest, behind his eyes. Like he was filling up with shadow. Like he had found the current and finally stepped into the river instead of drinking from the bank.
He could see the campus now, not just the buildings and paths, but the web. The pain. Threads of emotion stretching between students like invisible strings. And he knew which ones to pluck, which ones would vibrate and break.
The campus wasn't just a hunting ground anymore.
It was a game board.
He was winning.
But with victory came something else.
Confidence. Arrogance. He began getting comfortable. Too comfortable. Moving with ease. Watching the world fracture with every nudge, every whisper, every seed of doubt.