The first foundation of Mark's legend is built on ashes. Addashield, desperate to fulfill his demonic contract, attunes Mark's mana channels and then, when his true apprentice dies in the Tutorial, drags Mark into a scheme that ends with Mark in a healing coma, shattering his body, his future, and his family's peace. The medical cataclysm steals months of his life, and the world moves on without him, leaving him a ninety-five-pound ghost in his own childhood home just as his eighteenth birthday arrives.

On the day of his real Tutorial, Mark walks into a storm of goblins, invisible skeleton slimes, trap corridors, and a living armor that hunts him across a collapsing aqueduct, all while Addashield hovers unseen, giving hints and waiting for the final play. Mark kills, climbs, and survives through sheer stubborn skill, believing he is reclaiming his destiny. But when he touches the prismatic mana, the demon Kanda strikes, and Addashield is forced to make an impossible choice, sacrificing himself to bind Kanda into a new form that will haunt Mark forever.

Mark awakens from his Ascension to find his home in flames, his parents incinerated by the man he trusted, and a High Dragon roaring above the hurricane. The world shifts beneath his feet as Addashield's dragon begins a redemption campaign, gifting thousands of kilos of adamantium, killing kaiju, and building walls of protection, turning the monster into an international hero. Mark is left with grief, rage, and the cruel knowledge that everyone else sees this as the best possible outcome, including the priests who guard him.

In the Citadel of Freyala, Mark begins the long work of rebuilding, learning Union, sparring with future paladins, and struggling to find hope amid his social anxiety and hatred. He is placed under observation, offered training missions, and introduced to the social circles of the powerful, all while the dragon that wears his enemy's face calls him brother. Mark's path becomes clear: grow strong, form a team, and one day become someone who can decide the fate of monsters, not be decided by them.