Derrick could only stare at Ace. What else could he say? All the words that Ace spoke were the truth.
Ace dangled the hope in front of him then. "But I know of a way to make you strong. Not the type where you just join a House, but one where you can feel the strength yourself. Where the powers will throb beneath your skin, and you can reach where you could not before."
Like a thirsty man seeing water, he jumped on it immediately. "How? Tell me!"
Ace smiled again. "It's simple. You just have to obey my orders. Kneel and serve me, no questions asked, then I can promise you power. I will take you to heights that you never even imagined."
Suddenly, Derrick's expression soured. The hope that was shining in his eyes was wiped away. "You little shit. You've been toying with me since! I should serve you? For a moment there, I actually thought you had stumbled upon something.
"Like an underground House who's willing to sponsor me. But you? You? I should serve you? I don't know if I should laugh or cry. You are the lowest of the lower. Nothing is lower than you in this Academy. You are literally nothing."
Ace sighed. He'd expected that when he was about to make the offer, but he had carefully chosen his target. Out of everyone in Class Five right then, he was the one with the highest drive to be strong.
He was desperate for it. Even as he was turning down Ace's offer, Derrick didn't take one single step back. He was studying him to find out what was different about him.
Derrick scowled. "You? That Ethan Aldrich is going to destroy in a few days?"
Ace smirked. He'd chosen his first slav... subordinate, and he would not let him go until he finished using him. He had set Derrick as his first target, and nothing was going to change that.
Ace snapped his fingers, and a blue glow appeared on them. It was fuzzy and small, like a candle flickering under a storm. It was the first time he would be activating his Talent Ability since he entered the body.
For an instant, Ace felt a familiar bitterness that the Talent Ability was not something he could use on himself. He shook his head and wiped the bitterness clean with a thought. "No matter what... I will climb and grasp power... no matter what..."
"Is that your Talent Ability? It's even more pathetic than I expected."
Ace didn't say anything. He merely flickered his hand forward, and the blue light flew through the air, a little faster than a flying feather.
The light slowly floated to Derrick's head and soaked into his hair, into his body.
At first, nothing happened, and Derrick even scoffed. He rolled his eyes. "Yes. Serve him. Serve the almighty random and listen to all his orders without asking questions. Bow to him because he will take you to the heights that you never dreamed about before..."
He suddenly stopped talking and stiffened as if he were struck by lightning. His eyes widened as his body lit up with blue light. The blue light infused into his body and bones, traveling up into his head and forming a small blue halo.
Derrick stared at his own hands in surprise, as if it was the first time he was seeing them. He raised his hand and threw a blow that snapped in the air. "This..."
He turned to Ace in surprise, and then with a leap, he jumped to the floor where Ace was standing. His weight shook the floor and made it creak.
"What is this strength?" Derrick asked in awe. His body was bursting with power. He felt as if he could run miles without stopping. He felt as if he could twist a head off a neck without even trying.
His Talent Ability seemed to have been infused with the blue light, close to bursting. For the first time in his life, he tasted power. True power, and his hunger grew.
Ace said, "What is this strength, you ask? It is what I can give you, Derrick."
Ace snapped his fingers, and the power that Derrick was feeling was snuffed out brutally. "And it can be just as easily taken away."
Derrick groaned as his body sagged and returned to its useless state. He turned on Ace, greed and naked hunger lighting up his face. He took a step forward. "Give it back!"
Ace raised his hand. "Or what? You will kill me? Beat me? But you can't, Derrick. You realize it as well, don't you? I am the master here. It's left to you to choose what you wish to be. And don't waste my time. Choose now!"
Derrick hesitated, but Ace knew he was in his trap already. In fact, he had closed the trap a long time ago. "I..."
"Don't worry, Derrick. I will make you as strong and well-known as you wanted," Ace said. What he didn't add was that it would be under his shadows.
Derrick could feel it as well. To survive this long in Zenith Hero Academy meant he was not only all muscles. But all the calculations led him to realize his only step up. So he gripped the dangling rope that Ace threw in front of him.
He bowed his head.
Ace said calmly, "Do it properly, Derrick."
Derrick gritted his teeth. His eyes flashed with anger, but he had already made up his mind. So he went to his knees and bowed his head.
Ace told him, "I am Ace Eros."
"I swear to serve you as my master, Ace Eros."
Ace snapped his hand, and a blue halo that was visible only to him leaped and jumped to Derrick's head. Ace's power was also more of a passive effect, but he liked to think of it as a plague he could spread—a good one.
"Good. Now stand. We still have a lot to do this night."