To the Valdorian Empire, seventeen-year-old Kael is nothing but a disposable statistic. At least, that is what he wants everyone to believe. Hidden beneath his quiet demeanor is a dangerous biological anomaly: Kael is an Empty Vessel. Born entirely without aetheric circuits, he possesses an absolute immunity to magic and is completely numb to extreme, bone-shattering temperatures. When the Empire's Blood Tribute Law drafts him into the vanguard, Kael is thrown into the Thornwood Entrenchment, a frozen, mud-soaked hell on the northern front. Here, humanity bleeds daily to hold back the Abyssal horrors crawling out of No-Man's Land. But the monsters are not the only threat. The Aetheric Blight, a creeping purple miasma from the Great Void Rift, slowly crystallizes the lungs of ordinary soldiers from the inside out. While the blight kills his comrades, Kael breathes it without consequence. Yet, this immunity is a death sentence. In a military ruled by arrogant, high-Echelon mages, a ci