Suna Teshima dreamed of fighting side by side with his heroes. Instead, they've turned against him.

Thirty years ago invaders from beyond the stars plunged the world into war. Wishing to save his people, Suna longs to walk the four paths: passages that grant wondrous and mighty abilities. But when his body rejects valoa, the path's guiding light, he is declared pathless, and his hopes are destroyed.

Suna is disowned by his family and discarded with only his wits to his name, but being reviled by a society awash with tension and fear is only the beginning of his problems. Nahcari's atmosphere has been made toxic by its enemy, and the only protection is the same valoa that his body spurns.

Now, his death is guaranteed at the age of eighteen, but the countdown hasn't just begun. It started the day he was born.