"You three," Elius said sharply, voice cutting through the shimmering roar of the collapsing rift-space, "you can also do it."
The words were simple.
Calm. But behind them was that suffocating pressure again—like a mountain was pushing down on their chests.
Like a sword against their throats.
His tone didn't ask. It demanded. It assumed. As if he had already decided they would, and any hesitation was simply time wasted.
Lina's pale lips trembled.
Her fingers clutched the hem of her uniform jacket.
Her violet eyes darted toward Ron, who now stood like an ancient beast reborn—muscles twitching, claws flexed, his eyes glowing with primal hunger.
Shiro's knees wobbled. His shadow clone floated behind him, a flickering double that twitched nervously with every jolt of color through the dimensional corridor.
Klee whimpered quietly, her fingers tracing the green charm on her belt, the only comfort she had. Her healing spells had never impressed anyone.
Her mother told her she had a gentle heart, but that heart right now felt like a fluttering sparrow tossed into a tornado.
"I…" Lina whispered, the swirling lights reflecting in her half-transparent cheeks. "I don't think I'm ready…"
"Neither did I," Ron snarled, his voice deeper now, more animal. "But he made me do it. He forced it out. And it worked."
Elius didn't smile. He didn't encourage.
He stepped forward, eyes glowing cold like distant stars.
"Don't waste my time."
Shiro tensed. "Why do you talk to us like we're tools?"
"You're not tools," Elius replied flatly. "You're weapons. And weapons don't get to cry about being used. They sharpen, or they shatter."
He pointed toward them with a single finger—almost lazily, but the effect was like a thunderbolt.
"You have power. I see it."
Lina flinched.
"You just need someone to drag it out of you."
He stepped closer.
"I will drag it out of you."
The rift groaned around them. Colors collapsed in on themselves. The pressure grew stronger. Time was thinning. The passage was condensing, preparing to eject them into the unknown.
"You think the monsters out there care about how scared you are?" Elius growled. "You think they'll wait for you to get ready?"
His voice became harsher, slicing through the tunnel of light.
"They will kill you. They will rip you apart. And then I'll have to waste time cleaning up the mess. Do you want that? To be remembered as the useless one who dragged the team down?"
"I—I'm not useless!" Shiro burst out suddenly, his cheeks flushing with shame and fury.
"Then prove it." Elius snapped. "Stop hiding behind your clone."
Shiro stared, teeth clenched.
Lina shook her head slowly. "I'm not good at turning into a ghost. It barely works. I get stuck halfway."
"Then unstick it."
"I've tried—"
"Then try harder!"
"I—"
"Klee," Elius turned on her, eyes narrowing. "You're not healing anyone by trembling. Will yourself. Force it."
"I—my magic can't even stop bleeding noses—"
"It can now," he said coldly. "Because I said it can. Because you're in my party now."
DING!
Trigger Cultivation Party Synchronization Upgrade?
He saw the message. He didn't even pause.
"Yes."
The corridor reacted again.
The swirling walls pulsed violently. Runes etched into the light flared into existence.
Their symbols crawled along the walls like veins of molten gold.
A heavy pulse hit the three students in their chests at once—like being struck by a bell of fate.
"AAAH!" Lina gasped as her legs gave out.
Klee staggered, grabbing her head.
Shiro dropped to one knee, sweat pouring from his brow.
And then—
Shiro's shadow began to change.
It writhed. Twisted. As if made of living tar.
But then it shaped itself. Like armor growing out of darkness.
Modern. Sleek. Like black chrome forged in the night itself.
It clung to the clone first, then seeped into Shiro's own skin. Lightless plating slithered up his arms, his legs, his chest, forming something like a tactical exosuit—tech-shaped, but not built.
It was grown from him. A natural extension of his fear, his shame, his desperate desire to be seen as more than a sidekick.
He stood up—taller now. A second Shiro behind him, a fully-formed clone now wrapped in the same armor.
Shiro's voice was deeper.
"…I can fight now."
Elius nodded once. "Good."
Then he turned.
"Lina."
She was on her knees, shaking. Her fingers spread out on the floor of light. Her form flickered. Her body went transparent.
But only half.
"I can't—my legs—"
"Stop thinking like a human," Elius hissed. "You're a ghost. You move where no one else can."
"I can't feel my legs!"
"Then leave them behind."
Her eyes widened.
"Let go," Elius said. "Let go of the flesh. Stop clinging to it."
DING!
Lina's Phantom Metamorphosis has advanced.
And suddenly, her body cracked—visually cracked—like a mirror breaking.
Glass didn't fall. Instead, mist poured out. Her legs were gone. Replaced by spiraling wisps of ghostlight.
Her arms turned semi-transparent, her fingertips glowing with runic frost. Her hair flowed as if underwater, her eyes replaced with deep violet flames.
"I…" she whispered. "I feel light."
"You're not light," Elius corrected. "You're death."
Then his gaze snapped to the last one.
"Klee."
The smallest. The weakest.
Klee trembled as her charm shattered in her hands, the crystalline fragments spinning upward.
"I—I don't know how to fight—"
"You don't need to," Elius said. "You heal. So heal more."
Her aura flared—green at first, then crystal.
The shards around her body spun faster. She cried out, feeling the pressure—burning, like her entire chest was exploding with power. Her fingers twitched. Her eyes glowed.
Light spilled from her mouth, from her pores, from her hair, her fingertips.
DING!
Klee's Crystalline Verdance has evolved.
The floating shards congealed into a ring around her, orbiting her like a motherly barrier. Her aura was no longer just light—it was life.
Dense.
Verdant.
The green of jungles, of spring, of rebirth.
"I can… keep you all alive," she said softly.
"No," Elius said. "You can do more than that. You can bring us back."
The space around them compressed.
"BE PREPARED!" Elius suddenly shouted, his voice sharp enough to shake the rift itself.
The kaleidoscope narrowed.
The passage grew tight—as if the walls were collapsing, compressing, trying to crush them through a singularity of color. Their ears popped. Gravity spun. Space folded.
"WE ARE LANDING!"
The light went white.
The pressure vanished.
And then—
BOOM.
They exploded out of the rift.
A green wasteland sprawled beneath them—jungle-like, but alien. Mountains floated in the distance.
Creatures roared in the fog.
The sky was a bloody orange.
The training zone was a nightmare biome brought to life.
"NOW!" Elius shouted.
His swords unsheathed midair—four radiant, unbreakable blades that flew like birds around him.
Three circled his body in a triangle formation.
The fourth flattened beneath his boots.
He stepped on it mid-fall, turning the plummet into a controlled hover.
With a flick of his fingers, he reached behind and grabbed Klee with one hand and Shiro with the other—dragging both of them onto the floating blade like a tyrant claiming his throne.
Below, Ron slammed into the earth in his full velociraptor form, talons carving a crater, his head snapping up to sniff the air.
Once they are near the ground.
CRACK—KRA-KOOM!
They landed.
Like thunder. Like gods returning from the sky.
The impact was a sound too loud to be natural.
A shiver too real to ignore.
Soil cracked beneath talons.
Dust billowed around spinning swords. Elius stood tall, his coat flaring dramatically behind him, three blades circling like judgment incarnate.
The training zone greeted them with utter silence.
Crimson clouds churned above. The trees were black and sickly, their branches gnarled like claws.
The grass wasn't grass—it was twitching, vein-like moss. In the distance, a mountain breathed, exhaling faint fire.
Then—"There!" Shiro pointed sharply toward a shadowy crevice in the distance. A large, jagged mouth-shaped cave yawned open in a cliffside, half-covered by mist.
No hesitation.
The moment Shiro saw it, he moved.
He leapt off the sword platform, his boots touching the cracked stone terrain with a practiced thud.
Midair, his clone unlatched itself, a perfect mirror shadow of him detaching from his boots and soaring beside him.
SHRAK—SHRAK!
Both Shiros drew twin shuriken from their hips. Gleaming, metallic, each the size of a dinner plate.
Their edges shimmered with some invisible enchantment.
In one swift motion, the original knelt, his clone crouched atop a rock beside him, both arms out—ready to throw.
"Visual on potential enemy zone," Shiro growled under his breath. "Clone locked in. Trajectory ready. Engage on Elius's command."
Then came Ron.
A blur of green muscle and teeth.
The Velociraptor's form blurred forward, claws clicking against rock, tail whipping behind him like a coiled whip.
With one thunderous stomp of his clawed foot—
ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!
The ground shook with the force of his scream.
Not just sound.
It was a concussive sonic blast meant to paralyze prey.
A thundering bellow from the depths of prehistory—an alpha predator marking territory. Birds—if they even counted as birds—fled in the distance, screeching.
Ron's claws scraped forward as he slid into a crouch. His tongue flicked. He tasted the air.
"Target zone engaged," he growled. "Anything breathes in there, it's gonna regret it."
Then came Klee.
Her aura erupted. Not flared. Not activated. Erupted.
An ocean of radiant, green chlorophyllic mist burst from her body like a blooming supernova.
It was a field of life condensed into one sphere.
Crystalline vines shot from her boots, burrowing into the dirt, spreading instantly like networked roots.
Her arms rose as her eyes shone emerald.
Glowing lotus-shaped leaves hovered around her, orbiting in patterns only a divine gardener could understand.
Her fingertips sparkled with green lightning—pure healing force condensed into physical form.
A dome of chlorophyll surrounded the group like a battlefield greenhouse.
Vines curled protectively around Shiro and Ron. Even Elius's floating sword bent slightly toward the aura, basking in it like plants drinking sunlight.
"Life support established," Klee said quietly, smiling. "You boys just focus on killing stuff. I'll keep us from dying."
It was perfect.
It was orchestrated.
Like the finale of a symphony written in blood and magic.
For the first time, they all landed inside a dangerous dimensional rift, prepared.