Null stood in the center of Sooji's living room, his golden-yellow cross eyes fixed on an unseen point in the air, a ripple of power emanating from him. Kai, Ashley, Sooji, and Fang watched him, the previous discussion of cosmic war and shattered identities still echoing in the small, cozy apartment.
"This is it, then?" Kai asked, his voice tight. "The Wonder World?"
As Null's aura solidified, preparing to tear open the fabric of reality, a gasp tore from Ashley's throat. Her eyes, previously wide with shock from Fang's revelation, now dilated further. A wave of profound, unsettling recognition washed over her, chilling the air around her despite the apartment's warmth. Fragmented, phantom sensations assaulted her mind – echoes of vast, chilling landscapes, the crunch of ancient ice, the roar of something immense and powerful. A deep, aching sense of longing and loss, mixed with a primal understanding, flooded her.
"The... Wonder World," Ashley whispered, the words resonating with a strange, otherworldly familiarity. Her hands trembled, a visible shimmer of frost emanating from her Ice Energy Core. "I... I know it. I remember..." Her voice trailed off, a nascent roar threatening to escape her human throat, her knuckles whitening as she fought an instinctual urge to expand, to shift into a form she dimly recalled.
Fang stepped forward, a solemn expression on his handsome face. "Indeed, Ashley. It is the place of our rebirth. A crucible of raw power and unmade reality. Precisely why my Liege will require a binding contract for entry." He turned to the group. "This is not merely teleportation. This is an integration into his personal domain, powered by his Umbros Prime Stone and the lingering echoes of Horuto's Asura. To enter, you must place your hands upon his Prime Stone, linking your very essences to his, allowing his power to guide and sustain you within."
Null extended his left hand. Embedded in its palm, where a mere human's flesh would be, rested a smooth, obsidian-like stone that pulsed with a faint, swirling darkness. It was the physical manifestation of Umbros, his Prime Stone, radiating an ancient, chilling power.
"Place your hands here," Null commanded, his voice devoid of emotion, but conveying absolute necessity. "All of you. It will stabilize the link."
Hesitantly, Sooji stepped forward first, her connection to Lumina making her brave. She gently placed her hand on the smooth, dark surface of Umbros, feeling a cold, yet strangely comforting, energy flow into her. Lumina, perched on her shoulder, hummed softly, a tiny beacon of warmth against the chill of Umbros. Next, Kai, his usual skepticism momentarily subdued by the sheer magnitude of the situation, placed his hand atop Sooji's, feeling a faint tremor of raw power. Finally, Ashley, her eyes still haunted by the fleeting memories the Wonder World's name evoked, placed her trembling hand atop Kai's. As her Ice Energy Core made contact with Umbros, a faint, almost imperceptible crackle of opposing energies met, then harmonized. Fang, of course, merely stood by, nodding approvingly, already linked to Null on a far deeper level.
With all hands connected, Null's golden cross eyes flared. The air around them twisted, stretched, and then shattered like glass. A kaleidoscope of raw energy, dizzying and disorienting, engulfed them. The familiar scent of Sooji's apartment vanished, replaced by a metallic tang, like blood and ozone. A sensation of being pulled apart and reassembled, molecule by molecule, overwhelmed their senses. Then, with a jarring thud, they were standing on solid ground again.
The Wonder World was not the pristine, fantastical dimension its name might imply. It was a nightmare. The ground beneath their feet was not earth, but a compacted, reddish-brown soil that glistened as if perpetually wet. Blood was everywhere. Not fresh, flowing blood, but an ingrained, ancient stain that permeated the very landscape. Twisted, skeletal trees, devoid of leaves, clawed at a perpetually twilight sky, their branches like gnarled, broken bones. The air was heavy, metallic, and carried the faint, decaying scent of death and violence. Scattered across the desolate plains were the remnants of titanic battles – broken weapons, shattered armor, and the petrified remains of unknown creatures, all bleached bone-white against the crimson earth.
"Welcome," Fang announced, his voice surprisingly cheerful for the grim surroundings, "to the Wonder World! My Liege's rather... active training grounds."
Before anyone could fully process the horror of their new surroundings, the ground trembled. From behind a jagged outcrop of blood-stained rock, two figures emerged. They were bipedal, hulking forms made of raw earth and stone, their bodies crackling with arcs of lightning. Rank 2 monsters, capable of wielding elemental powers, their eyes glowing with predatory hunger. They stalked towards the group, their rock-like fists crackling with electrical discharge.
"Prey!" one snarled, its voice like grinding stone. "New prey!" The other roared, launching a bolt of lightning that streaked towards Kai.
But before the bolt could reach its target, the monsters froze. Their elemental auras flickered, their predatory eyes widening in sudden, incomprehensible terror. Their attention had shifted. They weren't looking at Kai, or Sooji, or even Null. Their gaze was fixed on Fang, standing tall and composed, his human form radiating an ancient, primordial power. Then they shifted to Ashley, who, though still trembling with the revelation of her past, now pulsed with an undeniable, raw cold energy that made the air around her crystallize. And finally, their eyes locked onto Null, whose golden cross eyes held a depth of power that transcended mere physical might.
A guttural, whimper escaped the first monster. "Th-the... the Commander!" it choked out, its voice losing all aggression. "And... the Behemoth!" The second monster, its elemental aura dissipating into weak sparks, scrambled backwards, its rock-like limbs flailing. "And... the demon from other hell!"[1]
Their primal instincts screamed. These were not prey. These were beings of utterly terrifying, incalculable power. These were beings from a forgotten age, or perhaps, beings who had reshaped ages. With a collective, panicked shriek, the Rank 2 monsters – capable of elemental attacks and powerful in their own right – broke formation and ran. They scattered across the bloody landscape, their desperate retreat echoing the deep, intrinsic terror Null, Fang, and Ashley now inspired.
"Well," Fang commented, a triumphant smirk returning to his face. "That went rather splendidly. See, Kai? The universe does recognize true power, even when it's confined to a rather fetching suit."
The training began. Null was a demanding, relentless instructor. The concept of rest was alien to him in this accelerated dimension. Days blurred into weeks, weeks into what felt like months for Sooji, Kai, and Ashley, while back on Earth, perhaps only a handful of hours had passed.
Null pushed Sooji to channel Lumina's life energy. Her attempts initially were clumsy, resulting in wilting flowers or uncontrollable bursts of warmth. But under Null's cold, precise guidance, and Lumina's quiet, telepathic encouragement, Sooji learned control. She learned to mend, to accelerate growth, to even push back against the oppressive atmosphere of the Wonder World with waves of pure vitality. Her connection to Lumina deepened profoundly.
Kai, despite his dormant stone, was subjected to brutal physical and mental conditioning. Null put him through grueling combat drills, forcing him to rely on instinct, observation, and raw resilience. Fang, often in his elegant human form, would offer infuriatingly vague but insightful commentary, occasionally demonstrating a devastatingly precise strike or dodging a simulated attack with impossible grace. Kai's frustration mounted, but so did his endurance, his speed, and a nascent tactical awareness. He was becoming a soldier, even without an active power.
Ashley's training was the most volatile. Null pushed her to unleash her Ice Energy Core, to embrace the power of her original form. She struggled with the sheer magnitude of it, the constant battle to maintain her human guise against the overwhelming demands of the Wonder World's raw energy. As she pushed her limits, her human form would waver. A patch of skin would turn crystalline ice, her eyes might briefly flash with a draconic, chilling red, or a glimpse of a massive, scaly limb would briefly manifest before she forced it back. It was a terrifying, exhilarating battle for self-control, and the realization that she was a being of such magnitude began to sink in, even if the memories remained locked away. The sheer energetic density of the Wonder World made it impossible for her to completely hide her true form, her power constantly threatening to overwhelm her current guise.
Fang, too, found the Wonder World's atmosphere thin for his own self-restraint. As he moved, lectured, and demonstrated, his human form would often betray hints of his true self. His eyes would glow with a deeper, more primal amber. And most notably, his black, whip-like tail, identical to the one Null briefly manifested, would often escape its concealment, twitching and lashing independently behind him, too much energy to contain. He simply ignored it, continuing his pompous instruction as if a dragon's tail was perfectly normal attire for a well-dressed gentleman.
Days turned into weeks within the Wonder World. The initial terror of the blood-soaked landscape faded, replaced by grim determination. They grew stronger, faster, more attuned to their powers. They were no longer just random individuals; they were a unit, forged in the crucible of Null's demanding training.
Then, as another cycle of brutal training drew to a close, a blinding light erupted from Sooji's hands. Lumina, who had been glowing faintly for days, began to expand. Her small, white dragon form shimmered, growing exponentially. The ethereal luminescence intensified, radiating a powerful, pure energy that cleansed the very blood-stained air around them, replacing the metallic tang with the scent of fresh life.
Sooji watched, awestruck, as Lumina stretched, her form becoming majestic and truly awe-inspiring. No longer merely a small companion, Lumina now stood before them in her real form: a magnificent, towering white dragon, scaled like spun moonlight, her sapphire eyes burning with ancient wisdom and boundless life. Her wings, vast and shimmering, unfurled like sails of pure light, dwarfing them all. A low, powerful purr vibrated through the very ground, a sound of profound contentment and unimaginable power. The essence of the Life Prime Stone, truly awakened.
End of chapter 35
See you again
[1] Lowkey wanted to bring this back