Ava and his team stepped out of the glowing dungeon portal, their armor cracked and their faces drenched with sweat. The air outside shimmered with residual energy from the cleared world.
Dallas stretched his arms, his muscles more defined than ever. "Man, training after class has really been paying off these past two months."
Demeter nodded, brushing dust from her robe. "I agree. You've improved so much, Dallas. With your spells you don't even have to read from your grimoire anymore. You just remember them."
Demeter grinned. "That's just the easy part though."
Star chuckled, hands on her hips. "Easy for you maybe, Demeter. Not everyone's a prodigy."
Ava smiled faintly. "We're all getting stronger. Every week, we take first place in the dungeons. If this keeps up, they'll start giving us real missions maybe even front-line assignments."
Dallas's eyes lit up. "I can't wait. Then I'll finally be a real warrior. I'll go back to my planet knowing it's safe… that it won't be destroyed. I'll be their hero a warrior of the Dark Lord."
Star's expression softened. "I just want my family safe. I want to make my father proud become both a warrior and a princess."
Dallas looked between Ava and Demeter. "You two never talk about your parents. Why's that?"
Ava shrugged. "There's not much to say. My parents are just regular humans. My dad's a basketball coach. My mom stays home."
Demeter lowered her head. "I don't want to talk about it."
Dallas hesitated. "What are you, though? I mean… what race? Are you from the same universe and planet as Star?"
Before Demeter could answer, Star quickly stepped in. "She doesn't want to talk about it. When I first met her, she literally fell from the sky like a meteor. Landed on our planet at a young age. My family adopted her. It's… complicated."
Dallas raised his hands. "Alright, alright. My bad." He yawned. "I'm turning in for the night."
As he left, Demeter quietly followed soon after, leaving Ava and Star alone in the corridor.
Ava glanced at her, and without a word, his golden life strings extended, connecting gently to her mind. Their voices crossed telepathically.
Star said silently, is this the night?
You're really going to do it? she replied, her thoughts trembling slightly.
Yes, he answered. It has to be tonight.
Be careful, Ava. Lunark is strong. He might kill you.
Ava didn't respond. Instead, Star stepped closer. Her breath trembled against his chest as she looked up at him. His large hands found her waist, drawing her closer, while her fingers brushed the back of his neck, pulling him down to meet her.
Their lips met slowly, deliberately as if the world had gone silent just for them. The faint shimmer of dungeon light reflected off her lashes, his heartbeat thundering against her palm.
When they parted, he held her there, his hand still resting at her waist. Trust me, he whispered into her mind. I've trained long enough. I can defeat him. I'm done letting him spy on me.
I believe you, she thought back softly. Just be safe. And… maybe it's still best we keep this whatever this is between us.
Agreed, Ava said, his tone quiet but sure. No need to tell the others about our extra activities.
They exchanged one last look half promise, half farewell before turning down the hall toward their separate rooms.
Unseen above them, the demonic eye rotated silently in the shadows, its crimson pupil unblinking.
In his office, Lunark watched through the eye, fingers steepled beneath his chin. "I've been watching this boy for two months," he murmured. "He hasn't slipped once. I even sent warriors to attack him randomly still nothing. Everything he does seems so ordinary. So perfect. Maybe…" He paused. "Maybe I was wrong. Still, it doesn't hurt to keep watching."
In his dorm, Ava knelt in silence. The room dimmed as his breathing slowed, steady and deliberate.
Lunark's eye observed him, narrowing. "What's this?" he whispered. "He's never meditated before."
A faint hum filled the air. Black and golden energy spiraled around Ava as a dark halo formed above his head.
"Omnipresence," he breathed.
A wave of energy rippled outward, invisible yet vast. Lunark shuddered as it passed through him, his instincts screaming. "What… was that? A dimensional shift?" He focused his senses, channeling magic through the eye. "Why does it feel like he's everywhere… yet I can still see him sitting there?"
A sudden chill filled the room.
Lunark gasped as a sword appeared through his abdomen, black light spilling from the wound. He coughed blood, turning slowly only to see Ava standing before him.
The boy's black lotus wings unfurled behind him, vast and radiant with darkness. His demonic halo glowed like an eclipse.
Lunark's trembling gaze flicked back to the eye. Through it, he could still see Ava in his dorm, meditating calmly. Yet another Ava stood here, solid and real.
"How?" he rasped. "Why does it feel like you're everywhere?"
Ava tilted his head slightly, voice calm. "Because of my omnipresence. This version is weak limited by this body. But even a fraction allows me to exist across my domain at once. Inefficient compared to the full power version… but effective, as you can see."
Blood dripped from Lunark's mouth, yet a faint smile curled across his face.
"I knew it," he whispered. "I knew it was you. You're part of that family… the Black Lotus."
Ava's eyes glowed faintly. "You won't live to find out."
Lunark laughed hoarsely, gripping the sword buried in his gut. "Are you a fool? Attacking me a teacher inside these halls? Once we begin, the other instructors will sense the battle. They'll flood this room. They'll flood the school. You'll be overwhelmed and killed long before you ever touch me."
He smirked through the pain. "But I won't need their help. I'll kill you myself. The Dark Lord will be pleased to know I destroyed a descendant of the Black Lotus."
While Lunark spoke, Ava's thoughts were steady, controlled.
I need to save my energy. Omnipresence drains too much power in this form. This body is still too weak to maintain it for long.
He deactivated his Omnipresence. The version of himself meditating in his dorm vanished like a mirage.
Then, out loud, he said calmly, "Trust me no one's going to interrupt our fight."
Lunark's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Ava raised his hand. The sword already impaled in Lunark began to hum with energy. Black and violet lightning crackled along its blade as Ava whispered,
"Chaos Thunder."
The lightning surged, engulfing Lunark in a storm of black and purple light. His body began to melt under the pressure, skin and shadow dripping like molten tar. Every mouth across his body screamed at once a chorus of agony that tore through the air while the single, massive eye in his chest throbbed violently, veins of red energy pulsing from the wound where Ava's blade had pierced it. His voice fractured into hundreds, echoing through the higher plane of existence as his body writhed and cracked beneath the chaos.
When the smoke cleared, Ava's Black Lotus Sword flew back to his hand. Lunark's body reformed, gasping and burned, his human shape barely holding together.
Snarling, Lunark summoned a dark staff into his grasp, the air trembling as shadows coiled around its tip. He began to chant under his breath, his many mouths echoing the words in a haunting rhythm.
"Vel'dra Omn-Serakai, Faal'Torin Na'shar!"
But as he gathered energy, his eyes darted around the room. Confusion struck him.
That attack… it was strong enough destroy dimensions. But the floor isn't even cracked. The shelves untouched. It's like the explosion never happened.
He looked closer and saw it one small black square missing from the floor, hovering in the air like a perfect void, then slotting back into place.
His heart sank.
No… it can't be. Am I inside his Dimension Ascension? Did he trap me already? Impossible. I'm the instructor of that technique. I've watched him for months he was awful at it!
Ava smiled faintly. "So you finally figured it out?"
Lunark began to laugh softly, clapping his hands despite the blood dripping from them. "Impressive. Your Dimension Ascension… it's flawless. You've learned how to control distortion making your domain look exactly like the real world, yet function only under your rules."
"Exactly," Ava replied. His tone was calm, almost teacher-like. "Like I said no one's going to interrupt us. We're on a higher plane of existence now. This entire section of the castle has been rewritten into my domain."
He stepped forward, the air vibrating with golden tension. "No one can enter. No one can hear us. Even if someone walks through this very room, they'll see nothing but empty space. Every explosion, every strike, every scream it all stays here unless I decide otherwise."
He raised his sword, its edge humming with quiet inevitability.
"The laws have changed. The rules are mine now."
Lunark began to laugh a low, rumbling sound that multiplied as the dozens of mouths across his body stretched open, each grinning with hunger. The laughter turned into a chorus of whispers.
One mouth began to chant a spell. Then another. Then another. Each voice sang in a different tone some deep and guttural, others shrill and broken until their overlapping whispers fused into a dreadful harmony that filled the air like a cursed hymn.
"Vel'dra Omn-Serakai, Faal'Torin Na'shar! Kresh'Tal Vorai, Den'thul Ura-Kai!"
The words rippled like waves of black fire, bending reality with every syllable. His wounds sealed shut, the torn flesh knitting together as his skin rippled and hardened. Muscles swelled beneath it, cords of sinew twisting like molten tar. The single eye at the center of his chest flared crimson, its light pulsing in rhythm with the chant.
He grew twelve feet tall now, monstrous and impossibly defined, every vein glowing faintly red beneath his darkened skin. The air warped around him as his shadow spread like liquid smoke, and his staff rose from the ground, floating beside him, spinning slowly as if drawn into the storm of his power.
When he spoke again, his voice came from every direction at once all mouths moving in perfect, terrifying unison.
"I've been dying for a challenge," the overlapping voices thundered. "Do you know how many centuries it's been since I've had to fight seriously? You see, traitor, I once trained beside the Dark Lord himself. I was one of his top generals… until I retired."
A guttural laugh tore through the room. "The reward I'll receive for killing you a spy, a member of the Black Lotus will be glorious!"
He screamed, and his very essence flared outward. The atmosphere bent under the pressure of his power. The once-bright hall twisted, its walls rippling like water. Shelves melted into black shapes, their edges forming sharp, tooth-lined grins. Furniture writhed and sprouted eyes that blinked and laughed in madness. Reality itself was being devoured by his will.
Ava narrowed his eyes. "This is bad. I can't let his Dimension Ascension overpower mine."
Golden and black energy surged around him, his aura pulsing with fierce intensity. He spread his hands, and the space between them fractured white geometric blocks of light forming, expanding, then splitting again like infinite mirrors.
Lunark roared, his darkness swelling to meet it. Ava's, angular shapes of higher-dimensional light collided with Lunark's grotesque field of living mouths. The boundaries of the world collapsed.
Both of them rose, weightless, into a higher plane of existence a realm that transcended time and space. Here, there was no direction, no location, no measure of distance or duration.
Around them stretched a reality unbound by form half radiant, half abyssal. Infinite white cubes drifted through the void, intersecting at angles that defied geometry, while in the gaps between them, shadows churned with laughter. Thousands of sharp-toothed mouths floated in the dark, whispering hymns of madness to the silence.
It was a place without center or horizon, a realm that existed everywhere and nowhere at once an outer membrane of the Boundless Ocean, where even the laws of existence bowed to those who dared to shape them.
Lunark's body twisted and warped, his liquid-like arms reshaping into jagged spikes lined with laughing mouths. Each mouth whispered a different incantation, their overlapping voices forming a maddening choir. His right hand began to glow, pulsing with chaotic light as he thrust it forward his arm stretching like liquid steel, lashing out toward Ava like a living cannon of darkness.
Ava dove backward, his wings flaring. The tendril of energy shot past him only for a massive, sharp-toothed mouth to materialize behind him, snapping shut like a bear trap. Ava spun midair, slicing it cleanly in half with a single motion of his sword.
Before he could catch his breath, Lunark appeared directly in front of him, his spiked arm slashing forward. The blow connected an explosion of force sent Ava flying, crashing through several layers of higher-dimensional space.
Lunark charged, his laughter echoing through the higher plane of existence as he hurled strikes faster than light itself immeasurable, relentless. Ava blocked and dodged, but soon his rhythm faltered. One punch, then another, slammed into him. He reeled backward, wings stuttering.
Before he could recover, Lunark's floating staff unleashed a barrage of dark demonic energy, bolts of shadow twisting like serpents through the layered expanse of transcendent space. The blasts struck Ava across the chest, burning through his aura and sending him spiraling violently through the fractured layers of their dimension.
As he tried to steady himself, his movements felt wrong off balance, reversed.
What's going on with my body? Every time I move left, it goes right...
Then realization struck.
He's rewriting the laws of direction. Reversal that's his domain.
He clenched his jaw. Then I'll just have to rewire my own brain.
When Lunark lunged again, Ava thought in reverse. He willed himself left and his body moved right, dodging the strike perfectly. Spinning through the air, Ava's blade flashed once. Lunark's head fell.
For a moment, silence. Then the headless body trembled and a new head grew back. Lunark turned, grinning.
"It's over for you," he said. The mouths orbiting him opened, revealing countless fanged maws. They launched forward, shrieking, firing torrents of black demonic energy.
Ava darted through the air, dodging the blasts as they pursued him relentlessly. Their attacks carved through the white cubes of his domain, spreading shadows through the void. Thinking quickly, Ava flung several of his Higher-Dimensional Cards.
Ava's eyes flashed as he flung a flurry of Higher-Dimensional Cards into the air dozens spinning like shards of light. Each card radiated with a unique aura, but three distinct types surged to the forefront, pulsing with overwhelming power.
The first burst in a surge of azure frost. "Ice Blizzard: Frozen Soul!" he commanded. The cards scattered, detonating into a sweeping storm of glacial wind. One of the monstrous mouths froze instantly, and the frost spread outward in a chain reaction encasing dozens more in crystal as the temperature of the higher plane plummeted.
The next wave glowed a venomous green. "Acid Swamp of Darkness!" he declared. The cards melted into pools of black liquid that evaporated into a toxic gas, spreading through the higher plane like a living fog. The vapor rushed toward the floating mouths, clinging to them and seeping into their forms. One by one they shrieked and writhed as their flesh bubbled and melted away, dissolving into streams of shadowy mist that drifted soundlessly into nothingness.
Then came the final volley a surge of crimson radiance. "Flaming Sword: Bullet Parade!" he roared. The cards ignited, transforming into hundreds of blazing swords that spiraled outward in every direction. The air shimmered as the blades streaked across the realm like meteors, piercing through the horde in a relentless storm of divine fire and molten steel.
By the time the final explosion faded, the darkness was littered with shattered fragments of frozen, burning, and melting mouths all silenced beneath the echo of Ava's power.
As the dust settled, Ava's brief relief vanished. From the fading haze, new mouths began to emerge hundreds of them splitting through the air like tearing fabric. They came at him from every direction, shrieking and snapping, their laughter echoing through the fractured realm.
In the distance, Professor Lunark stood with his arms outstretched, laughter booming across the higher plane as he puppeteered the horrors with his will.
"You can never escape, Ava!" he roared, every mouth repeating the words in distorted harmony. "You'll drown in my domain!"
Ava's eyes narrowed as the swarm closed in, their jagged teeth glinting in the black light surrounding him.
Ava felt his energy thinning.
I'm wasting too much energy… these cards drain me fast, and maintaining the Dimension Ascension costs even more. I need to finish this now.
He summoned again this time, monsters cards. Titans and monsters from conquered dungeons appeared beside him, roaring as they charged the demonic mouths that remained. The higher plane became a battlefield of divine chaos.
Ava flew straight toward Lunark. Their fists collided, the shockwave shattering entire layers of dimensional space. They clashed again and again each blow breaking and remaking reality. Ava's strikes grew faster, sharper. His sword cleaved through Lunark's limbs, severing arms and legs faster than they could regrow.
But Ava noticed something. Each time a limb reformed, one of Lunark's mouths vanished.
So that's it… he's not regenerating, Ava realized. He's sacrificing souls.
Lunark laughed as he caught Ava's fist. "You finally noticed. I'm not regenerating at all. Every mouth is a soul each one a body waiting to replace the last. Infinite lives, infinite chances!"
Ava's Black Lotus Sword flickered weakly, then vanished in a shimmer of light. He cursed under his breath. "Damn it. I'm running out of energy… it's all going into maintaining this Ascension."
Lunark smirked, his many mouths curling in sync, a low, rattling laugh echoing through the void.
"Exactly," he hissed. "How long can you keep us trapped here, cut off from everything? Your strength is fading, Ava. This little pocket of eternity won't hold forever."
His central eye flared crimson, casting veins of light across the dark expanse.
"When it collapses and it will collapse I'll drag what's left of you to the Dark Lord myself."
He stepped forward, his voice splitting through the overlapping echoes of his many mouths.
"He'll be pleased to see what I've caught one of the Black Lotus, broken and on his knees. And soon, the rest of your cursed family will follow. The disgusting Black Lotus legacy will end."
The higher plane rippled at his words, black laughter spreading through the orbiting mouths like a storm of living shadows.
Ava lunged, fury igniting in his eyes. "Don't talk about my family like that!" he roared, his punch cutting through the air but it passed straight through Lunark as though striking smoke. He swung again, harder this time again, nothing.
Lunark's laughter filled the void. "You're too busy maintaining your little paradise of isolation. You made this realm lawless without location, beyond time and space but you're also in my dimension of sentence too. I rewrote the rule of contact. Within this domain, your actions no longer connect to their consequences."
A thin smile spread across his many mouths. "In other words… you can't touch me, because causality no longer recognizes you."
Ava's eyes burned gold. "Laws obey me because I am the truth!"
He screamed, his aura exploding in a spiral of black and purple light. "Chaos Strike!"
Lightning erupted from his fists. He struck Lunark square in the chest, hurling him backward through dozens of higher-dimensional layers. The impact shattered pieces of the higher plane into fractals of color.
Before Lunark could recover, golden life strings shot from Ava's hands, wrapping around his body. Ava pulled him forward, roaring, "Chaos Strike!" again slamming his fist into Lunark's torso with enough force to shatter multiple existences.
Lunark's body broke apart, his form scattering into fragments across multiple dimensions. But even as Ava watched, the pieces began to stir reforming, reshaping.
A new body stood before him once more.
Lunark smiled, his many mouths whispering in eerie harmony.
"Did you really think it would be that easy? "I have infinite lives. Kill one body and another will rise. And even if you succeed, you'll still have to cut through my army."
Ava's breath came heavy and uneven. He turned and saw the battlefield still raging behind him his summoned beasts locked in brutal combat with the countless demonic mouths that Lunark had spawned. The higher plane trembled with every clash, echoing with the roars of titans and the laughter of the damned.
He steadied himself, sweat glimmering on his brow. I need to end this. Infinite lives… this is worse than immortality itself. His golden eyes narrowed. If I can't kill him, then I'll seal him. But I have to weaken him first before he can create another body.
Lunark grinned through a hundred mouths. "You look afraid. You've stopped moving. Finally realized it's over?"
Ava didn't answer. Instead, he raised a glowing card the surface shimmering like molten glass and began weaving his golden life strings into it. Threads of divine energy laced through the sigils, forming a web of invisible light.
"Higher-Dimensional Trap Card," he whispered. The card vanished from sight, dissolving into the air before him.
Then he shouted, voice echoing through the void, "It's not over until I'm in control of everything. The Dark Lord is dead."
Lunark's laughter turned into a snarl. "You dare speak of my master that way?"
He lunged forward, all his mouths screaming at once.
Ava's eyes flashed. "Perfect."
He sidestepped just as Lunark's feet touched the unseen card. The air beneath him flared gold the trap activating. A massive sigil unfolded from the void, its edges spiraling into geometric infinity. Golden life strings shot upward, wrapping around Lunark's limbs and chest, binding him completely.
"What what is this?" Lunark strained, but his movement slowed, his melting into liquid but still trapped. "I can't escape!"
Ava extended his hands. "You said it doesn't matter if I kill you, because you'll just come back."
Black and purple lightning began to swirl in his palms, condensing into a sphere of raw chaos. "You will come back," he said quietly, "but not as yourself."
He thrust both hands forward. "Chaos Thunder!"
The energy beam exploded outward, tearing through the higher plane and shattering multiple layers of dimensional reality. Lunark screamed as the lightning consumed him, burning through his essence. One by one, the mouths across his body vanished, their stolen souls unraveling.
Before his next body could manifest, the golden life strings constricted, dragging his collapsing form downward into the glowing trap. The massive sigil folded inward like a closing eye, sealing him inside the higher-dimensional card.
The card returned to its normal size and drifted gently into Ava's hand, still pulsing faintly. Within its mirrored surface, Lunark's distorted silhouette could be seen screaming silently, trapped between infinite layers of light.
Ava gazed at it, his tone calm but cold. "And now… It's finally over."
The card shone brighter as he poured his will into it. His life strings wrapped around it, feeding divine energy into its core.
When Ava seals a being, creature, or object within his Higher-Dimensional Cards, it is not mere imprisonment it is rewriting. Inside each card exists a plane of absolute narration, a higher reality of dual forces: positive and negative narrative energy. These opposing currents deconstruct the entity's story, erasing its identity, rewriting its truth, and re-defining its existence under Ava's authorship.
The air grew still as Lunark's Dimension Ascension began to collapse. The warped atmosphere stabilized; the floating demonic mouths vanished like smoke. The monsters Ava had summoned dissolved into golden motes, reverting to their original forms as Higher-Dimensional Cards before flickering out of sight, returning to their resting place.
Ava exhaled. In his hand, the card containing Lunark shimmered faintly. He threw it down, the sigils flashing gold. "Return," he commanded.
The card expanded in a pulse of light. Lunark materialized before him on his knee, head bowed, voice trembling. "What can I do for you, Shimna Chaos… my lord?"
Ava deactivated his Dimension Ascension. The white cubes and higher-dimensional shapes faded one by one, until the world folded neatly back into its original form. The shelves returned, the desks stood unharmed, and the air smelled of polished wood and parchment once more. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Ava's tone was calm but commanding. "What you can do for me is simple. Give me everything you know about the Dark Lord his network, his allies, every teacher in this academy who serves him. Every warrior under his command. You can probably dig deeper than I can without drawing suspicion."
Lunark nodded quickly. "Yes, my lord. I can give you every document, every record. As one of the head instructors, I have access to restricted archives."
"Good." Ava's eyes glowed faintly. "I'll also be skipping your class a few times, but that won't matter. You'll still give me an A and make sure my team is placed on the front lines. Use every favor, every connection. Get us as close to the Dark Lord as possible."
Lunark bowed lower. "Yes, right away. I'll begin writing recommendations tonight and assign you high-priority missions."
Suddenly, the door began to creak open.
Ava froze. Damn… they'll see my bruises. They'll think something happened. He smiled faintly. Good thing I planned for this.
Several teachers stepped in the principal, Rosavelle, flanked by Professor Gorath Valoron, the instructor at the dungeon.
Rosavelle was the first to speak. "What's going on here?" Her sharp gaze swept the room, landing on Ava and Lunark and the unconscious student sprawled on the floor, beaten and bruised. "You missed the meeting. We came to check on you."
Lunark straightened, his voice suddenly smooth and composed. "It's fine, everyone. Remember the intruder I reported? With Ava's help, I found him. We subdued him together. The boy was snooping around the academy. Fortunately, Ava was already with me for extra instruction, and together we stopped this spy."
Rosavelle nodded, motioning to the guards. "Take the student to the infirmary for questioning." As the guards carried the unconscious boy away, she turned back to Ava with a warm smile. "Excellent work. Thank you for your quick thinking, Ava. You really are the perfect student."
Professor Gorath, however, said nothing. He just stared, his expression unreadable.
Ava returned the smile politely. "I'm glad to help, Principal Rosavelle. But I'm exhausted. I think I'll head back to my dorm."
As he walked past, Gorath's eyes followed him silently, sharp and suspicious.
Perfect, Ava thought, keeping his expression neutral. Just as planned. Lunark already told them about the supposed intruder. All I had to do was use one of the students who picked a fight with me as the scapegoat. Now no one will suspect a thing.
Later, back in the castle corridors, Gorath approached Lunark's office. The professor's tone was casual, but his eyes were cold. "I thought you told me you suspected the intruder was Ava."
Lunark's reply came easily, his tone eerily calm. "I was wrong. Ava's the perfect student. I don't know what I was thinking when I said those things. Clearly, I misjudged him. Have a good night, Professor."
He smiled thinly and walked away, leaving Gorath standing in silence.
Gorath frowned. Strange, he thought. Those aren't his normal speech patterns. And Lunark never skips meetings especially not to teach a student he despised. Now he praises the boy? Calls him perfect?
He crossed his arms, watching the corridor where Lunark disappeared. Something's changed. That boy… his power, his team's growth it's all happening too fast.
The torchlight flickered across Gorath's face as his eyes narrowed.