The sky burned.
Dominic stood on a flat expanse of glowing stone, wind roaring in his ears as the world trembled. Ahead of him, a massive bird—no, a phoenix—spread its wings wide enough to blot out the sun. Its feathers shimmered in waves of red and gold, each one burning at the edges, melting into trails of light.
The air rippled. The phoenix let out a cry so loud it felt like the sound went through his bones. Then flames erupted from its body, swallowing it whole.
Dominic flinched, throwing an arm over his face. The heat washed over him, bright and blinding. When he dared to look again, the phoenix was gone. Nothing but a pile of ash remained. The silence after the explosion felt heavy, almost reverent.
Then, from within the ashes, something moved.
A spark. A faint, trembling glow. Then another. And another.
The ashes began to swirl, pulled upward by an unseen wind. The light grew stronger, brighter, until it exploded again—but this time not in destruction. In rebirth.
The phoenix rose, burning clean and brilliant, feathers brighter than molten gold. Its eyes flickered open—two orbs of living fire—and Dominic couldn't look away. The creature stretched its wings and took off, soaring into the sky.
Dominic felt his heart race. He didn't know why, but he started running after it. He couldn't explain it. He just had to follow. Something deep inside him, something old and wordless, pushed his legs forward.
The phoenix flew through a gate of light hanging in the air. The moment it passed through, the gate shimmered and vanished. But ahead, another gate appeared, and then another. The bird kept flying, each gate leading to another part of the sky, each one pulling it further away.
Dominic tried to keep up. His lungs burned. His legs screamed. But he couldn't stop.
He shouted, "Wait!" even though he knew it was pointless.
The phoenix paused mid-flight—just before entering another gate. It turned, slow and deliberate, until its eyes met his.
And then it spoke.
"Is he really still sleeping?"
The voice echoed everywhere and nowhere, like it came from both inside and outside his head. The sky fractured, the light folded in on itself—and Dominic's eyes snapped open.
He was back in the chair.
The same chair he'd slumped into the night before. His neck ached. His leg was half-numb. He blinked a few times, dazed, as his eyes adjusted to the dim orange light spilling in through the window.
Right in front of him, Emby stood with her hands on her hips, expression unreadable.
"Well," she said flatly, "you sleep like the dead."
Dominic groaned and stretched, rolling his shoulders. "That chair was way more comfortable than I thought it'd be."
"You were drooling," she said, pointing at the faint dark patch on his sleeve.
"Hey, that's a bold accusation."
"Whatever," she said, fighting a small smile. "Master Aro wants us outside. Says it's time for our first lesson."
Dominic blinked. "Already? The guy doesn't waste time, huh?"
"Nope," Emby said.
The morning air was cool when they stepped out. The front of the building opened onto a wide platform overlooking the floating city. Dominic's eyes caught movement—Rhoj, Lune, Oravi, and Master Aro were already waiting near the edge.
As Dominic approached, a familiar scent hit him—That plant smell again. The smell was faint, but it was there — that same earthy-sweet scent from the plant that started all this.
Lune wasn't the one who'd taken it. He was sure of that. Still…the scent clung to him.
Dominic hadn't said anything yet — hadn't even found the right moment to — but it sat quietly in the back of his head, waiting.
Before he could think too much, Master Aro's voice boomed, smooth and calm. "Ahh, you're all here. Good. Now we can begin."
Dominic opened his mouth to ask begin what, but before the words could leave his lips, everything changed.
The air bent. The ground blurred. His stomach lurched—but only for a split second. Then he blinked, and they were standing somewhere completely different.
Gone was the stone platform and the clean air of the city. Instead, they stood knee-deep in mud. The sky was heavy and gray. The air was thick with humidity and the smell of rot.
Dominic stumbled. "What—how did—did we just teleport?"
Emby steadied herself beside him, eyes wide. Even Rhoj and Lune looked unsettled.
Master Aro stood in front of them, completely calm, his robe spotless despite the muck.
Dominic's mind raced. It's gotta be teleportation right? I don't think he can just run that fast. Even if he could, the inertia alone would've turned them into soup. Unless he'd done something to their bodies to cancel it out…
"Okay," Dominic muttered to himself, "Is it too late to assume this is all one weird dream?"
A low growl cut through his thoughts.
He looked up—and froze.
Shapes were moving in the distance. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. They came crawling, slithering, running on uneven limbs. Their bodies looked wrong—blocky, stretched in strange proportions. Skin that looked like wet sponge, mouths packed with jagged teeth.
Dominic's throat went dry. "Uhm… are those supposed to be here?"
The others tensed.
Oravi, hands shaking. "Are those…type twos?"
Lune's eyes narrowed. "Looks like it."
Rhoj cracked his knuckles. "If I went all out I could take a few, but there are way too many."
"Same thoughts too," Emby said under her breath.
"Type what now?" Dominic muttered. "Omo…"
The monsters kept coming, growling, their teeth glistening. They didn't look intelligent—but they looked hungry.
Dominic pointed at them. "Master Aro, uh… you seeing this, right?!"
The instructor didn't turn around. He simply faced his students, his back to the creatures.
"As you all know," he said calmly, "I'm an instructor here. But do any of you know my innate affinity?"
Before anyone could answer, one of the monsters lunged—straight at his back.
Dominic shouted, "Behind you!"
The creature's jaws opened wide—and then its head was gone.
No sound. No movement. One moment it was there, the next, cleanly sliced from existence. The headless body crumpled into the mud.
Master Aro didn't even glance back.
He continued speaking, voice steady. "My innate affinity is based on subatomic bonds. I can make new ones…" He raised his right hand, curling it into a fist. Then lifted his index finger. "...and break old ones."
A faint orange glow spiraled around his finger, gathering until it formed a small, humming orb at the tip.
"Tell me…what happens when you split an atom?"
Dominic, still half-panicking, said, "Ugh—you get two atoms?"
Master Aro smiled faintly. "You get a boom."
Then he turned.
The orb flared, brighter than sunlight—and exploded.
Every monster in front of them disintegrated instantly, reduced to nothing but vapor. The shockwave rolled across the vast expanse of the marsh, flattening reeds and parting the mist for kilometres.
Where the creatures had stood, the mud hissed and blackened, layers of moisture vanishing in seconds. Steam rose in thick clouds, and the air stank of scorched algae and wet earth. Yet, where the students stood, the ground stayed damp, untouched—almost as if the destruction had curved perfectly around them.
Even the air seemed to shiver from the leftover heat. When the haze finally cleared, the swamp ahead had become a lifeless basin—hardened, cracked earth stretching as far as they could see, with not a single drop of water left under the haze.
Dominic stared, eyes wide, mouth half open. "He just—he nuked them…"
Rhoj whistled low. "Knew he was gonna do something like that. Still… being scared makes it more fun."
Lune didn't move, but his thoughts ran deep behind his eyes. That was just a speck of what he can do.
Master Aro dusted off his robe and said casually, "Consider that your first lesson."
Emby crossed her arms. "Uh, what exactly did we learn?"
Master Aro smiled faintly. "That's for you to figure out."
***
A few minutes later, after the shock wore off and the group had been dismissed, Dominic lingered. The field still smelled faintly of ozone and burnt mud. Master Aro stood off to the side, hands behind his back, gazing into the distance.
Dominic hesitated, then walked over. His mind was a mess—half curiosity, half frustration. Master Aro seemed like someone who actually knew what was going on. Maybe… maybe he could help.
"Uh, Master Aro?" Dominic started.
The instructor turned slightly, as if he'd been expecting him. "You want to talk."
Dominic nodded slowly. "Yeah, I—look, there's a lot I don't understand. I woke up here, nobody's explaining anything, and now you're nuking mud monsters—"
"Daemon." Master Aro said, almost offhandedly.
Dominic blinked. "Da...Daemon? Ugh, there's just something I've been meaning to tell y—"
Mr. Aro raised a hand. "Dominic, I know you're from Earth."
Dominic froze. "What??!"
Master Aro's tone stayed calm, almost casual. "When you were scanned, the system couldn't read any data from you. It simply registered your body's Chi residue and assigned you to Lune's group. That was unusual—though not without reason. The scanner noted very faint, but similar Chi traces on both your body and Lune's. That overlap triggered the pairing. And so, I paid attention."
Dominic blinked rapidly. Chi residue? Lune's group? Then it hit him. That smell. That same plant smell. The mandrake.
"It's gotta be the plant…" he muttered under his breath.
Master Aro went on. "When my Chi frequency phased with yours, I could tell immediately—you're not from here. Not from this realm."
Dominic exhaled, half-laughing. "Okay, slow down. You're talking about—what—Chi frequencies? Innate affinities? SoulCraft? Daemons? What is this place?"
Master Aro looked amused. "When I created the resting space in our hall earlier, and when I destroyed those creatures—that was SoulCraft in practice."
He stepped closer. "The universe is made of four elements: Matter, Energy, Space-time, and Chi. Chi is the life and consciousness of all things. By connecting our Chi frequencies, we erased the language barrier between us. That's what happened when you arrived in the hall. It's why you understand me."
Dominic blinked. "So… that's why you sound… kind of Nigerian but not really?"
Master Aro smiled. "Exactly. To you, my voice adapts to something close to home."
He continued. "By learning to control your own Chi, you gain access to the other three elements through their connection. That's the essence of SoulCraft. We Zandrians have practiced this for thousands of years—so long that our children are born with an innate connection to one of those elements. An innate affinity."
Dominic folded his arms. "So you're a… matter craft?"
"Correct," Master Aro said. "The man in the white robe you saw before—Lumin—is an energy craft. He maintains the tech systems in the academy. Though my affinity is in Matter, I still have access to the other crafts, just not as refined. Mastery comes from balancing all four."
He gestured to the horizon. "That building you entered when you arrived—that's where new students come to learn SoulCraft beyond their natural affinities. The scanner you encountered sent you here."
Dominic frowned. "Wait, back up. You said 'Zandrians'? So you people aren't… human?"
Master Aro chuckled softly. "Not anymore. We share human ancestry. Our species diverged about twelve thousand years ago, not long before we discovered this realm. SoulCraft accelerated our evolution—biologically, technologically. We're still more than ninety-nine percent the same species, but…we have changed."
He looked distant for a moment. "Zandria has become what some would call a utopia. SoulCraft improved our lives, our health, even your own species—indirectly. But it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows."
Dominic tilted his head. "What happened?"
Master Aro smiled faintly. "That's a story for later."
Before Dominic could protest, Master Aro grabbed him—one arm around his torso, like a parent scooping up a misbehaving toddler.
"Hey—what are you doing?!" Dominic yelped.
"We're meeting the other schools," Master Aro said simply. "We're late."
Dominic groaned. "Aw, man—"
The world blurred again, wind screaming past. In less than a blink, they were gone from the field.
As the world reformed around them, Dominic's voice rose weakly: "Okay, serious question—why even keep me here? I don't have some fancy 'affinity' thing."
Master Aro looked down at him, calm as ever. "You do have one."
Dominic blinked. "What?"
"When our Chi frequencies phased," Master Aro said, "I felt it. The embers of something rare. You are special, Dominic. Unlike other humans."
Dominic stared at him, speechless.
His brain was fried.
He exhaled slowly. "Cool. So I'm special."
Then after a pause, he added dryly, "Then maybe the special treatment could include a ride that doesn't involve you carrying me like luggage? You've got flying cars, right?"
Master Aro didn't miss a beat. "Fuel's expensive."
Dominic frowned. "You literally made a whole luxury living space, from scratch."
Master Aro's jaw tightened just slightly. "It doesn't work that way here," he said, the edge in his tone faint but clear.
Dominic blinked, realizing he might've touched a nerve. "Right. Of course it doesn't."
Master Aro let out a quiet breath, the tension fading as a small smile tugged at his mouth. "You'll get used to it."
Dominic wasn't so sure.