A sphere of light descended. "Children of Earth Prime. You stand chosen by the Beyond. A corruption, a blight upon existence, seeks to devour all. You will carry my power—the Astral Flow of Creation—to stand against it."
Before they could process this, the ground tore open. From a fissure of pure, sickening blackness, twisted figures clawed their way out. They weren't shadows; they were wounds in reality, whispering promises of absolute, final nothingness. This was the Corruption. The sight of it made Kael's soul recoil.
As they panicked, their powers ignited. Kael's hands blazed with fire and water. Talia summoned blades of hard light. Juno's crystals sparked erratically. They were losing.
Suddenly, the air on the other side of the field screamed, not with sound, but with the violent release of energy. Three new figures materialized in a storm of crimson light and shifting shadows.
A tall, muscular boy with Kael's face—but harder, older, with a soldier's posture and a scar over his brow. Leo. A lanky boy in tactical gear,his eyes glowing with data streams, a holographic interface already forming over his forearm. Tobin. A pale,sharp-faced boy who moved with a silent, lethal grace, a scalpel-like dagger of black energy appearing in his hand. Calyx.
Their power was the absolute opposite of Kael's team. It was pure, focused annihilation. Leo shattered Corrupted with concussive blasts of force. Tobin's code-like energy unraveled them. Calyx's touch dissolved them into motes of fading data.
The leader, Leo, locked eyes with Kael across the battlefield. His voice was a hard-edged echo, laced with a gravity Kael didn't possess.
"We are the Chosen of Tranceeds. The Force of Necessary End. It seems we share an enemy."
The two teams stood facing each other, the silver field between them, allies by cosmic decree but strangers by nature. The Beyond and the Tranceeds, creation and destruction, had each chosen their champions.
The war for everything had begun. And it started with two trios of teenagers, staring each other down across a field of starlight.
The silence that followed the militant boy's declaration was heavier than any Kael had ever known. It was the silence of two fundamental laws of the universe staring each other down. The beautiful, serene field felt like a knife's edge.
Juno was the first to break it, because of course she was. She pointed a trembling finger between Leo and Kael. "Okay, what is that? Are you two, like, multiverse twins? This is getting weird. And not the fun, glowy-powers weird. The creepy, identity-crisis weird."
The scarred boy—Leo—didn't smile. His gaze was a physical weight, scanning Kael's team with a soldier's appraisal. "I am Leo-7, of Earth Militant. This is Tobin-4," he gestured to the lanky tech, whose fingers were still flying across his arm-mounted hologram, "and Calyx-12." The pale boy gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod, his dark eyes lingering on Talia's poised form as if assessing a threat.
"Numbers?" Kael asked, his voice rough. "You have numbers?"
"Designations," Leo corrected, his tone flat. "Efficiency over sentiment."
Talia finally spoke, her voice cutting through the tension with its usual chill. "You said you know of this enemy. This 'Corruption'. And you know of this place." Her gesture encompassed the shimmering field and the auroral sky.
It was Tobin who answered, his voice a rapid, monotone stream. "Designation: Dream Continent. A foundational astral plane. Primary staging ground for the Corruption's incursions. Our briefing indicated the Beyond would field a team here. Probability of first contact: 87.3%."
"Briefing?" Kael echoed, feeling profoundly out of his depth. "You got a briefing?"
"We were conscripted," Leo stated, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "The Tranceeds identified us as optimal candidates. We were trained. We were informed. The Corruption is a systemic threat. It must be purged."
Juno blinked. "You got training? I got a light show and a monster attack! This is so unfair!"
Calyx spoke for the first time, his voice as quiet and sharp as his dagger. "Your lack of preparation is not our operational concern." He looked at Kael's hands, which still flickered with faint traces of steam. "Your energy signature is unstable. Erratic. You will compromise the mission."
A hot spark of defiance ignited in Kael's chest. "We just survived our first attack. We did fine."
"Barely," Tobin countered without looking up. "Your energy expenditure was 40% above maximum efficiency. Your formation was nonexistent. You are a liability."
Before the argument could escalate, the air around them shimmered. The familiar, yet still nauseating, pull of the Astral Flow gripped them. The Dream Continent was calling them back, but this time, the pull felt different—more focused, more urgent.
"Brace for transit," Leo commanded, his team instantly falling into a tight, back-to-back formation.
Kael's team stumbled, unprepared. The world dissolved into a vortex of light and sound.
They rematerialized not in the open field, but at the edge of a colossal, glowing city. Towers of crystal and light pierced the heavens, and rivers of liquid starlight wove through streets teeming with billions of dreamers. The scale was breathtaking, utterly dwarfing their previous glimpse. The air hummed with a potent, peaceful energy that was the absolute antithesis of the Corruption's void.
Kael, Talia, and Juno could only stare, utterly overwhelmed.
Leo's team, however, was all business. Tobin's holographic display expanded, overlaying the city with tactical readouts. "Citadel is 3.2 kilometers northeast. The local astral militia is on high alert. Corruption signatures are spiking along the western frontier."
"We need to report to the local command," Leo said, already striding forward. He glanced back at the stunned trio from Earth Prime. "You are unfamiliar with the terrain. You will follow. Do not touch anything. Do not speak to anyone without clearance."
Juno found her voice, indignant. "Hey! We're not your cadets!"
Calyx fell into step beside her, his gaze sweeping the crowds for threats. "Then stop acting like tourists. This is a warzone, not a festival."
They moved through the dazzling streets. Kael felt a pang of something bitter—envy, maybe. These three moved with a purpose he couldn't fathom. They belonged here, in this impossible place, while he felt like a child who'd wandered onto a movie set.
Talia, ever observant, spoke quietly to Kael as they walked. "They have a hierarchy. A structure. We have… chaos."
"We have each other," Kael replied, though it sounded weak even to his own ears.
After a tense walk, they reached the base of the central citadel, a mountain of living crystal. A dream-soldier in golden armor, who introduced himself as Lyrian, greeted them. "Chosen of the Beyond, Tranceeds. The Conclave has been expecting you. The situation is deteriorating."
As they were led inside, Leo's team seamlessly integrated, speaking in low tones with other soldiers, understanding the protocols. Kael's team was left trailing in their wake, a trio of lost, gifted children.
Later, in a quiet antechamber, the two trios faced each other again. The formalities were over. The reality of their partnership was now unavoidable.
"You need us," Kael said, the words coming out more forcefully than he intended. "You might know this place, but the Beyond chose us for a reason. We're not just liabilities."
Leo regarded him, and for the first time, Kael saw a flicker of something other than cold assessment in his eyes. It might have been respect. Or perhaps just calculation.
"Your power is… potent. Unrefined, but potent," Leo conceded. "The Beyond wields creation. It heals, it builds. The Tranceeds… we dismantle. We break. The Corruption must be both healed and broken. It is a logical pairing."
Tobin looked up from his console. "Our initial mission was to secure this sector. Your presence adds a new variable. A potentially useful one."
Juno crossed her arms. "Gee, thanks. So, what's the plan, oh glorious leaders?"
It was Talia who answered, her voice calm and clear, finally finding her footing. "The plan," she said, looking from Leo to Kael, "is to stop being two separate teams. The Corruption doesn't care which force chose us. It only cares that we stand in its way. And if we're going to stand, we'd better learn to do it together."
In the heart of the glorious citadel, surrounded by impossible wonders, the six teenagers from two different worlds faced a simple, monumental truth: their first and greatest battle wouldn't be against the Corruption, but against the vast, silent gulf between them.