DARIA: MYSTIC LYTHORIA
SENIOR CLASS 1
"That's all for today. Make sure you turn in your work and assignments tomorrow. Now, off to your next class," Maya said as she stepped out.
A few students lingered by the window, glancing outside.
"That's the junior class," one of them remarked. "They're learning how to maintain barriers."
The group slowly dispersed, heading toward their next lesson.
MYSTIC LYTHORIA
TRAINING GROUND
"Eno can be shaped into solid barriers," the instructor began. "But remember barriers aren't only for defense. They can be used offensively as well."
He paced slowly, eyes scanning the students.
"Choosing the right element is critical. It's not just about strength, but about how your barrier interacts with your opponent's power. The amount of eno you channel matters just as much."
He raised a hand, forming a faint shimmer in the air.
"If you're facing an opponent who uses flame, an earth barrier might seem like the obvious choice because of its durability. And yes if your eno output exceeds theirs, it can withstand the attack."
The barrier shifted, thinning into a rippling distortion.
"But if their flame is stronger than your eno, earth becomes a liability. It absorbs the heat, weakens, and eventually breaks."
The air around him twisted sharply.
"An air barrier, however, doesn't rely on resistance. It controls the flow.
Fire needs stability oxygen, direction, structure. Air disrupts all of that."
A flicker of flame appeared and bent unnaturally, scattering.
"It can redirect the flames, thin them out, even turn them back. Instead of enduring the attack, you reshape it."
He lowered his hand, the energy fading.
"In battle, raw strength matters. But control decides the outcome."
"mr ash, are you saying that as long as the energy we use can counter our opponent's, even a small amount would be enough to withstand the attack? What if the attack is far stronger than our barrier?" Zira asked, adjusting her glasses.
"Then you increase your output," he replied calmly.
"And if you realize you still can't match it… your best option is to disengage." He let out a short laugh.
He glanced over the class.
"Power alone doesn't win fights you win by thinking faster than your opponent."
He clapped his hands once.
"Pair up. One of you forms a barrier, the other attacks."
Turning away, he added,
"Keep at it until I return."
The bell rang, sharp and final. Training ended instantly, and Junior Class 1 dispersed, voices rising as they headed back toward the main building.
"Hey you there. You're Aristo, right?"
Aristo turned.
A few boys approached him. They looked solid broad shoulders, steady stance but unfamiliar, Not from his class.
"You're Phobos' brother?" one of them added.
Aristo sighed lightly. "Yeah, i'm Aristo, What did he do this time?"
"Nothing," the boy said quickly, raising his hands.
"He didn't do anything, We just… need your help with something. If you've got time."
Aristo hesitated for a moment, then shrugged.
"I've got class, but if it's quick, I don't mind."
"Good. It won't take long." one of the boys said
They turned, and he followed.
They led him away from the junior grounds, past the open training fields and toward the senior section of Mystic Lythoria.
The atmosphere shifted the further they went.
The noise of students faded, replaced by a heavy, almost deliberate silence
"So much energy… this is unreal," Aristo muttered, his detection sharpening as he walked.
"Yeah," one of the boys replied casually. "You feel it too."
They continued toward the far end of the structure, slipping deeper behind the senior building.
Aristo slowed again.
"...Wow. This is insane."
"What?" another boy asked, glancing at him.
Aristo stepped forward slightly,his detection fixed ahead.
"This… this is a barrier," he said, more to himself than to them.
" It feels like a Barrier but it's Completely off."
He kept focusing.
"My detection stops here. I can't see past this point." He took another step, then stopped.
"It's like everything beyond this just… doesn't exist."
The air in front of him shimmered faintly barely visible
" It's like a heat distortion, this isn't a barrier" he said to himself once more.
"If it were a normal barrier, I'd be able to read through it, sense what's inside, track movement, something, But this…" He exhaled slowly.
"It's like standing at the edge of another world."
There was a brief silence.
Then one of the boys spoke.
"Yeah, Because that's exactly what it is."
Aristo's turned his head toward him.
"It's a dimension," the boy continued.
"Think of it like a house with a hidden door,but the door doesn't lead to another room. It leads somewhere else entirely."
He gestured toward the invisible boundary.
"A senior built it. Cost a lot of Dio , from what we heard, you need Dio to keep maintaining it.
Nothing gets out, no sound, no energy signature. And nothing gets in unless you're meant to."
A pause.
Then he looked directly at Aristo.
"What we need your help with… is inside."
One of the boys stepped forward and pressed his palm against the empty air.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, the world shifted.
It wasn't a visual change at first, but a structural one.
Aristo felt the slip before he saw it, as if the foundation of reality had moved beneath him.
The air folded inward without a breeze. Space compressed and then expanded, recalibrating weight, direction, and distance.
When the distortion cleared, they were no longer behind the building.
They stood within a vast expanse that mimicked a forest clearing with unsettling perfection. The sky above had depth but no sun, glowing with a soft, endless gradient of pale light. At the center stood a massive oak tree, its trunk colossal and immemorial, with roots that snaked across the ground like thick, pulsing veins. The leaves didn't rustle, yet they moved in a subtle, rhythmic sway, responding to something deeper than the wind.
Aristo crouched, pressing his fingers into the soil. It was firm, resisting his touch exactly like real earth. He brushed a nearby plant; every vein, ridge, and imperfection was present.
"...Everything feels real."
"They are real," a voice answered from above.
Aristo looked up. A tall figure sat lazily on one of the massive branches, long black hair and dark eyes that seemed to swallow light rather than reflect it. A senior.
"Do what you must," the senior added, his tone bordering on bored. "I have classes, and you're running out of time. You'll have to pay me extra for the extension."
Aristo straightened slowly. Around him, the ten boys had already spread out, forming a predatory circle.
"What do you guys need help with?" Aristo asked, his voice steady.
"You still don't know?" one of them laughed.
"You're Phobos' little brother," another said, stepping forward. "We need to get back at him for what he did to us."
Aristo exhaled a long, tired breath. "Okay... then why drag me into it? Don't you recognize him? Red hair, always sleeping like he's storing energy for the next century?"
The mention of his brother made several of them flinch in irritation.
"Shut up! We know who he is," the leader snapped. "You think I wouldn't go straight to him if I could? He's a monster. So we rough you up instead. We send a message."
Aristo glanced at the sky, then back at the group. "Do what you want. I'm already late for class."
The attack was fast .
A surge of black flame tore through the air, slamming into Aristo and swallowing him in a violent, dense conflagration. When the fire faded, Aristo remained exactly where he had been standing. Unmoved. Unburned. Not even his posture had shifted.
"...What the hell!?" someone muttered.
On his branch, the senior's gaze sharpened. "Hmm... the Artemis family," he murmured to himself.
The atmosphere turned heavy. This time, the group didn't hesitate. A spear of compressed wind whistled forward, only to disperse against an unseen surface. A wave of earth erupted beneath Aristo's feet, but it collapsed before it could touch him. A pressurized arc of water lashed out, splitting in two and falling harmlessly into the soil.
Attack after attack, different elements, shifting angles, increasing power. Nothing touched him.
There was no visible barrier, no defensive stance. Just stillness.
"Why isn't anything working!?"
"Hit him harder!"
As their frustration grew, their eno spiked, becoming sloppy and desperate. Aristo finally took a single step forward.
"Barrier and defense..." he said quietly, "...can be used as offense."
The ground reacted. It wasn't an explosion, but a calculation.
The ground beneath the boys shifted and rose. Walls of earth surged upward, creating precise dividing lines and inescapable angles. In an instant, the clearing became a maze.
"Wha—!?"
Before they could find their bearings, the structure tightened. One boy turned a corner only to have two massive slabs of earth slam together from both sides. The impact drove the air from his lungs, and he dropped, unconscious.
Another tried to leap over the rising walls, but the air around him thickened. It wasn't a wall, but a sudden, crushing pressure that robbed the space of oxygen. He clawed at his throat, his movements slowing until his vision blurred and his body gave out.
Elsewhere, water rose smoothly, wrapping around another boy in a perfect sphere. The outer layer hardened, its density increasing until it was like transparent steel. Inside, the boy struggled, but every movement only wasted the dwindling oxygen.
Strike by strike, the group fell. There was no wasted motion, no excess energy. Within moments, the maze went silent.
Aristo walked forward as the earth dissolved behind him, returning to the flat ground as if it had never been disturbed. He stopped in front of the last boy, who stood frozen, his eno flickering like a dying candle.
"You should've just gone to Phobos," Aristo said flatly.
The boy couldn't find the words to respond. Above them, the senior leaned forward, genuine interest finally visible in his dark eyes.
"...So that's how it is."
The senior shifted, one leg dropping from the branch as he studied Aristo. "That was fast. Defense... used as offense."
Then, the dimension began to unravel. It didn't collapse; it reversed.
The massive tree stretched upward into thin lines of fading light, and the ground lost its density, releasing its hold on reality. The sky folded inward, pulling everything toward a single point.
The pressure shifted once more, and they were back behind the building.
The boys lay scattered across the pavement, exactly where they had been before the shift. They were physically intact, but their eno signatures were drained and unstable.
The senior stood a few steps away. He walked past Aristo casually, then paused.
He glanced back, a single eye catching Aristo's gaze.
"You blocked every attack instantly," he said, "Air barriers, formed exactly at the points of impact. That level of speed… and accuracy…I'll see you soon, Aristo."
A faint distortion flickered around the senior, and he was gone.
Aristo stood in the silence for a second, his expression unreadable, before exhaling.
"...I'm definitely late now."
He turned, stepping over an unconscious body without a second glance, and headed toward the junior building.
As far as he was concerned, he was already late for his class.