"But if you master it, you become nearly impossible to kill," Darius continued.

  "Yes, learning it is hard, and a lot have died trying. But after you master it, the known laws of physics and biology stop working on you: all physical attacks don't affect you, it's impossible to detect while hiding, and it opens a whole lot of different techniques to attack and defend. In simpler words, you become a god among mortals."

  "Still not worth it," Ren murmured, and Jax nodded in approval.

  Darius ignored them.

  "And don't think you'll master it anytime soon. It takes years and years of training to just be able to do it, not talking about complete mastery."

  Omar raised his hand.

  "Did you master it?"

  "No."

  The straight answer came from Darius quickly and was followed by raised eyebrows and tilting heads.

  "Mastering one power, no matter the type, is very hard and takes a lot of time. The ones who try to master all their powers at the same time, most of the time their life ends before they achieve their goal," Darius said.

  'Trying to master more than one power at a time? What kind of fool would do that?' The same thought ran through Roy and Valeria's heads.

  "That's why most choose a main power, focus on it, and train their other powers to support the main one. And after they master the main power completely, then go to the next one. For me..." Darius smiled.

  Then he disappeared and appeared in the back, then in front of Roy, then all over the room to the point that you could see him everywhere at once.

  "Teleportation is my main power, and lightning is the support. I have mastered teleportation."

  He returned in front of his desk.

  "And now I'm on my way to mastering lightning."

  "And that's it for this lecture," he said, but no one moved. Some were still processing all the info that was just dumped. Others just didn't feel like moving, physically drained from listening. But now they finally got a moment to breathe.

  "Now to your assignment."

  Ren and Jax just fell to the ground. Valeria and the twins didn't move a muscle. Omar and Marie let themselves slip on the bench. Roy rested his head on the fixed desk. Marcus covered his head in his hands. Elise shook her head in disagreement.

  Darius smiled. The smell of ozone filled the room.

  "Get used to this, because if I see any of these reactions in any future lectures, you're all getting a military punishment."

  A lightning bolt hit Omar directly, making him fall to the ground.

  "Why me?" he objected.

  Darius ignored him.

  "Now, your assignment: I want everyone to choose one main power and make their own fighting style that mixes their main one with the other powers. I'll give you seven days of no classes to do so. After the week, you'll all fight me one-on-one, and based on your scores, you'll get a rank."

  "A rank? Like the military?" Marie asked.

  "Yes, and you'll have to listen to the ranks higher than you. Everywhere. No matter the order."

  "Wait. Not just in missions? What if it has nothing to do with training or was a personal request?" Roy stood up so fast that he looked like he jumped and put his arm on the fixed desk.

  Darius looked directly at him.

  "If you don't like it, then be the first one. Then you won't have to listen to anyone."

  As Darius got all of his stuff from the desk ready to leave, came the sound of Roy breaking the fixed desk.

  "You'll pay for that," Darius said as he left the class.

  Omar looked at Roy.

  "Bro, I feel like I made a mistake."

  "Just fix your hair. You look like you got struck by lightning. Oh, wait, you did," was all that Roy said before also leaving the class.

  "Looks like we have problems." Marie looked at Omar.

  "You think?" Omar said with a sarcastic tone before standing up and leaving, followed by Marie and everyone else.

  The First Day

  Marie and Omar were in Roy's room, sitting on the ground.

  "Why are you two here?" asked Roy, who was on the bed.

  "Why do you think we're here?" Omar's sarcastic tone made Roy sigh.

  "Is it because of the portal?" Roy asked.

  "You know, I'm beginning to understand Omar's tone. You ask a lot of dumb questions." Roy didn't react to Marie's comment.

  "What do you want me to do exactly?"

  "Oh, I don't know, maybe some explaining? Why didn't you tell us there was a way to travel between worlds?" Omar's voice was just below screaming.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "I didn't know. I told both of you that I don't know everything. I'm just as shocked as you two." Roy's voice followed that of Omar.

  "So what do we do now?" Marie was the only one who was calm.

  "Nothing?" Roy answered.

  "What do you mean, nothing?" Omar asked.

  "Unless you want to go to the moon and get through the high security of the government to go to a world that killed a Rank 1 hero, you do nothing."

  Omar sighed.

  "Okay, you're right." He looked at Marie, then continued, "We're leaving."

  Marie and Omar stood to leave. As Omar went close to Roy, he whispered,

  "Hey, if you need to talk, or anything, I'm here."

  With this, Omar left the room and closed the door.

  Omar turned around to find Marie on her knees, holding her head.

  He quickly went to her.

  "What's the problem?" he asked.

  "From the moment the teacher told us about the portal, the visions got worse."

  Omar helped her stand up.

  "Let's go train and get the portal out of your head."

  The Second Day

  The park was alive, as this was the only free day in the week. Students walking and playing everywhere. You could also see some couples there.

  Roy was walking in the park near the training ground. As he was walking, he saw Valeria training her sword technique alone.

  Without thinking, he found himself going to her.

  Valeria noticed him.

  "Can I help you?" she said with a flat voice.

  "No, not really." His answer made her annoyed.

  "But I heard that having a training partner is better than training alone."

  She sighed.

  "Okay. I'm training my sword skills. No powers."

  "That is better," Roy said as he got a spear from the training weapons.

  "Come at me."

  They trained with each other for all of the day, breaking a lot of wooden weapons.

  "You're really good with the spear. Is it your main weapon?" Valeria asked, standing in front of Roy, who was sitting on the ground.

  "I'm good with most weapons, but I don't really like using them."

  "Really—" Valeria was about to say something before noticing someone hiding behind a tree in the park.

  She threw the wooden sword at the tree, breaking the sword.

  "Who's there?"

  Ren came out from behind the tree with his hands in the air.

  "Don't shoot. I came in peace."

  Roy threw a spear at a rock in the distance.

  Omar and Marie came out.

  "Tsk. We were close to seeing it," Omar murmured.

  "Jax, come out. They caught us," Ren shouted.

  Jax turned visible. He was standing just behind the weapon carrier.

  "The hell do you mean, 'caught us'? You idiot."

  Roy slammed a hand on his forehead.

  "What are you all doing here?" Valeria asked, looking at Jax.

  "Don't look at me. Omar was the one who told us that something was happening here that looked like it wasn't."

  Both Roy and Valeria stared at Omar, who was sweating hard.

  "S-sorry?"

  Roy entered his hand into a shadow and took a wooden sword from the weapon carrier.

  "A sword?" Roy offered the sword to Valeria.

  Valeria took the sword without breaking eye contact with Omar.

  "Just don't kill him," Roy said.

  "No promises," Valeria said before running toward Omar, who was already running away.

  Omar's distant scream echoed through the park.

  The Third and Fourth Days

  Everyone trained alone, focused on their assignment.

  Valeria spent both days at the training ground, trying to combine her sword skills with lightning more efficiently. Dorian and Vivienne trained together in private, as they used to. Marcus worked on his defense, letting smaller objects bounce off his skin. Elise practiced precision strikes. Omar cycled between fire and earth, trying to find synergy while keeping his super straight his main power.

  Marie created ice sculptures that lasted seconds before melting, then she controlled the water that came from it as fast as she could. Roy disappeared entirely, and no one knew where he trained or how he trained.

  No one spoke to another.

  The Fifth Day

  Jax was walking in the park when he saw a big gathering of students making a circle. He went to see what was happening.

  "What's happening here?"

  As he got closer, he saw Elise in the middle of the circle, beating up a boy.

  "What are you doing?" he said as he went and grabbed her hand to stop her.

  "Help me?" said the boy with a black eye.

  "I'm teaching him a lesson," Elise said.

  "For what?"

  "He was a creep—" The moment Elise finished, the boy said,

  "I just told a girl that she looked beautiful."

  Jax looked at them with a confused look and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  "He learned his lesson, okay? Let's leave before a teacher sees this and gets you in trouble." Jax said as he dragged her out of the gathering.

  Seconds after they left the gathering, they found Darius in front of them.

  "Oh. Sir. Hi... Hello, sir. What can I do for you?" Jax was physically shaking.

  Darius looked at the gathering and back at Jax and Elise.

  He put his hands on their shoulders and went down to their ear level.

  "I gave you seven days to train and choose a fighting style. If I find out you were causing any trouble that will make me do paperwork, you will regret it. Am I clear?"

  "Yes, sir," they both said. Elise, in a calm way, while Jax was about to collapse on the ground.

  The Sixth Day

  Everyone got an email from Darius that read:

  "If you do something that you shouldn't, make sure that you don't get caught."

  Roy read it, closed it, sat on the bed, and thought,

  'What the fuck am I doing here?'

  The Seventh Day

  Everyone trained more. Making sure they are ready for the test

  The Day of the Test

  Everyone walked into the training place that was only for Class A, and they were shocked. Not just those who hadn't seen it before. The ones who were here before were more shocked. The place had completely changed.

  Before, there was only a mid-sized platform in the middle with a small energy barrier to stop accidents. Now, the platform had become significantly bigger. On the right of the platform were weapon carriers with all kinds of real and wooden weapons. Even guns were there. In front of the platform were chairs with covers for protection from the sun, and beside the chairs was a fridge with all kinds of cold and energy drinks. And overall, the place had become more decorated.

  When they finally got over the shock, they saw Darius in the middle of the platform.

  He pointed at Dorian.

  "You will be first. Come here."