The training grounds lay silent beneath the silver gaze of the moon. Crickets ceased their songs. The wind held its breath.
Two silhouettes stood face to face.
Muhan Lockhart.
Ji-hoon Tae.
Their eyes met—electricity arcing between them. Friends. Rivals. Beacons of boundless potential.
Their auras surged.
FWOOOM.
Ji-hoon's golden aura erupted, a brilliant blaze of celestial fire. His irises glowed like miniature suns, radiating divine confidence.
Muhan followed.
CRACK.
A deep navy-silver aura exploded from his body, spiraling upward like a storm. The light in his eyes shimmered with cold, calculating intensity, piercing like a divine blade forged in the stars.
The ground quaked.
The air fractured.
Reality bent.
Then—with a single motion—Muhan tore open space.
The training ground vanished.
In its place, an entire universe bloomed.
Stars spun around them. Galaxies twisted into being, then died in silence. Nebulae writhed like serpents. Time itself hiccuped at the sheer pressure of the dimension Muhan had birthed.
Ji-hoon's voice was calm, but burning with fire. "You've been holding back."
Muhan's smirk curved like a blade. "So have you."
BOOM!
The two vanished—reappearing mid-air—fists clashing in a sonic boom that detonated a supercluster behind them. Planets were atomized. Light bent around their forms.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Each blow sent ripples through the dimension. Energy waves sliced through galaxies. Moons exploded. Suns imploded. Black holes were born, then swallowed by shockwaves.
Ji-hoon spun mid-air, his leg slicing down like a divine guillotine.
CRASH!
His kick caught Muhan's ribs—sending him flying through fifteen galaxies, warping space behind him like a comet streaking through creation.
Muhan twisted in flight—eyes locking on Ji-hoon—and thrust his palm forward.
ETHER BREAK.
Aether coiled around his arm, spiraling into a sphere of annihilation.
KA-BOOM!!!
The energy shot forward like a meteor storm—thousands of spears of condensed reality ripping through constellations. Ji-hoon darted through the barrage, golden afterimages trailing like Nova wings.
"You'll have to do better than that!"
He raised both hands, golden light coalescing into a weapon—a radiant glaive of compressed starlight.
He hurled it with divine fury.
SKREEEE—BOOM!!!
The glaive collided with Muhan's Aether shield, detonating in a blinding supernova that tore the fabric of the pocket dimension. Everything turned white.
When the light faded—
They were already clashing again.
Muhan's fist met Ji-hoon's knee, sparks and blood flying in all directions. Their movement transcended light, moving faster than causality. Every punch was a line of code in the language of destruction.
THOOM!
SMASH!
VWOOM!
Muhan roared—his Aether Spiral flaring violently. His bright blue iris split into a fractal pattern as time slowed around him.
He teleported behind Ji-hoon, slamming him with a backhand charged with quantum velocity.
BOOM!!!
Ji-hoon bounced across planetary rings, trailing smoke. He skidded to a stop atop a gas giant, eyes blazing.
"I'm not done yet!"
His body ignited in a second aura layer—Nova Celestial Surge—as golden sigils lit up across his arms and spine.
He shot forward.
The dimension screamed.
The two clashed again—this time with enough force to shatter a multiversal rift. Time cracked. A ripple shot into the void, folding stars into spirals.
With a cry, Ji-hoon delivered a reverse roundhouse—Muhan blocked with crossed arms, the shockwave flipping entire galaxies upside down.
They landed hard—feet smashing into floating asteroids.
Both panting.
Both grinning.
"Still standing?" Ji-hoon asked, golden aura flickering.
Muhan wiped blood from his lip. "Barely. Wanna go all-out?"
Ji-hoon nodded. "You read my mind."
---
The final exchange began.
Muhan's aura shifted—Aether Spiral: Limit Break Mode.
Ji-hoon activated Nova Domain—his presence expanding into a divine Nova field of influence.
Their silhouettes blurred into twin beams of light, colliding in the dead center of the dimension—
BOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
Everything went white. Space screamed. Galaxies collapsed. Then silence.
When the light faded—
The pocket dimension was gone.
They stood at the edge of Wysteria's real training grounds once again, surrounded by scorched earth and trembling air.
Both collapsed to one knee.
Breathing heavy.
Smiling.
"That," Ji-hoon coughed, "was insane."
Muhan grinned. "Next time… no holding back."
They both laughed, the stars above twinkling like applause.
________________________________________
The clash of titans had reached its boiling point.
Ji-hoon's golden aura ignited like a collapsing sun, roaring with the brilliance of a star going supernova. His battle cry echoed across the void of Muhan's shattered pocket dimension, a defiant sound that tore through galaxies. With a devastating surge, Ji-hoon rocketed forward—his fist, glowing with the wrath of celestial fire, aimed straight at Muhan's heart.
BOOM!
Muhan was sent hurtling through a nearby nebula, his body vanishing into the swirling chaos of gas and stardust. The nebula pulsed with violent hues, its tendrils coiling around him like a predator sensing weakness.
Ji-hoon's eyes narrowed. Victory was within his grasp. The final blow—one strike to end it all.
He blitzed forward, golden energy spiraling around him in wild spirals. But then—reality itself seemed to twitch.
Muhan was gone.
In that fraction of a second, Muhan reappeared behind Ji-hoon, moving at a velocity so extreme that even time itself protested. The stars around him dimmed, and space buckled as if kneeling to the overwhelming pressure of his speed.
"You're too slow."
Ji-hoon's punch froze—literally locked in place, suspended mid-air. His golden eyes widened in disbelief as the world crawled around him like molasses. Muhan had bent time.
In that frozen second, Muhan launched a speed blitz so overwhelming, the cosmos itself screamed.
His fists became afterimages—blurs that lashed from every angle, each one landing with the force of collapsing stars. Ji-hoon staggered, his golden aura sputtering like a dying flame, unable to register the blows before the next ten rained down.
CRACK! BOOM! WHIRRRRRRM!
Stars died. Galaxies crumbled. Space cried out.
And then, with a final surge of aether-infused might, Muhan rocketed forward, his right fist sheathed in navy-silver energy and the core of a collapsing star—
"Limitless Drive: TERMINAL STRIKE!"
BAAAAAAM!
The punch landed square in Ji-hoon's core. The shockwave shattered the pocket dimension into cosmic dust, launching both combatants back to Wysteria's training grounds like meteors reentering Earth's atmosphere.
Silence.
Two bodies lay unconscious amidst cratered earth and flickering embers of aura. The very air was warped, shivering from the intensity of their clash. Time creaked as it stitched itself back together.
---
Far away, a golden-eyed girl stirred from her sleep.
Mi-cha's eyes snapped open. Her senses screamed—Muhan's energy was flickering, weak and erratic.
She didn't hesitate.
In a burst of motion, Mi-cha launched out of her room. A sonic boom trailed behind her as she moved faster than sound, her raven-black hair whipping through the wind, golden eyes sharp as blades.
She reached the training ground in seconds.
"Muhan! Ji-hoon!" she cried, her voice slicing through the silence like thunder. She dropped to her knees, trembling fingers checking pulses—first Muhan, then Ji-hoon.
Muhan's pulse was erratic. His aura barely a whisper.
Her jaw clenched. "Boys…" she muttered, her voice laced with exasperated worry. "What were you two trying to prove?"
Despite her tone, relief flickered in her golden eyes. They would recover. But what cost had this battle claimed?
---
The Next Day – A Sky Too Bright
The sun bathed Wysteria in golden light, as if trying to overwrite the chaos of the previous night with warmth and calm.
It was a rest day. Most students lounged about, laughed, gossiped, or sparred lazily. But Mi-cha was not like most.
She found Muhan sitting quietly on a bench, his body relaxed but his spirit still recovering. His eyes were closed, letting the sun wash over his battered form like healing balm.
She approached silently.
"Hey," he said, not needing to open his eyes to sense her presence.
Mi-cha sat beside him. "We need to talk."
Muhan opened one eye, giving her a weak smile. "Uh-oh. That tone."
She didn't laugh. Her golden gaze pinned him. "What happened last night?"
Muhan tensed, looking down. "It was just a spar."
"Don't lie." Her voice was soft but razor-sharp.
He sighed, defeated. "Ji-hoon and I… We've been pushing ourselves. The tournament's coming up, and—"
Mi-cha's eyes narrowed. "You promised Professor Lee you wouldn't lose control. You promised you wouldn't hurt anyone."
"I know," he said quietly, guilt threading his voice. "But it stopped being just a spar. It became personal. We wanted to see… who was stronger."
Mi-cha was silent for a moment, eyes distant.
Then: "I get it. Boys and their endless need to prove something."
Muhan grimaced. "I'm sorry."
She exhaled. "Just be careful. You're both powerful. If you lose control again…" she paused, placing her hand over his. "You might not walk away from it next time."
He looked at her, truly looked. "I'll be better."
"I know," she whispered, smiling. "You're Muhan Lockhart. You don't know how to give up."
---
Suddenly, footsteps echoed. Ji-hoon and Soo-ah appeared, both carrying bags of snacks and smiles too wide to be innocent.
"Interrupting something?" Ji-hoon asked with a grin, plopping down beside Muhan.
"Just Mi-cha's terrifying version of a romantic lecture," Muhan quipped.
"Scary and sweet?" Soo-ah chuckled, sitting beside Mi-cha. "Classic Mi-cha."
"Hey!" Mi-cha glared playfully, crossing her arms.
"You're scary when you care," Ji-hoon teased. "It's your signature charm."
They all laughed. The tension dissolved into sunlight and comfort, like stars shining after a long storm.
And for a moment, just a brief moment, everything felt right in the universe.