Ken and Atlas moved quickly through the academy corridors, their footsteps echoing off the polished floors as they navigated toward the restricted portal room section. The halls grew quieter the closer they got, with fewer students wandering around. This part of the building was always less populated, reserved for official academy business and supervised training exercises.
When they finally reached the portal room entrance, they found the Combat Master standing just outside, his massive fra impossible to miss. He was one of the academy’s most respected instructors, a veteran ability user with decades of combat experience and the scars to prove it. His presence alone commanded authority, and most students went out of their way to avoid crossing him.
He noticed Ken and Atlas approaching and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What are you two doing here?" His voice was deep and gravelly, the kind of voice that didn’t need to be raised to convey seriousness. "This area is restricted without authorization. You should both know that."
Ken and Atlas exchanged glances, silently debating how much to reveal. They could try to make sothing up, invent so excuse for why they were wandering near the portal rooms, but that would only waste ti. And if Jelo and Mira really had gone through one of the portals without supervision, ti was sothing they couldn’t afford to waste.
Seeing no way around it, they decided to be honest.
"Sir," Atlas began, his voice tight with worry, "we’re looking for two students. Jelo and Mira. They’ve both been missing for hours, and we were told they were seen heading toward the portal room area."
The Combat Master’s expression shifted imdiately, his casual curiosity replaced by focused concern. His eyes narrowed slightly as he processed the information. "Missing? Both of them?"
"Yes, sir," Ken confird. "We’ve searched the entire academy. No one’s seen them for hours. The last reported sighting was of them walking in this direction together."
The Combat Master’s jaw tightened as he thought back to earlier that day. His mind worked through the tiline, and then sothing clicked. Earlier, there had been an impromptu staff eting—one of those sudden administrative gatherings that pulled teachers away from their normal duties without much warning. The portal room had been left unsupervised during that window, which ant students could have entered without anyone stopping them or even questioning their presence.
His expression darkened. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath.
He imdiately turned to Ken and Atlas with a commanding tone. "Go back to your dorms. I’ll handle this. I’ll go find them myself and undo whatever ss they’ve gotten themselves into."
But before he could move toward the portal room entrance, Atlas spoke up. "Which portal did they use, sir?"
The Combat Master paused, then turned back to them with a frustrated sigh. "I don’t know. That’s part of the problem."
Ken and Atlas exchanged worried looks. If they didn’t know which portal Jelo and Mira had gone through, finding them would be exponentially more difficult. There were multiple active portals in the room, each leading to different locations—different cities, different continents, different levels of danger.
"Sir," Atlas said firmly, "we want to co with you."
The Combat Master’s expression hardened imdiately. "Absolutely not. This is not a supervised training exercise. This is a potential rescue operation in hostile territory. You two will stay here."
"With you present, we’d be relatively safe," Ken argued, stepping forward. "You’re one of the strongest ability users in the academy. And I have so strength myself—I could provide extra muscle if things turn into a fight. We wouldn’t be dead weight, sir."
Atlas nodded in agreent. "Jelo is my roommate. Mira is... well, she’s a classmate. We can’t just sit here doing nothing while they’re potentially in danger. Please, let us help."
The Combat Master studied both of them for a long mont, weighing their determination against the risks involved. He could see the genuine concern in their eyes, the unwillingness to abandon their friends. These weren’t students looking for adventure or glory. They were scared young people who wanted to help.
Finally, he sighed heavily. "Fine. But you follow my orders exactly, without question. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to hide, you hide. If I tell you to retreat back through the portal, you do it imdiately. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," both Ken and Atlas said in unison.
"Good," the Combat Master said. "Then let’s not waste any more ti."
Together, they entered the portal room. The space was vast and circular, with high ceilings and smooth tal walls that humd with contained energy. Multiple portals were active along the periter, each one a swirling vortex of light and color that led to different destinations across the world and beyond. The air itself felt charged, crackling with the residual energy of dinsional travel.
Mira and Jelo could have gone through any one of these portals, which ant they had no clear starting point. For a mont, they all stood there, unsure where to begin their search.
Then the Combat Master closed his eyes and took a deep, centering breath. He activated his ability, sothing he rarely had to demonstrate in front of students. His ability was unique—energy reading and tracking, honed over decades of practice. He could sense residual energy signatures.
He focused on each portal in turn, scanning for traces of recent human presence. The ditation required absolute concentration, his mind reaching out like invisible fingers to touch the energy patterns surrounding each dinsional gateway. Most portals showed only the expected signatures—maintenance staff, supervised student groups, teachers conducting routine checks.
But then he found sothing different.
After several minutes of silent scanning, the Combat Master’s eyes snapped open. He pointed decisively toward one of the portals on the far side of the room, its swirling surface colored in shades of deep purple and crimson. "That one. That’s the portal they entered."
Ken and Atlas moved closer, staring at the portal with a mixture of apprehension and determination.
"Where does it lead, sir?" Ken asked.
The Combat Master’s expression grew grim. "The forbidden city. Specifically, one of the abandoned Dabba cities in the eastern sector." He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice carried a weight that made both students’ stomachs drop. "Out of all the portals leading to cities and training grounds across the world, they were unlucky enough to choose one of the most dangerous locations in existence."
Atlas felt his blood run cold. "How dangerous?"
"Dangerous enough that even masters can be overwheld if they’re not extrely careful and strategic," the Combat Master said bluntly. "The eastern sector cities are heavily populated with Dabba—not just common varieties, but mutated specins, pack hunters, evolved variants. The survival rate for unsupervised students in that environnt is..." He trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.
He turned to Ken and Atlas with absolute finality in his expression. "You cannot co with ."
"But sir—" Atlas started to protest.
"No," the Combat Master cut him off firmly. "I was willing to let you accompany if we were going sowhere relatively safe, sowhere I could protect you while searching. But the forbidden city? Absolutely not. You would be liabilities, not assets. I’d spend more ti protecting you than searching for your friends."
Ken stepped forward, desperation creeping into his voice. "Sir, please. We can help. We won’t get in the way. We’ll—"
"The answer is no," the Combat Master said with unmistakable authority. "And that’s final. What you can do to help is go inform the other teachers and masters imdiately. Tell them where I’ve gone and that I’m performing an ergency rescue operation. They need to gather reinforcents and join as soon as possible. That is how you help."
He turned back toward the portal, his hand already moving to activate the controls. The swirling vortex began to stabilize, forming a more solid gateway as the Combat Master prepared to step through.
Ken and Atlas stood frozen, watching as the Combat Master approached the portal entrance. The massive instructor took one step forward, then another, his form beginning to blur as he crossed the dinsional threshold.
The mont his body was halfway through the portal, Atlas’s eyes t Ken’s. So unspoken communication passed between them—a shared decision made in the span of a heartbeat.
Atlas grabbed Ken’s arm and rushed forward, dragging him along. Ken’s eyes widened in shock, but he didn’t resist. Together, they sprinted toward the portal at full speed, their feet pounding against the floor.
They jumped through the portal after the Combat Master, slipping through the gateway just before it could fully close behind him. The last thing they saw was the portal room falling away, replaced by swirling colors and the sensation of falling through space itself.
Then they were through, tumbling out into an entirely different world.
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