The training facility's door closed with a hiss as Jethro walked through, hands in his pocket, Scorch around his neck.

In the corridor, Kaden was some distance ahead of him. If it wasn't for the blonde hair and the slight limp with every step, Jethro would have believed that Kaden was an older reflection of himself.

The Black Rank tamer also walked with both hands in his pockets, he had a jacket too, even though his flowed down to the floor. But more importantly, he didn't like being restrained by the government.

If it was possible, Jethro would have been a rogue tamer the very moment he got his license. Kaden had lived the life and had been caught unfortunately, but Jethro was almost certain that his values and beliefs hadn't changed.

Kaden got into the lift and turned around, his eyes locking with Jethro who hurried to meet up before the doors closed.

As soon as he entered, he rested on the wall. Kaden side-eyed him while his Bolt Hopper, Sparkle, watched keenly.

The silence in the lift was a physical thing, thick and heavy as ascended. Kaden stood shoulder to shoulder with Jethro, hands still tucked into the pockets of his long, grey accessorized pants, while his red coat fell in sharp, clean lines.

The only sound was the low thrum of the lift's ascent, climbing far beyond the levels Jethro knew.

"So," Kaden finally broke the silence, though his gaze remained straight. "You're hanging out with the princess of Sector Twelve. You're a good looking kid, don't get me wrong. But I didn't peg you for the type to go after princesses."

Jethro leaned against the cool wall, crossing his arms. "What are you talking about? She's just my project partner."

Kaden scoffed. "Project partner? Heh… that's pretty much how it starts, isn't it?"

Jethro shot him a frown.

"Just try to make sure not to get other guys involved in this… 'project'." Kaden grinned. "And submit it early. That way it's locked in and official."

Jethro facepalmed. "There's nothing going on between me and Princess Padva, Kaden. And she wasn't my first choice for the project anyway. Professor Uriel paired us."

Kaden gave a soft, dismissive snort. "Eh, whatever. I know for sure that she wasn't your first choice, you player."

Jethro sighed.

"Uriel." Kaden randomly said. "He's a good professor. A great one actually, one of the best in the Academy."

Jethro looked at him. "Really?"

"Yes. Most of the staff here are theorists, historians, politicians in scholar's robes." He finally half-turned, his sharp eyes glinting in the lift's sterile light. "Uriel? He's different. He fought in the 5th Dimensional War, you know that? Held the Line at Sector One Pass for seventy-two hours with his Black-Ranked Glory Dragon and a handful of troopers against a full-scale Rift breach."

"They say he personally closed the rift, but the aether backlash is what cost his Dragon its wings. Now he teaches as his mechbeast heals. The most powerful tamer on campus, and probably the wisest. If he's paying you any mind, you'd be smart to absorb every word."

Jethro filed the information away. It explained the quiet authority Uriel carried, the respect that wasn't demanded but inherently given.

Even more, he noticed the excessively positive light Kaden viewed the enigmatic professor with. It suggested that they had history.

"You seem to really admire him," Jethro remarked.

Kaden shot him a side-eyed. "I'm telling you what I know about the professor, kid. Not that I have a crush on him."

Jethro raised his hands in surrender and rested on the metal wall.

The lift continued its relentless climb. The floor indicator blinked past levels Jethro had only seen on maps: Advanced Magic, Rift Simulation & Strategy, Tamer-Beast Resonance Labs.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Jethro asked, a knot of apprehension tightening in his stomach. "We passed the normal levels five floors ago."

"The training facility you were in is for novices like you. Year One to Four," Kaden stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Year fours are novices?" Jethro asked with a skeptical brow raised. "They're just one year below you."

"Yes, they are novices," Kaden blankly replied in a disgusted manner. "They're bloody amateurs. Where I'm taking you is to the facility where the Year Fives train."

Jethro suddenly brightened up with excitement, his heart jumped for a second but suddenly shrunk as the earlier excitement warred with immediate gut-churning worry.

"Year Five?" he asked with a worried tone in his voice. "Won't they... you know, have a problem with a Grey Rank Year One just waltzing into their sanctum?"

Kaden finally turned fully, a flicker of something that might have been amusement in his granite-like expression. "Well, they can take it up with me. If they're brave enough."

The casual confidence in the statement was more intimidating than any boast. He saw the lingering doubt on Jethro's face and sighed, a short, sharp exhale. "You're worried about Nyro, aren't you?"

"The guy did try to kill me," Jethro replied, shrugging.

"Relax, Merrick. It's empty. Most of my year are on extended Rift Clearing rotations or specialized training in a Beastcorp base in Sector Three. You won't be an annoyance to anyone but me today."

The lift slowed, then stopped with a final, profound silence. The doors didn't open to a corridor. They opened directly into the facility.

Whoosh.

The air that washed over Jethro was different. It was cooler, sharper, charged with an intensity that made the hairs on his arms stand on end.

Like most of the rooms in this cyberpunk world, it smelled like heated plastic, but also like petrichor and new batteries. It was like the air after a lightning strike on an iron-rich mountain.

And the sight… his jaw went slack.

The Year Five training facility was a realm of its own.

It was vast, so immense the far walls were lost in the hazy platinum of the room. The ceiling wasn't a ceiling at all, but a domed, seamless viewscreen currently projecting a hyper-realistic, star-strewn nebula that slowly churned, casting the entire space in ethereal blues and purples.

Sun simulators Jethro were used to. Even moon simulators. He'd never seen a constellation simulator— if that was what it was called.

Unlike the previous facility, there was no collection of separate stations. The entire floor was a single, integrated mega-system.

In the center stood a colossal pillar of crystal and light– a central control spire. From there, waves of visible aether were sent outwards. They rippled out across the floor, which was made of a dark, non-reflective material that seemed to drink the light.

Because Year Five's mechbeasts were often too large as they were already in the final phase of development, this facility and many others like it were primarily catered to the tamer and their own development.

Especially in combat.

The tamer training zones were not machines but environments. One area was a shifting maze of solidified light, the walls reconfiguring themselves faster than the eye could track. Another was a platform suspended over a seemingly infinite abyss, where gravity fluctuated randomly, forcing constant physical and mental adjustment.

Holographic combatants here weren't simple drones; they were more intricate than that. They had a tiny pinch of sentience. As constructs, they were semi-autonomous, learning and adapting wielding simulated aether-based attacks that required real-time counters.

Even though mechbeast training was generally not favorable in this facility, there was some room for it.

Platforms. The facility regarded them as that. They were large circular stands that transported the mechbeast into a magically created training zone like battle zones created by Battle Field Spheres.

The circular stands acted as though they were shifting alongside the mechbeast. If the creature moved, though they remained at one place, to them they were traversing whatever habitat they had been transported into.

Jethro saw a massive, six-legged armored Elephant Knight running and honking. A sleek, avian mechbeast with crystalline feathers was dodging projectiles that Jethro couldn't see.

That kind of technology. That kind of magic.

It was unbelievable to witness.

It was impossible to tell where technology ended and magic began. Seamless.

Force fields weren't just barriers; they were adaptive membranes that could simulate any terrain from water to molten rock. Damage from training was met not with simple reset buttons, but with targeted aether regeneration beams that speared down from the ceiling, knitting wounds and replenishing energy stores in seconds.

The sheer scale of the power was humbling.

Kaden walked forward, his boots making no sound on the energy-absorbent floor. Sparkle's nose twitched, sensing the immense power fluxes.

"Novices train the body and the bond," Kaden said, his voice echoing slightly in the immense space. "We train the will. The spirit. We learn to channel our power to create the most possible impact. The most favorable effects. Year Fives like me face simulations that break lesser minds."

He stopped and turned to Jethro. "I'm not going to teach you that yet. Unfortunately you might never learn it because of your bond and your rank. But you can still learn to use minimal aether to create maximal effect."

He led Jethro towards a vacant platform near the central spire. As they approached, the floor shimmered and a control interface rose seamlessly from its surface.

"Today," Kaden said, his tone leaving no room for argument, "we're not training your lizard. We're training you. Your body is a liability. Your reaction speed is mediocre. Your pain tolerance is a joke. That ends now if you want it to."

He then turned to Jethro and smiled widely. "The facility is empty. No one will hear you scream."

Jethro knew he was only being dramatic. But that frankly scared him.

Kaden then turned to input a command. The nebula on the dome above swirled violently, focusing over their platform.

Then, a force field surrounded them.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.