Arson may have taken things too far with the aerial patrol. Though he had wanted to ruffle their feathers, what he currently experienced was an outright trouncing.

“No no no!” Arson dove past an area set up to spray wall sized amounts of water in bursts. The young man he’d passed stood frozen with the equivalent to a horizontal geyser at his back, and a flying patrol right in front of him. Arson closed his eyes to witness the results through his closed eye dominion, watching as the patrol let the young man back himself as close to the powerful spray of water as the climber could get.

An unintelligible scream was heard even alongside the powerful burst, before the young man went flying. Flying directly into the patrol that caught him with a trident. He was then slammed mercilessly into another tower as it flew by and was allowed to drop into a net below. Many of the safety nets throughout the course already filled with unconscious climbers.

Arson was doing his best to only use his body, wanting to recapture the feeling of freedom that had allowed him to perform the minor teleport he’d achieved while fighting Dashawn. The speed-based Cultivator far ahead of him in the course.

Arson knew he’d be the target of both the patrol and his fellow students so decided to pace himself while making his way up the mountainside.

It wasn’t until around the third halo that Arson realized that the course was not only larger than it had been, but the addition of traps and odd pitfalls that emerged from no where had taken a chunk of the participants out early on, and only seemed to get worse the higher he traveled.

At one point Arson watched a climber jump directly into a glass wall, fixed between two ledges, gaping as the unconscious climber spun end over end plummeting into a dark hole below. Arson used his closed eye dominion and realized that a series of glass platforms had been set up to either be unseen, or gleam brilliantly the moment a climber jumped toward the panes. The same panes of glass that were also positioned to offer climbers platforms to wall-kick from and make their way through a miniature maze set up to obstruct easy travel from one side of a gap to the other.

Is that a bloody mana cannon?

Arson’s question was answered when a patrol yanked a climber off their feet with a heave and a roar, launching the young woman directly upward for a mana cannon to slide out from a hidden doorway and explode with energy; the beam larger than her torso flinging her into the distance, Arson only able to see the nets that would catch her with his closed eye dominion.

Arson was shocked at the puzzles now installed into the extra space on all four sides of the mountain. Xani had taken his ideas and fleshed them out fully, making the seemingly basic traps into rune controlled systems of havoc. A triathlon turned from difficult into a trudge through demon lands by attacks, made on both the physical and mental well being of all who dared to attempt to reach the mountain’s apex.

It took Arson three days to make it to the mountain's peak, and by the end, he’d needed to use his weapon, and one or more of his Living Hand Constructs to overcome each obstacle. And to his surprise, he almost fell a handful of times, and even had to fight off packs of aerial patrols in moments truly disadvantageous during any type of climb, easy or difficult, small or large. Where Xani had the patrols placed was to ensure maximized failure rates.

Arson dragged himself up the final ledge and rolled onto the flat surface exhausted. A patrol flying into view above him, looked down and spit off the side of the mountain, a screaming student flailing at the end of the war trident she held. She tipped the student off the edge of her weapon; all flailing stopped by the student as they tried to desperately hold on to the edge of the deadly instrument.

“I don’t think this place will ever be the same,” said the air patrol, pulling in her weapon and kicking the student off her trident. She looked down at the jaw-dropped Arson, who knew that there were many small ledges between where they were and the nearest safety net. Ledges that Arson could hear the screaming student bounce from even as their screams grew distant.

“How is that for fury…” The young woman smiled and winked at Arson before she bowed and spoke once more before disappearing over the edge.

“Thanks, boss, good luck in there!”

Arson lifted himself slowly, ignoring the fact that the air patrol had called him "boss" and departed.

That’s not a good sign, I better have Jasmine come help Xani build more of a reputation or this will all blow back in my face some way or another…

Once he turned around Arson took in the majesty that was the entire admissions test for Adroit Academy, now a gleaming vision of paradise, disguising a deadly trial meant only for those deserving of entering his mother’s beloved school.

“You ready?” asked Anastasia. Arson dazzled by the pillars that framed the portal he was about to step into. The framework of the portal inscribed with the image of a beautiful landscape fill with buildings and monsters took his breath away.

“I suppose so. I thought I’d been attending school the entire time, so to now only be taking the first step seems crazy to me.” Arson touched the pillar to the left of the portal, pressing in on the giant eye of a dragon on its surface, before he walked to the pillar on the opposing side and press in the eye of a phoenix.

The portal seemed to swell beyond the limits of the frame, shifting from a golden color to a pure white. The carvings on each side of the portal filled with the excess of energy flowing out from the portal’s mouth caused Arson to smile, knowing that his entrance to the academy would be unlike most who entered if not all who managed to make it up the mountain.

“Your mother may not remember this but her father and I built this together, from my scans you are literally the third person to use this variation to the original portal’s set destination,” said Anastasia.

“So you and my grandfather used it and now me, that’s cool, were you still alive then, or in your body I mean to say?”

“Yes I was, but it was your grandfather and your mother who entered this way, as I hadn’t rebuilt my hover car yet, I decided to enter on the ground level.”

Arson made a mental note to ask Anastasia about the hover car at a later date. His entire focus on the portal. He stepped back to see it in its entirety.

“Wish me luck Anna,” Arson said lifting off the ground slowly.

“Good luck, child, you are going to need it!”

Arson looked down at his watch slowly drifting forward. The AI gave a shoulder-less shrug, and Arson rolled his eyes.”

“Let’s hope you're wrong…”

…

Troy sat in a rooftop garden, her presence spilling out in a flood of light all around herself as she sunbathed.

None of the monsters milling about through the garden around her approached under the duress of the physical weight being created by her mana. Creatures made of plantlike could be seen walking mindlessly off the rooftop, doing anything to escape Troy’s power.

The sky above her was beautiful. The young woman peacefully cloud watching, until an oddity caught her eyes in the distance.

The eternally clear sky blue of the dungeon was disrupted by storm clouds. Not dark menacing clouds that turned black with a natural building of volatile pressure, but pure white clouds that rumbled as golden white light exploded from within, as if the heavens themselves were trying to breach the cultivation realms.

“Well that is new,” Troy said as she came to her feet.

Once upright the young woman was able to see that the cloud was directly above the gates that led into a portion of the school, rumored to be unexplored.

The gates that led into the school were far different and even less intimidating than the massive doors she now gazed upon. The main entrance was guarded by fourth tier teachers. Though powerful her own master was only a 10th tier teacher, and even this wasn’t seen as incredible within the 21 tiers of education known to the realms of Cultivation.

When she’d originally entered she’d felt the immense power of the fourth tier teachers at the front gates. All of which gave her a new perspective on the collective power of the academy. By the time her courses had taken her by the gates the brilliant cloud in the sky had appeared above, she’d already met fifth and sixth tier teachers. So when she saw the four seventh tier teachers determined to not allow any students go beyond this internal gate within the depths of the school, she turned her mind off to ever gaining entry.

“I wonder what's going on over there...”

Troy’s eyes went wide as bolts of multi colored lightning began to come from the cloud, the familiar power at first taken as a coincidence. Troy didn’t know if mana lightning was limited to her beloved Arson, but the roar that shook the school grounds in the next moment was all the confirmation she needed.

“Bloody maiden’s sparks, Arson! What have you done now?”

Troy pushed herself to move at full speed rushing from rooftop to rooftop, each jump accelerating her to unparalleled velocities. Only a handful of students could keep up with her movements inside the tier ranking she had reached while attending Adroit Academy. Leaving only upperclassmen and teachers outside her current speed limit.

She was truly capable of moving more quickly, but her ability to process the speeds mentally wasn’t high enough for her not to harm herself. Advice given to her by a young Arson still enough to keep her pressing against her limits, slowly increasing her maximum speeds with every day that passed.

Come on, come on!”

Troy reached an arm out in front of herself at the edge of the roof she traveled across, summoning two full body clones of herself. The twin clones interlocking their hands in a makeshift step as they crouched; Troy launching herself through the air with a well timed jump after stepping into the hands of her clones.

Troy soared through the air, her leap taking her clear across an entire field of roaming monsters and directly onto the last vacant street before the school’s proclaimed most dangerous sectors.

“Arson, what in heaven’s light are you doing?”

Troy closed the distance to find Arson locked in deadly combat with the four guards that protected the school’s interior. She couldn’t believe her eyes as Arson seemed to be holding his own against the four opponents, not necessarily winning, but nor was he being overwhelmed.

“Hey beautiful, mind giving me a hand?”

…

Arson’s entrance to the school was not what he expected. Once he’d floated through the portal that led inside, he’d received a notification indicating that he’d set off alarms, illegally entered the school grounds, and would be contained within a cell until evaluated for entry.

Stuck within a small white room, Arson quickly grew claustrophobic, and determined he wouldn’t wait for any evaluations to occur, and began to do the only thing he’d seen work in a situation like this in his past.

He flooded the room with power. Mana flowed out from his cores with such momentum that before he knew what was happening, a unwarranted roar emanated from within, turning all the ambient mana around him into a torrent of mana lightning.

The sound of tearing and shattering glass boomed all around him until he found himself falling through the sky.

Arson slowly descended, taking in the landscapes all around him. Mountains spotted the grounds below, able to be seen built upon with various styles of architecture. Aspects foreign to most were familiar to Arson’s eyes having had spent time in Endless, as well as the time in which his mind’s consciousness had been stretched across a fraction of the universe itself.

He made note of many interesting places that he wanted to visit, making a list in his mind. He continued to lower himself, and saw that many of the areas he was able to see when he was higher up, vanished entirely the closer he got to the ground.

It seems I will have to either ascend beyond the limits of some sort of barrier to visit certain sections of the academy.

Finally he landed, and looked around. The area he dropped into was filled with streets lined with high walls and even higher buildings behind them. Students could be seen in the distance fighting large mobs of beasts and monstrous creatures, as well as simply rushing from one point to another. No area seemed safe from the inhabitants of the dungeon, with the exception of where he now stood, which Arson couldn’t help but smile over.

Found where you told me I needed to go without any trouble, Mom. Told you I wouldn’t have any problems.

The moment Arson had this thought however, he also heard the rush of feet and the unsheathing of weaponry. He closed his eyes and was able to see men and women in a charge toward his location at the edges of his closed eyed dominion. Sighing Arson turned around and opened his eyes.

“Looks like I spoke to soon, madre…” Arson said playing with the unknown word he heard his own mother use on her own mother when describing his grandmother. Arson summoned sky from his spacial inventory, alongside a spacial pet carrier that he had Xani make for him since he no longer had a pocket apartment to use. He set down the carrier and a happy bark was heard as Ego walked from the small portal mouth that appeared on the side of the box after Arson had set it down. He pet his puppy who began to growl at the four individuals that approached.

“Hey, do you all know where I can find a doorway with a massive 13 carved into its face, it should be around here somewhere,” Arson yelled, noting the severe looks that passed between the group. They finally slowed and a woman spoke first, and Arson knew immediately that he’d truly landed on trouble’s doorstep.

“Leave now, students aren’t allowed in this area, we will give you a moment to collect your things. No second warnings!”

Arson shrugged, bent down and tapped the spacial pet carrier to store it within his inventory, and began to walk toward the group as if he planned to walk past them without conflict. He truly had no intention to fight, but as he saw no massive doorway in the direction he’d been looking before he turned to face the group, he decided to search further in the area he hadn’t given much attention to.

This is when the four decided to attack, keeping true to their word. Arson smiled at the woman who’d spoken as she thrust a spear in his direction. He easily dodged the spear’s tip, but then was struck by a bolt of purple lightning that sprang from the end of the weapon locked onto Arson, as if it would have hit him no matter where the spear was thrust.

He flew through the air and smashed into one of the walls that closed in the street they were on to either side. The wall cracked slightly with his impact against its surface, but Arson still managed to land on his feet, rubbing his head as the strange purple lightning ran current through his body.

“Ow, that didn’t feel good…” Ego looked between Arson and the woman who’d attacked him and blurred, fangs sinking deep into the woman’s thigh and a visible drain of mana began, Ego growling menacingly while he thrashed.

Arson saw the woman’s intention when she lifted her weapon and pointed it toward her own leg.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Arson clenched down Sky’s handle and the scythe began to spin quickly enough that a powerful gust of wind knocked into the four in front of him, unbalancing the group long enough for Arson to close the distance.

Arson focused, and for the first time since his training with professor Lee and Vin, Arson tried to reenter the state of mind he’d experienced while fighting the Wing Chun practitioners.

The woman’s words after their day's long battle ringing in his mind on repeat as he moved.

Defend to live, attack to survive!

Arson’s body grew cold as he put himself in front of not one but two incoming swords. His mind showed him options for each thought he had, whether to attack, defend, counter, or dodge completely.

In this instance the option that resulted after he countered the two swords with the rotation of his weapon’s fan mechanism, would end potentially with him still being in line of another attack. Arson lifted his hand smoothly, and clenched his weapon’s handle, spinning the blade and knocking back the two swords, leaving him in line of the spear thrust aimed at his back.

The shocked attackers both were slightly knocked backward by the weight of the weapon in Arson’s hand, and instead of time snapping back to normalcy, as Arson had hoped his body stayed chilled and everything remained slowed underneath the threat of the spear still coming toward him.

Excellent…

Arson’s smile grew, and the fight continued. Each attack he sent out merely nicked or barely sliced his opponents, but Sky’s hungry blade made every small cut the equivalent to a hole in a boat at sea. His attackers were obviously powerful, but Arson was being fed mana from each of his opponents.

This was even worse for the woman that Ego was still clamped onto, her face turning more pale with every action she took.

“This is where I would normally talk bad to you, tell you that its not worth your lives…” The words sank in to the pale faced spear-woman as Arson artfully swept his blade past her neck with less than a fingers length of space before a potential beheading would have occurred.

“But unluckily for you I’m here to learn how to become as powerful as my mother and father…”

The men and woman around him began to increase the rate of combat, and Arson didn’t know if that was because they were desperate, or just had more to offer. After a while of combat, Arson realized it was that his ability to sense potential outcomes was far more draining than any other ability he’d ever used, including mana lightning and even his Gestalt forms.

Not wanting to drain himself completely, he opened his eyes and summoned his Living hand Constructs, and a fight for supremacy began between Arson and the strangers, Arson letting loose for the first time since he’d fought Troy in the tournament of scions.

“Bring it on!”