The massive projection screen above the stage flickered once before stabilizing again. The iron chamber remained visible, but Eric was no longer alone inside it.
Across from him, about ten meters away, a humanoid silhouette made of dark metallic plates slowly rose from the floor as if it had been assembled from the room itself. Its form resembled a training automaton—featureless, smooth, and mechanical, with faint lines of mana glowing across its frame.
Eric blinked in confusion as he stared at the figure.
Back in the auditorium, Professor Lunaria's entire demeanor had shifted. The sleepy instructor who had been yawning earlier was now visibly energized, her pink eyes shining with excitement as she tapped rapidly on her Manacron.
"Now then!" she said brightly, pointing toward the screen. "This automaton has been fed with a basic fire resonance profile from the academy archives. It will demonstrate the progression of resonance realms by attacking our volunteer."
Eric stiffened.
"…Volunteer?"
Lunaria ignored him completely.
***
Inside the chamber, the automaton lifted its arm.
A faint spark appeared in its palm.
The flame was tiny and unstable, flickering like a struggling candle. The mana lines across its body glowed weakly as it launched a small burst of fire toward Eric.
The attack flew forward in a short arc.
Eric yelped and jumped sideways as the flame streaked past him before exploding harmlessly against the iron wall behind him.
He froze for a second, blinking rapidly as he checked his arms and clothes.
"…I'm alive?" he said in disbelief.
Then, looking toward the automaton with sudden indignation, he shouted, "Hey! You almost roasted me!"
In the auditorium, Lunaria gestured enthusiastically.
"This is the Awakening Realm!" she explained. "The moment when resonance first manifests."
A small diagram appeared beside the simulation, showing a tiny spark forming inside a human silhouette.
"At this stage, the mana core has only just formed. Output is extremely limited, and abilities can only be used in short bursts."
Inside the chamber, the automaton raised its arm again.
Another small flame appeared.
It flickered weakly for a moment—
Then vanished.
"Most academy students begin here."
Beside Damon, Khaira leaned closer again.
"Tch… ah knew it the moment ya beat up that weird-smilin' guy," she muttered quietly. "Ya ain't like the other humans here."
Damon didn't respond.
Khaira continued anyway.
"Yer more like us beastfolk. Back home, the stronger one takes whatever they want from the loser—money, land… even their body."
Damon kept watching the screen without turning his head.
After a moment, realizing she was being completely ignored, Khaira leaned back with a small huff and tactically went quiet.
***
The automaton's body suddenly glowed brighter.
The small flame returned, but this time it wrapped around the automaton's arm like a thin aura of fire, the glow spreading faintly across the metallic lines running along its frame.
Its movements became faster.
The machine lowered its stance for a brief moment—
Then dashed forward.
Eric's eyes widened.
"WAIT—!"
He barely managed to jump aside as the automaton's flaming punch crashed into the iron floor beside him with a loud metallic boom.
The heat from the strike washed over him in a sudden wave.
Eric scrambled backward, but the trailing flames licked across his sleeve before he could escape completely.
"AH—!" he yelped, frantically patting at the small burning spot on his arm. "Hey! That actually burned!"
On the stage, Lunaria didn't even glance at him.
Instead, she lifted a finger and continued speaking to the students with growing enthusiasm.
"This," she announced proudly, "is the Manifestation Realm."
"At this stage, resonance begins shaping the body itself. Mana flow becomes stronger, and the user gains significantly better control over their ability."
Inside the chamber, the fire continued clinging to the automaton's limbs as it moved.
The machine stepped forward again.
Eric immediately turned and ran.
"HEY! LISTEN WHEN I'M TALKING!" he shouted toward the stage while sprinting across the chamber.
The automaton chased him relentlessly.
"This is where real combat ability begins," Lunaria continued calmly, still ignoring Eric entirely.
Behind her on the screen, Eric was now running in panicked circles around the iron room.
"THIS IS NOT A DEMONSTRATION—THIS IS ATTEMPTED MURDER!" he yelled as another flaming strike barely missed his back.
Lunaria tapped lightly on her Manacron, her pink eyes glowing with growing excitement as she adjusted the simulation parameters.
"Now then," she said brightly, "let's move toward the next realm."
Inside the chamber, the automaton suddenly froze for a brief moment.
Then the mana lines across its metallic body began spreading outward like glowing veins, pulsing with far stronger energy than before. Flames ignited across its entire frame, flowing over its limbs and torso like a living mantle of fire.
Eric, who had been cautiously peeking around the pillar, slowly blinked.
"…That looks worse."
The automaton raised its arm.
Then punched forward.
A compressed burst of fire shot across the chamber like a cannon blast.
Eric barely managed to throw himself sideways as the flaming strike slammed into the iron wall behind him, exploding with enough force to shake the entire room.
"HEY—!"
He scrambled on the floor before diving behind the nearest metal pillar.
On the stage, Lunaria continued speaking with even greater enthusiasm, her attention completely focused on the lesson rather than the poor victim inside the simulation.
"In the Integration Realm, resonance becomes fully integrated with the user's body," she explained.
On the screen, Eric cautiously peeked out from behind the pillar.
At that exact moment—
The automaton launched another blazing strike.
The pillar beside Eric exploded with sparks and heat, forcing him to throw himself backward.
"AH—DAMN IT!" Eric shouted as he rolled across the floor, his sleeve now visibly scorched and smoke rising from the edge of his uniform.
"Mana circulation stabilizes," Lunaria continued calmly, "physical enhancement increases, and resonance techniques begin appearing."
Eric staggered to his feet, half-running, half-limping as the automaton advanced toward him with controlled steps.
Another punch.
Another fire burst.
Eric ducked too late this time, and the edge of the blast clipped his shoulder.
He spun across the floor with a painful groan.
"OW—! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU PEOPLE!?"
On the stage, Lunaria finished her explanation.
"Elite academy students may reach this stage."
Inside the chamber, Eric lay flat on his back for a moment, staring at the ceiling while smoke curled from the burnt edges of his sleeve.
"…Yeah," he muttered weakly.
"…Elite students can keep it."
Lunaria tapped her Manacron again, her fingers moving quickly across the glowing interface as she adjusted the parameters of the simulation.
"Now," she said cheerfully, "let's move on to the next realm."
Inside the chamber, the automaton's flames suddenly surged.
The fire that had previously wrapped around its body began expanding outward, growing larger and more intense as the heat rippled across the metallic floor.
The automaton raised its arm again.
But this time—
The fire did not stay around its body.
Instead, it gathered in front of its fist like a compressed storm of flames.
Then the machine punched the air.
A visible wave of fire exploded outward across the chamber like a burning shockwave.
Eric's eyes widened in horror.
"OH COME ON—!"
He threw himself sideways, rolling across the floor just as the blast tore past him, slamming violently into the far wall and sending sparks scattering across the iron chamber.
Back in the auditorium, several students gasped.
Lunaria, however, looked absolutely delighted.
"This," she announced excitedly, "is the Projection Realm!"
"At this stage, resonance begins affecting the world outside the body. Abilities gain range, and the environment itself becomes part of the attack."
Inside the chamber, Eric tried to stand—
But the automaton had already raised its arm again.
Another ranged fire blast shot across the room.
Eric tried to dodge, but this time the explosion caught him partially.
The edge of the blast sent him tumbling across the floor, his uniform now visibly scorched in several places as smoke rose faintly from his clothes.
"AH—!"
He staggered to his feet, half-limping as he ran across the chamber.
Behind him, the automaton calmly fired another blazing shockwave.
Eric screamed and dove behind a pillar again.
"Most elite warriors operate at this level," Lunaria continued happily.
Inside the simulation, Eric peeked out weakly from behind the pillar.
His hair was slightly singed.
His uniform was half-burned.
He looked completely exhausted.
Staring at the approaching automaton, he raised one shaky hand in surrender.
"Just kill me if you're going to kill me!" he shouted miserably.
"Why torture me like this?!"
Lunaria tapped her Manacron again, her pink eyes practically glowing with excitement as she watched the results of her invention unfold on the massive screen above the stage.
"Oh, this is getting good," she muttered happily before looking back toward the students. "Now then, let's move forward."
Inside the simulation, the iron chamber suddenly trembled.
The floor beneath Eric's feet began glowing faintly red.
Then flames appeared.
Not small bursts like before—but streams of fire spreading across the metal floor like living creatures crawling through the room.
Eric froze.
"…That looks bad."
The automaton did not move.
Yet the flames around it continued growing.
They twisted and spiraled across the ground, circling the machine like obedient serpents responding to its presence. Within seconds, the entire floor of the chamber was alive with swirling fire, cutting off every possible path Eric could run.
He slowly turned in place, watching the walls of flame close in around him.
"Wait… hold on…"
On the stage, Lunaria spoke with bright enthusiasm.
"In this stage, the user begins exerting control over surrounding mana itself," she explained. "Abilities grow larger in scale, and the battlefield begins responding directly to the user's resonance."
Inside the chamber, the firestorm intensified.
Flames burst upward from the ground in sudden eruptions, forcing Eric to jump backward repeatedly as the heat licked dangerously close to his legs.
"HEY—!"
One of the bursts finally caught him.
Eric screamed as the edge of the flames blasted across his side, sending him crashing against the iron wall.
His uniform was now badly burned.
Smoke curled from his sleeves.
"This level represents what we call the Dominion stage," Lunaria continued proudly. "This is where fighters capable of influencing entire battlefields begin to appear."
Eric pressed himself flat against the wall, desperately trying to avoid the flames swirling toward him.
He looked up toward the ceiling as if searching for divine help.
"Just kill me already," he groaned weakly.
The simulation changed again.
The iron chamber vanished.
Eric blinked.
Then blinked again.
He was no longer inside a room.
Instead, he stood in the center of an enormous burning landscape. The sky above him had turned a deep crimson, glowing like molten glass. Rivers of fire stretched across the cracked ground in every direction, the heat rippling across the horizon.
At the center of it all stood the automaton.
When it took a step forward, the flames around it surged outward like a tide responding to a king.
Eric stared.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
On the stage, Lunaria's tone softened slightly, though her excitement remained obvious.
"This next stage represents the Domain level," she said.
"At this point, resonance becomes something far more personal. The user's power expands outward to form a territory—an environment where their abilities are amplified and strengthened."
Inside the simulation, the automaton lifted its arm.
The entire burning landscape responded.
A wall of fire erupted from the ground and surged toward Eric like a tidal wave.
He tried to run.
He didn't make it very far.
The explosion of heat sent him tumbling across the ground as flames scorched across his back and shoulders.
Eric screamed as he rolled desperately across the burning terrain.
Back in the auditorium, Lunaria added casually, "For safety reasons, the attack power has been reduced to only ten percent of the original strength."
Eric lay on the ground for a moment, smoke rising from his clothes and hair.
Then he slowly lifted his head.
"TEN PERCENT?!" he shouted hoarsely.
"You heartless bitch!"
He pushed himself up on shaking arms.
"My whole body is on fire and you're talking about ten percent?!"
Another eruption of flames forced him to scramble away again.
"I'm never coming to your class again!" he shouted desperately while running.
"I swear I'm transferring academies!"
The simulation shifted one final time.
The burning landscape disappeared.
Darkness swallowed everything.
When the projection returned, Eric was standing alone in empty space.
The automaton stood several meters away from him.
The fire surrounding it no longer looked like ordinary flames.
They moved slowly… smoothly… like something far more fundamental than heat or light.
Reality itself seemed to bend slightly around the resonance.
Even Lunaria's voice lowered when she spoke again.
"This… is the final stage."
Her eyes carried a faint trace of disappointment.
"Sovereign Resonance."
She sighed softly.
"Unfortunately the simulation cannot reproduce the real power of this level. The system can only generate approximately one percent of the original strength."
Inside the simulation, the flames expanded.
They did not explode.
They simply spread.
Yet the pressure alone sent Eric collapsing to his knees as invisible heat crushed the air around him.
He stared upward with hollow eyes.
"…One percent?" he whispered weakly.
His entire body was scorched now, his clothes half burned and his hair singed in multiple places.
Slowly, painfully, he raised a shaking finger toward the sky.
"You… heartless… demon woman…"
He coughed weakly.
"…I hope your experiments explode one day."
The flames surged again.
Eric collapsed face-first onto the ground.
"…I give up," he muttered miserably.
"…Just end it."
The fire around it no longer behaved like normal flames.
It moved like a fundamental force of reality itself.
Lunaria's voice dropped.
"The final stage…"
"Sovereign Resonance."
The fire expanded infinitely across the simulation.
"At this level, resonance is no longer just an ability."
"It becomes a law of existence."
As the final projection faded from the massive screen above the stage, the burning void of the simulation slowly dissolved into darkness before disappearing entirely. The iron chamber, the flames, and the battered figure of Eric all vanished as the device powered down.
For several seconds afterward, the auditorium remained completely silent.
Three hundred students stared toward the now-blank screen, their minds still processing the overwhelming scale of power they had just witnessed. The quiet tension in the hall lingered like the fading echo of a storm.
But Damon barely noticed the silence around him.
He was still staring at the screen.
His golden eyes were fixed on the place where the projection had been, his mind replaying the images again and again—the burning battlefield, the crushing pressure of Dominion, the terrifying territory of Domain, and finally the quiet, incomprehensible force of Sovereign Resonance.
For a brief moment, his expression looked almost… possessed.
If I could possess power like that…
The thought formed slowly.
Then who in this world would I have to fear?
Beside him, Khaira had been watching his reaction carefully the entire time.
A slow smirk spread across her lips.
"Isn't that power intoxicatin'?" she asked casually.
Damon nodded.
Almost absentmindedly.
The response escaped him before he even realized it.
Khaira's smirk widened immediately.
"I knew it," she said with quiet satisfaction. "Yer the same as me."
Her burning orange eyes studied him like a predator recognizing something familiar.
"Ah can feel it."
She leaned forward slightly.
"So why don't we fight?"
On the stage, Lunaria stretched lazily as if the entire demonstration had suddenly drained all her energy. The bright excitement that had filled her moments earlier had vanished completely, replaced once again by the sleepy, absent-minded expression she usually carried.
She covered her mouth with a long yawn.
"Alright… students," she said vaguely.
Her voice carried across the hall as she slowly gathered her things.
"That was your last lecture for this week."
Another yawn escaped her.
"Good luck with your class placement examination after three days."
With that, she simply turned and began walking toward the exit of the auditorium as though the lesson had meant nothing at all.
Back in the last row, Damon finally snapped out of his thoughts.
His eyes widened slightly.
"W–wait…?" he muttered under his breath.
The realization struck him immediately.
What about the most important question?
Beside him, Khaira leaned closer again.
"So," she asked eagerly, "ya gonna fight me now?"
Damon slowly turned his head toward her.
His expression had gone completely blank again.
His golden eyes looked half-dead with annoyance.
"Hm," he said flatly. "I will."
Khaira's eyes lit up instantly.
"But only if you answer my question first," Damon continued calmly. "And only if I find your answer satisfactory."
For a brief moment, Khaira blinked.
Then her excitement exploded.
"Ask away!" she shouted eagerly.