Ring. Ring. Ring. The sound of an alarm rang loudly throughout the entirety of the small apartment. Shooting up out of bed, a dark haired boy practically smashed the clock as he turned off the alarm. He didn’t quite have the time to worry about showering, so he settled for using a large bucket filled with water and dumping it on himself.

When he was finally dry from that terrible idea, he threw on his school outfit, not bothering to fix the horribly put on tie; all while trying to cook a piece of toast. Of course to his luck, it was burnt, but he couldn’t be picky about that right now.

“I don’t really know what I expected, Shōjiki ni iu to…” He sighed, grabbing his glasses from a table by his front door and placing them on. “It’s 7:59.. I still have time!” With a newly refound boost of confidence, he pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose before running out of his house. Ashford Academy was located twelve Parsecs away down the street of his city. To reach there at the time it was, he began running at the speed of light. But yet, still faster; faster than the speed of light. Weaving around crowds of people, he had finally made it into the building, running up the stairs to his classroom. This was quite the task due to the building having over ten floors and his class being located at the top of the ten trillion lightyear building. 40 trillion in length at that. He practically dived into his seat located at the back of the class near the window. He made it.

Or, so he thought.

“Mr. Winefield, you’re late. Again. I thought the last twenty detentions would be enough, but it appears you need another.” Came the voice of a woman standing at the front of the class. Her blonde hair pinned up, glasses fixed on her face, and a stern look in her eyes. These characteristics belonged to none other than his favorite teacher, Anri Okita. Or Mrs. Okita as she preferred.

“Hah.. yeah, sorry. Won’t be late again.” Said the boy with a worried smile and a defeated sigh. In under a zepto second, a ruler was shot at him. Of course he managed to dodge, but he also fell out of his chair onto the floor from the force contained in the strike. It was at least enough to level his planet of Discordia several times over.

“You said that the last time. Let’s hope you mean it this time.” She spoke with a dangerous edge in her voice, before turning back to the holographic board in front of her. The class appeared to be learning about the nature of esoteric and quantum forces within the universe. A normal Monday I suppose. Thought Mr. Winefield to himself

A shiver shot down his spine as he looked out the corner of his eyes to see a white haired girl staring at him with a predatory smirk. “Sheesh Dark, some part of me thinks you like getting talked down to by teach. No one could be that late accidentally so many times in a row.” She snickered, leaning back in her chair. “Or were you playing idol games all night again?”

With a visible wince, Dark laughed dryly, averting his gaze from her. “Shōjiki ni iu to, I don’t know what you’re talking about Madeleine..”

“Yeah yeah, sure you don’t.”

Their banter, and the class, was interrupted from a loud bell that range throughout the entire school. As if almost instructed, each student stood up from their desk, a collective sigh emitting from all of them except Madeleine who was grinning ear to ear.

“Well, it appears we must postpone this lesson. That bell, you know what it all means. A rival school wishes to pit their best against ours. So everyone get ready, even if you aren’t called on.” Spoke Mrs. Okita.

The class broke apart, meeting up several minutes later within a large room located at the lowest floor of the school. It was completely white and empty, to the untrained eye it would seem to stretch endlessly. On each side of the room, all one hundred and twenty eight students from both schools were located. Ashford’s students were identified by a black and red overcoat, while the school that had issued this challenge was outfitted in a black and gold overcoat.

“Hey Madeleine.. did you get a size too small, to be honest? You look like you’re about to burst out of that..” Dark mumbled, referring to the tactical bodysuits they had to wear under their overcoats.

“No! Of course not. Are you saying I’m fat?” She scoffed, an intense, soul piercing glare fired off towards him.

“Eh.. um.. hah… No, certainly not. I believe the kids call it thick nowadays…” He stifled a laugh.

With a huff, she turned away, facing towards the other school.

In front of each set of students, were the principals of their respective schools. An elderly man in a suit representing Ashford and a younger boy, that looked like he should be at the beach rather than a school, representing the opposing academy; Lakewood.

“Now then, each student chosen please step up. We will then simulate an environment for you to all battle in.” Explained each of the principals, as three students on each side walked away from their fellow classmates. Ashford had chosen Madeleine St. Clair, the school’s ace, Nocturnus Arcania, and Dark Winefield. Lakewood in response chose their fastest student, West Hiyasi, their strongest Clark Prescott, and their smartest Bruce Sumāto.

A barrier extended, keeping out anyone who would wish to interfere with the fight, as well as keeping the chosen students from escaping. When the barrier was completely set up, the blank white arena was suddenly filled with a burst of life as rolling hills spread out around them. Within the contained field, a perfect replica of the universe was created so that they could utilize their powers to the max. Even Discordia was replicated perfectly, and was where they were currently located.

“3… 2… 1… Begin!” Exclaimed a robotic voice. Leaping backwards, Nocturnus reached his hand out ahead causing shadow blades to emerge, rushing forward towards West at speeds exceeding that of light, several octillion times over. Without effort, West dodged around each of the deadly shadows which had the power to annihilate the entire solar system with Discordia. Thankfully, this power was condescended into just the shadows. More shadows continued to pump out, getting stronger and faster with every set.

“Hah! Come on, you’ve got to try harder than that!” West mocked, running literal circles around Nocturnus, making faces as he did so. That was until he was cut off by an unforeseen right hook to the face from Madeleine, causing him to get launched back several hundred trillion kilometers, blowing away an entire mountain range that could hold billions of continents as a byproduct.

“Oh? And who told you that being quick was always a good thing?” She laughed, cracking one of her fingers. “Source: Lightning Project, Divine Judgment!” She exclaimed, electricity crackling around her body, her blue eyes glowing faintly as the very heavens seemed to crack open. She altered the information and source code of reality to do her bidding. Then, from above, lightning struck down for West, reaching him in an infinitesimal Planck instant but yet only half of the attack managed to connect due to him having moved so he did not take the full brunt of the damage. He panted, his cocky demeanor gone now replaced by a much more serious attitude.

“I’ve got this guy covered, I’m going to take my time breaking him down.” She spoke with a smirk, licking her lips. “You two focus on the others.” With a nod, Nocturnus and Dark turned to Clark and Bruce before another set of shadow blades were fired off, going straight for Clark.

They moved across the grassy field, corrupting every piece of land they touched, devouring the very subatomic molecules that formed it. But even with that, Clark allowed himself to be hit by the entire attack, which resulted in not even a single scratch.

“If that’s all you have, I’ll be very disappointed.” Clark laughed, before launching a single punch which distorted space, the air pressure crossing the few meters between him and Nocturnus in under a femtosecond. That casual attack alone was powerful enough to destroy infinite universes, and needless to say, Nocturnus had not been able to take all of the attack head on, resulting in the shadow controller falling unconscious and thus out of the fight.

Bruce had been given the time to process enough information to understand the outcome of the battle. Countless possibilities and calculations taken into consideration. To him, it was nothing though as his mind was not limited to the third, fourth, or even fifth dimension. “Clark, we can finish this now. They don’t have any possibility of winning.”

“Damn… just how useless can you get.” Madeleine muttered, still continuing to chase down West with her Divine Judgment. “Dark! It’s up to us, if I give you support you’ll have to take them all down alright?”

“Yeah, I understand. Leave it to me, Shōjiki ni iu to.” Dark flashed her a smug smile.

She ended the barrage of lightning that hunted the speedster, focusing her attention entirely on Dark. She didn’t have much time before West would close the distance between them. Madeleine closed her eyes, before suddenly shooting them open. Various numbers scrolled through her eyes in a computer like fashion.

“Source: Rewrite!” In under a Planck instant, she began analyzing Dark’s strength, speed, power, and durability. His weaknesses and limits. She viewed the direct information and base existence of the black haired male. With the power of Source: Rewrite, she could alter the statistics and abilities of any person. She could even warp countless universes. Infinite calculations were done faster than the necessity of speed, and what she had come to was terrifying.

He was limitless. With the power to exceed all concepts, destroy infinite multiverses, as well as the ability to bypass the realm of possibility and impossibility with his curse, Anti-luck. The thing that plagued him from the moment he was born. For him and people around him, things would always go wrong. Whether on a simple scale or on a cosmic scale. He had no control over it, but with Madeleine’s power she could stabilize the Anti-luck, allowing him to use his power without worry.

Letting out a content sigh, Dark grinned widely. “Shōjiki ni iu to, thanks Maddie. I’ll be sure to end this fast.” Before information could process, he closed the distance between him and West, launching octillions of punches that contained each power to crush infinite worlds like it was nothing. He didn’t stop there as, in that same unchanging moment, he turned his attention back to Clark, who was met with countless distinct soul destroying, particle crushing, existence erasing attacks. Though due to Madeleine’s intervention, the boy thankfully survived the brutal onslaught. She couldn’t say she didn’t enjoy watching him be repeatedly pushed to a near death state only to be healed though. Reluctantly she did fully heal him eventually.

All that was left was Bruce, who was nothing special. A mere star destroying attack was enough to deal with him. Now that all members of the opposing team were unconscious, holographic words flashed in the sky followed by the words, “Ashford Academy Wins!”

Collective cheers and shouts of joy were fired off like canons from the students of Ashford, but this was short lived as Dark, Madeleine, and the members from Lakewood were still in the replica universe. Usually, the participants should have been transported out back into the white room but that hadn’t happened.

A feeling of dread washed over the two remaining members on the battlefield. The bright skies above them were clouded in darkness, a black sludge dripping from the sky like rain. The sludge started to move towards each other, combining together and slowly growing into a large orb. Suddenly, the orb took a definitive form. An eight foot tall monster with three black dragon heads, a dark reptilian tail, dark purple eyes, and all black armor covering its body.

“A chosen wielder of Shikkan.. I didn’t expect you to be so young.” The monster laughed, stepping on top of the bodies of the unconscious Bruce, crushing his body. “Though that makes this all the easier for me.”

Madeleine’s body tensed up, taking a few steps backwards as she gulped hard. “Dark… This guy, he’s different than we usually fight. It’s not that I don’t think we can beat him… but I don’t feel like we’re fighting just him… it’s something bigger.” She whispered.

“Thought I was the only one that noticed, Shōjiki ni iu to… He’s strong. But I’m sure I can handle him. You just relax, you did good.” Dark said, giving his friend a pat on the head as he walked away towards the towering monster. “I don’t know what you are, who you are, or why you’re here. But you’re stopping me from getting home to my precious Nico Nico Ni.” His look turned serious, his eyes shifting in an instant from blue to crimson, a dark aura forming around him.

“What a hero folks. Let’s see if you’ve got something else besides colorful eyes.” The three headed dragon disappeared from sight, only to appear behind the boy in under a Planck instant, reeling his arm back then delivering a punch that could destroy infinite worlds.

But, Dark caught it with an open palm, the force of the impact shaking the entire replica planet of Discordia. A moment that had never came before. The planet that had existed before the concept of size and even beyond that, a constant throughout the entirety of the infinite omniverse. The almighty power of two opposing forces clashed, again and again, shaking the planet with every strike. Every instant, infinite attacks and parries were traded, blood and sweat dripping from Dark. He began to notice that while this Dragon was strong, it had only survived this far due to its regenerative capabilities. Even when every particle and it’s very soul were erased, it continued to reform.

And thus, desperate times call for desperate measures. Creating distance between him and the dragon with a blast of air, Dark closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and centered himself. “I am… the devourer of worlds. The horror that you cannot escape. The one who resides in the void of all creation, beyond light, beyond dark. Beyond life, beyond death. Beyond creation. I am destruction, incarnate.” With every word he spoke, space and time distorted around him, The Dragon and Madeleine both captivated by the beautiful creations caused by the distortions. Then, his chant finished and an explosion of power radiated from him, his hair had grown longer as a result as well.

The Dragon stared wide eyed, stepping backwards, for the first time fear present in his eyes. “What.. are you…!” He shouted, causing the very stars in the sky to shake.

“Hmph, you still don’t know? I don’t know what I expected, Shōjiki ni iu to.” Dark laughed. “My true name, is Lordel Darkness. The Prince of Hell. Devourer of worlds. Now, please do me a favor, and die.” He swung his hand horizontally in a completely casual manner. For a moment, time seemed to freeze until infinite dimensions were severed from that single swing, utterly destroying The Dragon on all levels of existence, his body exploding into a mess of black sludge. Upon his death, the skies of the replica universe returned to normal, and they were promptly sent back to the white room.

The demonic aura that previously surrounded disappeared as he promptly collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily. “Ah jeez… what a day… I just wanted to stay in… oh well…” The boy muttered, his hair returning to its normal length as he slowly dipped into unconsciousness, the strain from fighting so much finally catching up to him.

Madeleine ran over, leaning down class to dark and pressing her hand to his forehead. “Dark! Are you okay? … Eh I’m sure he’ll be fine.” She nodded to himself, unintentionally moving her chest in his face before standing up.

Within moments, the only person left in the training room was the passed out Dark.