Kai lies on the ground, limbs spread and covered in bruises.

  "Lucius wasn't joking... training is so much more intense."

  Teon crashes down near him and nods. Looking up at Rumi, he asks for a short break. Rumi shakes her head.

  "No can do. You don't think the nightmares are going to give you breaks."

  "No..."

  The two boys struggle to stand up before attacking Rumi again.

  A week later Kai and Rumi are training alone when all of a sudden both stop abruptly and stare over to the island's mountain.

  "Is that Lucius Soul-Pressure?"

  "Yeah, I can't remember the last time I felt it this intense."

  "What are they doing over there?"

  On the other side of the mountain, Teon slowly crawls out of a deep crater in it, left by him. Lucius is standing in the air. Hovering over his head is a halo emitting bright light, while six wings float behind his back.

  "Did it work?"

  He asks before landing next to Teon. The coughs and looks up at his teacher.

  "I... don't know..."

  "Well, we'll see. Did you meet up with Cole like I told you?"

  The boy nods after standing up.

  "Yesterday."

  "Did it work?"

  "Yeah, it successfully copied his ability. Want me to show you?"

  Lucius nods. Teon turns around and punches the mountain. As he hits, three additional impacts appear quickly after each other.

  "What's the difference?"

  "Well, while Cole controls when the more hits appear, here they appear as long as my fist, or leg should I kick, touches the target."

  While listening to Teon's description, Lucius presses one hand against his chin.

  Later that evening Kai and Teon are sitting together in Kai's room. While the two are chatting with each other, the three that were left at the Souls-Corp base are training together with Cole and Nova. As for Percy, he and his sword master are standing inside a Greek temple, looking up at a statue of Poseidon.

  "Do you think they have caught up to us by now?"

  Teon asks, causing Kai to giggle.

  "Would be amazing, but I don't think so. Still, I'd like a sparring match with them on equal footing."

  "Is there anything else on your mind besides fighting?"

  Kai pouts at his best friend's comment and looks away.

  "Maybe."

  Then he starts smiling.

  "Want to spar tomorrow?"

  Teon gives him a judging look before agreeing.

  "Don't underestimate me; I'm much stronger than last time."

  He adds. In this moment someone knocks at the door. Before either of the two can answer, it opens, and Rumi looks inside.

  "It's late already; go to bed."

  The boys sigh in sync, and Teon stands up before leaving the room. Before she closes the door again, Rumi wishes Kai a good night.

  The next morning Kai wakes up unusually tired. After slowly standing up and getting mostly ready, he trots towards the kitchen. In there, Lucius is standing at the counter drinking a coffee.

  "Morning, Kai. Everything okay? You woke up late."

  Kai looks at him with sleepy eyes.

  "I'm alright. I just stayed up late, trying something... but it didn't work."

  Lucius nods understandingly before taking a sip from his coffee.

  "Don't do that too often. Now hurry. Teon is waiting for you at the training field. He seemed excited."

  Kai's face lights up, and he is wide awake.

  "I forgot we wanted to spar again."

  Teon stands alone in the clearing looking around, a bit of disappointment written over his features. He sighs and kicks a little rock away. Then he sees a glimpse of movement in the corner of his eyes. As he looks in the direction, Kai rams into him at full speed. The impact creates a massive shockwave that spreads through the whole forest and sends Teon flying up in the air. Kai follows after him while calling.

  "How do you imagine you can beat me if you can't even react to my speed?"

  Teon stops midair, causing Kai to crash into him again. But this time Teon doesn't move a single centimeter. After gathering a bit of distance, Kai looks at him surprised. Before he can do anything, the fist of his best friend connects with Kai's cheek, the punch sending Kai crashing back to the ground, stirring up a huge dust cloud.

  "I told you to not underestimate me."

  Right after Teon finishes his sentence, a red lightning shoots out of the dust cloud in his direction. Teon evades the attack without much effort. But right after Kai stands in the air beneath him, grabbing Teon's ankle and throwing him towards the ground. Before he connects, Teon stops and aims up with his left hand. Bloodstreams shoot at Kai. Without time to dodge, he is forced to block the attack. After it stops, Kai yells.

  "You're still holding back. Go all out!"

  Teon grins before yelling back.

  "You first!"

  Kai sighs before relaxing his body and closing his eyes. The air around him starts to heat up as Kai lets go of any thought. His hair turns silver, and he takes a deep breath in and out before opening his eyes again, revealing to Teon that they as well have turned silver. Teon smiles satisfied before dashing at Kai, but before he can attack, Kai is already behind him, grabbing Teon's head from behind and slamming it into the ground. Letting go of Teon's head, he takes a few steps back.

  "Your turn..."

  Teon pushes himself up before turning around to look at Kai. Kai looks completely calm.

  "Show me what the training with Lucius was for."

  Teon releases all his soul pressure, concentrating it all on Kai, whose nose starts bleeding slightly. Still, his expression doesn't change in the slightest. Teon dashes at his friend again, trying to grab him by the face, but Kai leans backwards, causing Teon to grab the air before he delivers a punch to the gut.

  "Too slow."

  Teon is sent flying upwards. He manages to gather himself and stops somewhere in the air above Kai. Standing there, he looks down. Then he closes his eyes. Slowly a halo appears, hovering above his head, but after it completely materializes, it cracks, and blood starts to drip down into Teon's hair.

  Wings slowly grow behind his back, wings of black, burned, and blood-covered feathers. They are not connected to his back but are floating a few centimeters behind him. At the same time his hair grows longer. With an empty gaze, he stares down at Kai, who stares back surprised.

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  "That looks like a corrupted version of Lucius's transformation, but... much more intimidating! His Soul-Pressure is rising by the second as well!"

  Teon slowly raises his hand, pointing at Kai; less than 55.6 nanoseconds later, he closed the approximately 15-meter space between the two and stood right in front of Kai. Kai's eyes widen in shock.

  "Wha... I wasn't able to see any movement!"

  He instinctively attacks his friend, aiming for Teons face, but his fist gets blocked right infront of Teons face, by one of the wings. Blood splashes on Kai's fist. Teon snaps his fingers, and the blood on Kai's hand bursts out in black flames. Kai screams out in excruciating pain while trying to put the flames out. While he tries this, Teon places his hand flat on Kai's chest.

  "Why isn't my body reacting? It should dodge any advance on its own!"

  Gathering this thought was the only thing Kai was able to do before Teon pushed against his chest, and he got thrown away off the island, landing somewhere far away in the ocean.

  Underwater he quickly recovers from the burns on his hand and flies up. There he is instantly met by Teon, who grabs him by the neck and throws him back to the island, straight through the mountain. Kai struggles to get up, his body bruised and bleeding, with a few broken bones, but Teon is already standing in front of him again.

  "FUCK! He is not himself right now; if this goes on like this, I'm going to die."

  Kai's hair and eyes turn back to normal. With shaking legs, he stands up and takes on a defensive stance.

  "I need something stronger!"

  Suddenly something big slams down in the ground between the two boys, stirring up dust. As it settles, Kai sees Rumi in her Oni form standing there.

  "This looks too interesting to not get involved. Sorry to interrupt your sparring session, but I'll take over now, Kai!"

  Kai sighs out and falls on his butt.

  Teon raises his arm, pointing at Rumi with one finger. Suddenly, even faster than earlier against Kai, he moves to stand right in front of Rumi, looking up, staring into her purple glowing eyes.

  "Oh... you're faster than usual."

  She says, relatively unimpressed.

  "I guess I need to be more serious than normal."

  After a short stare-off, Rumi swings at the boy. The hit gets completely blocked by one wing, and blood spreads over her fingers and the back of her hand. Rumi starts grinning, acknowledging him as a real threat, and begins to attack him with a barrage of wild attacks; her fists burn in purple flames. Each attack is blocked by the wings, spreading more and more blood on her four fists, but after just a few, the wings start to weaken and get slower.

  "I'm slowly getting through."

  Suddenly Teon snaps his fingers, and the blood on Rumi's fists and forearms bursts into black flames. She screams in pain and surprise before jumping to a safer distance. A terrified expression creeping over her face.

  "I never felt pain like this in my whole life!"

  She thinks. Her expression turns even more frightened as Teon suddenly stands right in front of her. His index finger draws a small upside-down cross in the air, right in front of Rumi's stomach. She spits out blood and looks down. A hole, of the same form and size as the cross Teon drew in the air, gapes open in her stomach, going all the way through to her back. She punches downwards, trying to hit the boy's head, but her attack gets blocked by a wing. She jumps backwards again while holding the closing wound and thinking to herself.

  "This starts to get really dangerous. But if I go all out now, I could end up killing the boy."

  In this moment Teon suddenly spits out blood and falls to one knee.

  "His soul-energy output is starting to go down!"

  Kai yells.

  "It's becoming too much for his body."

  A hand is placed on Teon's head.

  "Enough!"

  Lucius speaks loudly. Teon passes out, and the cracked halo, as well as the wings, disappears, while his hair goes back to its normal length.

  "So he actually managed to copy my powers."

  Lucius thinks before carefully picking the unconscious boy up. Without saying another word, he carries him in the direction of the estate. As he leaves Kai's view, the boy looks down at his burned hand.

  "I could've died there. I have to take safety measures should an opponent as strong as him ever appear."

  The wound in Rumi's stomach is still closing.

  "My oni skin didn't even remotely protect me from his attacks."

  She sighs annoyed before thinking to herself again.

  "Why does my healing factor have to be so slow?"

  Her gaze falls in the direction Lucius went.

  "He has to forbid him to ever use this power as long as he isn't 100% sure he can control it. Or else I will not train him again."

  Kai nods in agreement before slowly standing up.

  Far away in the Souls-Corp base, Kaia, Max, and Lloyd are lying or sitting on their beds.

  "Do you think the gap in power between us and the others is smaller now?"

  Lloyd asks quietly while looking at the girls. Max looks at him, thinking for a moment before she responds.

  "I think Kai and Teon are far out of our reach, but Percy... I believe it got smaller, yeah."

  "I agree."

  Kaia murmurs while looking at the ceiling.

  The next moment there is a knock on their door; Lloyd calls the person inside, and the door opens. In the threshold stands Nova.

  "Get up, guys; there is someone Lucius wants you to meet. I know it's late, but get ready and go to the training field."

  The three look confused but do as they are told.

  As they walk through the hallway towards the field, they start to smell something bad and cover their noses. Max looks annoyed.

  "Why does it reek of wet dog in here?!"

  As they step through the big doorway, they can't believe their eyes.

  "Who the hell is that?!"

  They all think at the same time.