Training

Reyes and Leezy were astonished as they gazed around the area they had teleported to. Standing upon Odin's hand, they had a crystal clear view of the area.

There were now standing atop a cloud island that had a white temple at its center. It was sandwiched by a pair of giant hourglasses that had sand pouring through them like water. In between it's 4 marble pillars sat a brown oak door. Above the temple, a giant clock floated in the air with both of its hands frozen on the twelve o'clock position.

"This is the indestructible hyperbolic time chamber. Time operates much differently in there than it does anywhere else. A year spent inside it is only a single week back on earth. Once inside, the clock floating above will begin tracking how long you both have been in there. The gravity inside the chamber itself is also greater than on earth, which will take some getting used to."

Nodding in understanding, Reyes and Leezy listened closely as he continued.

"When you two walk through that door, there will be an altar with book on top of it. Leave a bloody fingerprint in the book to summon an apparition that will teach you the basics of what I mentioned earlier. When it first appears, it will spar with you and give you a ranking based on your potential and combative power. After the session concludes, your rank will be documented in the book."

He explained, placing them down in front of the temple. After their feet hit the concrete, he turned around and started walking away.

"I have other matters that i need to attend to. I shall return within a few days. Train hard, youngsters!"

After nodding to both of them, a tall green door that was covered in vines appeared in front of him and slowly opened. As the door opened, a blinding light kept anyone from seeing what lay on the other side. Looking back at them, he nodded at Leezy and Reyes before stepping through the door, which caused it to vanish from sight.

Leezy and Reyes walked up to the time chamber and quickly entered it. As they stepped inside, their bodies felt many times heavier due to the gravity.

Looking around, they looked around at their new scenery.

The floor was made of red marble tile that stretched as far as the eye could see, seemingly infinite in number. The door they had walked through stood by itself inside of it's door frame just behind them. In front of them, just as Odin had said, was a small altar with a brown book on it. It's cover had an hourglass on it and symbols they had never seen before.

A red bookmark could also be seen hanging from one of it's pages.

Leezy walked up to the book, opened it and began reading through its contents while Reyes propped the girl against the door.

The first page of the book carried detailed instructions on how to summon the apparition that Odin mentioned previously. The pages that followed contained columns of names that had ranks written beside them.

Some names were written next to a rank by themselves, whereas other names shared the same rank.

Unknown: Demios, Roth, Ares, Grim, Tir, Calypso, Menos, Krill, Xander, Var, Arrom, Nyx....

Reading off the names one by one that were ranked as unknown, Leezy felt puzzled.

Flipping back to the first page, he cut his finger and pressed it into the book and looked at Reyes as the summoning took place.

Appearing above them, the apparition turned out to be a thin pale skinned man with blonde hair. He was dressed in a black suit that had a red bowtie, similar to a butler. His eyes also lacked any pupils, making it appear that he was completely blind.

"New arrivals, please state your name and race. Once i have gathered that information, we will begin the sparring session that will allow me to rank you. The ranking scale goes from Copper to Obsidian."

"What does it mean to be ranked as unknown?"

Hearing his question, the man smiled.

"The rank of Unknown is given to those who manage to destroy me before i have a chance to accurately gauge their battle power. Although they are marked as unknown, they are considered the best among the names written in the book. Not many people actually manage to destroy me during the sparring session."

"I see..."

Walking over to stand next to Leezy, Reyes threw his hands in his pockets.

"Can we go all out in here?"

"Yes. Any damages inflected upon yourselves or the area will repair themself. Please state your name and race to initiate the sparring session."

Hands still in his pockets, Reyes's eyes gleamed with anticipation.

"My name is Reyes, I am human."

Shoving his thumb into his chest, Leezy shouted,

"The name's Leezy, race....OG!"

Confused, the apparition looked at Leezy.

"What is this race you speak of? I have never heard of it."

"This dumbass is the same race as I am, he is a human."

Reyes chuckled to himself.

"Very well, Leezy and Reyes. Let us begin. Keep in mind that you won't be attacked during this session. This should give you time to power up or complete transformations if you so choose, for a more accurate ranking."

When the apparition finished talking, he floated down to the tile, landing in front of them. His body then split in half and began to morph as the two silently watched. Both of them finally drew their weapons as the halves each morphed into an unexpected shape.

Standing before them were complete mirror images of Reyes and Leezy. Every detail was copied, all the way down to their clothing. The only difference between the copies and the originals were the eyes, which were completely white and devoid of pupils.

Staring at the clones of themselves, Reyes and Leezy both began to power up.

Blue lightning struck the tile around Leezy as it began to completely wrap him. Enhanced strength flowed through his body from the tattoos that glowed underneath his armor.

On the other hand, Reyes's red aura wrapped around him completely, looking like a wild flame that pulsed. His feet and hands were both faintly glowing red as he stood there, holding his sword.

Seeing no signs of movement from his clone, Reyes surged forward. With a swing of his sword, he sent the clone soaring through the air as it blocked his strike.

Using his aura, he conjured up a wall behind it as he chased it through the air, swinging his sword again once he was close enough.

The force of his swing made the copy bounce back toward him, it's back slamming into the wall as it blocked, which set up a ten slash combo for him.

He stuck the clone with a variety of slashes that all came from different directions. Using small aura platforms as stepping stones, he twisted his body throughout the combo, finishing it with a downward slash that sent the copy crashing into the marble tiles below, creating a huge impact crater.

While that was happening, Leezy ran toward his clone and closed the distance. Balling up his free hand, lightning exploded around his fist as he threw an uppercut. Crossing its arms in front if it, it blocked the strike but got lifted off the ground in the process.

With the same hand he struck with, he reached out, grabbed his copy's leg while it was midair and slammed it into the floor, attempting to skewer it with his sword.

His clone used its free leg to spin itself, liberating it from Leezy's grip and simultaneously dodging the incoming attack.

Suddenly, lightning shot from the Leezy's blade and struck the copy in the chest, sending it skidding across the floor, creating a deep trench as it came to a halt far away from Leezy.

Crouching down and leaping high into the air, he sailed headfirst toward the copy who was still laid out in the trench.

Boom!

Dust and debris flew into the air as Leezy collided with the floor. He completely missed and landed headfirst.

"Fuck you. You could have stayed still to cushion my fall, you bastard."

Leezy groaned, holding his head that now throbbed with pain due to the impact.

"Yes I could have, but that still was a reckless move."

With folded arms, the clone stood beside the crater Leezy was in and spoke with the apparition's voice.

"I believe that i have seen enough to accurately give you two a ranking. Please cease any further attacks so I may document your rank within the Book Of Time. The rankings are not final and can always be changed to reflect any progress you two gain while training here."

Both clones disappeared after saying this and once again, the blonde haired man floated above them, but this time with the book in his hands. Quickly writing two rankings onto a page in the book, two announcements resonated through the chamber.

'The human Reyes has been ranked Silver!'

'The human Leezy has been ranked Bronze!'

"Motherfucker, what!?"

Leezy shouted, clearly pissed off.

Trying to grab the man, he jumped around through the air chasing the apparition as he floated above effortlessly dodging his attempts.

"I gave you the rank of Bronze due to the recklessness you resort to. Overall your potential is impressive, but your combat power as of now is further behind due to your lack of finesse."

The man spoke with a blank expression while dodging another one of Leezy's attempts to grab him.

"I'll show you some finesse! I'll finesse my foot knee deep up your bony ass! Stop running! Get back here!"

Leezy shouted at the man, continuing to chase him.

Reyes just sat back and watched, laughing to himself.

Behind him, slumped against the door, the little girl slowly opened her eyes as she began to regain consciousness…