Tobi and Kiala put on their blindfolds at Akio's request.

"How is this going to help us see Iko?"

Tobi's first impressions of this old man, had him sketched out. He couldn't predict what Akio might do next. His instincts were right, as a tiny pebble, struck both of them in the back. Irritating the pair.

"Why would you-"

Kiala started to ask but was cut off by Akio.

"Amateurs that can't even sense a pebble, without their eyes, have no right to complain."

Kiala sealed her lips, frowning with frustration.

"One day I'm going to..."

She thought to herself.

Akio hopped up onto a platform, crossing his legs and making himself comfortable.

"From sunrise to sunset, you'll mainly be training with these blindfolds for the next several weeks. You're eyes cloud too much judgment, diminishing the potential of all, of your other sense."

They braced themselves, as they felt, a tremendous amount of energy, rising below them. Jumping up, just in time to escape a ground implosion. Spitting dust and rocks in the air all around them.

"What the h-"

Unable to continue speaking, due to a dense rock, knocking the wind out of him. Kiala, beside him, frantically shook her head around, feeling something amiss.

With their blindfolds on, it was hard to tell, but surrounding them, stopped in motion, were the stones and rocks, kicked up by the implosion.

"Use your senses, figure out, where next, I will attack."

He ran his Iko, in a rhythm through, the stones and rocks, all around them, throwing off their senses.

Randomly, several stones or pebbles would sail, into the back of their heads, their backs, thighs, and arms. Making Kiala, extremely angry. She raised her energy, about to turn up a gear. However, Akio shook his finger at her in disapproval.

"Nuh uh, no! There's no need to transform yet, during our lessons. Let the pain seep in, then use it to sense the next incoming attack.

Kiala gritted her teeth, regretting training with this lunatic.

"Fine!"

She took a deep breath. Focusing on anything moving unnaturally, within her vicinity. As she closed her eyes, she started to first picture her iko. What it would look like. What it would be like.

A violet and ash-colored, hurricane began swirling around her, with a calming and soothing breeze. She looked around her, as a vision of an ethereal plane unfolded around her, with dozens of combat androids, pointing non-lethal weapons at her.

Kiala shed a tear. It was the moment she first got her powers. Her mother was terrified of putting her through training early, but it was why she made Saphyra. To always remind them of the mission.

She did because, before her being in that situation, Saphyra had told little Kiala that if she didn't use her powers to get through the door ahead, she would never see her mother again.

The feeling of raising her hand terrified her, yet still managed to imagine fire, ice, electricity, stones & telekinetic force, to obliterate the enemies before her.

Purple and reddish veins, ran like lava through her arms, as the feeling of losing her mom, at 4 years old, traumatized her.

Kiala chuckled, wondering how she fell for that. However there was one detail, she overlooked. The same swirling hurricane appeared before her for a second, when she was a kid. Manifesting all of the elements for her, and carrying it in the direction she wanted it to.

The epiphany hit her like a bullet.

"That's my iko!"

She yelled out loud, rubbing her right arm with frost, as it stung from a pebble Akio struck her with, while in concentration.

Akio, stroked his beard, chuckling.

"Have you figured it out?"

She ignored him, to continue focusing on her discovery.

He smiled, not wanting to bother her further, then turned his attention towards Tobi, who had been struggling badly to focus. Midway through, he lost his patience and began, swinging indiscriminately, hoping, to catch the pebbles and stones, before they struck him, to no avail.

Each one struck him cordially until he started descending slowly, due to fatigue.

Akio shook his head, looking back at Kiala, who had just dodged her first pebble. His eyes grew wide in excitement. Then he grinned menacingly, knowing she could finally see it. A wall is truly impossible to climb.

Kiala started to sweat. She just noticed the number of flares of Iko, running all around her, but mainly, the titanic iko, swirling around Akio.

"He's a monster."

She whispered to herself, dodging two more stones, sailing overhead and below.

"How is that even possible."

Akio laughed out loud.

"You can finally see it, that's good, that's good. Well done! Truly a prodigy."

Akio directed his next words toward Tobi.

"Are you going to let your daughter outshine you?"

Tobi's rage boiled over, but thanks to anger management classes, he decided to take deep breaths and took his mind somewhere else. He thought about the training, his favorite character went through. Chuckling to himself, realizing that his MC went through the same thing. Blindfolded and getting hit.

"But what was the reason?"

Tobi had always tried to find lessons and true meanings of the scenes he had witnessed, read, or watched, ever since he read his first book given to him by his ESL teacher. Telling him one thing.

"Knowledge is power."

However, there was one thing, he never truly, completely comprehended and that was himself.

"Why was I chosen for this? Whose son am I? What am I supposed to do?"

Thoughts of the Atlas, destroying his former world, and capable of doing the same to his current, ran across his mind, as his body, continued to be bombarded by stones and pebbles. The Novas, the soldiers, and the people depending on him, as well as his newfound daughter. Lastly, setting him off, was Mado calling him an abomination, the one that must be executed.

"No, who would you give all of these problems to? You must take care of them yourself."

His stubborn mind, yelled out, refusing to surrender. He opened his eyes, still blindfolded in darkness. However, swirling violently around him, was a massive hurricane, made out of a myriad of white light, and dark energy, never mixing, but tangled in a constant fight.

"What... What is this?"

At Roku's training grounds...

Kayed struck against the boulder in front of him as hard as he could, but his stone gauntlets broke apart.

"Again!"

Roku yelled at him, then continued to watch the others.

Sighing Kayed took a deep breath, looking over at Norah struggling to make any progress as well. Roku had quickly drilled the basics of iko, into them, wanting to move them quickly over the next lesson.

Surprisingly, they didn't expect him to be such a good teacher. He was just a bit too strict, in their opinion. With his help, they became aware of their iko. Brought it under control. Then began to arm themselves with it.

However, the titanium boulders, filled with diamonds, were incredibly difficult to break. On top of that, they weren't allowed to use any gear.

"Dinner will get cold, if you take too long, trying to make a dent in brittle stone."

Roku yelled, trying to motivate them.

Osei, furiously punched his boulder, as his hands bled, but he refused to back down. He was furious with himself. Something he had been taught long ago, but never made attempts to completely master.

The Rennayan martial arts, Waio taught him, was a way of awakening and perfecting one's iko. He used to tell him, the ones that perfected to their utmost limits, are capable of breaking boulders with little movement.

"How... How could I forget? Waio!"

He yelled in frustration while throwing a last strike with his full might with the intention for it to break. A massive crack ruptured, lining up horizontally and breaking into small branches through, a third of the boulder.

Norah and Kayed stared in astonishment. Tiki was impressed.

"I expect no less of from a Rennayan Prince, but you must channel your iko, with less aggression. It breaks because you will it to, not because of your anger."

Osei nodded, then walked back to their sitting area, to wrap up his bleeding knuckles.

Roku turned his attention towards the Novas.

"You won't make any progress by staring at it!"

Kayed and Norah rolled their eyes, shaking their heads, then got back into position and continued training.

Above Kaieda's training grounds...

Tai leaped, trying to one-up Kaieda, who had just unleashed, a thirty-foot tall golem, covered in different tough metals of the earth, on Carina and Kalista.

Tai covered his fists in the hottest flames he could produce without transforming. Remembering Kaieda's words, 'don't hold back, but no ascending'.

He bit down, throwing his fist forward, toward Kaieda's back. Expecting a hard connection and breaking the unsuspecting man's back. Instead, Tai almost threw up, as he was lurched back by an arm made of sand, grabbing him, with a firm grip. Nearly breaking one of his arms.

"Now, now, how could you fall for that? Didn't I tell you? Iko can be anywhere, as far as your body will allow you and your imagination can reach..."

He turned around, as the golem smacked Kalista far off into the distance and threw Carina high up in the air, towards them.

Kaeida caught Carina in a floating bed of sand, before continuing his lecture, restraining her.

"You've been letting your emotions cloud your judgment for too long. It should only be a catalyst. If you were more aware. You would have realized..."

The ground of their entire training grounds, began to shift and change, rumbling as if two earthquakes were fighting each other, underground.

"I have already made this entire area my domain. The only way you can escape my gaze is by overwhelming my domain or moving faster than me. For that, you're going to have to keep putting yourself on the brink of death."

He said gleefully, throwing him across the field, then turning his head in Kalista's direction.

"Looks like one of you, has figured it out already."

He sighed, raising his right hand, then dropping it, as a sudden pit, opened up under Kalista's feet. She yelled out but quickly raised a platform to carry out, but it crumbled apart as the ground closed up above her, sinking her into an abyss.

Kaeida turned his eyes towards Carina. She was struggling to get out of her restraints, but Kaeida's iko felt like iron.

"Are you going to continue playing damsel in distress or are you going get stronger?"

His words stung. He barely knew her, but she felt like he had peeled into her whole life with one gaze.

"I know! We are going to play a game."

Three perfectly carved gems, rose out of the ground, hovering behind Kaeida's back. Then he reach his left hand out, as a crude alien-like megaphone, built itself together in his hand.

He cleared his throat before speaking.

"Attention Novas. Your comrade has been captured. Whenever you get the chance to free her and destroy the stones behind my back, you'll get to enjoy supper tonight. Don't worry, The Rahmanaka can go days without food!."

He let out a hearty laugh, dropping the megaphone down below, facing Carina, while ignoring Amaara, erupting out of his pit trap.

"Now then... Are you just going to let yourself be saved?"

At Yori's training grounds...

Yori, released the growling bears, out of their cages. Immediately, they rushed after the two Novas jumping out of the way.

"Don't be scared. They won't bite, if you can tame them with your iko, that is!"

Jacira & Runa looked at each other, and then at Yori.

"Are you crazy!"

They said in unison.

The girls had all right to be wary. The bears were called Nakaya bears, native to the Azurian planet and can survive the harshest of conditions, the planet has to offer. Especially with them having to adapt from one Solar System to the next.

Their defining features included black and brown fur, with an all-black underbelly. Weighing in over three thousand pounds, larger than any bear on Earth. One of them continued to charge after the Novas. The other turned its bloodthirsty red eyes toward Yori.

Looking at her, like easy prey. However, she didn't panic, as it got closer. Instead, she raised her left hand towards its head, while it continued to snarl at her with overwhelming malice. Then she dropped her hand down, as the bear did the same, bowing its head.

"Woah! What the actual -"

Jacira started to say, before her bear leaped 4 ft in the air, trying to pull her down.

She raised her ice platform higher, then manifested walls surrounding her bear, so that she could have a little time to think. To her dismay, it broke out of it as easily, as tearing paper.

Yori piped up, trying to get across to the struggling Novas, while Runa kept yelling, "Stay put" or "sit", while dodging her bear's lunges.

"I forgot to mention, where there is an abundance of Iko, animals adapt. As such they will be able to use it too."

Jacira looked at her with a poker face, like she couldn't have told them earlier.

Runa stopped running around. Facing her bear head-on.

"I said... Sit!"

She said spoke with a serious tone. Her bear slowed down, for a second. Raising its arm high above its head, ready to strike.

Runa, showing no hint of fear, stared down the bear, repeating her words louder this time.

"Sit, or I'll fry you alive!"

The bear paused as if it was thinking things over. Then dropped its paw, to the ground, and sat, still snarling at her.

Yori smiled, seeing Runa's progress.

"Well done Runa! You've almost completely tamed the beast. Next time, use a little less aggression. It helps."

Runa rolled her eyes. She didn't like Yori, but she acknowledged her battle experience. However, she still hated the fact, that she had to train away from Kayed, a surprising crush, that had started to creep up on her.

Yori, gave her an indifferent smile, even though she knew, she would never receive one back. She turned her attention to Jacira, as she continued to struggle with her bear.

"Jacira, you've got this! Think of them as the adorable cubs, they usually are!"

Jacira was a little annoyed, thinking to herself, that, 'they aren't adorable, 'she's trying to get me killed.'

As if sensing her thoughts. Yori yelled out to them,

"After this, I have descendants of dinosaurs, you can practice on.