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Act II. Part VI.

"Welcome to my humble abode, who am I kidding, it's glorious," Laveda said as he opened the door to his house for the three.

Once they went in, they were met with a modern sight to behold: dark oak parquet floor tiles which contrasted well with the entirely white and grey theme of the house, white walls with evenly spaced vertical window panes on them. Above all this, beams hung in the air with large bulbs dangling from them.

It was an open plan style house; the living room, kitchen, dining room, and what seemed to be a guest area were all in the same giant room divided by darker floor tiles. They walked to what seemed to be the living room. It was sunken into the ground, dipping down endlessly as they walked down into the pit-like room.

"How can you afford all this under a teacher's salary? Even if you teach at the Isochron's school, isn't this just too much?" As soon as Ryu asked Laveda this he stared daggers at Ryu with a look of disgust.

"What?" Ryu asked, feeling uncomfortable.

"Nothing. Now let us begin."

Laveda clapped his hands, and the instant he did everything around them disappeared. They were left standing in an empty white space.

"None of the experiences we've had of appearing in strange places have been good up till now." Toshiko said as he anxiously walked.

"Where are we and what are we standing on?" Mila asked in a panic as she looked at her feet.

They seemed to be standing on glass but wherever they stepped, ripples followed as if each step they took was as soft as a feather falling onto the surface of a body of water.

"Everything I'm going to explain I will only say once. Are we clear?" Laveda told the three.

"Yes sir." The three responded in unison, snapping back to reality.

"Consider this, there are three planes of space, which I will use numbers to name just to make things easier for ourselves. Firstly, the layer we live on, '1'. This layer can be called the complete or normal layer because it has everything from time cycles to gravity."

"Wait, are you saying the afterlife is one of the layers?" Toshiko asked.

"And how are you able to move between these layers?" Mila added.

Laveda looked at them with an even worse look of disgust compared to the one he gave to Ryu earlier.

"No, the afterlife is not one of those layers, and for the second question, you don't need to know that. Throw away your common sense for now."

"Is that place we were taken to one of those layers?" Mila asked again.

"Yes, it is. We can call that layer '0'. That layer is difficult to explain so I will just say this and you'll make sense of it on your own.

The other two layers are founded on 0. It would also be correct to say they sit on 0, as the bottom slice of bread in a sandwich." Laveda finished as he gestured his hands to make a sandwich.

"Although we'd only be barely hitting the nail on its head with that comparison. Therefore, imagine that the slice of bread isn't there, but is at the same time. Rather imagine it as being formless, it functions as a slice of bread but it isn't."

"With that in mind, the other layer would be this one, right?" Ryu asked, trying to make sense of what Laveda was trying to put across.

"Correct. We could call this one ".5". It is in all ways the middle point between the other layers. Unlike '0' it has time but unlike '1' time varies greatly here."

"How great?" Mila asked

"More complicated answers but okay. The value of the normal units of time we know are different here, for example, we know an hour as sixty minutes.

Once sixty minutes elapses here the equivalent of an hour will have to pass on the normal plane as well, which is about eight hundred-and-forty minutes, which is something like fourteen hours. If that makes sense."

"What you're saying is, once we experience our version of an hour here, fourteen will have gone by in '1'?" Toshiko asked with a puzzled expression as he paraphrased what he heard.

"Are our bodies affected by the time difference once we go back to the normal plane?" Mila butted in to ask.

"The answer to both your questions is yes. If you do let us say ten minutes of jogging here, once you go back to the normal plane you would feel as if you did roughly two hours and thirty minutes worth of jogging.

For that reason, for the next five days, we will be meeting here to attempt to train you and at least leave you with what I said before a choice." Laveda said with an unnerving smile "Now you're all going to run for the next thirty minutes and don't worry about getting lost, you'll find yourself back here even if you try and run away."

The three began running and Laveda started to walk as well. He slowly walked in the opposite direction of the three whose steps echoed and filled the space. As he walked the completely white space started to change into shapes, the shapes began to fill up with color, and finally, he was back in his house.

He walked into his grey-styled kitchen and picked up a steamy dark green teacup and leisurely sipped from it. With the cup in hand he started to go in the direction of his sunken lounge, and as he walked everything around him turned to white and he found the three completely winded.

"I take it you're done. Now trivia, what is 'The Isochron'?"

"The isochron is the governing body of the world that consists of the royal family, the church, and lastly the government." Mila quickly answered.

"Correct. Now thirty minutes of push-ups We'll do endurance and strength exercises today." Laveda said with a devilish smile.

"You can't be serious." Toshiko playfully said.

But after the three looked at Laveda who remained silent and did nothing but smile, they realized there was no room for anything else to be said.

[Day Two]

"Ugh, kill me," Mila shouted as she ran.

"No, kill me!" Ryu shouted back.

"Who are the heads of the church?" Laveda said as he comfortably sat on a black leather armchair in the middle of the empty space.

"The church of Enacia heads consist of the pope and his cardinal vice," Toshiko answered as he gasped for air.

"What happens in the event the pope dies?" Laveda asked yet another question.

The three looked at each other with completely clueless expressions.

"It seems none of you know, how about the name of the royal family?" Laveda said as he got up and took off his black jacket, and gently hung it around his chair. "Every time you fail to answer a question, we'll have a mock battle of sorts." He finished and started to roll up his sleeves.

"You want your students to fight you? You can't be seri—" Before Toshiko could finish Mila and Ryu slowly got up.

Ryu extended his hand to Toshiko who looked at it and let out a loud sigh but eventually took Ryu's arm and stood to his feet.

"We can probably take him, it's the three of us against one of him."

"Plus, all the training we've endured I think we stand a chance." Mila seconded Ryu.

"3…2…1…" Toshiko counted down and they charged towards Laveda.

[Day Four]

"How is, you dropping us training?" Mila yelled as she laid on her back with a pain-filled expression.

"You need to learn how to take falls," Laveda responded as he proceeded to drop Ryu to the ground. "What is the best way to handle someone who is charging at you?"

"Using their own momentum against them." The three responded in unison.

"Perfect. Now charge at me." Laveda said as he stood with one arm behind his back and his trademark smile.

The three charged at him, Ryu and toshiko slid to take down Laveda's legs but before they could hit him, he jumped onto their legs. Mila jumped into the air and drop-kicked his chest, causing him to lose his footing. Ryu and Toshiko felt the load on their legs reduce, and pulled back their legs, sending Laveda falling backwards-which was what would normally happen but he just stood there with his back bent outwards. He collected himself and dusted himself off.

"The only way to truly prove a point or even sort out a problem, is an overwhelming show of power." As he ended his sentence, he slightly raised his right leg. As he slowly drives it down the three, they're filled with anxiety for a reason they didn't know.

The three closed their eyes and he clicked his heel on the plane's floor, but nothing happened. Relied washed over them. Laveda laughed, they turned to look at him, when they did, he winked at them. The instant he did the color of the space inverted. But the shock to the three wasn't their environment changing, but how they were already on the floor, held down by some sort of force - Leaving only Toshiko awake.

"What is this Mr. Laveda?" Toshiko sluggishly asked as he gritted his teeth to stay awake.

"You don't need to know that." Replied Laveda as he walked away from the three.

Leaving only the sight of his heels clicking against the floor and the surroundings turning back to Laveda's house in Toshiko's heavy eyes. Unable to maintain consciousness he shortly passed out.

end?