Demund opened his eyes.

A week had passed since he had been in his old world. Nothing much had happened in the new one, but the time he spent there as a baby felt like an eternity. Now that he had made up in his mind that the other world was just a dream, he felt a little more at peace with himself, but even that couldn’t shake off the feeling that his dream world felt too real.

His power was too immersive, he thought.

Demund crawled out of his bed and opened the curtains after stopping the dreadful alarm. The skies looked bright and clear, and he could see many birds perched on the trees and electric poles from his window. The summer days were very long; it was a fine day to explore Jothan’s new power.

He had departed with Jothan last night after finishing their food. Jothan’s mother had called and pestered Jothan that he would have to start packing that instant if he were to hang out with Demund the next day. After discussing, they decided to meet after lunch as soon as Jothan finished packing all his things for the Islands (B class and over could skip the Selections and obtain their tickets/passports at the testing site; afterwards, they could either choose to depart right away or wait until the deadline. Jothan had decided on the former).

Demund took a deep breath out of the morning air. It smelled slightly of pollution and dust, unlike the world in his dream.

After changing into a T-shirt and pants, Demund went downstairs to grab some breakfast. He saw his father seated on the couch. Mr. Blanner was scrolling through his tablet looking at some news. He noticed Demund coming down and gestured for Demund to come sit next to him.

“What is it, dad? I need to eat lunch and go hang out with Jothan today.”

Mr. Blanner set his tablet down on the couch and placed his hands together in front of his chin. Like whenever he had something important to talk about.

“Son. You do know that we love you, right?”

“Yes. You guys tell me all the time. So? What’s up?”

Mr. Blanner scratched his shaved, bearded chin.

“You received a D+ on your ranking?”

“Kind of? It’s actually a D++. I had it rechecked since the day school started.”

Oh wait. That was yesterday. He should have said yesterday. His mind was lagging from his dream. He still didn’t want to mention his dream to his parents yet. It felt weird to.

“Which means you can’t go to the Preliminary Islands,” continued Mr. Blanner.

“Yes. Only C class and above.”

Mr. Blanner paused. He looked at Demund in the eye. It was a gentle look, a strong look. He tapped his shoulder gently.

“Sorry son. We couldn’t comfort you yesterday. But you know? You’re still better than us! We’re proud E class citizens after all!”

“Yes Dad, I know. I’m fine.”

“Do you need anything? You’re going into high school soon. If you want a new phone, you only need to ask.”

“I’ll tell you if I need anything. It’s not really that bad, okay? I’m still above average. There’s nothing for you to worry about. You saw my grades too, didn’t you? You should be more proud of me.”

Mr. Blanner smiled at his son. He had confidence that his son would do fine in his life. But as a father, he was worried for Demund. Like all parents were. Worried that Demund might be depressed from coming so close to qualifying then failing. He had seen the news. Students suiciding because their ranks weren’t high enough. It was rare, but it happened.

Demund wasn’t that kind of boy, but still. He was slightly worried. His son had looked out of it since break started.

“We are, son, we are. You are our pride. It’s a miracle we had you when we were this old after all.”

“Dad, you don’t need to tell me again…”

Mr. Blanner chuckled innerly. It was always fun seeing his son be awkward at his jokes and long speeches.

“If you have any worries, be sure to tell us, okay son?

“Yes Dad.”

“Alright. Go have some food now. Your mother made some delicious toast. There’s also cake in the fridge.”

Porter watched his son eagerly go to the dining table. He himself had never experienced superpowers when he was younger, so he couldn’t fully understand what his son was going through. He couldn’t do much but sit and wait and hope that his son would grow up healthily. Porter returned to his tablet and scrolled through the news.

The Selection vacation was great, he thought.

〄 〄 〄

Jothan posed weirdly in front of Demund. They were currently in an area of barren land next to a river, some ways away from the town. They decided that if they explored the limits of Jothan’s power in the town, they might affect bystanders who would definitely complain. No one was around, thankfully.

“Did you discover anything new yesterday?” asked Demund. They hadn’t had a chance to go over Jothan’s power again, so Jothan had told Demund he would explore it before he slept.

“Not really. I tried to do what you told me to—chant snowballs out of my hand—but nothing came out. I did see a weird outline of a ball though, but it was really faint,” said Jothan.

“Try doing it again. The snowball.”

“Got it.”

Jothan stretched his right hand out into a palm-up position and concentrated on it. He imagined that a snowball, cold and solid, would form right there in his hand. He felt something push down on his palm, but it was no heavier than a gust of wind during a rainstorm.

Demund, who was around a meter away from Jothan, saw something white and powdery start to form on Jothan’s hand. It grew in size until it was the size of a baseball then dropped on Jothan’s palm.

Demund reached out and touched the ball laying on his friend’s palm. It was cold and hard, like a very dense snowball that was closer to ice. After he had touched it, he didn’t feel any wetness. His hand was dry and warm as ever.

“Is there anything in my hand?” said Jothan. “Like I said, I only see an outline of something, but it doesn’t feel like a snowball at all.”

“Weird. Try throwing the ball at me.”

Jothan nodded. He grasped the semi-transparent figure of a ball and threw it at Demund. The ball flew midway to Demund and…disappeared.

For Demund, he saw a snowball evaporate out of thin air. For Jothan, the outline simple ceased to exist.

They proceeded to do multiple experiments with Jothan’s power, starting from creating other elements like fire or wind, or increasing the magnitude of the power.

Anything Jothan imagined came into existence, but Demund was the only one who could see it. Jothan could only see faint outlines of everything he conjured, similar to shapes made out of transparent bubbles. After numerous experiments, they discovered eight rules for Jothan’s power:

Jothan’s power was creating illusions.

Nothing he conjured was actually real, shown by Demund not being burnt by Jothan’s lava. But the illusions could affect all five senses.

Illusions still hurt. A lot.

It was a very bad idea for Demund to try and touch the fake lava Jothan created. He had felt excruciating pain and had almost dropped to tears before Jothan quickly poured some illusionary ice water on his arm. Illusions could also cause involuntary reflexes to occur, like slipping on ice even though the ground was solid.

All sensations from illusions would stop if Jothan stopped imagining.

There was no lingering pain or sensation after Jothan’s illusions disappeared like they had never existed. After being cut with a knife, Demund felt a dull pain on his hand but felt it vanish as soon as Jothan stopped his power.

The more details Jothan imagined, the more realistic his illusions would be.

The first time Demund cut himself with Jothan’s knife, there was no blood, though the sensation was there. After some experimenting, Jothan could make fake blood come out from Demund’s hand, though it looked unnatural and flowed like water. Smell, taste, and sound could also be recreated, but those took way too much focus.

Sensations could be resisted.

Jothan had created a bath of ice water and Demund had dunked his hand in it. But since he knew it was an illusion, he was able to keep his hand in until he didn’t feel anything cold. He was too afraid to try it with lava, though.

Illusions could be broken quite easily.

If Jothan stopped concentrating due to other distractions, the illusions would cease to exist right away. Walls created from illusions could also be bypassed quite easily if one ignored the suffocating sensation.

Jothan himself wasn’t affected by the illusions.

All Jothan could see were outlines. He couldn’t see their texture and color, nor could he feel them. Demund had watched in shock while Jothan poured a river of lava on top of himself, only to come out unfazed.

The range of Jothan’s illusions was around ten meters.

When Jothan recreated the blizzard from the day before, Demund noticed that there was a certain range where Jothan’s illusions were invisible, or non-existent. When he had passed the range, all Demund could see was Jothan waving his arms around in a barren landscape. When he reentered the range, he could instantly see the blizzard around him again, cold and freezing.

These were the rules for Jothan’s power that they discovered that day. There were probably more, but this was the best the two could figure out. By the time they realized, the sun was already setting and the day was almost over. They returned to their homes for dinner. Tomorrow was a big day, after all.

While Jothan packed the rest of his belongings, Demund entered the world once more.