"Hoo~ So this is the school's rumored Secret Realm? It doesn't look like much."
The moment they passed through the spatial gate, a blinding light flared, forcing everyone to shut their eyes against the glare. By the time it faded and they opened them again, they found themselves already deep inside the Secret Realm.
What greeted them made the whole group go still, and Luke was the first to voice a complaint.
This Secret Realm looked nothing like any of the others they had visited before. The entire space resembled a world caught in permanent dusk, teetering on the edge of ruin. No sun or moon hung in the darkened sky—only scattered points of firelight gave off any real light at all.
Below, the land lay in pieces. Mountains had collapsed, forests twisted into strange shapes, and murky rivers cut through broken ground, as though the whole place had survived some kind of apocalypse. Worse still, the sky itself bore deep spatial cracks, fractured like a shattered mirror.
Even without reaching for his Aura, David could feel the danger radiating off the place the moment he looked at it.
For all its size, this Secret Realm couldn't hold a candle to the Myriad Dragons' Nest that the Moore family had overseen for a thousand years. Even an ordinary F-class or E-class Secret Realm would have looked better by comparison.
Still, there was one small comfort: in a nearby river, Magikarp darted about as usual, and overhead, Pidgeotto and Spearow occasionally crossed the broken sky. Life still clung on here, and that alone eased some of the tension in the group.
Reading the grim looks on their faces, Dominic stepped in to explain.
"Hmm~ Don't let the look of the place fool you. Yes, it seems like it's been through some disaster, but the truth is, this Secret Realm is a large part of why First High has stayed the top school in Imperial City."
"This place isn't as simple as it appears. You could call it the true foundation of First High—more than half the school's worth comes from right here."
When the confusion on their faces didn't fade, he continued.
"As for why this Secret Realm ended up looking the way it does... it all comes down to one strange piece of luck."
Dominic began explaining the realm's origin, much the way his own teacher had once explained it to him as a student.
That was the truth of it—Dominic was an alumnus of Imperial First High himself, having graduated more than a decade before David and the others. That history was exactly why the Principal had invited him back to teach.
As Dominic laid out the details, David and the others finally pieced together the realm's true history.
This wasn't a single Secret Realm at all, but two that had merged into one. When Secret Realms had descended onto Blue Star, whether by chance or by some other force, two of them had landed in this exact spot, one right after the other.
Under normal circumstances, small and medium Secret Realms like these weren't stable enough to maintain real independence from Blue Star, unlike massive ones such as the Myriad Dragons' Nest. But because two realms had appeared in the same place at nearly the same time, the first hadn't yet finished merging with Blue Star when the second one slammed directly into it.
Typically, a collision like that would tear the fragile space of both medium-sized realms apart, leaving them to collapse and become absorbed into Blue Star, just like countless other shattered Secret Realms before them.
But this time, against the odds, the two realms didn't shatter completely. Instead, they fused together in a strange, unprecedented way—becoming the realm standing before them now. Two broken medium-sized realms, propping each other up, had given rise to one unusual large-scale Secret Realm.
The reason this place looked like the aftermath of an apocalypse was simple: both of its original realms had been on the brink of total collapse. It was, in its own way, a strange marvel of fate.
That stroke of luck hadn't come without cost, though. The unique conditions here had given rise to environments and resources unlike anything found in a normal Secret Realm, but the realm paid for it elsewhere. Though the remnants of both original realms had built the skeleton of this larger one, the inside still felt strangely hollow. Pokémon numbers were low, and resource output barely reached one-tenth of what a true large-scale Secret Realm would produce.
On top of that, the impact of the original collision had left the space here deeply unstable, which was also why the mountain just outside the school remained so barren. Every year, First High poured enormous effort into keeping the connection to this realm stable.
"Don't underestimate it, though. Whatever its flaws, this place still carries the foundation of a high-level Secret Realm. If not for certain circumstances, First High would never have been allowed to claim it."
"Even getting this much required special approval from the League, and that only happened because of our founding principal's influence."
Dominic finished with a faint sigh.
Secret Realms on this level weren't something even most renowned universities could claim, let alone a middle school. Much of what First High had achieved traced back to this place. Many of the Pokémon eggs David had seen at the school's breeding center, for instance, had originated right here.
When the two realms had collided, most of the native Pokémon had been lost, but the ones who survived were far from weak. After reaching an understanding with the humans who arrived, they had resettled and made this newly formed realm their home. Given the strength of these survivors, it was no surprise that their offspring turned out exceptionally well, especially combined with the realm's unique environment and the rare resources it produced. Over the years, this place had quietly become both a breeding ground and a research site for the school.
Once Dominic finished, David and the others finally understood the bigger picture. Then, without much ceremony, Dominic gave a light toss of something in his hand.
David's attention sharpened immediately. He'd been taught by Dominic for nearly half a year now, yet he had never once seen the man actually use a Pokémon in battle. Today, it seemed, that curiosity would finally be satisfied.
A shape blinked into existence before them a moment later. Deep purple skin, four pairs of wings beating in a constant blur—it was unmistakably close by, yet its movement was almost too fast to follow.
Had David not been maintaining his Aura since entering the realm, even he might have missed the faint sound of its approach.
A flicker of surprise crossed everyone's faces. The Pokémon Dominic had released was the fully evolved form of the Zubat line: Crobat.
Name: Crobat
Type: Poison/Flying
Gender: Male
Energy Level: 58 (Professional Stage Two · Gym Leader Level)
Ability: Infiltrator
Aptitude: Deep Purple
Held Item: Poison Barb
Moves: Cross Poison, Absorb, Toxic, Supersonic, Screech, Astonish, Tailwind, Mean Look, Air Cutter, Venoshock, Haze, Leech Life, Poison Fang, Gust, Whirlwind, Quick Attack, Hypnosis, Hyper Beam, Substitute, Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain...
What stood before David and the others was a formidable Crobat that had already climbed to the upper reaches of Gym Leader level.
The instant it appeared, though, the Crobat made a beeline straight for Dominic's side. Despite being nearly at the peak of its level, it nuzzled up against its trainer like a spoiled child, clearly grumbling about being left in its Poké Ball for so long.