Kiro walked through the deserted streets of Slovenia, remembering how Sebastián had destroyed it in that uncontrolled moment. He looked up and felt a tremor nearby. Without wasting a second, he ran toward the source of the noise. He stopped behind a building and peeked around the corner.
A ball of purple energy hovered beside Sone, who was stepping toward it. Suddenly the air warped around them, and Sone blurred and vanished along with the purple energy, leaving no trace behind. Kiro walked over and looked around. There wasn't the slightest sign that Sone had ever been there, and an idea crossed his mind: *Could that energy have sent him somewhere other than Earth?*
Meanwhile, Sone was in another dimension, a completely black one, with powerful stars blazing above him. In the distance he could see the same purple sphere Leslie had left behind. As this happened, Kiro was already turning the idea over in his mind. When he looked up, he noticed the sky growing dark. Rain began to fall, and lightning struck all around him, but something was wrong in the atmosphere.
He heard a voice say, "Hello, son." He looked around. The voice was a woman's, but it seemed to be inside his head rather than in the air. He wondered if it had something to do with Eduin, since he had seen him earlier in a city, distracted, his mind blank. He quickly realized that was probably the answer. When he turned, he found a robot standing there, its red eyes fixed on him. It said nothing.
A shot ricocheted off his chest, followed by a burst like machine-gun fire against his torso, and the rain only grew heavier. Kiro slipped behind the machine and punched it to ashes, then examined the pieces. One of them was shrieking, louder because of the storm, and he touched it. The piece suddenly transformed into a suit made perfectly to his measurements, the metal swiftly closing over his body. Inside the suit, he was teleported far from the planet and dropped into a wormhole. Back on Earth, the metal piece shrank and vanished in an instant. Inside the wormhole, his mind began to fill with bright colors and illusions.
He arrived in a gray corridor lit by a large, high-tech light and began to search the place. He found a glass panel and stepped closer. A sign read "Recovery Capsule [Leslie]." He sensed a presence behind him and spun around. It was a muscular man with red lenses, wearing a lab coat, gray pants, and black shoes.
"Welcome to my laboratory, built from my own power," the scientist said, his voice soft but terrifying. "Those capsules you see there were made with a fraction of our master's knowledge."
A faint shiver ran down Kiro's spine at the sound of his voice.
"We also have another guest in a room to the right. His corridor is just like yours. So, good luck," the scientist said calmly, and vanished.
Kiro punched the wall and realized it was made of unknown particles with no fixed surface. Without wasting time, he searched the place, studying every detail and looking for a way out. He remembered a game of chess he had once played with Worh, though neither of them had understood a thing. Then the pieces began to come together in his head. The word "luck" was telling him there was a chance. *We also have another guest in the room to the right. His corridor is just like yours.* Luck, right side. He rushed back to the glass panel and smashed it with one punch. Inside, he found a mysterious gray corridor. He took three steps forward, trusting his luck, and then saw a narrow gap leading to the right. He followed it. It brought him to a room that looked like the one he had come from, confirming his suspicions.
He smiled inwardly, pleased to have solved the puzzle using the chess game as a guide. He began to walk and saw a person with a robotic arm and no eyes. He felt pity, but he knew there was no saving that person.
"It seems he solved the exercise without any trouble. Through my lenses, I'd estimate his intelligence at an IQ of 135," the scientist said in his mind, seated somewhere unknown.
Footsteps sounded above him. Kiro looked up but found nothing, only ceiling. Overhead, a figure who resembled Worh was walking down his own corridor. He had been brought there by the same suit technique, unaware that someone else was right below him. Meanwhile, Kiro studied the other robots.
One had a broken sword on its back, and another had red eyes but no legs. Then he felt breath that wasn't his own behind him. He turned and saw a robot with a massive torso, silver skin, long arms fitted with red energy weapons, and a metal claw on its back. Its eyes were sky blue, and it stood 2.70 meters tall, powerfully built. The robot let out a roar and lunged at Kiro. He dodged and drove a punch into its abdomen, but the robot didn't even flinch. It showed no sign of damage. The machine simply recorded the attack in its data, already knowing the force behind it.
"Your attack carries 100,000,000,000,000 newtons, which is 100 trillion. Your punch was far too weak for my durability," the robot said, analyzing.
Kiro bolted, and the robot fired up a thruster and gave chase. Yellow projectiles shot out of its back. Kiro noticed and quickly formed a plan, working out how to turn the attacks against the robot itself. He leapt toward a wall and rebounded back the way he had come, gravity pulling at him but fast.
He dodged the projectiles, ending up in front of the machine, and the shots followed him, nearly clipping his back. The robot knew exactly what he was attempting and stood still, refusing to attack, and Kiro realized it. He dodged again, and this time the shots slammed into the machine. A huge cloud of steam filled the room before dispersing. The robot had only four scratches: one on its foot, one on its head, one on its chest, and one on its arm.
"My own attack carries 10¹⁷ N, in case you don't know, that's 100,000,000,000,000,000 newtons," the robot explained.
After it spoke, the walls began to shake. The robot appeared in front of Kiro and drove a punch into his stomach, making him spit, then followed with a swift kick that sent him flying backward. Kiro recovered quickly and ran down the corridor with the machine in pursuit. Everything was trembling, and at times he nearly lost his balance. He glanced up and saw a kind of handhold. Without wasting a second, he leapt and caught it with one hand, now above the robot, which had stopped to scan the area.
"Strike Plus," Kiro said under his breath.
He charged his fist, dropped onto the enemy, and landed the punch. Lightning crashed down on the robot's back and electrocuted it, but it had no effect.
"That strike can summon at least two bolts of lightning. It is strong, but very weak against the durability of my body," the robot said in an analytical voice.
A portal opened behind Kiro and sucked him in. He traveled through another Wormhole, seeing thousands of planets he didn't recognize, but one caught his eye. It was gray, and something about it felt wrong. It had a mouth. Slowly the planet turned and looked at him with a macabre grin that sent a chill through Kiro's entire body. The planet was unsettling, and it vanished from his sight in an instant. The protagonist was carried back to planet Earth.
He fell to the ground, but a voice had spoken in his mind while he was in the wormhole.
"Hahaha, you look like a good meal. You look so delicious, little ant kehdbdkqposdk kwhsndld hahaha," the planet had said, strangely.
A flood of voices filled his head. He struck himself to break free and breathed deeply. He stood and looked around, seeing nothing. A silhouette appeared behind him. Kiro didn't move right away, only waiting for it to leave. A few minutes later, the silhouette disappeared, leaving the air tense.
*Sebastián?* The question crossed his mind, but then he noticed that the device that had captured him was still active. Without waiting, he crushed it under his foot, turning it to ashes, then turned around and started walking. In the distance, he saw Sone returning at sonic speed and placing a real bouquet of flowers in Leslie's hands. He watched Sone race off as fast as he could while a smoke grenade went off in the girl's face. He saw her expression but couldn't see more. Leslie opened a portal and left. Kiro only watched, then set off after Sone.