"Evil must disappear. What he did was nothing but a dumb, evil, selfish act, and those who do that deserve to die," Elise argued back.
"Look, it doesn't matter what you think. Roy is his close friend. You can't just tell someone that his best friend deserves to die and think he will take it lightly, and you don't have the full picture. What gives you the authority to decide who deserves death and who deserves forgiveness?" Valeria said.
"I—" Elise tried to argue back but was shut down.
"I don't want to hear it," Valeria snapped, exerting her new authority with a sharp finality. "Your training load is tripled, not doubled. Now go and do it. That is an order."
Elise looked around in frustration. "I... you... okay, sure. I will go."
"And everyone else, begin your training now!"
With that, everyone, including Valeria, started their daily training.
It didn't take long before Omar came back, followed by Marie. He went straight to the osmium robot and started his training with it, exchanging blows without talking to anyone.
Valeria went to Marie. "So, what happened?"
Marie sighed. "I don't know. He said he is fine. I am sure if we leave him for a bit, he will be back to normal."
"Is that all?" Valeria asked.
Marie took a second before responding. "Yes, that's all."
Valeria nodded, though she didn't believe it for a second.
After some time, Omar was sitting down on the edge of the platform in his five-minute break from fighting with the robot. He was drinking an energy drink from the fridge when Valeria walked to him.
"Who told you you can take something from the fridge?" she asked.
"Myself," he answered indifferently.
"What was that?" she said, giving him an opportunity to change his answer.
"Are you deaf, or just slow?" Omar asked, his voice entirely devoid of emotion.
"What?" Valeria's eyes got sharper. A lightning bolt hit the ground just inches from Omar. The crack of thunder brought the entire training ground to a standstill.
Omar didn't flinch. "You aren't Darius. You will never be." He took another sip from the drink.
"Should I take that as you defying the ranks?"
"These are just temporary ranks, not the final ones. You're lucky I do this only for fun, not to win."
"Fun, you say? Okay then, prove it."
Omar gave her a sidelong look. "Huh?"
"You said that if you fought to win, you would be above me. So prove it. And to make it easier, I will just use super strength, and you can use all your powers." She snapped her fingers, disabling every robot and training device in the place. Then she continued in a condescending tone, "Super strength is your main power, isn't it?"
Marie walked quickly to Valeria and whispered, "He isn't joking. You're putting yourself in danger fighting with self-imposed chains."
Valeria brushed her off and returned to Omar. "So what do you say?"
Omar took another sip. "Your rage-baiting won't work on me."
"Still terrified?" Valeria's voice was a needle, prodding at his pride. "How about a pure physical match? No lightning. No sword." She unbuckled her blade and tossed it aside. It clattered across the stone. "Just boxing. I won't use my steel, and you can still use your powers. Or are you afraid you'll lose a fistfight to a girl?"
"Boxing?" Omar crushed the can, tossed it aside, and rose. He brought his fists up, tucking his chin behind his lead shoulder. "If I win, you leave me the fuck alone."
Omar's eyes, usually a dark hazel, began to bleed into a muddy, abyssal brown. It was a subtle shift. In such situations, that change would go unnoticed, but Valeria noticed it. Even if she didn't understand the reason, she knew something was up.
"When I win, you will listen to everything I say." The moment Valeria finished the sentence, a punch from Omar came straight to her face that she barely dodged by ducking down. It was so fast that a whip-crack was heard when he threw it.
Another punch came from above, a hammer fist that cracked the stone where she had been standing a moment before. Then another. And another.
Omar's attacks were fast and huge in numbers. Each punch had the velocity of a bullet and the perceived mass of a mountain. Valeria danced through the storm, her eyes darting, searching for the single opening she needed.
As Valeria was dodging, one of Omar's punches landed on the head of the osmium robot, made from osmium and tungsten, some of the most dense metals on Earth, if not the most.
The robot's head fractured instantly. It tore free, launching into the distance with a sonic boom, smashing through one tree, then another, splitting trunks like paper.
The sheer destructive scale caused Valeria's focus to flicker for a fraction of a second. But that was a fraction too much. There was already a perfect left hook inches away from her side. Without time to dodge or block, she tensed her muscles for the impact.
His fist landed like a train. Valeria's skin rippled like liquid under the force. Her lower ribcage didn't just break—it detonated like glass under a hammer. The force launched her off her feet, sending her hurtling backward across the platform. She slammed her heels down to friction-brake, but her shoes disintegrated instantly. She thrust her hands against the stone, her fingernails tearing and the skin of her palms being flayed away, leaving two parallel streaks of blood and raw meat on the ground.
She stopped inches from the edge, her body trembling. She didn't have time to scream before she doubled over, vomiting a thick, dark slurry of blood onto the platform.
Omar walked toward her with predatory slowness. He began coating his right fist in a layer of deep, glowing red lava stone.
Marie couldn't move from the shock. Even if she'd known Omar for about two months, he now looked like a completely different person. She was confident that wasn't Omar.
Elise only moved one leg before being stopped by Marcus and Jax. "You'll just make it worse."
"You should have believed me. All you had to do was leave me alone. You thought you could win the boxing match. Now look at you." Omar stood in front of Valeria. "Will you give up, or should I end it?"
Valeria wiped the blood from her chin, a terrifying, jagged smile pulling at her lips. "You got something wrong."
"And what is that?"
"I never said this was a boxing match."
Before Omar could process the words, Valeria lunged forward from her knees. She bypassed his guard, wrapped her arms around his waist, and drove her shoulder into his gut, tackling him to the ground.
Before he could do anything, she isolated his lead arm and took it in an armbar. She wrapped her legs into a tight vise and arched her hips, breaking it in an instant.
Roy slowly opened his eyes, but he didn't see his room's ceiling. In its place was a vast, vaulted expanse of stone, ribbed with intricate carvings that whispered of ancient masonry. He rose and realized he was a stranger in a royal chamber. To his left, an arched doorway stood open, spilling golden light across the floor.
It took a second, but in the end, he walked out, squinting as the sun struck him. As his vision cleared, the world unfolded before him. He was perched high within a citadel, a mountain of stone in the city's heart. Below him, a sea of timber-framed houses and bustling markets stretched toward the horizon, abruptly cut off by a colossal wall half a mile distant, a grey titan that made the city's tallest spires look like toys.
Roy took a deep inhale and let it out slowly. He then went and rested his body on the low stone wall of the balcony. He leaned a little. He watched the rhythm of the city: merchants hauling carts, peasants bartering, and a group of children darting around the palace gates like sparrows, laughing as a guard playfully shooed them back.
Roy straightened up, dragging his back along the rough stone as he turned, finally slumping against it once it was squarely behind him. He looked at the ground and smiled.
A second later, two people entered the balcony. Roy didn't look up, but he listened to them. And they didn't acknowledge his existence, as if he was invisible.
"My Liege, the hour is late," a knight spoke, his voice muffled by a heavy steel helm. He wore full plate armor that caught the sun, his hand white-knuckled on the hilt of his sword. "The banners of war have been raised. They have declared their intent to march this very day, yet your people remain ignorant of the shadow over them."
"And what would the truth buy them?" the King asked, his voice weary and heavy with the weight of a crown.
A soft giggle escaped Roy's lips.
The knight recoiled slightly, though his eyes remained fixed on the King. "It would buy them time to flee, Sire! To arm!"
"It would buy them only terror," the King replied, staring out at the peaceful city. "Their strength dwarfs ours. Our fall is no longer a question of 'if,' but 'when.' Their vanguard is two days' march from our gates. Let the people have these last hours of peace." The King went silent for a second, then continued softly, "Lucian, can you do me a favor?"
Lucian dropped heavily to one knee, his armor clanking against the stone. "Anything, my Liege."
"Send a letter to King Kaelum. Tell him I, the Sovereign of this land, am willing to offer my head in exchange for him not to touch anyone inside these walls."
Roy's giggles grew louder.
Before the knight could protest, a frantic scout burst through the doorway, his face slick with sweat. "Your Majesty! Word from the border! The Kingdom of Kragmora has bought the Ironhold Mercenaries. The Black Banners have been spotted. They are less than an hour from the gates!"
Roy started laughing out loud.