Right when Ashikunz was about to pierce his spear once again into Zrelekai's stomach to finish him off, a metallic plate appeared that was able to block the spear right before Ashikunz was about to finish the scientist.
"Huh?" Ashikunz, confused and not realizing where it could have appeared from, remained still for a few seconds.
"I'm not going to die this easily…" Zrelekai smirked as he closed his fist.
"Tell me…" Ashikunz kneeled in front of the dying Zrelekai before speaking again, "What even is your power? I could barely hear it before because of all the screams…" Ashikunz, annoyed, tilted his head toward a crying child; her mother had just died in front of her, and the child had kneeled down next to her.
Zrelekai remained silent as he looked at the Krukin taking debris from his destroyed house and throwing it at full speed toward the crying child. The rock completely shattered the child's head, and as blood flew everywhere, the lifeless body of the child fell right on top of his mother's head.
"Oh, it's over finally," said Ashikunz as he looked back at Zrelekai. "So? Did I accidentally destroy your tongue?" he asked playfully. Zrelekai, after seeing the child die in front of him, could barely speak.
"No, you see…" Zrelekai stumbled while speaking. From his mouth, only words with no sense came out, and Ashikunz, annoyed, breathed heavily.
"My patience is not infinite… if you want to keep living, you should just answer my question." Hearing these words, Zrelekai's eyes lit up.
'Live? How can I still live if I can't feel anything anymore…' Zrelekai kept biting his lower lip so as not to lose consciousness.
Zrelekai stilled his head for a moment, and taking a deep breath, he returned to speaking: "My power lets me create everything I've studied and know how works… knowing how metal is made, I simply created a plate to defend myself…" Zrelekai then coughed up some blood that ended up on his lab coat.
Ashikunz, after hearing these words, returned to his feet. "Have you ever heard of the word 'robots'?"
Zrelekai's face suddenly lit up at these words. "I've found them… under the city." Zrelekai's eyes now began to close, as he didn't have any more strength left in his body. 'Damn, I'm passing out…' As Zrelekai kept biting his lower lip, it began to bleed. 'I can't die now… if there is even a small chance for me to survive… I have to keep going. I want to discover more…'
"They are exactly what someone like me might need… to rule over humanity without having the need to use humans." Ashikunz positioned his spear in front of his finger.
"Please… save me…" Zrelekai didn't even have the strength to bite his lips; he just stretched out his arm, trying to reach for the Krukin in front of him.
"Are you willing to swear eternal loyalty to me?" asked Ashikunz as he positioned his finger—with the spear about to pierce into it—right on top of the hole in Zrelekai's body.
The scientist, with the last strength left in his body, tried to answer: "I'll do everything… save… me…" Zrelekai's vision became blurry, and the moment his eyes were about to close, he saw that Ashikunz's armor got pierced by his own spear.
Zrelekai would never forget that scene as he noticed that Ashikunz's blood was dripping directly from his armor, as if he didn't even need to cut his own skin.
But as black blood began to drip inside Zrelekai's body through Ashikunz's finger, the red blood united with the black, and right after a few seconds, Zrelekai felt that strength was returning to his body.
"Ahh!!" he shouted after a deep breath. Zrelekai could barely move his body, as he was in a pain that made it impossible for him to move, but as his eyes glanced around, he noticed that the injury on his stomach had fully healed.
'What happened?' Zrelekai, confused, tried to glance around, but the moment he tried to raise his body, he felt a huge pain shoot through him. "AHH!!" he shouted in pain. He felt like something was brutally destroying his body and replacing the destroyed parts at that exact moment.
Zrelekai's head bumped against the ground, and he lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was Ashikunz turning back as the injury created on his armor had already healed. "Tomorrow you'll work for me… we will start by—" Ashikunz started to speak, but Zrelekai could only hear those words before completely losing consciousness and falling asleep.
As months passed, Ashikunz, with the help of Zrelekai, created a new city right outside the desert. It soon took the name Ardoris. Out of the 30,000 who were living in Karyuz, only 5,000 started to live in Ardoris after being brutally killed by a single Krukin, Ashikunz.
As the years passed, Zrelekai was happy: his body could no longer age, and his soul had become more resistant, so he could make experiments and create new stuff every single day for multiple hours without any problem.
"Ashikunz!!" called Zrelekai as he burst through the door. In front of him was a huge black room with a big throne inside, set on top of some stairs. Zrelekai's body had changed through the last two years: a part of his skin had become black, and he was totally different from any other human on the earth.
"What is it, Zrelekai?" asked Ashikunz, slightly annoyed that there wasn't anything to do.
"I've finally been able to create electricity!!" shouted Zrelekai. Hearing this, Ashikunz's eyes opened wide.
"Electricity?" he whispered. "That means…" he said as a huge smile appeared over his face.
Zrelekai, smirking, nodded his head. "Exactly… we can finally create the robots that you've dreamed of so much!"
"You're great, Zrelekai… I still remember how he told me that it would have been impossible to find working robots after 200 years… but now?" As Ashikunz began to remember some old words from a person he used to know, he started to laugh hysterically. "I finally have the power needed to rule over humanity… no one will be able to escape from me anymore… we will be able to reach other cities too… IT WILL BE THE END OF HUMANITY!" shouted Ashikunz.
"Well, about that, sir…" said Zrelekai as he lowered his voice.
"Oh, don't worry, Zrelekai. I know it will take some time for you to create the robots. I'll wait months, so take it easy," said Ashikunz as he got up from his chair. While looking at his fist, he imagined having all the power needed to rule over this world and closed it, as if it all belonged to him.
"Not that… there is a new group of people that recently attacked the city and freed some prisoners…" said Zrelekai as he looked down. Ashikunz, hearing this, felt confused for a moment.
"Did they come from outside? That's even better! We will destroy them and make the world realize who the real tyranny is!" he shouted, but Zrelekai shook his head.
"Actually, they came from inside the city…" answered Zrelekai. Now, Ashikunz, wanting to know more, sat again on his throne.
"From our city? Someone is going against… me?" Now Ashikunz's tone changed. As he sat down again, he grabbed the spear in his hands and held it tight.
"They are called the rebels… they're saying that they want to free this city and kill yo—" Zrelekai spoke with a scared tone, afraid of what the emperor might say or do. As he was about to finish his sentence, Ashikunz slammed his spear on the ground, creating a small crater in the floor.
"If there is something I hate… it's traitors," he said angrily. "Create the robots… but make them defend the city… search for these rebels… and destroy their group! Make all of their hope shatter into infinite pieces!" he shouted. Zrelekai nodded his head as he looked at the emperor again.
"It will be done. I'll make the guards look for them too… they're not going to escape us," said Zrelekai with a serious tone. Ashikunz nodded his head.
Right before Zrelekai opened the door and was about to go out, Ashikunz spoke to him one last time.
"If you ever happen to see them…" said Ashikunz. Zrelekai turned around and looked at Ashikunz once again. "Don't hesitate… just kill them without hesitation."
'Why have these thoughts just returned to my head now after all these years?' Zrelekai had just shot at Liro, making the illusion of Ashikunz disappear in front of him.
"Liro, are you alright?!" shouted Darian as he kneeled down next to him together with Vane.
"Yes, don't worry… I'm just bleeding," he said while positioning his hand over the hole that was just created in his arm.
'But why have I shot only one? I can kill all of them… they're distracted,' thought Zrelekai, but the more he remembered the past, the more he hesitated.
'He always used to tell me his plans…' Zrelekai remembered the words Liro's illusion had said about the plan that he should know. 'But I don't know anything… you're just doing everything alone…' Zrelekai bit down on his lower lip.
'Your plans are always perfect… so should I kill them now? Should I let them go? What do you want me to do…' Zrelekai let out a deep breath as he positioned his hands over his eyes.
"Hey, he's distracted!" shouted Orechin, as he was the only one with his eyes still locked on the enemy. The others, caught by surprise, all returned their eyes to Zrelekai, who removed his fingers from his eyes.
"I'm still here… and you should have run directly toward me rather than just shouting…" Zrelekai, who just couldn't hold it anymore, began to laugh.
Everyone was now looking at him confused, not understanding what was going on.
'I don't know anything about his plan… is he even planning to save me?' Zrelekai realized that if the Alterid hadn't shouted, he would have been brutally killed by the others.
'Does his plan even involve saving me?' Zrelekai kept laughing while, in his mind, countless thoughts were processed.
'His plans never failed… then why hasn't he told us about it? What do they know that we don't…' Zrelekai remembered again that Ashikunz believed there was a traitor among his allies, and after he finished laughing, he spoke with a serious tone.
"Tell me… how do you know about Ashikunz's plans?" asked Zrelekai. Hearing these words, everyone felt confused.
"Know about Ashikunz's plan? What are you saying?" asked Lily, confused.
"I might have realized what he's referring to…" whispered Syrmax in Tyel's ear.
'Right… they don't know about my power… or at least the fake one,' thought Tyel.
"You understood well… each of his plans was perfect. Weren't you scared that she might have died? I made sure the word spread through the prison… so how is this possible?" Zrelekai looked at the group, waiting for an answer. "We could have killed her!" As Zrelekai finished speaking, the answer arrived from Tyel.
"We knew you would have never killed her… and only if we came would you have killed her," said Tyel as he pointed his finger toward the confused Zrelekai.
"You knew? It was hard to realize… WHO TOLD YOU THAT? WHO IS THE TRAITOR?!" shouted Zrelekai in anger.
"We didn't realize it, in fact…" said Tyel with a smirk on his face. Before Zrelekai could speak, Tyel added something more: "Because no one told us… we discovered it." Zrelekai, in anger, now pointed the pistol toward the human.
"WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT? HOW COULD YOU HAVE DISCOVERED IT? BE FUCKING REAL, MAN, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE!!" shouted Zrelekai. Right before he was about to press the trigger, Tyel took another step forward, not scared, knowing that the scientist would never press the trigger.
"It's my power… it lets me look into the future," said Tyel. Zrelekai couldn't believe what he had just heard and burst out laughing another time.
"Look into the future? Then that explains everything…" said Zrelekai as he lowered the pistol.
"Hey, Tyel, it was our secret weapon… you should not have told him!" said Martheel, but Tyel shook his head.
"I know what I'm doing… trust me," said Tyel. Zrelekai placed the pistol back in his pocket.
"If that is true, it explains almost everything…" Zrelekai now looked at Catripple next to him, who couldn't believe her ears either. She would have been extremely happy that her friend's power had finally awakened, but because of her situation, she could not do anything.
"Then his plans were never wrong… it was simply because you were just…" Zrelekai got behind Catripple's chair, and while everyone put themselves in a defensive pose ready to strike if things got bad, Zrelekai simply pushed the chair toward the group.
"Sister!" Orechin readily grabbed the chair while it slid across the floor.
"Are you… giving her to us like this?" asked Liro, confused. Zrelekai nodded his head.
"It doesn't matter if you're able to look into the future… Ashikunz in the end will always be able to find you. There aren't many exits around… and you would have realized it already if you looked into the future… it's just impossible to beat him," said Zrelekai as he turned around, about to walk away.