With Vivian at his side, Saitama stepped into Cybertron's wondrous palace—a world cast in steel. Beyond the shifting auroras of energy, there was only metal's chill and cruelty.
From all sides, mechanical scarabs crawled in, encircling the pair at the center of the Hall of All Things.
Quintessa said, "So this is the human hero who defeated Megatron, scattered the Decepticons, and humbled the rabid war-minds. Bold of you to come here with only one companion."
Saitama met her gaze. "I didn't need to bring Vivian. But she should see how strange and vast this universe is—so she understands the truth of it."
"You and your machine race are merely one branch of the cosmos's evolution," he continued. "But you lost the thread of your own development and turned Cybertron into a cold carcass."
"Today, I'll show you how little your chosen 'path of evolution' amounts to."
Boom.
Saitama drove a fist into the temple floor. Shockwaves rippled out. The crawling drones were hurled up as if by an earthquake and, when the tremor passed, clattered back down.
Quintessa's voice was calm. "Do you think the aftershock of a punch will cow my creations? You underestimate Cybertronian technology."
Saitama stood, expression cool. "Whether it works isn't up to you—it's up to them."
Screee—
The drones that had poised to pounce suddenly flashed with a violet flicker. In the next instant they spasmed like spiders hit by a live wire and toppled, inert. The Hall—positioned above Earth's sky—coughed a draft that swept the disabled machines toward the abyss. Behind Saitama, his red cape snapped in the wind.
"You were counting on electromagnetic damping to cancel any kinetic shock," Saitama said. "But you forgot—I struck the temple's steel bus itself."
Quintessa's face changed. "You… you didn't—"
"I did," he replied. "That punch blew out sections of your planetary circuits. Tell me, 'Mother of Life'—you iron lady—this 'world on the brink' is just for show, isn't it? Cybertron's true face is a colossal starship."
"If you hadn't converted your birthplace into a vessel, it could never look like this."
A thin smile. "I can hide nothing from you, it seems."
She waved a hand. Cybertron's true form unfurled for all of Earth to see—and even Saitama blinked. He had guessed, but the truth was starker: to dominate the stars, the Cybertronians had butchered their cradle and forged it into a roving war-world. The 'cooled planetary core' was nothing but a massive drive.
"Self-inflicted doom," Saitama said. "You slaughtered species and shattered orders across the cosmos—and now you've come begging Earth for geothermal fuel."
Quintessa studied him. "Young one, I thought you knew everything. It pays to grip the flow of information, does it not?"
"What you know," she went on, "is precisely what I let Megatron and the Decepticons believe. Think—if all I needed was heat for a core, why trek all the way to your solar backwater?"
She flicked her fingers and a galactic map blossomed—arms, nodes, star-haze. "See? Your Earth sits in a corner—neither the Milky Way's center nor any hub of the cosmic web. Our charts list hundreds of thousands of Earth-likes in this galaxy alone."
She stopped there, savoring the suspense. "Enough talk. An appetizer first."
Her eyes kindled violet.
A heavy trooper strode out before Saitama.
"My child," Quintessa said. "You call him Optimus Prime. The fool even came to plead for your species when he learned I would invade. I could not bear to watch him stay foolish—so I adjusted him… slightly."
Her satisfaction showed. Since reshaping him into a puppet she could steer, the gun-laden warrior had become her favorite.
"Optimus. Eradicate them."
"Yes, Mother."
A warrior's aura burst from Optimus—denser and sharper than anything Saitama had felt from Cybertronian frames before. For a heartbeat, Saitama even felt the rare twinge that this opponent's battle power might brush against his own.
Steel rang. Fists and ion steel met as their duel erupted through the Hall of All Things.
Meanwhile, great powers—and smaller nations with sticky fingers—launched aircraft to the floating temple to get a feed. Crews trained their uplinks and blasted the spectacle across the human world.
Quintessa's lips curved. "Good. Broadcast this trial to every corner of Earth. You laud Saitama as 'hero,' yet he cannot surpass even my lightly revised child."
Down below, the stream hit every screen.
Cade stiffened. In the original wheel of fate, his bond with the Transformers ran deep—and even now, a knot of Cybertronians stood with him. Seeing Optimus there twisted his chest into something complicated. He wanted Saitama to win. He didn't want Optimus to lose.
What on earth was he supposed to hope for?
(End of Chapter)
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