In the past…
When I was a seven-year-old child, I used to dream of becoming a superhero, like the heroes of fairy tales.
I would devour their stories with passion, memorize their names, and imagine myself in their place, saving the world with a smile and superhuman muscles.
That dream was innocent…
Or so it was supposed to be.
When I reached ten years of age, I asked my father to hire a private equestrian instructor for me.
My father was a strict Azovian, and my mother was a quiet Akovian, and we were living in Akovia at the time.
My father agreed.
I began learning horsemanship, and as the years passed, I mastered it with a precision that was unsettling for a child.
Then I learned wrestling.
Then several other combat sports.
When I turned fifteen…
I was supposed to realize that superhero stories are nothing but fiction.
But I was not convinced.
I never believed they were fiction.
I believed they were an incomplete truth.
I began to think with harsh realism:
Even with my training, the most I could do is defeat five trained soldiers… and perhaps triumph over them.
I used to think that my strength transcended humans.
But I realized the truth quickly:
I cannot withstand an atomic bomb.
I will be erased.
I will literally disappear… without a trace.
Then I understood.
I am not in a world of fantasy.
I am in reality.
But…
My heart did not accept that.
It wanted me to become stronger than the bomb itself.
I focused on my studies madness.
And in less than a year, I amazed everyone with my intelligence.
My father told me that day: — Complete your studies in Skyla.
I agreed.
I went to Skyla.
And after only one month…
The monster catastrophe occurred.
And now…
Here I am.
At this moment.
Sam opened the door.
As soon as it opened, the monsters appeared before him, distorted bodies and faces covered with pulsating cells.
Sam cocked his weapon with lethal calmness and said to Victor: — Fire.
— Hit any monster in front of you… directly on the cell.
Victor nodded.
Sam said within himself: I am sixteen years old now…
But I am still certain.
I will become the strongest.
I will become stronger than the atomic bomb itself.
Sam looked at Neil for a moment.
And Victor began the attack.
Then Sam said to himself, with steady eyes: This person…
He is wonderful.
He is the only one in this world close to my level of intelligence.
He is the mind that gave the monsters their strategy.
He is the one controlling them.
His mind paused for a moment.
Then he said while smiling a tidy, demonic smile:
The Absolute Crystal Fist…
Is not a plan.
It is a trap, Neil.