“Welcome to Challenge Number One, the final challenge of the Tower,” the narrator said the instant Jacob and Tomás crossed the door, still dragging Cat along with them. “This time, the challenge has no backstory and follows no hidden logic. It is simply a yes-or-no question. If you answer correctly, you may leave. If you answer incorrectly… Well, needless to say, you can imagine what will happen.”
“Spare us the chatter and just get to the point!” Jacob demanded without stopping.
The room was a respectable size, but it seemed larger due to an optical illusion rather than the actual dimensions of the place. Since everything was white and bright, the walls were indistinguishable from the floor, giving the room an infinite appearance. The only easily identifiable element was a gray stone double door at the far end, toward which the boys were walking.
“Are your companions still alive? Yes or no?” the narrator's voice finally asked.
At last, the boys stopped, and even Cat stopped trying to break free.
“Well, obviously…”
“Wait,” Jacob interrupted Tomás. “Don't answer yet. You heard what it said. If we get it wrong…”
“Do you really think they're dead?”
“No… I mean… I hope not, but…”
“They can't be dead, Jacob,” Cat said, trying to hold back a sob. “They can't.”
“Look. It's not impossible. After all, they're not here.”
“How dare you?”
“Calm down, Cat,” Tomás intervened. “I understand what Jacob means. He's just being cautious. If we get it wrong…”
“The fact that they're not here doesn't mean they died,” she argued. “It just means they weren't as close… Yesterday, when the Hunter took us to his Dimension, he separated us.”
“The truth is, we were already separated,” Jacob reasoned. “Everyone stayed where they were. What changed was the scenery.”
“And in this case, we were all in the same place,” Tomás continued.
“No, before we appeared here, some walls separated us… Maybe… Maybe they're on the other side of the wall, being asked the same question, and…”
“Do we have a time limit?” Jacob asked the empty room.
The narrator didn't answer.
“I guess that means we don't.”
“What do you propose, Jacob?” Tomás asked. “I assume you asked that so we could wait for them.”
“That's exactly what I was thinking. Yes, it's possible they appeared on another level. We'll wait as long as we think is reasonable and then decide.”
Cat nodded and dropped to her knees when the boys released her, then sat down as well.
“Sounds good. Let's wait, then,” Tomás agreed.
“You have sixty seconds,” the narrator suddenly said, destroying the little calm the boys had barely managed to build.
Sarah appeared in front of a furious Mica who, his mind filled with conflicting thoughts and interrupted reasoning, was on the verge of losing his sanity.
“Where…? What happened? Micheleangelo!?” she said as soon as she materialized. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was. “What are you doing…? You!” she exclaimed when she saw Rose.
Sarah took a step toward the red-haired girl, but before she could move any farther, or even say anything, Mica stepped between them.
“This is all your fault.”
“What are you talking about? Mica, I…”
“Get us out of here.”
“Mic…”
“Get us out! I know you can do it!”
“Mica, I don't…”
“Don't believe her, Mica. You know she's lying.”
“Don't listen to her! Can't you see what she's trying to do? Ever since we met her, she has…”
Mica's dark blade swept through the space between them, grazing Sarah's cheek and leaving a cut that didn't bleed only because the light that formed the blade was hot enough to burn the skin and cauterize the wound just after it opened it.
“Mica?”
“Get us out of here or…”
“Or what, Micheleangelo?” Sarah said, reclaiming her usual authority. “You dare threaten me?”
Mica hesitated when he saw Sarah's nervous expression disappear, replaced by her characteristic coldness. Then he stepped back as she, ignoring how close his blade was, extended an arm and materialized a greatsword along with armor as dark as the room they were in.
“See?” Rose intervened. “She's finally showing her true colors.”
With a leap, Sarah propelled herself forward and passed Mica, who covered himself as best he could, expecting an impact. When Rose realized the attack was aimed at her, she didn't have time to react. However, Sarah's greatsword didn't reach the girl's flesh. Instead, it struck an invisible barrier mere inches in front of her.
“Uffff, so much speed. So much power,” she said, then moved a little closer to the sword, bringing her face as close as possible to Sarah's. Her expression, adorned with a huge grin and eyes so wide they looked as though they might pop out of their sockets, was the very definition of madness. She whispered her next words so that only Sarah could hear them: “Good thing we're in my Dimension, don't you think?”
Sarah's eyes widened. Somehow, in the way those words had been spoken, she recognized the mysterious figure who had taken her prisoner days earlier: the Hunter.
“Andros, I need you to…” she began, but Rose interrupted her.
“Mica! Help me!”
“Saaaraaaaaaaah!” the boy shouted behind her, and she could feel such fury and power that it took a superhuman effort to turn around.
Nothing had really changed, but Mica nevertheless seemed larger, and his sword seemed darker. A ghostly reddish glow emanated from his eyes.
Sarah managed to block Mica's attack, and when their swords collided, Mica's blade pierced through hers with such ease that it might as well have been made of butter. She moved aside to dodge and extended her hand to materialize another weapon, one made of light like his. A white katana extended several inches just as the boy's second attack came toward her. She blocked it, and once again, Mica's sword neutralized hers, causing it to explode into several strands of light.
“You don't understand what's happening! Do you!?” Sarah exclaimed from a distance, but her voice could be heard everywhere while simultaneously taking on a mechanical quality, as though it were coming from some kind of speaker. “Mica no longer belongs to you! He's mine! I've transformed him into the annihilator! The Void!”
After each attack, Mica took less time to launch the next one, and Sarah was already struggling to keep up with him and dodge.
“Mica! I need you to react!” she exclaimed, panting. “I need you to stop! You mustn't listen to her!”
Mica only screamed furiously. The glow in his eyes had almost completely erased his pupils, and despite his rapid movements, Sarah noticed that the darkness of his blade seemed to be beginning to spread up his arms.
“Mica! Destroy her!” Rose ordered in a voice that was no longer her own.
“The games are over!” the narrator exclaimed.
“We still have at least ten seconds!” Jacob protested. Even with time running out, they couldn't decide what to answer.
“That doesn't matter to me anymore,” the mechanical voice replied. “Samanael, kill them all.”
Before the group could stand up or even wonder what was happening, an enormous hand emerged from the floor in front of them. The limb alone was three times the size of any of them, and it was encased in black armor so dark that the metal couldn't reflect even the intense light of the white room.
“Tomás, take Cat as far away as you can. I'll handle this,” Jacob ordered.
“How are you going to handle it? You need us!”
“This isn't a battle we can win,” Jacob said, watching as the hand planted itself on the floor and pushed, helping the creature's enormous torso emerge.
It took the creature only a few seconds to reveal the upper half of its ridiculously massive body, featuring a thick chest worthy of arms so huge they made the trunk of the largest tree Jacob had ever seen look like a mere twig. Its head was small in comparison to the rest of its body and wore a helmet with three horns that threatened to pierce the ceiling, leaving no room to see its face beyond several tiny slits through which nothing but absolute darkness could be seen.
Seeing it like that, face-to-face, even Jacob was tempted to run and let everyone try to save themselves however they could. But his protective instinct prevented him from doing so.
Jacob! Accept me!
The voice in his head demanded urgently.
In that situation, he forgot all his excuses and promises. He would need a miracle to get out of there alive. And that voice was promising him one.
But he didn't even have time to finish the thought before a fist the size of a mountain struck him head-on and sent him flying into the opposite side of the room. The crack his body made when it hit the wall was terrifying, but he never heard it, because the instant the fist struck him, he lost consciousness.