2 weeks earlier

I stood outside a pair of large, metallic doors that opened by sliding to the left and right, respectively, with a medium-sized sign with bright light letters saying Simulation Room 5.

I looked to the left of the sign, and saw a clock, in which it’s hands had just struck 3.

Sighing, I walked forward, and the doors automatically opened, allowing me to step inside a blinding white void, known by most who trained here, not including me, as the “Hell Trials.”

Inside the white void, about halfway across the room, was a man, wearing metal armor made of a material that looked similar to steel. The armor resembled a medieval knight’s armor, except it was less bulky and didn’t come with a helmet.

I coughed, and the man turned around, allowing me to see his dark pink eyes and a distinct daffodil birthmark on his neck, which symbolizes rebirth.

“Ah. You’re here Rowan. Good,” the man said, holding a strange knife in his hands, one that always reminded me instantly of Steve’s Swords of Creation.

“M-My father ask y-you to train me today C-Cornelius,” I asked, approaching him.

You see, Cornelius was Robert’s best general and soldier. Even better than Alexander. But… he was also the only one in his army not fighting for him because he shared the same beliefs as my father. No. He was an ally to us… because he needed our helping with getting revenge on someone.

“No. Not train… I’m here to test you.”

Suddenly, the simulation room activated, and brown, yellow, and orange colors filled the room, slowly creating a barren wasteland with miles upon miles of empty space.

Then, Cornelius stepped backing, slashing the ground with his knife, and causing dust to splash up into the air, masking him from my sight.

After a couple seconds, the dust settled down, and I could see a pink, humanoid figure with zero facial features, replacing what first stood as Cornelius. No nose, no mouth… not even eyes.

From what he’s told me, this was his “Knuman” form, or true form. And when he was in this form, it was better to call him by his real name… Carnage.

“I-I don’t think I-I’m ready to f-fight you yet… m-maybe I need t-to train with the robots a little bit more…”

A massive pink tendril shot up from the ground in front of me, causing me to fly back a couple feet.

“You either fight, and prove yourself… or die. I need to know you will be of any help when we go to kill Knightmare.”

“W-why can’t y-you just use my f-father’s army for help? W-we have billions of r-robots… w-which you know the U.S. government h-haven’t found about yet.”

“True. We might be able to get a good surprise attack on Knightmare with this army… especially with your father’s ability to hide his troops… but in the end, they’d get slaughtered. I’ve seen Knightmare’s power before. I’ve fought him… and I didn’t even stand a chance.”

Carnage swung his knife to the side, which created a sharp wave of red energy which barreled towards me.

I ducked below it, transformed my suit’s left arm into a hand cannon, and stood up once the wave passed, before shooting an orb of blue electricity at Carnage, which he simply blocked with his knife.

“Ah, so you decided to finally fight back. Good,” Carnage said, before phasing into the ground.

Red electricity rolled down my leg, and for just a second, I had a short vision, showing Carnage leaping up from the ground behind me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I immediately turned around, instantly seeing Carnage rise up, so I stabbed a sword into his gut and punched him in the face, with enough force that he slid out of the sword.

Grunting in pain, Carnage performed a sweeping kick, knocking me off the ground, so I immediately activated my jet boots and flew into the sky, allowing me to avoid his next attack.

When I was high in the air, I was facing away from where Carnage and I were originally, so I turned around, only to see he was missing.

I didn’t have long to think on this, however, as soon massive tendril spikes shot up from the ground all across the battlefield.

The first tendril spike rose from directly below me, so I had to quickly fly back to avoid it, which caused me to nearly fly into another rising tendril. But I just narrowly stopped myself.

I took a sigh of relief, just before Carnage shot out of the tendril behind me, slicing his knife through my leg, and getting absorbed into the tendril in front of me.

Fuck.

Then, Carnage shot out of the tendril to my left, so I spun to face him, throwing a punch straight across his jaw.

Tendrils shot out Carnage’s back, pulling him back to the tendril h enlist recently got shot of, as I tried and failed to slam him downwards.

“You have the skill. I’ll give you that. But you lack passion. Desire. You can’t win if you don’t aim to,” Carnage said, his voice echoing from all the tendrils.

Red electricity began shooting up my limbs, before lightning bolts shot out from every direction, slicing the tendrils apart one by one.

Eventually, one of the lightning bolts shot through a tendril, and Carnage phased out of it, before falling to the ground.

Seeing him fall, I flew over, transformed my arms into swords, and impaled him in the back before flying us both to the ground, crashing his back against the crust of the earth.

Just when I thought I was winning, a tendril shot through the back of my left leg, and Carnage sank into the ground, before rising up in front of me.

I moved my hand back, but Carnage quickly brought his knife to my neck.

“You lose. But… that was to be expected. I have millions of years of experience.”

As the simulation room began turning back into it’s normal white void, Carnage’s spike tendrils sank back into the ground, along with the tendril currently protruding through my knee.

I moaned quietly in pain, waited a second, then turned around and sat down, resting my hand on my knee. Then, a red glow emanated from my palm, before my wound started to slowly heal, along with the sharp pain that got worse as soon as I touched the wound.

“Y-you did g-good.”

“Of course I did. I won… and you need some more practice.”

“I-I know…”

…

“By the way, I think your father wants to talk to you,” Carnage informed me, before disappearing into the floor once again.

I groaned, just my injury finished healing, so I slowly stood up, the leg wobbling a little, and I began walking to my father’s office.

10 minutes later

Once the elevator brought me to the top floor, and opened it’s doors, I stepped out, only to see a receptionist desk to my right, with a man leaning back in a swivel chair, playing on his phone. The man glanced at me once, then returned his attention to his phone.

I sighed, and approached the double doors in front of me. Once I was close enough, I hesitantly raised my fist, and gave four gentle taps on the metal, only for the doors to immediately swing open.

Inside the next room, at the opposite end, was a large slanted window, directed towards a massive factory, probably half a mile long.

In the middle of the office was a very large desk, which had to be at least 15 feet long. On it was a computer, a photo frame teetering off the edge of the desk, to the left, and a stack of blueprints, arranged neatly in a stack, to the right.

In front of the window was my father, staring off into space outside the glass.

I whimpered quietly, and walked quietly to my father, and after a second, I asked quietly “W-want did you w-want, d-da… f-father?”

…

“F-father?”

“Look at this. The power of the Big Bang… contained in a simple human reactor.”

I looked down into the factory, and I saw a large class cylinder with various mystical purple, green, and yellow gases, with green electricity shooting in between the gases occasionally like lightning clouds.

“W-what?”

“Sorry. Tend to get caught up by my own achievements.”

“Anyways,” he continued, handing me an electronic tablet “Steve Berkan has recently graduated from the U.S. government’s secret service program. Which means he’s gonna be assigned to a unit.”

Still not looking at me, he added “I need you to replace the person on this tablet, taking their place, and spy on Steve for me. He’s gonna be their most powerful soldier. I need to know every single thing he does or reacts to.”

I could barely hear him, as I was now breathing heavily with my heart racing like never before. My palms were sweating, and all of my joints were tightened. My entire body was going into shock.

“You should leave for their base at ten P.M. Good luck…”

He then walked out of the room, just before my legs gave up and I dropped to my knees.

No. I can’t see Steve again. I can’t… especially not like this.

But this might be your only chance to see him, Rowan, Pemo reasoned calmly.

With my hands shaking and quivering, I lifted the tablet to my face, allowing me to see an I.D. of the person I was supposed to replace…

Luke Tinnel.

Whoo! Now that’s how you make a cliffhanger!