After inputting the correct sequence of turns that I had gathered from my drones, I arrived at the spiral staircase feeling like I had cheated death.

At the top of the staircase, past the blinding light, I could hear and smell the sounds and food of a party. No doubt, I had found the Conquistador's palace and his revelers. All the sugary scents and laughter rained down on me, spelling trouble. 

I might have tried to sneak past them, reducing to a fly and then buzzing out the palace window, leaving party-goers none the wiser. But if worse came to worst, and it always did, then I would be at a major disadvantage here. Someone like the Conquistador would have precogs and intuitionists and everything else under the sun to ruin my day. They would catch anything out of the ordinary.

Yet, if I walked straight up, that fact went double for his legion of fighters. A Class Zero could hardly walk into any King's palace on his lonesome and expect a win through straight-up combat. Against an army, it didn't matter how powerful you were. I would certainly do no better.

With the threat of starving to death in the tunnels resolved, my Power was already locking down in backlash for its overuse. Though my access remained wider, my fingers had been slugging to heal back. My present form had changed little, owing to a lack of adaptation. I might have been able to communicate now with my shed skin cells, as if by telepathy, but I had little strength to command them, and they had little strength to listen. My eye was wider, it seemed, but my voice was weaker.

If I sat down where I stood, I might recover in a few hours. But there was no way I could stay hidden for that long. By all rights, I had probably rung the doorbell just by solving the Labyrinth and coming through into the exit passage. They'd be wondering by now why their visitor was just standing in the threshold.

There was no happy solution to this problem.

That thought ended my hesitation. It was time again for a stupid plan, and I knew what it was. I simply had to walk through the party as if I belonged. With it being so unlikely that a random person would single-handedly solve the maze, they might overlook me. A good point in favor of that theory was the lack of security at the top of the stairs.

I saw this as I ascended. They rose up and out into the center of the party, and no one was paying an ounce of attention to them. Any precognitive defenses must have been located by the King specifically, for his protection. As long as I kept moving and didn't even think about causing trouble, what Power would care to detect or stop that?

I was out of place, in terms of appearance, but not as a smuggler. The people here were fit and beautiful. They were dressed in obnoxiously exorbitant raiments of multicolored silk. They were the walking definition of pride in privilege. Yet, they didn't flinch at a strange old man coming up from the darkness. It must have been the King's business. After all, nothing could be out of control in his domain.

Though the room was a dizzyingly ornate cathedral of enormous size, I could see to the end of it. There were many doors around the parameter by which I might leave. Then, the jungle would await. Its open expanse would go on, all the way to the bottom of the continents without so much as another civilization to encounter. There, I would be free.

But not before I got my payback.

As expected, there was Crystal lying around in this place at every turn, on tables by the fresh fruit and drinks. It might have been free for the taking, and that made it somewhat of a hollow vengeance, but it would have to do under the circumstances. I was taking liberty enough with my life, just by trying at all.

Dodging around the people eating, talking, and lounging regally in the palace, I merely had to reach out my hand. I grabbed a rock at every covert opportunity.

The first piece of Crystal went right into my mouth. Since I had tried it once before, I was prepared for the surge of incredible energy. The moment it started to digest into my system, I ordered the cells to take hold of the remnants and store them. Each subsequent rock that I downed went not to my stomach, but was broken by design into smaller pieces and brought in their undigested form straight to storage. 

The cells took stock as I went along. The amount of available mass they estimated only continued to skyrocket by the fourth and fifth stone.

At last, I stayed my hand. The exit was close now, and I didn't want to attract any attention or push my luck. Every damn cell in my body was bursting with absolute Power. I had to exercise the energy I had stolen just to keep them from breaking shape and going mad. Cancers formed and healed at a rapid pace as I struggled, and it brought a smile to my face.

The effect on my head was barely contained mania. Both legs wanted to sprint for the door. My lungs wanted to shout and holler. I felt like I could fly without wings if I wanted to, though I knew that was wrong.

It didn't matter. Finally, nothing stood in my way. I left the party behind, giving one last glance up at the balcony and the night sky, which could be seen past the terrace. A girl on the stairs was looking right at me, I saw. Her eyes were honed on mine, and they narrowed quizzically. Something told me she had found Waldo.

I wasn't sticking around for that, I decided. Instead, I pushed the exit door open and ducked out. After I passed through a tunnel that apparently encircled the party-room, I found a way outside. The vista I came upon next truly took my breath away.

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I had exited onto the wall which formed a lip beneath the dome of the palace. The open-air was a great relief to my claustrophobia, from the tunnels and the crowded party.

Surrounding the entire compound was a dense jungle. A moat ran around the base of the building, at the bottom of a hundred-foot drop beyond the wall's railing. It was filled, I noticed, by the spectacular waterfall that glistened in the clear sky's moonlight, pouring down from the mountains in the distance. The word majestic failed to do it all justice, and for a time, I was stunned.

"Well, aren't you full of surprises." A woman had come walking around the bend of the wall, and she greeted me with amusement. "I take the long way back after leaving you to the tunnel, and what do I find when I finally land? So much trouble, for one who claims not to love it!"

I instinctively took a step back, snapping out of it. "Mary," I said, recognizing her and quickly searching my surroundings for any more threats. Fight or flight was quickly kicking in, but I couldn't help being smug. "Nice to see you again, but I should really be going."

Suddenly, I felt strange. Just when I ordered the designs for wings to begin forming, and for the cells to metabolize the Crystal necessary, a sluggishness hit me. It was different from my near-death experiences when time slowed down and my reflexes enhanced. Instead of the world going to molasses, it was me that ground to a halt.

Mary shook her head. "Bold, but so foolish. I only have to think it, and the Palace defenses activate. At a fraction of normal speed, even the best are rendered useless, my Creep."

I tried to curse her; to insult and lash out at her, but nothing came out in time. The guards were on their way, and there was nothing I could do. Not to fight, anyway.

I refused to panic now. Not when I was so close.

As Mary went on talking, I tuned her out and turned straight for the wall's edge. I commanded every ounce of Crystal to begin processing and going to work. The floodgates opened for my Power, then.

"Are you really still trying?" she asked, getting ready to kick me back from the edge.

With explosive fire starting to spread through my body, I had the strength to force a mutation in my vocal cords and respond. "I won't... be stopped."

Her leg hit me but caused no effect. I got closer to the wall, and for the first time, I saw a crack in her confident veneer. She knew she needed help.

As if by magic, the door swung open behind me and three Super jumped straight onto my back. Each was incredibly strong, and they fought to restrain me from reaching the edge.

"I won't be stopped," I repeated. "Not with six times the maximum dose, you bastards!" My muscles were swelling freakishly, and my bones were stronger than diamond. It would take a lot more than a few Class Threes to restrain me now as I roared and pushed through.

Every cell screamed out in unison. I was rapidly approaching the limit of biological engineering as I pressed on. My skin turned to armor, and I was more a marvel of chemical machinery than a living creature. I was completely unrecognizable as an evolved form of life. I was becoming what I chose. The unstoppable.

All of this happened in moments, even as my Power was meant to be slowed to a crawl.

I bellowed in anger and hatred. The wall's edge was within my reach, now.

Two more Supers came out, trying to shock and freeze me respectively. Both were useless, as my adaptation was moving blindingly fast, completely overcoming its limitations. Yet, the addition of their strength finally pushed me over my limit. Stone was turning to sand beneath my feet.

The top of the wall had cracked and warped for me dig into the ground, but I could no longer hold traction. They were about to pull me back, just as my fingers hooked around the edge of the iron railing.

It was a monstrously thick cut of metal, and just strong enough to withstand the force of the struggle and serve as the tiniest bit of leverage that I needed. I was sure now that I was mere inches from escape.

Every person in the struggle was using everything they had. Our bodies went taut as steel wires, ready to snap. Each footstep sent out a deafeningly loud break in the hewn rock. 

"I just want... to leave!" I cried.

Just then, someone new came through the doors. "My disappointment with you all is immeasurable," I heard the man say. He came to lean on the railing, just to my side so that I could see his face. "Truly, my night is ruined by this nonsense." He reached out his hand, placing it on my forehead without ceremony or pomp.

He was vaguely annoyed.

Instantly, all the strength was zapped from my body. The weight of five Supers crashed down me as I collapsed to the floor, feeling like I was about to pass out.

I couldn't even summon the will to shout or bawl. With one move, the game was over.

"I'm so sorry, Alejandro," I heard Mary speak. "You should have sent Francisco, my Lord. There was no need for you to wake at this hour."

"Oh, boo," he dismissed the thought. "After five men didn't work, I wanted to see this myself." The man was terse but gracious in his tone. This was their Trump card and he considered this all to be beneath him. "It's a shame that you couldn't convince this one yourself, Mary. But, he will serve nicely nonetheless."

"Kill... me..." I groaned, still raging but beaten. "You won't... control me."

"Get him up," Alejandro commanded.

They hooked their arms under mine and hoisted me until I was at eye level with the man. I was tempted to spit acid at him, but I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was sure it would do no good, anyway. 

He simply inspected my Power. "Unfortunately, we won't be able to replace this one's mind. There's too much going there," he said. Then, directly to me, he smiled. "You are quite versatile. Not so great in Power yet, however, which is why you steal my Crystal, yes? In time, you could make a fine addition to my collection. Maybe even a gift to the Lich King, to keep things smooth between the two of us. Either way, the prize makes up for all the work we will need to do about keeping more vigilant. My men are lazy and fat, sadly."

"I think you overestimate his intelligence, Alejandro. He could be reprogrammed," Mary said.

"I think the dungeon will suit for now. We're always in need of more bodies, to keep the spice flowing... We can revisit this in the morning. I need my sleep!"

There was no point in clever retorts. I hadn't realized it at first; how unbeatable the man before me was. I faced the Conquistador. He would hardly care anyway. I was an ant, to him.

When he was finished talking, the men drug me helplessly along. We went back inside and took me by torchlight deep into the palace. They turned down what felt like an endless flight of stairs until we came to my final resting place.

A huge vault door opened up to a tiny steel room without windows or light. There, they threw me, a caged animal, onto the cold floor. All concept of time washed away as I lost consciousness, huddled in a ball. I couldn't feel my Power, and I couldn't see hope.

Both were gone.