Chương 72: Deathmatch training session

Benkay continued deeper into the glowing cave, his footsteps echoing through the enormous passage. Mochi followed close behind, staring at the strange crystals embedded in the walls.

"Whoa." He reached toward one. Faesha grabbed his wrist before he could touch it.

"Don't." Mochi froze.

"Why not?"

"Faesha doesn't know," she admitted.

"But it felt important to say." Mochi slowly pulled his hand back.

"... Fair enough, I guess." Tony waddled along beside them, eyes fixed on the glowing rocks.

"So many Excite Waves." King glanced over.

"Still thinking about those?"

"Of course. They're fascinating." Max scratched the back of his head.

"I still don't get how something we can't even feel makes us stronger." Tony puffed out his chest.

"That's because you're not a genius." Max just stared at him. Tony immediately ducked behind Ace.

"I meant spiritually." Ace sighed.

"Get off me." A few minutes later, the passage began to brighten, a wall of pale light growing ahead of them. Mochi squinted against it.

"Is that the exit?"

"Yep," Benkay said. Everyone picked up the pace, and the narrow tunnel opened wide in front of them. They stepped out into the open, and every single one of them stopped where they stood. Nobody said anything for a long moment. Below them stretched an entire kingdom unlike anything any of them had ever seen. Towering trees ringed the city like living pillars, their leaves glowing faintly under a strange lunar sky. Streams of luminous water wound between buildings made of pale stone and cut crystal.

Massive stone bridges connected the different districts of the city, while flat platforms of solid light drifted lazily overhead. Hundreds of small lights moved through the streets below, some lanterns, some living creatures too far away to name. And far past all of it, at the highest point of the whole kingdom, stood a colossal castle, its towers rising toward the sky, ringed by enormous crystal formations that caught the moonlight and scattered it in every direction. Mochi's jaw dropped open.

"That's insane." Faesha bounced on her toes.

"Faesha thinks it's beautiful!" Krystal turned slowly, taking it all in.

"I've genuinely never seen anything like this." Amelia smiled softly.

"It's like the whole kingdom is breathing." King folded his arms, impressed despite himself.

"I'll admit, this is something else." Max stared at the distant castle.

"That thing is massive." Tony's ears perked up.

"There's probably food in there." Ace glanced at him.

"That's really what you're thinking about right now?"

"Obviously." Thomas studied the skyline quietly, saying nothing at first.

"This isn't just some magical settlement," he finally said.

"Somebody built this to last." Benkay walked ahead of them, hands laced behind his head.

"Glad you approve." Thomas raised an eyebrow.

"So. Who exactly is this friend of yours?" He nodded toward the distant castle.

"And why does he live there?" Benkay pointed lazily at the castle.

"Oh, he's the King of this whole place." He paused.

"No pun intended, King." King stared flatly at him.

"That joke was terrible."

"Anyway." Benkay kept walking.

"I think what he offers is going to push all of you further than anything you've tried so far." Max cracked his knuckles.

"It'd better." His expression sobered.

"The way RoboGeneX handled us wasn't just a loss. It was humiliating. Nobody even saw that kind of power coming." The mood shifted, quieter now. RoboZ floated along beside Amelia inside his small frame.

"There may be a reason for that," he said.

"The Doctor used exceptionally rare materials in our construction. It's part of why he could never fully perfect Zee." Amelia tilted her head.

"Ah. That makes sense, I guess." She thought for a moment.

"Did he build in any actual weaknesses? Anything we could use?" RoboZ went quiet.

"Let me check," he said, and his eyes dimmed as he searched. A soft mechanical hum came from inside his vessel. Mochi leaned in after a moment.

"Is this normal? Does it usually take this long?" RoboZ didn't answer right away. Tony whispered, "I think he's thinking really hard." Ace sighed. Then RoboZ's eyes brightened again, sharper than before.

"I found something," he said slowly.

"But I don't think you're going to like it." Everyone slowed to a stop.

"What is it?" Amelia asked. RoboZ looked up at her, and for a machine, something in his posture seemed almost hesitant.

"According to the fragments I still carry, RoboGeneX's core programming treats something specific as a critical vulnerability." He paused.

"That vulnerability appears to be tied to me." Silence. Mochi blinked.

"Wait, you? How does that even work?" King's brow furrowed.

"You're saying you're the weakness."

"Not exactly," RoboZ said.

"I don't fully understand it myself. But the data is there." The group gathered in closer around him without meaning to.

"From what I can piece together," RoboZ went on, "the three of us weren't just built as weapons. We were built after the Doctor and two people who were close to him once. People he grew up with." Thomas's expression sharpened.

"Two friends."

"Yes." RoboZ's voice took on a slower, more careful cadence, like he was choosing each word with effort.

"From what little remains in my archives, the Doctor was the least confident of the three of them, growing up. One of the two had a natural gift for leading. The other followed him without question. The Doctor tried to do the same, but something in him never really agreed with either of them, even while he stayed close." Amelia listened without interrupting, arms wrapped loosely around herself.

"The other two didn't trust him easily," RoboZ continued.

"But he trusted them completely. Whatever happened after that, my data doesn't say outright. Only that something between the three of them broke, badly enough that it never healed." Nobody spoke for a moment.

"My existence, and RoboX's, and RoboY's, all trace back to whatever that break was," RoboZ said quietly.

"I believe RoboGeneX's identification of me as a weakness isn't a flaw in his design. I think it was built into him deliberately, by the Doctor himself, tied to something none of us were ever meant to fully understand." King's jaw tightened.

"So this was never just about wiping out non humans."

"I can't confirm that," RoboZ admitted.

"But the more I search, the less it looks like an accident." Thomas folded his arms slowly.

"And you have no idea why you specifically." This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"None," RoboZ said.

"There's no data that explains the why. Only that it's there." Mochi rubbed the back of his neck.

"So basically, you're definitely the weakness." He pointed off toward the direction RoboGeneX had vanished in.

"But nobody, including you, knows what that actually means."

"Correct," RoboZ said.

"That's deeply unsettling," Mochi muttered.

"Extremely," Tony agreed. Ace's eyes stayed fixed on the distant castle, his hand tightening slowly around the hilt of his sword.

"Whatever it means," he said, "we're going to find out. One way or another."

"Hey!" Everyone jumped. Benkay was already several dozen meters ahead, waving both arms over his head.

"Come on, you slowpokes! I'm not waiting all day!" Mochi stared at him.

"He's already halfway to the castle." Thomas sighed.

"That tracks." King shook his head.

"Let's move before he actually leaves us behind." They caught up quickly, and as they entered the main streets, the scale of the kingdom only grew more overwhelming. Citizens moved calmly through the roads, some carrying glowing crystals, others riding small, strange creatures with too many legs or too few. Children played near fountains where the water floated upward instead of falling. Mochi stared at everything at once.

"This place is unbelievable." Faesha grabbed his hand.

"Come look at that!" She dragged him toward a nearby fountain, and Mochi let himself be pulled along, grinning the whole way. Amelia laughed, watching them go.

"Those two are going to wander off and get themselves lost." Thomas smiled faintly.

"They could get lost in a straight hallway, honestly." Tony suddenly stopped walking altogether, nose lifted into the air.

"... Food." Ace kept walking without slowing down.

"Ignore him." Tony's ears drooped.

"Wait for me!" He sprinted to catch up. Krystal fell into step beside Amelia.

"Do you actually think this King knows how to help us beat RoboGeneX?" Amelia glanced up toward the castle.

"Honestly? I don't know." She smiled anyway.

"But Benkay seems sure of it, and that has to count for something." RoboZ spoke up quietly from beside them.

"If this King truly has the resources to prepare all of you properly, then perhaps there's more hope here than we realized." Max smiled slightly.

"Hope's nice." He cracked his knuckles again.

"But I'll take actual power over hope any day." King smirked.

"Same." Ace glanced toward them without breaking stride.

"I'm not leaving this place until I can stand in front of RoboGeneX again and actually mean it." Mochi grinned back at him.

"Now that's the spirit." Thomas watched the younger fighters walking ahead of him, quiet for a moment. For the first time since RoboGeneX had appeared, they weren't retreating from a fight. They were walking toward the chance to prepare for the next one. Benkay reached the base of an enormous staircase leading up toward the castle and turned to face the group, grinning.

"Well." He spread his arms wide.

"Welcome to the Kingdom of the Moon." Everyone craned their necks up at the towering structure above them. Mochi's eyes practically sparkled.

"So this is where we train?" Benkay's grin widened.

"Nope." Mochi froze.

"... Huh?"

"This is where we go to meet the person who decides how you're going to train." The group traded uncertain looks. Benkay was already climbing the stairs.

"Come on, hurry up." They followed, and with every step, the anticipation in the group grew heavier and quieter, until nobody had anything left to say. Whatever waited beyond those enormous doors, their time in the Lunar World had only just begun. The castle doors rose high above them, flanked by two guards in polished silver armor, long spears resting easily against their shoulders. As Benkay approached, both guards straightened at once.

"Ah, Benkay," one of them said.

"The King's been expecting you." Benkay grinned.

"Appreciate it, you two." The guards stepped aside, and the massive doors slowly swung open. The group stepped through into an enormous throne room, its ceiling rising several stories overhead, lined with gold filigree and set with glowing blue crystals. Tall windows ran the length of the walls, letting pale moonlight spill across the polished marble floor. Thick stone pillars stood along the hall, each carved with old images of warriors, strange creatures, and battles long since fought.

At the far end of the hall sat an enormous golden throne, and lounging comfortably across it was a broad, heavyset man with a thick white beard, an equally impressive mustache, and a crown balanced casually on his head. He looked up as they approached, one arm draped lazily over the throne's armrest.

"Well, well, well." A grin spread across his face.

"If it isn't Benkay." Benkay smiled.

"Hey, Joady."

"It's been a while." The man's eyebrow twitched.

"That's King Joady to you." Mochi stepped forward, staring up at him with wide, delighted eyes.

"Whoa!" He turned to the group.

"That's actually the King?" He pointed directly at the man's beard.

"His beard looks exactly like Santa Claus!" Joady's expression darkened instantly.

"My beard does not look like Santa Claus, you little brat." Thomas gave Mochi a light smack on the back of the head.

"Ow!" Mochi rubbed the spot, wincing. He turned back toward the throne.

"... Sorry, King, sir." Joady grumbled something under his breath and waved a dismissive hand. Tony covered his mouth, trying not to laugh outright. King leaned toward Krystal and murmured, "He's going to get all of us killed." Krystal pressed her lips together, failing to stop a quiet laugh of her own. Even Ace's mouth twitched at the corner before he caught himself. Joady noticed immediately.

"You too, blue hair." Ace straightened.

"I didn't say anything."

"Your face said plenty." Ace looked away, saying nothing further. Benkay cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"Anyway. I need your three day course." Joady's expression sharpened with interest.

"Is that so." His eyes drifted past Benkay toward the group behind him.

"These are the ones you want trained?"

"Yep." Joady looked them over one at a time, unhurried, then paused when his gaze reached the small robotic vessel floating beside Amelia.

"And whatever that little thing is." RoboZ raised one hand politely.

"I am RoboZ. A pleasure to meet you, King Joady." Joady nodded slowly.

"Likewise, I suppose." He leaned back into his throne, considering.

"Fine. I'll grant the course." He held up a single finger.

"But understand, three days is the absolute maximum I can offer. Not a minute more." Nobody had expected the number to be quite that small. Mochi's face fell first.

"Three days?" Amelia looked toward Benkay, unsure. King's arms slowly uncrossed, as though the number had physically deflated him. Max frowned, doing quiet math in his head about how little that actually was. Krystal glanced at Thomas, silently asking whether that could possibly be enough. Ace's eyes narrowed, calculating instead of protesting. Even Thomas, usually unreadable, looked visibly caught off guard. Benkay blinked.

"Only three?"

"Three," Joady confirmed. Benkay considered that for a moment.

"Will that actually be enough?" Joady's grin returned, slower this time.

"That depends entirely on what you're training them for." His tone shifted, losing its playfulness.

"But I'll promise you this much. When those three days end, you won't recognize a single one of them." The room went quiet. Benkay studied him for a long moment, then smiled.

"Alright. We accept."

"Wonderful," Joady said, and pressed a small button set into his armrest.

"This course runs as a kind of game," he said, as the room seemed to shift subtly around them. Mochi tilted his head.

"A game?"

"A game," Joady confirmed. He gestured toward Benkay, Thomas, and Tony.

"Those of you not participating, come stand over here, if you would." Benkay walked over without hesitation. Thomas followed a step behind. Tony looked around, realizing what was happening a beat too late.

"Wait, hold on!" He waddled after them.

"Don't leave me back here, you two!" Benkay glanced back toward Faesha.

"You too, come on." Her face lit up instantly.

"Faesha gets to train too?"

"No. Not yet, sweetheart." Her expression collapsed just as fast.

"What? Why not?" She puffed her cheeks out, clearly unhappy about it. Amelia crouched down and gently smoothed her hair back.

"It's alright, Faesha. You'll be safe over there with the others." Faesha looked toward the rest of the group, then up at the throne, then back to Amelia, and finally sighed, resigned.

"Fine." She trudged over to stand beside Thomas, Benkay, and Tony, arms crossed and pouting the whole way. Joady looked over the remaining group, smiling.

"Alright, then. Have fun, everyone." Mochi tilted his head at the phrasing.

"Why do you say that like we're about to die?" Joady pressed another button on the throne's armrest. The marble floor beneath the group's feet groaned and began to separate. Mochi's eyes went wide.

"Uh. Guys?" The floor gave way entirely, and the whole section beneath them dropped into darkness.

"Wait, no, no, no." Mochi, Amelia, Ace, King, Max, Krystal, and RoboZ's small vessel all vanished through the opening at once, their voices trailing off into the dark below. Benkay's eyes went wide.

"You could have at least warned them." Thomas looked down at the new hole in the floor.

"You just dropped them into a pit." Joady leaned back, entirely unbothered.

"It's a signature feature of this place, actually."

"You could have warned us," Benkay repeated.

"Wouldn't have been nearly as fun." Tony leaned over the edge of the hole, peering into the dark.

"Are they dead? Please tell me they aren't dead."

"They're fine," Thomas said, though he leaned over to check for himself anyway. Joady raised one hand, and a large magical screen shimmered into existence in the air above them, splitting into several smaller panels, each one showing a different section of an enormous underground cave system. Thomas studied the display carefully.

"So there's a way to watch them."

"Of course there is," Joady said.

"That pit isn't just a hole. It's a portal. It scatters everyone at random into different parts of the cave system below, usually in groups of two or three."

"And then what?" Thomas asked, arms folding tighter. Joady's grin returned.

"Then some of my guild's stronger members go looking for them." Thomas's expression hardened instantly.

"They're going to fight them?"

"Not to the death," Joady said.

"But if your people aren't good enough, they will get hurt."

"That's fine," Benkay said easily. Joady raised an eyebrow at him. Benkay nodded toward the screens.

"Your little guild's about to get wrecked either way." Joady's eye twitched.

"Little guild."

"Little guild," Benkay repeated, smiling. Joady leaned forward slowly.

"And what rank are these fighters of yours, exactly?"

"All C Rank," Benkay said.

"High C, even." Thomas scoffed before he could stop himself.

"Mochi and Amelia are both E Rank, last I checked." He glanced at Benkay.

"Ace is a D." Silence spread across the throne room. Joady turned his head slowly toward Benkay.

"... E Rank?" Benkay nodded once. Joady's expression shifted from disbelief into something closer to delight.

"You brought E Rank fighters into my training course?"

"They're stronger than their ranks suggest," Thomas said firmly. Joady rose off his throne, laughing so hard the sound echoed through the entire hall.

"You cannot be serious. My guild has members who could wipe the floor with B Ranks." He stood fully now, grin wide.

"The Sparlex Guild is not going to lose to a handful of E to C ranks, Benkay."

"Oh?" Benkay's smile didn't waver. Joady gestured toward the monitoring screens.

"There's absolutely no way." Benkay remained completely calm.

"Then let's make it interesting," he said.

"A bet." Joady's eyes narrowed with sudden interest.

"A bet."

"If we win," Benkay said, tapping his chin as though he hadn't already decided, "we walk away with ten Platinum Gilm." Joady's jaw actually dropped.

"Ten Platinum Gilm?" Thomas turned toward Benkay sharply.

"That's an obscene amount of money." Joady let out a short, disbelieving laugh, shaking his head.

"Ten Platinum Gilm. You must be unbelievably confident in these kids." Benkay only smiled. Joady extended a hand.

"Fine. But let's raise the stakes a little further, shall we?" Thomas's voice cut in immediately, wary.

"Joady."

"If you lose," Joady said, holding Benkay's gaze, "your guild disbands. Permanently." Thomas went rigid.

"... What did you just say?" Benkay's smile finally faded, if only for a moment. Thomas stepped forward.

"There is no reason to make a bet like that. None." Benkay didn't hesitate. He reached out and shook Joady's hand.

"Deal." For a moment, Thomas simply stared at him, unable to find words. Tony's ears drooped low.

"... I don't like this." Faesha tugged gently on Benkay's sleeve.

"Uncle Benkay, are you sure?" Benkay let go of Joady's hand, and Joady smiled, satisfied.

"Excellent." Thomas finally found his voice, low and tight.

"You just gambled the entire guild's future on a bet you made in under ten seconds." Benkay looked at him, something steadier than his usual grin settling behind his eyes.

"I know exactly what I did, Thomas." Thomas held his gaze a moment longer, searching for something in it, then let out a long breath and folded his arms.

"Fine. Let's not listen to reason today, then." Far beneath the castle, Mochi and the others were only just beginning to pick themselves up off the cave floor, with absolutely no idea that their entire guild's future now rested on however the next three days went.