Six metal figures appeared at the edge of the plateau, silhouettes against the moon. Six robots. All I had was a camp knife. Around me lay the helpless bodies of my teammates.

  The first robot smoothly raised its built-in machine gun. The barrel froze, aimed dead center at my chest. Gunfire shattered the silence, but something strange happened: the bullets seemed to stick in the thick air, slow enough to dodge. The anomalous zone that weakened magic was warping physical processes too.

  Two more robots opened fire with the same result. Tracer rounds drifted through air at the speed of falling leaves, leaving trails in the air. I slipped between them like dancing through rain.

  The first robot moved in an arc, calculating a new attack trajectory. Scanners on its head flashed red: not training mode. Combat. My heart didn't even skip. Strange calm filled me.

  You've been hunting me from the start. Raze knew exactly where he was sending us.

  The robot attacked without warning: a quick thrust of its metal arm, now transformed into a blade. I ducked, and time slowed. My body moved on its own, reading the enemy's algorithms.

  The second robot flanked me. Their tactic was obvious: encirclement. I rolled toward a stone column. Ancient symbols flared under my fingers. The robot's blow split the stone, but I was already behind it, driving my knife into the joint between armor plates.

  Third and fourth approached in sync. No human hesitation in their movements. Pure calculation. My knife stuck in the first robot, leaving me unarmed. I sprinted toward the center of the circle, leaping over Val's sprawled body.

  "What are you looking for?! What's inside me?!"

  The robots didn't answer. Their sensors tracked me. In the moonlight, I spotted markings on their frames: "LIQ-19 Protocol." Familiar letters, though I'd never seen them before. The question flared in my mind again: where the hell did I know that classification from?

  The fifth robot stepped forward. Its frame transformed, taking on a strange shape: not human, not machine. Something in between. Recognition stirred inside me. This was a prototype. An experiment.

  It attacked nothing like a machine. Its movements resembled a demon's dance. I dodged the first thrust, ran up the slope of a broken column and jumped, aiming my feet at the optical block. The hit landed. Pain shot through my thigh from the blade-arm.

  Blood soaked my leg as I landed. The robots regrouped, shifting tactics. Now they advanced straight at me, no longer trying to surround. The first reached my position and suddenly froze. Its frame started humming. Getting hot.

  Self-destruct.

  I dove behind fallen Kyle. We both lay in a shallow depression now. The explosion scattered rock fragments and sand. The next robot also triggered self-destruct, rushing toward us. I dragged Kyle behind a column just in time.

  Val groaned, regaining consciousness. Blood still seeped from his slashed palm. I lunged toward him, pulling him from the third kamikaze robot's path. Not enough time.

  Val cracked his eyes open, focusing through the haze.

  "Shield..."

  Whispering that single word, he managed to create some kind of barrier from the blood remaining on his hand.

  Explosion. The barrier held but thinned to transparency.

  The last robot approached slower, assessing the situation. It moved like a predator. I stood before Val, who'd lost consciousness again. Nowhere to run.

  The air above the valley trembled. I looked up and saw a silhouette at the plateau's edge, dark against the moonlight. Familiar.

  "Elliot?"

  The robot activated self-destruct, hurtling toward me at inhuman speed. I watched my brother shout something I couldn't hear, his hands moving in the familiar pattern of a metal spell.

  Something long took shape in the air—a curved scythe blade with a handle forged from titanium alloys. Elliot's last desperate effort of magic in this warping zone. The weapon fell, spinning as if in slow motion.

  "Don't die!"

  I lunged forward, reaching out. My fingers closed around the cold handle at the exact moment the robot came within leaping distance. The scythe fit my hand perfectly, but I had no idea how to use it.

  The robot exploded a meter away. The blast wave threw Elliot and me in opposite directions, but I kept the scythe. The demon landed in the center of the ruins, its impact leaving cracks in the ancient stones. It turned its half-mechanical head, targeting me with a red scanner.

  This wasn't just a monster but a carefully engineered combat unit. The otherworlders learned from last time. The demon's bionic limbs were covered in a fine mesh of counter-receptors: sensors detecting any unauthorized access to the system.

  I attacked first, swinging the scythe in a wide arc. The movement was flawless but useless. The blade bounced off reinforced armor, Sparks flew. The beast counterattacked instantly, slashing the air with claw-blades.

  My second scythe strike hit the joint between mechanical and organic parts, but the metal bent, unable to withstand collision with armored flesh. The scythe, so impressive against humans or regular demons, was useless against this hybrid.

  The creature stopped, tilting its head like a bird of prey. Its mechanical eye scanned the battlefield, evaluating. Its gaze settled on Val, still unconscious a few meters from me.

  "Don't you dare!"

  The thing shot toward Val with supernatural speed. One motion lifted his limp body and hurled it straight at me—not as a weapon, but as a distraction.

  Tossing aside the mangled scythe, I rushed forward to intercept Val. Caught him midair, but the impact's momentum toppled us both onto cold stone.

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  Exactly what the demon was waiting for. I barely managed to shove Val aside when the creature crashed down on me, pinning me to the ground. A mechanized limb dropped instantly, aimed at my chest.

  Instinctively I threw up my left arm, blocking the strike. The world exploded in a white flash of pain. The blade pierced my palm, severing two fingers. Blood poured onto the ancient stones, soaking into them.

  The runes flared, drinking it. Bright red pulses spread from me in circles, connecting symbols into a single network. The demon froze, its systems glitching from the unexpected energy surge.

  That split-second pause was enough. Despite the agony, I twisted free and struck the demon's organic eye with my maimed hand. Blood sprayed across its sensors, creating interference. The beast recoiled, trying to clear its optics.

  I rolled away from the next blow and found myself beside the central platform of the ruins—the one surrounded by ancient columns. The hybrid advanced, its mechanical parts grinding in anticipation.

  The whisper of the winged creature from the gray space between worlds surfaced in my mind.

  Sudden understanding exploded in my consciousness. Not a platform—a portal! Not ruins—a gate! The answer had been right beneath my feet the whole time.

  I retreated to the very edge of the well. The demon accelerated, preparing for its final charge.

  "Follow me, you thing," I hissed through clenched teeth, gripping my ruined hand. "Let's see how you handle a REAL monster."

  The hybrid leaped. At the last moment I fell onto my back, pulling my knees to my chest. Its momentum worked against it—the demon sailed over me and landed in the center of the platform.

  The instant of shock on its half-human face was worth all the pain. The runes beneath its feet blazed with blinding light. Then the space above the platform rippled strangely. Warped like a reflection in a funhouse mirror. And collapsed.

  An inhuman scream echoed across the valley, fading somewhere... not here. Another place. Another time.

  I rose to my knees, pressing my mutilated hand to my chest. Blood soaked my clothes. Pain pulsed in time with my heartbeat. Silence settled over the valley, broken only by the wind.

  Moving five unconscious classmates after so many wounds proved beyond me. Barely reaching Elliot, I spent my last strength bringing him around. Together we managed to carry the others to safety.

  We stopped on a rocky outcrop overlooking the valley, in moonlight. From here the ruins looked like clusters of dark spots: ordinary stones hiding extraordinary secrets.

  "Raze will write this off as a technical malfunction."

  Elliot was building a fire, carefully avoiding looking at my bandaged hand.

  "Who'd take seriously a story about an experimental demon-cyborg deliberately dropped from a helicopter? Sounds insane."

  I sat propped against a boulder, studying my brother's face. Something in his eyes had changed—worry, doubt, something else I couldn't name.

  "How did you find us?"

  I tried to distract myself from the throbbing pain. The absence of two fingers felt strange—a phantom limb feeling, like they were still there.

  "I overheard his conversation with someone while waiting for my audience."

  "What happened to that demon?"

  Elliot finally looked up. Curiosity and accusation in his voice.

  "I saw... strange light."

  "It fell into a trap. I somehow activated the portal."

  I raised my ruined hand.

  "Cost me dearly."

  Elliot flinched, looking away.

  "The fingers... they won't grow back without magic."

  "I know."

  Silence grew thick between us. I felt the storm of emotions raging in my brother.

  "You're a lefty now."

  He tried to joke, but it came out strained.

  "Going to have to relearn everything."

  "I'll manage."

  I smiled, but Elliot didn't smile back.

  "How?"

  The words burst out suddenly, and I realized this question had been building in him for a long time.

  "No magic, surrounded by enemies, now wounded on top of it all... But you still find a way out!"

  His words held admiration, envy, and something like resentment. As if my ability to survive somehow wounded him.

  "Do I have another choice?"

  "You always have a choice. Aura says—"

  He cut himself off, like he'd said something forbidden.

  "Aura?"

  I frowned, then couldn't hold back a smirk.

  "Still blushing when her name comes up? Some things never change."

  Elliot jerked. His cheeks went red.

  "That's not—! We're just... she's just..."

  "Childhood friends. Same as always. Three years as 'just friends' and you're still dragging your feet."

  Elliot flared.

  "Stop it! You always teased me about her. But Aura's the only one who actually understands me. Unlike some people."

  "Unlike me?"

  "You were always focused on yourself. Your special magic, your problems. Then you vanished for a year."

  "I was kidnapped." I felt my own anger rising. "Not by choice."

  "I know."

  He exhaled, and the tension eased slightly.

  "Sorry. It's just... so much has changed. You've changed."

  I stayed silent, not knowing what to say. Yes, I'd changed. More than he knew.

  "How did you handle those robots before I showed up? The remains... Even after the explosions, there are dents on them."

  His perceptiveness surprised me.

  "Don't know. Instinct, maybe?"

  "Instinct..." He tossed more branches on the fire. Sparks flew toward the night sky. "Or something else."

  He stared into the flames.

  "Remember how we used to sit by the river back in the village, dreaming about becoming heroes? Protecting magic from the otherworlders?"

  "I remember. I still dream about that."

  "I'm not sure anymore that this world deserves protecting... A world where birth, rank, and power are all that matter."

  "You're starting to sound like one of them."

  "And you sound like someone who blindly follows the system's rules." He caught himself. "Sorry. Now's not the time for arguments."

  I nodded, deciding not to push further. These words revealed a deep crack we'd better not try patching up hastily.

  "What now? After all this? We have to tell someone."

  Elliot looked at my teammates, who would wake any moment.

  "Who? The director who sent us here? Or the otherworlders who set up this experiment?"

  "There's still Alice."

  "Alice is too busy fighting the government and otherworlders."

  I sighed, remembering our last meeting.

  "When I got back to the city, I met with her. The fight for my freedom turned into real underground warfare for power. How do you expect her to split herself between us and the whole country?"

  "But she always—"

  "Yes, she always helped us. And that's exactly why we shouldn't drag her in deeper. No, Elliot. We go back to the academy. We play smart. Pretend we didn't figure anything out. And look for allies."

  "Like old times?"

  His smile resembled his old one, but something was missing. Sincerity, maybe? Or had I just grown too suspicious?

  "Like old times. Brothers against the world, remember?"

  Elliot extended his hand. I shook it with my good one. But we both knew this was just for show. Too much left unsaid. Too much doubt in our eyes.

  We kept up the act until sunrise, when searchlight beams from helicopters appeared in the distance. Raze would find us, apologize for the "technical malfunction," and we'd pretend to believe him. Game on.

  But watching Elliot's profile in the firelight, I felt a troubling doubt for the first time: was my brother still on my side?