Chapter 127 - 125 The Promise on the Other Side of the Line

Chapter 127: Chapter 125 The Promise on the Other Side of the Line

The word remained for a few moments between the four of them and the line they had not managed to cross. The instructor did not need to add anything to remind them of the result. Each of their breaths still carried the effort of the last maneuver, and the tension accumulated in their legs made it evident that the Serpent had demanded much more from them than any of the previous advances.

Sebastián was the first to fully straighten up. Virka stood up behind him, while Zaira bent one knee to recover the response of her leg and Óscar observed the marks the formation had left on the ground.

The instructor turned the staff and rested it against his shoulder.

—You did not pass the test.

—We know —Zaira replied, without taking her eyes off the line.

—But you did not fail in the same way either.

She turned her eyes toward him. Óscar remained silent, and Sebastián waited for him to continue without changing his expression.

—When we began, your formation broke apart as soon as one of you altered the rhythm —the instructor continued—. Today you maintained your positions, responded to the changes, and managed to force me to abandon the defense I had used until now. You did not reach the line, but you advanced far enough to recover what I took away from you.

Sebastián’s gaze dropped for a moment toward the training clothes they were wearing.

—The ARMEX?

—In the next session, you will use them again.

The answer did not produce a celebration. Recovering the suits did not mean they had yet earned the right to enter the Ring. Even so, something changed in the way they looked at the field. That test without plates, cores, or assisted power had ceased to be a punishment meant to display their mistakes.

It had fulfilled its purpose.

Óscar looked at the instructor.

—Will we try to cross the line again?

—Yes. Under the same fundamental conditions: you must cross it without losing the formation. The difference will be that you will be wearing your ARMEX.

The instructor paused briefly.

—And I will be wearing mine.

Zaira let out a short breath.

—So until now you were holding back.

—Until now I was using only what was necessary to evaluate your flaws. If you are going to recover the full capability of your suits, I must also prepare opposition capable of pushing you to the limit without turning the test into an empty simulation.

Virka looked at the staff and then at the space stretching behind him.

—Will that attempt decide whether we can enter the Ring?

—It will decide whether you can do so permanently. If you preserve your coordination under the response of the ARMEX and cross the line, you will begin the next stage of your training: training aimed at the professional level of Rakzar. If you do not succeed, you will once again remain outside the Ring until you correct what the test reveals.

Sebastián looked at the line again. It did not seem any closer because they had obtained another opportunity, but now he knew the difference between the team that had tried to cross it at the beginning and the one that had just been stopped in front of it.

—Then we will cross it next time.

The instructor neither confirmed nor rejected his words.

—Physical practice ends here. If you continue, you will only turn the strain of the technique into an injury. Sit down.

The four of them settled in front of the field. The instructor struck the ground with the base of the staff, and a rectangular section opened a few meters from them. A digital screen rose until it remained suspended above the surface, lighting up with a replay of the last attempt.

The arrow appeared advancing from the opposite end. The recording showed the closing of the formation, its new opening, and the moment when the trajectory began to undulate until it took the shape of a serpent. Several indicators lit up over the figures, marking the tension accumulated in the legs, hips, and back.

The instructor showed them that the problem was not in the idea of the maneuver, but in the way they distributed the effort. Each member reproduced the movement of the previous one with too much amplitude. The undulation managed to conceal the true direction of the advance, but it forced all of them to bear almost the entire cost of each change.

The correction did not consist of reducing the Serpent until it became predictable, but of allowing the movement to travel through the formation without each body having to repeat it from the beginning.

The final compression presented a similar difficulty. They all tried to close the figure at the same time and suddenly concentrated the load on their joints. The instructor modified the simulation to show them how that force could move from the rear, pass through the axis, and gather at the point.

To the opponent, the serpent would still become an arrow in a single instant; within the formation, the effort would be distributed progressively.

Then he asked them to show the other maneuvers they had practiced. Óscar projected the incomplete routes while Virka and Zaira explained from which positions they could be initiated. Sebastián intervened when one of those variations required the point to reduce its advance to allow the flanks to catch up with it.

The instructor did not give them a finished sequence. He taught them to observe what position each movement left behind and from which one the next could be born.

The Serpent was not supposed to exist as an isolated technique that forced them to stop and rebuild the arrow after using it. It could flow into an opening, link with a closing, or allow the four of them to change direction without losing the rhythm they had achieved.

The rest of the afternoon passed that way. The trajectories appeared on the screen, were modified, and disappeared again whenever a transition demanded too much from one of them or opened a space impossible to cover.

They did not run again. Their bodies remained at rest while the movement continued repeating in front of their eyes, gradually stripped of the unnecessary efforts they had felt while executing it.

The light began to weaken. By then, the Serpent retained the ability to alter the opponent’s reading, but it no longer inevitably ended with the four of them scattered. They had found two ways to recover the formation and several points from which to integrate it with the other maneuvers they were still developing.

The instructor turned off the screen. The translucent surface descended, and the ground closed over it again.

—That is all for today. Rest and check your ARMEX before the next session.

Óscar stood up, followed by Zaira. Virka waited for Sebastián to rise, and the four of them cast one last look toward the line.

They had not crossed it.

However, next time they would not return to prove that they could move together without their suits. They would return to discover whether that coordination was capable of surviving when all of them regained the strength they had until then kept off the field.

When they left the field, the promise of recovering the ARMEX accompanied them to the locker rooms. Sebastián and Óscar entered the men’s; Virka and Zaira took the opposite corridor. Valentina remained outside with Narka reduced inside the backpack, waiting for the four of them to put the Institute uniforms back on.

The ARMEX remained on their racks. The time without using them had left a thin layer of dust over the closed plates and the edges of the retracted fibers.

While they changed, each of them activated the inspection of their suit. The cores responded, the joints opened in segments, and the diagnostics confirmed that there was no damage or misalignment. Zaira and Óscar spent a little longer on the records; Sebastián and Virka checked the main connections.

They found nothing that required repair.

They closed the pieces again, left the four suits stored away, and finished putting on their uniforms.

By the time they regrouped, the practice area had been left behind. Valentina walked between Sebastián and Virka, with the backpack on her back, while Óscar and Zaira moved a short distance away. The Institute was beginning to empty, and the last light of the afternoon stretched across the corridors leading to the main gate.

Óscar waited until the noise from the field disappeared before looking at Zaira.

—I have something to tell you.

She turned her eyes toward him, opened them slightly wider, and raised an eyebrow, holding his gaze with a look in which the suspicion of another absurd idea was already beginning to form.

—What are you going to propose now? Because I do not intend to accept another sleepover for the time being.

—It is something better than a sleepover.

—That does not mean it is good.

—We created an activities club.

Zaira turned her face completely toward him. For an instant, she seemed to wait for Óscar to add something capable of making the sentence reasonable. Since he did not, her disbelief hardened.

—Are you an idiot?

—No more than usual.

—I do not have time for a club. I already have the Institute, my responsibilities, and Rakzar. When I finish school this year, I intend to dedicate myself fully to competing professionally. I am not going to fill the time I have left with activities that do not bring me closer to that.

There was no stubbornness in her response. Zaira knew the value of her time and the path she had chosen; with the little Óscar had explained, the club only seemed like another demand added to everything else.

—That is exactly why I want you to join —he replied.

—You just heard that I do not have time.

—I am also finishing this year. If we wait until we leave the Institute to ask ourselves who we will train with, we will already be entering professional Rakzar without a team of our own. And I do not see a better option than the four people who are already learning to move together.

Zaira kept her gaze forward.

—We can keep meeting to train. We do not need a club.

—Right now we meet when the instructor calls us or when something special happens. The club gives us a place and a reason to do it consistently. The synchronization we achieved is not going to preserve itself.

—That still does not turn the activities into training.

—Not all of them have to be directly. The sleepover was not either, and today the formation worked better because we were no longer reacting like four strangers.

Zaira gave him a brief look, less disdainful than the first. The sleepover still seemed like an excessive idea to her, but she could not deny what had happened afterward. They had learned to recognize silences, rhythms, and reactions that the field alone had not taught them.

—One night does not prove that we need a club —she said.

—No. It proves that spending time together also strengthens the team. The club will allow us to do it without waiting for another coincidence.

They continued walking. Sebastián and Virka did not intervene. The proposal had come from Óscar, and he was the one who had to support it. Valentina turned her head from time to time, trying to follow a conversation that at times moved beyond what she could understand.

—Besides, it is not just about meeting here —Óscar continued—. We want to travel. The first activity would be to go north to learn about its traditions, observe ancient forms of Rakzar, and look for regional ARMEX different from modern models.

Zaira’s expression changed slightly. It did not lose its firmness, but she stopped looking at the proposal as a simple distraction.

—Traveling also takes time away from practice.

—We can train during the trips. And competing professionally will not be about always repeating what we learned on this field. Knowing other terrains, strategies, and ways of building ARMEX can give us resources we will not find here.

—You are assuming that all four of you will follow the same path.

—I do not know what each of us will do several years from now. I do know what we have now. Today we almost overcame the instructor because we stopped acting separately. It would be pretty stupid to wait until we lose that before deciding it was worth preserving.

Zaira remained silent.

Her objections had been real, and Óscar had not brushed them aside with empty enthusiasm. He had responded with something that served the same purpose she defended: consolidating the team, learning outside the Institute, and maintaining a structure that could keep them together when school ended.

—What exactly do you expect from me? —she asked.

Óscar did not smile. He understood that the question was not an acceptance, but it no longer belonged to the initial rejection either.

—For you to join, participate in the trips when you can, and for us to keep developing the team. You do not have to abandon your responsibilities or accept every activity we come up with. If something does not contribute, we discuss it before doing it.

—That sounds less stupid than your first explanation.

—I knew you would end up recognizing my talent.

—Do not exaggerate.

The main gate appeared in front of them. Beyond it, the paths separated toward the streets and the transportation areas.

Zaira slowed her pace as she reached the exit. She looked at Óscar without the disbelief from the beginning, still evaluating what accepting would imply.

In the end, she sighed.

—Give me time to think about it.

—Seriously?

—If I were not serious, I would have already told you no.

Óscar inclined his head, satisfied that he had not received a refusal.

—Then I will wait.

—Do that and do not ruin it by talking more.

He raised one hand and remained silent.

Sebastián and Virka respected the answer without trying to sway it in either direction. Upon crossing the gate, Zaira and Óscar took different paths, while Sebastián, Virka, and Valentina continued together.

Zaira still did not belong to the club, but the proposal no longer seemed like a waste of time to her. She left with a decision worth thinking about.

After separating from Óscar and Zaira, Sebastián, Virka, and Valentina remained in the pickup area in front of the Institute. The backpack rested on the girl’s back, with Narka reduced and hidden inside it, while the three waited for the vehicle that was supposed to take them back to the mansion.

At that hour, the flow of students had already diminished, and that end of the entrance remained empty.

Sebastián then felt a brief vibration inside the storage ring. It did not come from the metal, but from the space contained within it, where the phone demanded his attention from the place where it had remained stored.

He looked around and confirmed that no one else could see him. He did not need to pretend he was searching in a pocket or hide the movement: he extended his hand and pulled the phone directly from the ring. The device appeared on his palm, still vibrating.

Selena’s name appeared on the screen.

Sebastián answered.

—What is it?

Selena’s voice came through firm and precise, wasting no time on greetings.

—We already sent a vehicle to pick you up. You will not return to the mansion yet. They will take you to Helena’s company headquarters.

—What is the reason?

—Helena wants to begin implementing the agreement she made with you. She will soon need your services as a bodyguard, and we need to establish when you will begin, in what situations you will be required, and how the transfers will be coordinated.

Sebastián remembered the conditions accepted before beginning his studies: accompanying her during trips, meetings, or delicate situations, wherever her usual escorts did not offer sufficient loyalty. The promise had remained silent while other obligations occupied his days, but it had not disappeared.

—Is there anything else? —he asked.

—Yes. We have made progress with the objects you gave us for study. Helena believes you should learn about it directly.

Sebastián did not ask for results over the phone. If they had decided to summon him, the answers did not fit into a brief call.

—All right. We will wait for the vehicle.

—It will arrive in a few minutes.

The communication ended. Sebastián returned the phone to the storage ring, and the device disappeared from his hand.

Virka had listened to the conversation without interrupting. Valentina watched him from below, attentive, although part of what had been said was far beyond what she could understand.

—We will not go to the mansion yet —Sebastián explained to them—. Helena wants to talk about the bodyguard agreement and about the objects we left to be studied.

Virka answered without hesitation.

—Then I will go with you.

It was not a request. Helena had allowed her presence from the moment she established the agreement, and Virka had no intention of letting Sebastián enter alone into an obligation whose form they still did not know.

Valentina looked first at him and then at Virka. The change in destination did not seem to worry her as long as both remained by her side.

—All right, Dad. If I go with you, it’s fine —she said—. Besides, I want to see Mrs. Helena and Miss Selena.

Sebastián nodded. There was nothing else to explain before learning what Helena truly needed.

The wait was short.

A black limousine appeared along the access road and slowed down in front of them. Its long body reflected the dying light of the afternoon, while the darkened windows denied any view of the interior. The vehicle stopped beside the edge of the pickup area, and one of the rear doors opened.

Sebastián entered first. Valentina climbed in afterward with the backpack still on her back, and Virka took the remaining seat before the door closed again. The dark windows separated the interior from the Institute, and the limousine began to move.

The journey passed without detours or unnecessary conversations. The streets slid behind the windows like fragments of a city that continued to obey its own rhythm, indifferent to the agreement that had just awakened.

When the outside light finished fading, the limousine entered the corporate district and stopped in front of Helena’s company headquarters.

The door opened in front of the main entrance.

Sebastián got out first and let his gaze sweep across the space before Virka and Valentina stepped out behind him. The afternoon was fading over the glass facades and, in that light close to extinction, the place seemed less like a building than an immense piece of a mechanism that was still awake.

Valentina adjusted the backpack on her shoulders, where Narka remained reduced and hidden, while the three of them advanced toward the entrance.

Two guards were waiting for them beneath the exterior canopy. They recognized Sebastián and Virka before they reached the first checkpoint, but they did not abandon procedure. One verified the authorization registered for all three; the other confirmed that Valentina was listed as an accompanying minor.

Then they stepped aside and allowed them to continue.

There were no unnecessary questions or careless trust born from recognition. The building’s security did not depend on someone seeming familiar, but on every presence occupying its expected place within the protocol.

The glass doors opened, and the lobby appeared before them.

It was spacious without being ostentatious, built around a combination of white and blue that gave the space a cold brightness. The tall windows received the last remnants of the sunset and spread them across the polished floor, where the columns, people, and lights seemed to preserve a second existence made of reflections.

The columns rose in clean lines toward a high ceiling, and the artificial lighting was distributed in such a way that no area was sunk in shadow or exposed to an uncomfortable glare.

Sebastián distinguished several elevators lined up at the back, each one marked with a visible plaque. There were guards beside the entrances, at the corners, and near the side corridors, attentive without obstructing the movement of those entering and leaving.

In front of them stretched a reception area divided into several stations, capable of attending to numerous people without gathering them into a single line. To one side were the waiting chairs and, farther back, several vending machines integrated into a rest area.

Employees, visitors, and security personnel crossed the lobby following routes that were rarely interrupted. The scale of Helena’s company was not revealed through useless decorations, but through that ability to make hundreds of movements seem to obey a silent will.

The three of them approached one of the available stations. The receptionist looked up and greeted them with precise courtesy.

—Good afternoon. Under whose name is the visit registered?

—Sebastián Solís —he replied.

—Virka Solís —Virka added.

Valentina leaned slightly toward the counter, as if she feared that her part might be forgotten.

—And I am Valentina Solís.

The simple joy with which she pronounced her name brought a brief softness to the receptionist’s expression. Then, the woman consulted the screen in front of her.

All three names appeared linked to priority authorization and a private meeting with Helena.

—Your access is confirmed —she said—. Mrs. Helena is waiting for you on the executive level. Please proceed to elevator four. The attendant will enable the route.

Sebastián nodded, and the three of them crossed the lobby. The plaque with the number four was located at the end of the first row of elevators. Beside its doors waited an attendant with a rigid credential hanging from his neck. After checking on his device that they were the expected visitors, he indicated that they should enter and followed them inside.

The panel displayed the building’s ordinary floors, but none corresponded to the destination mentioned. The attendant took the credential, removed a narrow key from it, and inserted it into an almost invisible slot beside the controls. A section of the panel opened with a faint sound and revealed a single button, identified as the executive level.

He pressed it.

The doors closed, and the elevator began its ascent without jolts. The numbers on the indicator followed one another until reaching the highest floor, while the movement of the lobby remained below without disturbing the silence.

When it stopped, the attendant removed the key, and the doors parted again.

Beyond them stretched a spacious office, crossed by the exhausted light of the afternoon. The windows occupied almost the entire exterior wall and revealed the city beneath a sky that was beginning to darken. In front of them stood a wide glass desk, above which several digital screens remained suspended with documents, graphs, and records open.

Helena was seated behind the desk, with her black-and-gold cane within reach of her hand. Selena occupied a light-colored armchair positioned to one side and held a tablet on her lap.

Both interrupted what they were reviewing and raised their eyes toward Sebastián, Virka, and Valentina as the doors opened completely.

________________________________________

END OF Chapter 125 The path continues...

New Chapters are revealed every

Sunday, and also between Wednesday or Thursday,

when the will of the tale so decides.

Each one leaves another scar on Sebastián’s journey.

If this abyss resonated with you,

keep it in your collection

and leave a mark: a comment, a question, an echo.

Your presence keeps alive the flame that shapes this world.

Thank you for walking by my side.

If this story resonated with you, perhaps we have already crossed paths in another corner of the digital world. Over there, they know me as Goru SLG.

I want to thank from the heart all the people who are reading and supporting this work. Your time, your comments, and your support keep this world alive.

If this story resonated with you, I invite you to support me — your presence and backing make it possible for