A knock echoed through his room. Kínitos still lingered on thoughts of yesterday morning's breakfast. He rose from his bed and shuffled to the door. Opening it revealed Jes and Monti.
"I've got something to show you both," Jes announced.
"Well, okay," Kínitos replied.
Stepping through the doorway, he trailed Jes down a lengthy corridor. She halted and opened a door; both men entered, with Jes following and shutting it behind them. The room unfolded before them, vast and towering, its ceiling stretching over six stories high. Ropes and chains dangled from above, forming an intricate obstacle course.
Kínitos stood awestruck by the metallic jungle gym. Jes tugged him toward Dante, who lounged in a lawn chair, stopwatch in hand.
"739, 740, 741," Dante counted aloud.
"Why are you counting?" Monti inquired.
"Because she's doing upside-down bar push-ups," Dante answered.
Puzzled, Monti glanced at Jes, who pointed toward the ceiling's wall. Both men squinted, spotting Violet's figure. She hung upside down from a pull-up bar, pushing up and down with steady rhythm.
"748, 749, 750, begin," Dante called, clicking the stopwatch.
Violet spun around the bar, then launched herself off, seizing a hanging rope. She swung from rope to rope with agility. The room trembled as shooting dummies emerged. Drawing pistols from her hips, she fired at each one.
"Headshot, chest, chest, arm, head, head, head, throat," Dante narrated as Violet moved with swift precision.
Jes pulled both men back. "This is going to get dangerous," she warned.
The room quaked again, a giant box encaging all three of them. From the walls, a dozen miniguns emerged, locking onto Violet. Beside each gun sat a small red button, quarter-sized. The guns unleashed a barrage of baseballs. Violet deftly swung from ropes, leaped between bars, and twirled on chains, shooting three red buttons, retracting three miniguns into the walls.
"Wow, she's really moving," Monti marveled, all eyes fixed on Violet in amazement.
"She's a little slow today," Dante remarked.
"Maybe from the hospital," Jes suggested.
"Yeah, the other night she got flung pretty far, but that shouldn't have affected her," Dante mused.
Violet fired more shots, each striking a red button beside the miniguns. One missed, but she landed flawlessly on the ground, every target hit. With a clink, Dante rose from his chair and sighed.
"How'd she do?" Kínitos asked.
Dante and Violet glanced at him as Dante checked his stopwatch. "48 seconds—much slower than usual," he said.
"Wow, this is her training? Damn, and it was slow? You all train like madmen," Monti exclaimed.
Everyone except Monti and Kínitos chuckled, exchanging knowing looks.
"That wasn't my training," Violet clarified.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Kínitos pondered.
"That was her warm-up—you know, stretching your legs before weighted squats," Dante explained.
"Damn, if that's a warm-up, I'm scared to see an actual exercise," Kínitos said.
"How do you even do something like that?" Monti asked, surveying the room in bewilderment.
"She's the most physically gifted of us," Jes replied.
"And you… uh, Dante, right?" Kínitos asked nervously.
"Me? Well, come and see," Dante said, tossing the stopwatch to Violet.
Everyone except Violet exited through the door, emerging into a sprawling forest stretching miles. A dirt road curved around it, a pole resembling a lamppost looming overhead, a few feet from the path. Nearby stood a holographic map dotted with small markers of metal and wood. Beside it rested a large wooden box.
"This is about 30 miles long," Dante stated.
"You're going to run it or something?" Monti asked curiously.
"Yeah, just a light jog—nothing too crazy," Dante replied.
"Those poles are speed markers, exactly one mile apart. They measure an object's speed and glow when they sense something. So when Dante runs past, they'll light up," Jes explained.
"Oh, so we're here to watch him run?" Kínitos asked.
"Yeah, it should only take a minute or so," Dante said with a cheeky grin.
"A minute? Are you serious?" Monti asked, bewildered.
"Yeah, every two seconds, one of those dots on the map will glow," Dante confirmed.
"Wait—two seconds per mile, and it's 30 miles? So you're really planning to do it under a minute?" Kínitos said, mouth agape.
"With that speed, you're going what?" Monti pressed.
"1,800 miles per hour!" Monti and Kínitos shouted in unison.
"That's five times the speed of sound," Kínitos added, awestruck.
"Can you all run that fast?" Monti asked, puzzled.
"No, just him. His paradox lets him run fast, but this is just a light run for him," Jes said.
"Grab the headphones," Dante instructed. Jes opened the box, revealing giant earphones, and tossed a pair to Monti and Kínitos. They slipped them on as Jes grasped their hands and smiled.
"Begin!" she yelled.
"Wait, aren't you going to put on he—" Before Kínitos could finish, a deafening boom erupted.
It sounded like a hundred thousand men shouting. Wind blasted them, nearly knocking them off their feet, but they held firm. The ground beneath Dante exploded, leaving a small crater. Jes pulled them to the map. Kínitos watched as three dots glowed green, then another, and another, seconds apart.
"One, two," Kínitos counted silently as another lit up.
"Im-impossible," Monti stammer stammered, a grin spreading across his face.
With each stride, fire sparked around Dante, purple smoke swallowing the flames and vanishing. Bees seemed to freeze mid-flight, and the wind fell silent. Dante's speed defied comprehension. Abruptly, he stopped on the dirt path, peering into the forest. He darted inside, gathering flowers.
"The glowing stopped," Monti noted, both men removing their headphones.
"Yeah, he sometimes looks around," Jes replied.
The lights resumed shining as a distant sound approached. Both men donned their headphones again. Dante zoomed past a raven, seemingly in slow motion.
"Hey, Rav, bye, Rav," Dante quipped, arriving back at the starting line. In under a minute, he'd covered over 30 miles.
Glancing at the map, he smirked as it displayed 57 seconds. Winking, he handed Jes the flowers.
"For you, gorgeous," he said.
Both men removed their headphones and stowed them in the box.
"That was amazing—just wow. You and that lady Violet, I'm just…" Monti stammered, words tripping over each other.
"Thank you, thank you, but let's get you to the training," Dante replied, blushing and cupping his face.