Peyton woke up from his slumber. He glanced around. He was in a bed that wasn't his. He was in a large room, adapted for creatures much bigger than him. It was dark. It was filled with a few chairs, one adapted to his size and a few larger ones, a desk, a table and a cupboard. He was still on the mysterious castle of the Metalist. He was kidnapped. It wasn't a dream. Not only that, but the revelations were too.

He kinda hoped it was a dream and be with his friends again. Alas, it wasn't the case. On the bright side, it seemed that Titanium was a good king. His heart seemed to be as large as his size. Still, he couldn't put his guard down around the massive creature and the others under his command. He could be manipulated. Still, he felt a bit calmer than before. A good night rest helped a bit.

He stood up and looked around. He might need new clothes as most of his own were left on earth. He heard someone knocking, "Yes?"

"Breakfast is ready. We can bring it in if you want," the creature suggested.

"Sure."

A Metalist creature came. He looked like he wore a tuxedo as he put the meal.

Peyton was a bit reassure that they ate similarly to organic beings. That meant that pancakes were among their meals. It was strange to see how similar they were to humans when it came to food, "Thanks."

"No problem. A guest of our king deserve respect," the creature left.

The boy watched his breakfast. His mind wasn't about what would happen today. His thought was for his friends and his family who were surely worried sick for him. Not only that, but they didn't know he wasn't in too much trouble… For now. Despite that, his appetite was still strong as he quickly ate everything.

Chapter 23: Steel The Bodyguard

Titanium read a report as he yawned, clearly tired. He was in his room where he worked on projects on his own. He was on his chair and finished reading an entire document of a few hundred pages. He put his glasses on the desk when he finished reading everything.

He worked the entire night on reading the documents on a project and had to give his approval. His council vote was equal between agreeing and disagreeing. He was the tie breaker. He grumbled as he still didn't make his decision, "It would have been a yes if that name wasn't that stupid. I need to tell my scientist to learn how to pick better words," he sighed. He stopped when he let out a smirk, "Or send them a teacher. That will get on their nerves," he chuckled evilly as he made his decision.

Peyton entered with a servant and saw the kind chuckling evilly for some reason.

The servant nervously chuckled, "This has nothing to do with you. I'm certain of it."

Titanium noticed the boy and coughed a few times before he recovered, "I am planning to send a teacher to my scientists. I can already see them furious as I hit a nerve really hard," he smirked a bit, before he was serious.

"And a lack of sleep my king?"

"Yes. Anyway, you are up Peyton. Today, there is nothing big to show you. I did find a bodyguard for your own safety. As I did say, not everyone here will be trilled to see a human. Until everything is settled, it will be best that someone watch over you."

"I guess."

"And I still didn't find anyone suitable to show you how to summon the power within you," he added, "I will rest for the day. I won't be able to show you more around. Steel will be the one responsible for this."

"Steel?"

"Yeah. He shouldn't be any trouble for you. You are a guy," Titanium replied.

"W-why?" Peyton suspiciously asked, "Is he a 'Woman makes me angry!' kind of dude?"

"No," the king glanced at the side, "He is a P and a E and a R and a V and another E and another R and a T," he spelled what the other was.

Peyton quickly put those letters together, "Dude. Bad idea."

"He is loyal, capable and he will do everything to keep you safe," he tried to reassure the boy, but there was a bit of uncertainty in his voice, "Surely."

"And when will he be here?" Peyton asked.

"I'm sure he will-" the king was interrupted when the door suddenly opened.

"Hi my king! I am here to serve you in my duty!" the new creature declared as he entered. He jumped and landed behind the boy.

Peyton yelped as he turned around and took a few steps back as he gazed at the creature who let out the biggest smile he could muster.

The new Metalist was red on his very large chest, belly, arms and legs. He had a long purple neck, purple waist, gray hands with sharp claws, silver foot and silver head. He had a pair of red eyes.

Titanium grumbled, "Why such entrance?" he then crossed his arms, "You are in my presence."

"This isn't the throne room. This is your working room," the purple creature replied with his large smile on his face, "And you summoned your greatest warrior!," he pointed his thumbs at himself, "Me!"

The king glanced at Peyton in a way that meant, 'That's your problem, not mine.' He spoke before the other creature could, "Steel. This is the human I brought from the Cothica Peyton. Peyton, this is my loyal soldier with…" he said nothing else about the obvious part of the creature, "Steel. He is your bodyguard from now on. He has a lot of flaws, but," Titanium whispered, "many good qualities too."

The human guessed that he didn't want the ego of the creature to get bigger than his chest already was. He yelped when the large creature grabbed his hand.

"Welcome to our city Peyton. I'm Steel."

"I already said that," his ruler drily commented.

"I promise I will protect you with my life… Unless there is a really pretty female. In that case, good luck!" he jokingly declared before laughing loudly.

Titanium already regretted asking this thrusted soldier for this duty. He put his hand over his face, "Steeeeeeel!"

Peyton had a small smile on his face. Just the weird atmosphere between the two creatures was a bit hilarious. The king seemed like another person with just a new one around. Less professional and more of an adult dealing with a teen.

"Sorry," Steel replied as he scratched the back of his head. He stood proud and raised his chest, "In all seriousness. I will be by your side at all time. There no creature from any tribe who will hurt you when I'm around, including mine and including my king."

The boy was a bit worried for the creature after such declaration.

"You won't have to worry about fighting me for hurting the boy. I like him and I will be happy the moment he is the funny boy as he was with his friends," he saw his soldier raised his finger, "Not funny like you."

Steel deflated a bit and whined, "Ahhh," he raised his chest once again, "You need all kinds of funny anyway," he ignored the deadpan glance from his king, "If it's alright with you my king, I will show him around the castle. I don't think he got a tour yet."

"Yes. You can begin with that," Titanium yawned as exhaustion finally settle in, "I think I'm about to black out from those papers," he signed something at the bottom and added an order, "They will change that name until I am satisfied with it," he grumbled before he raised his hand.

A servant came and walked away with the report.

"Come with me. There is a lot to show around and only a few places that wouldn't bore you," Steel put his hand on the boy's shoulder and excitedly dragged him away.

"W-wait! I can walk," Peyton comically replied before he was gone.

The king chuckled before he left to his chamber and took a well-deserved rest.

Peyton managed to convince the excited creature that he could walk on his own. Once the creature stopped dragging him around, he walked by his side.

Steel hummed happily as he took t he led, "I'll show you the training room first. This is where you will learn to conjure your power."

"If it's true," Peyton politely replied. He didn't completely believe it was possible.

"When you master you power, you will be able to do tricks like this," he summoned a few balls of darkness in the palm of his hands and jungled with it for a few seconds, before he dispersed them, "A trick to get the ladies," he winked at the boy.

"Hum… No," the human wasn't convinced that doing so with this power that creatures used to fight would get a lady.

They reached the room and Steel opened it. They were a few Metalist who trained to battle together. The power over the darkness was pretty impressive. Peyton only saw the creatures using fire, water, earth and wind. If they could use darkness like that, he had to think that it might be possible that humans could do it. Unless there was another tribe and they partially lied about humans being able to do that.

"This is one of the locations when a few of our warriors trained. Those who are responsible for protecting our king and the castle trained here. The others trained outside in the city garrison. We need to be ready to act quickly if our king is in danger. It will be safe for you to train here. I am not sure who will show you how to summon the energy you have inside of you, but I'm certain they'll go a great job!" he snapped his finger and winked at the boy.

Steel quickly dragged the boy away, under the gaze of the other Metalist who wondered what was going on. They noticed the human. They knew why Peyton was there, but not why he was dragged by that creature.

Steel continued his duty as he brought him to another room, "This is the personal library," he showed the room.

It was a large room filled with many white shelves that contained so many books. They were also a few mugic stones on the side with a few Metalists who studied it.

"It's also a place where we studied the mugic we obtained from the other tribes," he nodded to himself.

"That's quite… impressive," he didn't know how to reply. He also didn't have time before the creature dragged him away once again. He sighed and waited for it. He eventually asked, "Steel. Am I in danger if you are watching me?"

"You are in the castle and shouldn't be. Still, we cannot be reckless with some of my kind who still wants revenge on the humans," he stopped and turned around, "Your kind sent us to Perim after the long war. We lost it and we paid the consequence from it. We are stuck here long enough. We want to return home. To the Cothica once again. We all want this, but they want to get revenge. They don't move on," Steel glanced at the side, "We have no idea what the Cothica looked like anymore. We only have books, a few old records and stories," he turned towards them boy as his smile suddenly came back, "But it won't be for long anymore," he declared with optimism in his voice.

Peyton had no idea how to reply to that desire. He still didn't believe his home was the Cothica or had any special power. If it was true, he had no idea what it would be to not be able to live in your own world for a long time. He couldn't relate to something that might have been inflicted to them so long ago, "Anyway bro. You want to show me around a bit more. You stopped dragging me around," he pointed out. He decided to learn more about the castle. Maybe there was a way to return home and he needed to know as much as possible.

"Sure. Come around!" the Metalist replied before dragging the boy along.

AC: This is the end of this chapter.

Next: The Truth Of The Earth

Tom, Kaz and Sarah went to the Codemasters to search for the true about the Earth and if the cult told them the true or not about the Metalist.