Lies and Tests

At the center of the Earth, magma churned.

Nolan Grayson opened his eyes to a sea of dark red.

Scorching lava flowed around him, temperatures reaching several thousand degrees—enough to melt steel into liquid iron. Yet he only felt a slight heat against his skin.

He crawled out from a crack in the rock. His combat suit had long since burned away, leaving only a tattered pair of shorts. The clear fist mark on his chest remained, while the Smart Atoms within his body frantically repaired the damaged tissue.

"Damn."

Nolan looked down at his hands.

These hands had torn through the defenses of countless planets and crushed innumerable skulls. Within the Viltrum Empire, he had been its finest advance scout, and he had never lost.

Until today.

The black-haired man's face lingered in his mind. That gaze, as though looking down upon an ant, involuntarily reminded him of the Empire's elders.

No, more terrifying than the elders.

The elders had to use their full strength to suppress him, but that man had used only one finger.

One damn finger.

Nolan took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Anger was meaningless. He needed information. He needed to find out who that man was.

He flew upward, forcing his body through layer upon layer of rock. The crust, mantle, and core flashed past in mere seconds at his speed.

By the time he burst out of the ground, evening was drawing near.

The Grayson house stood ahead, its windows glowing with warm yellow light. Debbie was preparing dinner, and Mark was probably doing homework in his room.

Everything was normal.

Nolan stopped in midair and carefully composed his expression. He was Omni-Man, the strongest hero on this planet. He could not let anyone see that he had just