When André regained consciousness, he was surrounded by the others present in the training room. Lucas and Zita helped him get up.
"If you hadn't used your powers, you would have won," André said to Léo.
"Maybe I am too dependent on my powers..." replied the loser of the confrontation.
"Not only you," Felipe interfered. "We are all so accustomed to using our powers that we never imagined what would happen if one day we lost them..."
That was a shock to most of those present, but Felipe could observe that besides him and André, Kawã also seemed to have already thought about the possibility of losing the divine gifts.
"Kawã..." Felipe interrogated. "Is there something you want to share?"
Kawã smiled and spoke, taking a step forward:
"I was going to leave this for the end... But ever since the Research and Development sector began researching a way to open the door from this side, they isolated a type of energy we emit when we use our powers. I suspect they are trying to create something that nullifies our abilities..."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed André. "Why would they do that?"
"They want to control us," Eduardo commented.
"No!" Anne corrected. "They do control us... It doesn't matter what world we are in, we end up being controlled to satisfy the plans of people who don't know the meaning of the word hero."
André seemed very frightened; what kind of power could control the 32 heroes of the other world? Not even the most powerful of the other world could stand against them isolated; imagine if they united.
"Our families..." Zita took a deep breath and continued. "They threaten the safety of our families."
"Our hands are tied; we have no option but to obey them," Felipe completed.
"But who are they, after all?" asked André.
"They are the most important people in this world," Felipe explained. "Businessmen, politicians, military, scientists... Anyway, a lot of people prepared to go to extreme lengths just to keep us under control."
"So not much has changed from one world to another?" André complained.
"It seems not..." Zita sighed.
"And if they manage to create a way to nullify our powers, we become powerless against any threat. Know that they have already managed to complete the energy radar that can track the use of our powers or any form of opening doors between the two worlds. That was how we found André so quickly... His arrival generated immeasurable energy spikes, which were captured and tracked by the radars..."
Kawã was speaking as if explaining a conspiracy theory, and perhaps it was. He continued:
"Normally I would love to have André under my custody, but I had a sense of danger—maybe my instincts—so I preferred to find a way to send him to Felipe, even if the team of scientists managed to keep the objects he brought in an environment out of my reach."
Then he pulled a small twisted metal ball from his pocket and threw it to André, who caught it between his two closed fists.
"What is that?" asked Zita.
"Proof that we will have a war soon..." replied André.
Kawã looked at the bandages wrapping André's arms; the right wrist had burn marks produced by Zita. He swallowed hard, sat on the floor, and continued.
"I only managed to take 3 objects from there: two books and this metal ball... Apparently, they are the only ones that emit no type of energy..."
"Of course not," André spoke. "That one absorbs energy; it is by far the most dangerous. If they had discovered its real properties, they would be shocked."
Jonas, who had remained silent since the beginning of André and Léo's fight, finally spoke up.
"And what is that exactly?"
André didn't answer immediately; he gave the object to Zita and moved away.
"Zita, throw this at him," said André, pointing his bandaged fist at Jonas. "And you, Jonas, I recommend you make your best barrier."
Zita held the twisted metal sphere, turning it in her hand trying to understand what it was. It made no sense; Jonas's power was creating various types of invisible shields, of various shapes and resistances, including ones that met certain conditions imposed by Jonas. How could a metal sphere nullify that power? Even so, she took a step back, stretched her arm; meanwhile, Jonas arched his body, bent his knees, and held up two fingers.
Zita threw the object without using much force. Jonas didn't even move, but the air around his body became translucent due to a force field created. Even so, the steel ball hit him squarely on the forehead, provoking laughter from most of those present.
"How is that possible?" exclaimed Jonas, rubbing his forehead while picking up the sphere on the floor.
"That is a part of the Silver Knight's armor," replied André.
"WHAT?" shouted Zita. "HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?"
"When you returned, I faced him, but discovered at the end that the armor was empty. Surely it was left behind while he crossed ahead, and while we faced a puppet, he fled," André explained. "So I hid the armor parts and brought a part of the helmet to prove it."
"Your words do not convince me," bellowed Jonas.
"Too bad for you!" André shrugged.
"It can only be part of his armor," murmured Zita. "I don't know another object with that capacity. Once the Silver Knight was even capable of totally suppressing my powers by trapping me in the armor. Upon touching the metal ball I had the same sensation that my powers were being repelled."
André lowered his head and sighed with a bitter expression.
"So you mean he fled leaving the armor behind? Could he not just have hidden, afraid of the repercussions of the shit he did?" interrogated Zita.
"It's not that simple. In the last 4 years, no one has had any news of him; not even the oracles can sense him..."
"So no one can rule out the possibility that he came here!" concluded Felipe.
However reluctant some were, everyone ended up agreeing with the possibility suggested by André and reinforced by Felipe.
"And what do you tell me about this?" Felipe showed a red-covered book.
"Ah!" exclaimed André. "My notes..."
"It is written in Dead Tongue," interrupted Kawã.
Eduardo, who kept leaning in a corner making a lazy face, finally approached and took the book from Felipe's hands, but after leafing through it for a few seconds still seemed not to understand what was written there.
"What's the use of making notes if no one can read them?"
"It's useful if you want to hide something," replied Anne while taking the book.
Anne headed to where André was, stretched her arm trying to hand the book to him, but it was Zita who took it.
"His hands are bandaged," said Zita smiling. "Clearly he cannot open a book..."
"They are just notes," André explained. "I know all of that by heart; after all, I was the one who wrote it."
"What do those notes say?" instigated Felipe.
"It's the little I discovered about the gods," replied André.
Kawã took a green-covered book from his backpack and showed everyone.
"And this? Why, even though it is not in Dead Tongue, can no one read it? Not even our best equipment managed to evaluate it? Even though we know there is something written, we cannot read it, nor even identify the energy emanating from it."
André just looked and shrugged.
"Ah... That is for Leonardo; it was his wife who sent it!"
"..." Léo gave a sheepish smile.
"What do you mean? He is married?"