Rapid footfalls of his boots echoed off the walls of the vast, empty space around him. The rooms were getting bigger again as he backtracked to the starting point; after destroying that first door, getting past the others had just been a matter of focusing his power properly. He knew what to do now and there was enough energy to absorb that he was confident that he would be able to get out of this facility.

  At least, if he could find out where the exit was. He still hadn’t actually sensed the outside world here, he merely assumed there was one because that made sense in his head. Such preconceptions were dangerous, though. He shouldn’t take too many things for granted in a power-created pocket dimension, however this place worked.

  Wind blew against his bare torso, cool and soothing after the intensive physical exercise. Powering up his punches with kinetic energy was becoming more of a natural process, though he was still far from using it in active combat. At the moment, it was just a tool to break out of this place and find himself something to eat, because he was starving.

  That came with the territory, he supposed. After all, he'd had to use other parts of himself to heal his injuries once his nonexistent fat reserves were gone. He needed to replenish those resources with proper nourishment.

  Additionally, he felt his mouth had dried out as well. Hydration was a bigger priority than ever, so he'd have to find a source of water first and foremost. If push came to shove, he could think of a few ways to potentially extend the amount of time he could live without, but he wasn’t going to put that to the test if it wasn't necessary.

  Seeing another massive door coming up, Finn didn't stop running and reared his hand back again. His nanites went into formation, reinforcing the parts of his body he needed and gathering the accumulated energy into his fist. With each repetition, he found the optimal distribution more quickly. His fist clenched and shot forward into the barrier standing between him and the next step towards freedom.

  A cacophonous crash reverberated off the crumpled metallic surface, a sizable dent formed from the impact. But it wasn't enough to just break through it in one hit. Far from it. He needed multiple hits at full power for that, at minimum.

  It didn't help that the doors had gone up in size as he backtracked to the other side of the facility. Fortunately, unlike the rooms themselves, the doors had a maximum size after a point that they didn't go over. That saved him from having to find another way to get past them.

  The hinges also made it so the doors opened towards him, meaning he had to pull rather than push to get them open. At least, if he wanted them to remain intact. Good thing he didn't care about that in the slightest. By now, he wasn't even wasting time on breaking the whole thing down, instead punching a hole large enough for him to jump or crawl through whenever he could.

  Omega had made it look like a breeze, shoving these things open while not even so much as touching his transformation. Just showing off his ungodly strength with nothing but his human form. Finn hated it, in retrospect.

  Hopping into the opening he'd made, he got to the next room. It was a familiar one, like the rest. But this one in particular had given him trouble before; it was the room with the giant chasm he hadn’t been able to cross unaided. Now, on the other hand, he felt he would be able to manage it just fine.

  Over the course of his studies for his power, he had become quite familiar with the mechanics of electromagnetic forces. Out of all the fundamental forces, that was where he had focused the vast majority of his attention. While he couldn't claim his understanding was complete, he possessed sufficient knowledge to see how inaccessible the other three were for the current him. Weak and strong interaction were right out. Comprehension aside, he just couldn't get the nanites to do anything in that direction. Gravity was similarly out of reach. A problem of mass, simple but not solvable. He wasn’t suddenly going to be able to alter the curvature of space or increase and decrease his mass in an instant.

  Which left him with electromagnetism. When he had started out as Shade, it had been a crucial topic since he needed to know how visible light—electromagnetic radiation with certain wavelengths—worked. Not to mention its usefulness in understanding his gadgets. He had made liberal use of the electro modulation glove, and of course knowing how electricity would interact with a possible target was paramount. Here in this alternate dimension with evolved capabilities at his disposal, he could delve into another aspect of it. Namely, electromagnetic fields.

  With his improved senses, he could discern that the odd, metallic substance everything around him seemed to be made of, was ferromagnetic. Though he couldn't tell exactly what material it was. Probably because it wasn't supposed to exist. In all likelihood, the entire building was made from something Wanderlust had synthesized himself.

  Either way, what mattered was that he could influence it with an application of his nanites. He recalled the memories of his grappling hook that was, in reality, not an actual hook. In terms of shape, it didn’t have a point to dig into any surface it touched. Rather, it was a long, robust cord tipped with a small black cone that stuck to solids it made contact with by applying a mixture of adhesive and magnetic technology.

  For Finn's purposes, he was focused on the latter. All he needed was to manipulate the fields in such a way that he stuck to the wall by means of the nanites inside his hands.

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  Kicking off his boots, Finn extended his hands toward the nearest wall, concentrating on the nanites embedded in his palms and fingers. He envisioned the electromagnetic interactions he needed to create—a controlled attraction between the metallic surface and his own body.

  To achieve this, he utilized the same energy conversion feature he used for his enhanced punches in a different way. Foregoing kinetic energy this time, he mentally directed the nanites to generate a localized magnetic field in his hands. The machines obeyed without delay, aligning their internal charge distributions in response to his will. A faint, invisible force pulsed outward as the nanites induced a negative charge in his skin while manipulating the material of the wall to carry a corresponding positive charge. Opposites attracted. The moment his palms touched the surface, they stuck firmly, as if fastened by an unbreakable bond.

  Testing the adhesion, he applied force in different directions, pressing forward, pulling back, and shifting his weight slightly from side to side. The connection held firm—strong enough to support his weight but not so rigid that he couldn’t release his grip when necessary. He took a deep breath and leaned into the wall, preparing for the next step.

  His bare feet followed suit. The nanites in his soles adjusted, replicating the same process at a lower intensity to avoid impeding movement. By carefully balancing the strength of the attraction in his hands and feet, he ensured that he could climb without getting locked in place.

  Finn bent his knees and lifted himself, reaching upward with one hand. His muscles tensed as he transferred his weight to his opposite limb, feeling the microscopic forces at work. With each movement, the nanites subtly recalibrated their output, adjusting the electromagnetic pull in response to shifts in balance and center of gravity. This ensured he never lost grip when repositioning.

  Halfway across, he encountered a slight irregularity in the metallic surface—a protrusion that jutted outward. Instead of attempting to navigate around it, he tested a different function. By reversing the polarity in his right hand, he generated a repelling force rather than an attraction. His palm hovered just above the obstruction, the invisible pressure pushing against the metal like two magnets resisting each other.

  The counterforce allowed him to leverage his momentum, giving him an additional point of stability without direct contact. Finn smirked. That was useful. He logged the method in his mental toolkit before shifting the charge back to its adhesive configuration and continuing forward.

  As he neared the opposite ledge, he prepared for the final maneuver. Wanting to test something out, he gathered energy into his legs while using the nanites in his feet to briefly increase their repelling force. The sudden magnetic push launched him upward. At the same time, he redirected the polarity in his hands to create an attraction to the far ledge, pulling himself toward it in midair.

  His fingers caught the edge with perfect precision. With one last heave, he vaulted over and landed on solid ground, breathing heavily but exhilarated.

  This was control. This was power.

  Finn rolled his shoulders, taking a moment to bask in the satisfaction of having not just crossed the chasm, but mastered the technique that allowed him to do so.

  The possibilities were expanding. And Shade was just getting started.

  Without looking back, he advanced towards the door and broke through as he had done with all the others, the process beginning to feel routine. Getting to his feet on the other side, he got up and sprinted. The sudden lack of footwear made the cold, hard floor more noticeable, but that was fine. He wasn’t planning to sleep here anyway.

  At the end of the hallway, he took a turn: the first divergence from the route he had taken with his sworn enemy. He could hardly follow the same path all the way back. That would lead him to a dead end, as he had already seen.

  With this, he was in uncharted territory, striking out on his own to find a way out of this mess. He had to get back to Mom and Lyra and Jack and everyone. But…

  Not as he was.

  They didn't need the old, childish, weak Finn to come back to them. In a way, they truly had witnessed his death. When he returned, it would be as someone reliable.

  He needed a goal, something concrete beyond getting strong enough to fight Omega. That would be especially nebulous because Omega was a moving goalposts, notorious for mysteriously growing stronger every time he appeared. Finn had no plans of letting that deter him, he just wanted something tangible that he could reach.

  Thinking back to the battle against Viperia, he decided to use Mistral as his first milestone. He would have to be stronger than that, on a level where he could start fighting against Unbound and not die in three seconds.

  In order to climb his way up to that stage, honing his connections with the nanite colony took priority. He would be working on that and deciphering Amalgam's code simultaneously throughout his stay. In no world would he accept anything less.

  Three sequences of dodged traps later, he happened upon another room. This one was filled with giant metallic beams, scattered from one end to another, some standing and others laying on the ground. The whole thing looked like one of those modern art pieces. But that wasn't what drew Finn's gaze. His eyes were fixed on the far wall as he ran in its direction.

  Though it likely hadn't been more than a day since he last saw the outside, it felt like an eternity had passed in the meantime. Finally, he was able to see a way out of the facility. There was no doorway, but he didn't need one. He just vigorously whaled on the featureless maybe-metal until it gave.

  All in all, with it being so much thicker than a door, and his arms having to recover each time, coupled with the fatigue, it must have taken over an hour. And then he saw the sky and ground.

  The radiant blue sun sat high and proud in the air, gracing the transparent blades of grass on the endless plains with its light. A gargantuan white and gray bastion stood in the middle of the land, firm and unmoving as Finn poked his head out of it. Looking down, he saw that he was multiple stories up, nowhere near the point where he could jump down and survive, but he could climb down now. No need to go back and find an exit.

  As he looked over the foreign world, Finn took in the vast expanse until he sighted what seemed like a small settlement, little more than tiny dots in the distance.

  He made his way over there, knowing he had a lot of training ahead of him.

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