Suddenly, Michael became curious about the person Zane, Kyrus, Ferron, Teron, Liris, and Aerion called Dr. Metal Phoenix.
"And who is this Dr. Metal Phoenix of yours?" Michael asked.
"Dr. Metal Phoenix, our master — he is the greatest scientist-researcher of all time," said Zane. "Even as a child, he stood out from the rest. As a kid, he thought like an adult — no, even further, not every adult could come up with such things. In school, he got the highest scores in every subject. His dream was always to create the impossible. As an adult, having become a scientist constantly experimenting and researching, he achieved something incredible — he mastered a second element. Initially, he controlled only fire, but through painful experiments on himself, he also managed to gain control over metal magic. From that moment on, everyone started calling him the Metal Phoenix. After that, he began creating robots, which, according to his design, were supposed to defend people from all dangers. After many attempts to create something like that, we appeared — robots of model 2005.11.22.23, who matched everything he wanted to see in his creation. And the rest, well, you already know what happened."
"I see! The beginning was brilliant, but one mistake and the end turned into hell instead of becoming a paradise," said Julius.
"And what's behind that door?" Michael asked.
"The door you pointed to — that's Dr. Metal Phoenix's personal laboratory. The last time we saw him, he went in there, saying he would be able to fix everything," Zane replied.
"Can we go there?" Michael asked.
"Yes, you can! Only the six of us cannot enter there," Zane responded.
"Then Mr. Julius and I will take a look," said Michael.
Then Michael and Julius went and entered Dr. Metal Phoenix's personal laboratory. They saw a dark room with many traces of very old blood when they entered. After walking a few steps deeper into the room, they saw a half-lying, half-sitting skeleton in a suit typically worn by scientists.
"There's someone's skeleton here, Mr. Julius!" Michael said.
As they approached the skeleton, they noticed a torn, bloodstained white lab coat with a tag that read "Dr. Metal Phoenix."
"Ah? It says, 'Dr. Metal Phoenix' here," said Michael.
"That's his skeleton. It makes sense since the last place he entered was here, and it's been 6000 years since," said Julius.
Then Mr. Julius decided to look around the room better and found a portrait from 6000 years ago, showing three people. He assumed the picture showed Dr. Metal Phoenix and his family.
"Now it makes sense why Michael was mistaken for him. They really do look quite similar — same face and hairstyle," Julius said after seeing the portrait with Dr. Metal Phoenix on it.
"Huh? And what's that?" Michael said, noticing something on one of the fingers of Dr. Metal Phoenix's skeleton.
"Most likely a ring," said Julius.
Michael decided to take off the ring, and when he did, a video projection with a final message from Dr. Metal Phoenix appeared in front of Mr. Julius and Michael. They were a bit startled by the unexpected sight.
"Greetings to those on the other side of this video," Dr. Metal Phoenix began in the recorded message. "I decided to record this video message because I feel I will soon leave this world, and maybe by the time it's found, I'll have long been dead. Surely, everyone will hate me for centuries — maybe more than centuries. Today, something happened that I feared more than anything else! A real apocalypse has begun! A system error that I created led to this apocalypse. I managed to fix the codes in Zane and the others while fighting them, but they remembered nothing while the system error existed. So, I decided to lie to them and go to fix the system in my lab. And what I discovered while trying to fix the error… shocked me deeply."
At this point, Julius and Michael listened more closely.
"The system code had been completely rewritten!" Dr. Metal Phoenix continued in the video. "Someone deliberately hacked the system and rewrote the code — as if this person wanted all of the people to be wiped out! And instead of doing it himself and taking the blame, he decided to frame me!"
Michael and Julius listened even more intently to Dr. Metal Phoenix's final message.
"Yeah… This is how it all ends for me—such a shame. I had so many things I still wanted to do. I hope my wife and son are safe. Tell Zane and the others that I will love them as my creations even after death. I… it's time… such a… pity… that it all… ended… like… this…" finished Dr. Metal Phoenix, dying from blood loss.
"A rather tragic end he met," said Julius.
"Tragic doesn't even begin to cover it!" said an angry Michael, tears in his eyes. "What kind of scum would do such a thing — setting someone up and remaining unpunished!"
"Calm down! That person must be dead by now, too," said Julius. "After all, 6000 years have passed."
"Sorry, I lost my temper," Michael said, wiping away tears. "You're right. He's probably long dead. We should take this and show it to them."
After watching the final video message from the dying Dr. Metal Phoenix, Michael and Mr. Julius returned to Zane and the other robots and showed it to them. After watching the message, they became sad, now knowing for certain that their master, Dr. Metal Phoenix, was dead. They didn't know what to do next.
Then Michael suggested, "Since your master is gone, and I look like him, maybe I could become your new master?"
"Are you serious? You want to be our master?" Zane asked.
"Yeah!" Michael replied.
The robots were overjoyed and said together, "We are serving you! You are our new master! Thank you for agreeing!"
"You're welcome!" Michael said. "And since you're combat models, can you teach me how to use my magic powers?"
"Unfortunately, we are combat models, not training ones! But we'll help however we can with your training!" all six said at once.
The next day, Michael went to the tournament as the second qualifying stage was about to begin.