Power of the Gods

Chapter 24

Justin pulled away a large cluster of brush to reveal a wooden door carved into a tree, the color of the door perfectly blending in with the color of the tree bark so that it was almost unnoticeable even if you were close to it. Justin turned the knob and opened the door.

"May I present to you, our way inside," Justin said gesturing to the pitch black, unlit interior of the tree.

"How did you even know this was here?" Lucas asked.

Justin shrugged. "I couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but I was thinking," he explained. "Since Striker and I are clones, even though we may have different views we're still the same. If I had taken control of an entire dimension, I would be worried about a revolt. Even with all my power, I would still want to have a contingency plan. What better than an escape tunnel that leads into a place no one can find easily."

"It is a good strategy," Kylan admitted.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Porter asked. "Let's do this!"

Porter started running into the tunnel, but was stopped by Justin grabbing his shirt. "Woah there dude," he said. "You can't just charge someone and expect it to work, especially if it's Striker. None of you guys can take me out, so what makes you think that you can take out a copy of me that's not only enhanced in strength but was created to be a killer?"

Porter took a step back as he thought it through. Justin looked at Lucas. "You take point," he told him. "You can use your gloves to light up the tunnel so that we aren't walking in blind."

Lucas nodded as he typed in a code on his gloves, which caused them to start glowing. He then proceeded to start into the tunnel with the others close behind. After what felt like an hour they reached a wooden door.

Justin walked in front of everyone and barely opened the door just enough to see out of. The room the door led into was a large throne room with a high ceiling. Looking around he noticed that there were two Dark Seekers in the room with their backs to the door, but they looked different than the ones he had seen.

Instead of looking like pitch black shapes, they looked like they were a cross between animals. One looked like a combination of a lizard and a frog, having a frog's face and webbed feet with lizard's body and scales. The other looked like a cross between a rat and a goat, with a long rat's tail and steel-like whiskers as well as a goat's horns and hooves.

Justin looked at Alpha, who nodded to him. Alpha quietly stepped out of the door way and crept towards the two creatures, his paws making barely any noise on the stone floors. As he crept closer to the two, his body started to twitch and another Alpha split off from Alpha's body, this one with a number 2 on his chest.

Lucas rubbed at his eyes to make sure that he had actually seen that. "What just happened?!" he hissed.

"It's Duplication Magic," Kylan whispered. "It's not often used because it's difficult to perform, but it creates a duplicate of yourself that's slightly weaker. You can always tell them apart because the copy has a number on it."

The two Alpha's quietly came up behind the two Dark Seekers and pounced on their backs. The Dark Seekers struggled for a moment until the two wolves dug their fangs into their necks.

The copy of Alpha merged back with the original and everyone came out of the tunnel door. "Man this place is huge!" Porter said as he admired the throne room. "Talk about living large."

"Well then I hope you're fine with having this place as your grave," said a voice. Everyone turned to see Lunar standing by a door leading to a set of stairs, his once injured arm fully healed.

Porter and Kylan looked at each other before smirking. "You guys go on ahead of us," Kylan told the others.

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, we've got this," said Porter as he cracked his knuckles.

Justin nodded. "Good luck," he told them.

They ran past Lunar. Lunar made an attempt to stop them, but was prevented from doing so by Kylan, who threw a small knife at him, forcing him to defend himself.

"Keep your focus on us," Porter said. "We're the ones you need to worry about."

Lunar growled as he threw off his trench coat and began growing. When he stopped growing he was smaller than he had been the first time they met him.

Kylan looked at Porter from the corner of his eye. "Don't let your guard down," he warned him. "He might be smaller, but I doubt that his size makes him weaker."

"You weak little humans!" Lunar said. "I will kill you and devour your flesh."

Justin and Alpha ran up the stairs ahead of Sam and Lucas. Looking up, Lucas couldn't see an end to them. "How many stairs are there?!" Lucas whined as they stopped.

"Relax, Lucas," Justin called back to him. "These stairs lead to the roof. Once we get close we can take a quick break."

"Sounds good to me," Sam said. "But shouldn't we help Kylan and Porter out?"

Justin shook his head. "No, they can handle themselves," he said. "Besides, I don't really want to try and take Striker on by myself. I'm not even entirely sure that I have enough energy to take him out solo, so having some backup is a much better idea."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Great motivational speech," he sighed. "It's so reassuring to know that the person we're trusting to kill a homicidal sociopath thinks he might fail."

Justin's eyes narrowed as he looked at Lucas. "No one asked you," he said. "I know that I can kill him, I just think I might need a little help with it."

"Not that I'm not enjoying our talk, but shouldn't we keep going?" Alpha said.

"Right, sorry," Justin said before continuing up the stairs.

On the roof of the castle, Striker was standing near the edge, looking out at his land. Soon he heard footsteps coming up from the stairway at the center of the roof.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Striker asked, without turning around. "All of these creatures willing to lay down their lives for me."

Justin glared at his clone. "Sad is more like it," he said. "No one should put their lives in the hands of a madman that was created in a test tube."

Striker turned to look at the small group. "Madman?" he asked. "Face it, you and I share the same DNA. Like a coin, I represent the darker side of you, doing the things you've thought of but have never done."

Justin closed his hand into a fist and a sword appeared in his hand. "You're wrong," he said. "I've never thought of condemning an entire town to death, of taking over a dimension of monsters, or that I can do whatever I want because of my power."

Striker summoned a sword into his hand. "Why shouldn't we? Our power is unmatched," he said, a sinister smile on his face. "We're the only people capable of beating us. Compared to the humans our powers make us gods. It is within our right to decide a their fates."

Almost simultaneously, Justin and Striker charged each other. The two swung their swords at each other in similar movement, sparks flying as their swords crossed. The two kept swinging at each other with incredible speed. Their swords were almost invisible to the spectators as they swung faster and faster.

Striker and Justin suddenly released their blades with one hand and swung their fists at each other as they both punched each other in the face. The punches sent the two sliding away from each other. Striker quickly regained his balance and summoned a second blade into his free hand. Justin did the same and tightened his grip on the blades.

Alpha and Sam were about to run to their friends aid when he stopped them. "No!" Justin told them. "I can handle this!"

Striker sprouted angel wings except unlike Justin, his wings had black feathers instead of white ones. "Let's take this somewhere where we won't be interrupted, shall we?" Striker said smugly.

Striker took to the sky as he flew high above the clouds. Justin sprouted his wings as he flew up after Striker. All that the others could see were flashes of light as the two struck each other.