Behind the Lock

by Wesley A. Bianchi

  Suddenly, the tentacle stop for an unknown reason, slowly returning to its master. Dom’s heart race as it could be a fatal attack, after spotting those sharp points on the tentacle.

  “I see the Sun god has blessed you. If I have gotten further, then my entire arm could have been disintegrating,” Antonio said. After regaining his senses, Dom holds his club tightly and charges towards his enemy.

  *Swoosh* before landing any hit, Dom got push back again from this immense force. Bleeding from few wounds, he knew relentless attacks could not possibly work against Antonio, so he stays away from him for just a moment.

  “I am curious to know…how you obtain those tools; I heard they belong to two powerful warriors. According to the legend, Xibalba imprisoned both the brothers in an inescapable chamber, attach to an unbreakable chain. By logic, you aid in freeing them, and in return…they reward you with their sacred belongings…how precious.”

  “What the hell are you…?” Dom said.

  “A god, my boy…should know this by now. Let’s change this hideous scenery, with something more fitting.”

  With the snap of a finger, an immense wave transitioned the whole chamber, into an ancient city filled with enormous structures and gray skies.

  “What do you think? A fascinating sight to behold. The old century is interesting, enough to replace my boredom…”

  Distract by the sight of an elusive city; Dom snuck his way through trying to land a hit.

  Surprisingly, an image deceived his eyes forcing him to hit an illusion, while the real one continued, uninterrupted talking, calmly gazing upon the tall structures. He slightly turns revealing a menacing look, his eyes cloud blankly and a pale gray face reflecting dark veins running across his chin.

  “Futile…” without opening his mouth, he spoke through telepathy shocking Dom in an instant. Antonio completely turns to release a devastating attack; his fist twitches and vibrate moving faster than a blowing wind. A release of fury pounded Dom into the floor leaving him to cough blood simultaneously.

  “Hehehe! Seeing you squirm ensures my victory…Huh!”

  From an unexpected angle, the club swung against his face knocking him backward. Antonio wonder how it became possible, most of his senses are beyond human, but somehow this attack unknowingly lands such an injury.

  Barely breathing, dust surface around a large hole left on the ground. In it, Dom lay almost mutilated by many bruises; his shirt tore open revealing his bare chest. Dom crawls out of the hole, along with his unique club. Bloodstains on the weapon quickly surface his emotions trapping him in a puzzling set of thoughts. That is when, Antonio quickly notice a grave misfortune, this erupt his ego making him burst into anger.

  “How can this be? No mere human can perform such a feat…Huh!” His lower jaw was broken off after a lucky hit, leaving a deep cut on his cheeks and chin. The dust cleared, and Dom remains in an adequate position breathing heavily from too much use of spirit magic. After seeing him in one piece, Antonio realized his mistake in underestimating the young man.

  “You blew my expectations, Mr. Tisdale, being able to withstand the pain and still put up a fight. To expect such arrogance from a human is starting to pester me now…you must perish in return for this humiliation.”

  Antonio quickly re-attaches his jaw, scrapping his fingers across the cuts left by the dislocation.

  “Now I’ve done it; I need to retreat, or else his latest attack will handicap me.”

  Dom flees towards a random stair structure hoping there would be an entrance. One of his legs still crippled from the attack, so running in full sprint grew challenging and risky. A stack of skulls nailed to a stone blocked the entrance. Antonio saw his retreat, so he shifts through the air attempting to reach him.

  That made Dom desperate, so he broke in, by smashing the stone using his club. In a chance of luck, his crippled leg sprung back together making a run through obstacles to reach a safe zone. Antonio gains on him, but Dom prevailed, swinging his club back and forth to buy time. Tripping on the floor, Dom panics as he sees DeAmora flying towards him, so he rolls along the floor dodging a close encounter. *Bam*Antonio busted through a wall, while Dom sprang towards a stairway hoping to resolve this pursuit. Opening the door, he sprinted through the staircase entering an upper level, while Antonio floated out busting the gravel dissolving it with his dark aura. Dom encounters a series of rooms, filled with gaps, covers, and dark corridors giving numerous ways to hide. Sprinting into a long hallway, he hid behind a crack, hoping it would not be too obvious.

  Then, a small glow came from his left pocket; the feather, in which the gods praised him, began to grow scales of numerous colors. Dom wondered what this meant, but he knew it protected him from annihilation earlier. *Clack* Footsteps echoed through the stairway; his foe arrived at his current floor, so he stuffs his feather away and silences his pant for a moment.

  “Hmmm…pointless in trying to leave my sight boy. I know you are hiding somewhere here If you hope the shadows will protect you…you guess wrong; I can hear the fear from your heart.”

  Antonio explores the torn rooms, scouring them as he pummels most of them to bits. Peeking from cover, Dom views him going the opposite direction, so he lurks holding the club on his shoulder. Carefully moving across on his toes, Dom lifts his weapon overhead, sweating as anxiety shook his grip. Swinging the club, Antonio quickly turns around and grab it avoiding a fatal hit.

  “Didn’t you learn…my senses are immense, sneaking around is futile!” Antonio broke Dom’s arm by emitting a trembling wave through the club, then suffocating his neck.

  “You must be realizing now, regretting every single action and thinking to yourself, why I have to suffer an agonizing death. I bid you farewell Mr. Tisdale; I will assure most of you would not go to waste.”

  Piercing his chest through, Dom felt the end coming soon, while Antonio felt a steam of relief rising through his body.

  Suddenly, a strange hand reaches out squeezing his wrist. Antonio rolled his eyes to find not Dom, but a muscular man with animalistic eyes and strange garments. “Ha!” The man ripped the hand out of his body and crumbled the ground as he landed. The man brought upon the club, almost striking a devastating blow. Antonio dodges the attack, and distance himself from the mysterious individual.

  “You! Introduce yourself immediately… who are you?”

  Antonio demanded. The man remains silent, only to open his palm to expect something.

  A scaled bird appears to climb his shoulder, landing on his hand. The creature had a red streamer-like tail and a bronze beak. It flew off into the hallways, as the stranger made a constant but stable expression. He wore silver armor with a bracelet on his wrist and ankles, a cape filled with limitless tribal markings, and a multi-color feather helmet.

  “If thigh eager to know, I am the Jaguar of War, Warrior to the Sun god and the manifest of the underworld.”

  “The demi-god came in person, how was this possible? My fist was drenched in blood a moment ago, what became of the human man?” Antonio wondered.

  The Jaguar grab something out of his back, a golden shield-reflecting one’s image, with ruff scratches marked through the material. The club began summoning its long thick spikes as it awoken its real potential. The Jaguar blew steam out from his nose while licking the blood off his wound as his fangs demonstrate an inhuman capability. Antonio re-attaches his severed hand by moving his veins together with his own.

  “The seed of evil must be banished into oblivion…the time has come to face your sins before our fists taste vaguely of blood.”

  The Jaguar said.

  “I don’t know what the hell you say! But I indeed accept your challenge, only the most powerful will survive this outcome.”

  The Jaguar pounce to a side in a flash trying to swing a hit, apparently Antonio dodge the attack, but at an angle, the shield landed a tremendous blow. Which stun Antonio for a moment, the Jaguar broke the fiend’s ribs, as the club penetrated through ripp
ing away most of his vitals.

  “Gwahhhh!” Suddenly, the world around them shifted into a different reality. Falling into a labyrinth, the men were far apart landing roughly on hard concrete. The maze had unlimited extensions as it went on endlessly. Gigantic cubes of walls cover the skies from entering the stone containment, as thousands of other walls block the field. It was where men perish one by one in narrow pathways.

  The Jaguar carried on cautiously, knowing his enemy could be using the surrounding walls as cover. Then using force, he broke down a few barriers making large gaps enough for him to pass through. After the destruction of crumbling stones, the atmosphere became too silent for him to loosen his guard; looking into a reflection on his shield. He knew it was his foe but decided not to turn just yet until he lured him into the right moment.

  Tentacles crept up behind him, slithering over his back. Tangling around his neck, the Jaguar grabs the arm forcibly pulling on it, as he crunches his sharp teeth, his veins grew tremendously, which emit an electrifying shock onto his fingers. Giving him the strength to bring the enemy out of hiding, and many walls crumbled as he drags Antonio to his location.

  Chewing on broken teeth, Antonio lay on the floor coughing out not only dust but also blood. The jaguar pummels him into the ground making a massive wave force that shook the entire maze.

  Exhausting so much energy, he equips the club aiming at a lower angle. Antonio still lay paralyzed by the beatings, twitching from the agony he suffers.

  “Seed of Xibalba! You are on the brink of your wits, may you wither in the ashes of your creator and disappear from this realm for eternity.”

  Suddenly a flash stuns his outlook as he swung the weapon aimlessly, while blinded for seconds. His vision return to normal, but the world shifted again, and this time Antonio vanished from his execution. Flesh and large muscular parts made a new reality, and most of the parts made an active beat occasionally. A fresh blood trail situated In front of an entrance lead the Jaguar into a tunnel filled with torches.

  He recognizes the scent of his enemies, so he knew Antonio limp through this route. Casually jogging through the tunnel, the smell grew stronger every second; especially the trail became more visible. The Jaguar knew his enemy was nearby, so he quickly hurried through the tunnel, hoping he would arrive before the opportunity is gone.

  Reaching an eerie chamber filled with Anubis statues, and a large chandelier hanging above. Antonio crawled reaching to a throne, as he struggled to pull himself over.

  After hearing the echo of footsteps, Antonio crawled desperately acting afraid of his future. The Jaguar wanted his foe to experience the tasteful emotion of such fear, before honoring him a bashful death.

  “You think you achieved victory, but you are wrong Jaguar…The moment you swing those spikes…it’ll Be your dying breath…Ahhh!”

  The Jaguar lifted him with a single arm staring into his eyes. He drops him and clubbed him down, then swung upon a finishing blow.

  *cough* Blood gushed off his scalp, as the spikes impaled into his head. He kneeled to a position that his eyes quickly went blank. The Jaguar sighed as he thought the battle ended, until starting to feel a liquid drawing around his sandals.

  From the flesh wounds of Antonio DeAmora, puddles of black blood started to emerge out of his head. The corpse of Amora was drained entirely from life, but this occurrence drove the Jaguar into a nervous state. He sprang backward distancing himself further away when unexpectedly, the corpse transition into a darker color with bright red eyes.

  Abruptly, a shadow emerging from the remains splattered across the room as its tentacles squirmed out of its backside.

  “The seed of evil lives…”

  “Hwahhhh…” The creature levitated as its screech echoed through the room. Suddenly, the being releases its power through the atmosphere changing the world into a nightmarish wonderland. Lands were overwhelmed by dark water, and long tentacles arise from the depths, escaping its evil power beyond hopeless at this point.

  The Jaguar slash off the rising tentacles, as much more came above strangling his ankle and legs restraining him in a firm grasp. He tried breaking free, but it was useless struggling as it dug into his flesh.

  Meanwhile, in the clouded skies, a demonic eye spectated below, as many more tentacles spawn all around the land. Using his inner power, the Jaguar burnt all restrainers with a touch of his flames. Countless tentacles attack the demi-god relentlessly ignoring the deadly might of his club.

  As a tentacle pierced through his torso, enemies swarm him, forcing him to stagger for a small moment, and then gripping it before pain made him weak. He bit a piece of it off using his fangs and threw the rest into the bottomless depth.

  Licking the blood off his lips, the Jaguar continued to fight endlessly, while figuring a way to strike the eye above. Slashing through the horde, soon enough many more tentacles pile onto him piercing his muscles and body. They slithered into his body almost destroying his internal organs and ripping away part of his veins at the same time. Slime from defeated foes attracted him like a magnet, dissolving pieces of his knees.

  The Jaguar saw no other method of the trial against the multiplying arms of evil, so he uses his dying strength to throw the club directly into the spectacle eye.

  As the eye closed, his scale bird friend rush to shield his companion while carrying a bow, creating an enchanted force field to ward off all evil. Before disappearing into the horde, the Jaguar reach out to catch the bow and succumb to darkness slowly fading him; he reaches out to his other soul before vanishing for good.

  “Senor Dominic…you must end this madness, the bow I wield will cast away this evil for eternity. Follow the path of light…and may our wrath pierce its sinful heart…”

  A few moments later. Awakening in a dark, desolate place engulfed by white energy, Dom realizes his mission. Below his sparkling fingers held a bow, but mysteriously without no arrow, this puzzled him for a moment.

  Beyond the darkness, the Kuk (scale bird) reappeared purifying the area, flying in a single direction. Dom began to sprint after it, believing its purpose was to guide him away from his unconscious slumber. The light casting the shadows shows the tentacles trying to break apart their defenses. Dom stuck close to the bird, trying to avoid getting trap behind the rumble sealing off their starting point. “Ahhhhhh!” a steeper gap leads into a dark abyss, where moans loudly echo above the surfaces.

  The feathery creature flew to the bottom instantly without warning, Dom wondered if he can jump off, but his ego contemplates whether he will survive the fall or not. He then closes his eyes shut to jump off the brink trusting his bird companion.

  Dom felt the rapid speed of wind puffing against his face; the fall was completely pitch black, except for the spiritual aura that now covers his body. Dom could feel an essence of so many memories going through his mind, as though the moment has finally reached him. The ventures and hardships he experiences made him whole once more, even the fear of death no longer surfaces his worries.

  Sliding through a close gap, Dom enters into a white room containing a flesh tube at the center, inside it lay Antonio’s physical body slumbering in an immobile state. The bird soars circling it, later resting its claws on Dom’s shoulders.

  Pulling the stringer on the bow, an arrow made of only light appeared on his fingertips. Dom slowly aimed the tube and felt his chest pounding indecisiveness.

  “Wait!” A voice yelled. From his right, a brief image of Antonio appears to halt his attack. Dom quickly aims his bow towards the elusive figure.

  “Think wisely of your actions, if you fire that arrow…every single opportunity will forever be ruined. Will you risk killing me and destroy this golden power? Think about what you can achieve with this Dominic.” Antonio said hastily.

  “Shut up! Your evil only intoxicates this whole universe. Do you believe I’ll fall for your manipulations?”

  “Help me fulfill my cause, and I will not erase your existence. If you give y
ourself to me, I will offer you anything you desire. I could grant you the most desired wish, to revive that dear person of yours…and rebuild your future into a delightful vision. Isn’t that your dream?”

  Hypnotized by the voices of his dead relatives, Dom drew into a long-standing contemplation, slowly yielding his grip on the bow. Antonio watches him gleefully as he touches his shoulder. Suddenly, Dom maneuvers his hand and points the arrow back at him.

  “Is this supposed to be your last resort?” Dom said. “It is not coming through me. Many people you made suffer will want me to kill you, especially my family!”

  Dom releases the arrow into the tube, piercing through Antonio’s body, burning him with white flames.

  The scene of him screaming in agony lasted a few seconds before fading off into ashes. Meanwhile, everything in the white room exploded in a flash, decimating the flesh buds inside the tube.

  In a moment of absolute silence, the chamber returned to its original state, only showing a few cracks on the floor. Shockingly, a weaken Dom crawls through the bottom with fragile bones and smoking flesh. His face just had one eye; the other showed an empty socket. As he grunts in pain, half of his body suffered a significant loss from a close battle.

  In the center, a ball of light appears floating in the air waiting to be touched.

  *Clap, Clap Clap* someone approaches from behind clacking his footsteps, and slamming his hands together.

  “Well well…Well, I see you survived the ordeal, or should I say barely.”

  “No….It can’t ….be!”

  Dom slightly turns his neck, finding the man in which he thought was deceased, Ramon Desylvia. He no longer wore a mask, which covered the scars from recent attacks, and his pale skin had bite marks throughout his arms and torso.

  “You should be happy lad; you won the battle against that bad seed of Xibalba. I only came here to celebrate with you.”

  Ramon pulled a colt out of his sleeves and shot a round into Dom’s legs.

  “Ahh! You were supposed to be dead. I saw you fall off…”