Slayer

by Riker Kane

  The energy kept spinning around until it formed a circle just like I’d walked through so many times before. A portal to another dimension.

  The last dimension.

  Anarchy.

  I walked up to the energy and stared into it like I could find what I was looking for. But there was only one way to find it.

  One last deep breath. Maybe the last I ever took. I held it for as long as I could before digging my feet into the dirt and rushing through.

  45: The Main Event

  The sky was black but not empty. Clouds of purple and blue energy wafted through the air in every direction. Rocks drifted by like slowly moving asteroids. Beyond them, small circles of white light shine like stars. And even farther, what looked like comets shot past in the blink of an eye. I stared closer and noticed everything moving. Not it any particular direction though. The sky was rotating all around me. What stood out more than anything though. A giant planet. A perfect sphere. Something twice as big as the moon with a purple and red gradient, shining on everything around it.

  Underneath my feet, the black dirt crumbled underneath my sneakers. The jagged rocks all around me formed some kinda mass that was about the size of the battlefield I’d just left. This land was moving though. There were no gates to keep me confined. There was just… empty space I felt like I could drift out into.

  “What the hell…”

  I was surprised I could get the words out. I looked around in every direction and saw the spirals in the distance. They were something I’d only seen in YouTube vids and movies.

  Space. I was out in space. Or something close to it, since I didn’t have any trouble breathing.

  A chill shot through my spine and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. My gauntlets shook. I raised one up and saw it vibrating. I waved my hand there was still an image of it left behind from where I moved it, like it was trying to slowly catch up. The tingling sensation I felt before was stronger.

  “Anarchy…”

  Redgrave said things were unstable around here. He gave me a timetable but there was no telling how accurate it was. I couldn’t take any chances.

  I had every reason to be mesmerized by the endless space all around me. I was in-between worlds in a galaxy that didn’t appear to have an end. But I regained my focus when I remembered why I was here in the first place.

  He lost my father’s signal here. There had to be some sign of him. Somewhere I could find him on this mass of rock drifting through space. He was hiding somewhere—

  “And so, you chose to follow the path to your own destruction.”

  The voice was slow. Somewhat distant. Measured. Full of loathing. I already knew who it was but I turned around to see it for myself.

  The figure stood twenty meters away. Black robes draped all over it and a hood to cover its face. The only part of it exposed were its pale, lanky arms. The nails on the end of its fingers were white and sharpened into claws.

  “Lynx…”

  The figure slowly removed its hood to reveal the pale face. Black lined its eyes and trailed along its cheeks like veins. Eyes empty but with a faint red glow pointed in my direction.

  “Lynx. Is that the name you’ve given me? The others mentioned your kind. Said the ‘Earth’ Dimension is particularly curious.”

  “What others?”

  “The others attempting to exert our will. I choose not to associate with them. They are old and archaic. Stuck in their ways and pledged to the dogmas of the ancients. There are others like me. Others apart from the collective. But there’s only one me.”

  I didn’t have any clue what he was talking about. Didn’t really care though. This asshole knew my father and he was gonna start giving me the answers I was looking for.

  “Where is he?”

  “You’ll have to be more specific… No, wait… Perhaps I know who you’re speaking of. The one with the same weapons as you. Him.” His expression didn’t change and his voice was still full of loathing. “He was no match for me. I did to him what I’ve done to all those who step into my realm and challenge my will.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Look around you. This.” He threw his hands into the air. “All of this. This is my domain. Everything your eyes see. Everything you hear. Everything you taste on your tongue. I control it all.”

  “You’re in control of a fancy floating rock in space. That’s… not very impressive.”

  “Hmph. The others said you humans are flawed. So full of yourselves. To think you can defy the will of something greater than you. The fight you and your brethren put up is hopeless. Your destruction is inevitable. You don’t realize I’m one of the few who’s trying to save you.”

  “Save me?” I scoffed. “How are you doing that?”

  “Did you not read the message left for you? You are only here because you seek death. You have been warned to turn away. The one before you carved a path from your world, moving from one location to the next. Only to seek their own destruction. Now you repeat the same process.”

  Lynx shook his head, his face still not showing any emotions.

  “I suppose I’ll never understand beings from Earth.”

  “I didn’t come here to make friends.” I stepped forward and clenched my fists at my sides. “I’ll make you a deal. Tell me where the one who came before me is and I won’t punch your fucking head off your shoulders.”

  “Hmph… Such arrogance.” His eyes shifted toward my gauntlets. “I can sense it in you. You have come better prepared than the previous one. But surviving in this realm is futile when I can destroy you on a whim.”

  “This is your last chance. Where is he?”

  Lynx began inching toward me. “You have been warned too many times not to come here. You are too far beyond the threshold to return.”

  “All right, asshole. You wanna do this the hard way… Let’s do it the hard way.”

  I ran forward and leaped into the air. WHAM. Lynx stood his ground as I came crashing down and slammed my gauntlets into the rubble at my feet. The entire giant rock we floated on began to tremble. Lynx shifted his weight slightly but remained in his position.

  I moved closer to take advantage of his momentary stun and caught him hard in the chest. My right hand connected clean and sent him stumbling back a few steps.

  He clutched the center of his chest as he widened his eyes at me.

  “That’s right, motherfucker. Potent Mana.”

  His brow furrowed with anger as his eyes widened and burned into a brighter red.

  That was it. Now he knew I wasn’t messing around.

  I moved to him again and swung. He responded by raising his palm up and firing a blast of white energy. My knuckles connected with it, knocking my right arm back. But I swung with my left to catch him off guard and clocked him in the chin.

  His head turned sideways and a gash of black blood leaked from his lips.

  “Any time you’re ready to stop, all you have to do is tell me where—”

  “Ahhh!” Lynx quickly brought his hands together and pointed his palms at me. Another beam of blinding white light shot toward me.

  “Power Shield!” I activated my barrier and just managed to stop it. But the strength of the energy pushed me back. I dug my feet into the ground and felt the dirt rising up over my ankles as the energy continued to move me back.

  Lynx pressed forward, his eyes glowing even hotter. “Such arrogance. You are a curious being, indeed.”

  I pressed my feet down even harder and clenched my jaw. My barrier stayed up as long as I could hold it until I regained enough of my footing to move forward. All I had to do was get close. Close enough to connect.

  I inched toward him until he was in range. His palms were just in front of me. I gathered all of my strength and knocked his hands away and the blast stopped. I rushed toward him and—BAM—clocked him with a right cross that caught him right on the side of the head, knocking him down to one knee.

  No cocky
line. No celebration. No admiration of my punch. There was no time for that.

  I was on top of him, cracking him on the back of the head until he was flat on his stomach. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Left and right hands pounded his face into the ground. Dirt went flying in every direction as I tried to mash his head off his body.

  I kept swinging but my fatigue was getting to me. My punches lost their steam and I eventually stopped to catch my breath.

  My exhaustion forced me down to one knee.

  “Huh…”

  Lynx laid motionless in the dirt, his head crammed into the ground like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. The sight of it was kinda funny.

  “Where is he?”

  There was no response.

  “Where is he?” I barked it even louder.

  Lynx slowly began to stir. He pressed his palms into the ground and pushed himself up. He floated onto his feet and stared down at me. His face was cut and scarred. The lines of black trailing his cheeks were dripping with blood of the same color. His eyes were glowing still glowing red like fire burning in his eye sockets.

  “You seek the one who came before you? Then you shall see the one who came before you.”

  Lynx raised his palms and charged another blast. I activated my Power Shield and the blue barrier took the brunt of it. I held on but the barrier in front of me began to bend. The white-hot energy poured down on me like a stream. Suddenly, my blue barrier shattered and the blast consumed me.

  The force of the blow sent me tumbling across the dirt. Every part of my body slammed into the ground before I slowly came to an unceremonious and painful stop.

  “Shit…” I groaned as I pressed my fists into the dirt.

  “You have made it this far.” Lynx started walking slowly toward me. “I suppose there’s some consolation in that. Honor, some view that as. But your purpose… I still do not know what it is except for certain doom.”

  I popped up to my feet and swung with a right hand, trying to catch him off guard. But he blasted my hand away and connected with another palm blast that caught me in the chest. Again I went stumbling through across the rocks. My body was bruised and cut all over. My face was bleeding, I was sure of it.

  But I got back up to my feet to throw a left hook. Lynx parried it with both hands then grabbed my throat. The amount of strength he had was surprising, making it hard for me to breathe. He lifted me from the ground and stared at me with his glowing, narrowed red eyes.

  “You should have never come here. I will show you the folly of your choice.”

  I threw a right hand and connected on his chin. His head turned but his grip didn’t loosen. He just kept squeezing until I felt my life draining from me.

  My vision was going black. My strength was leaving me. I had to do something.

  “Foolish human.”

  He squeezed his hand tight around me and tossed me forward. I waited to hit the ground but I didn’t. I just kept falling. Tumbling through the sky like I just jumped from a plane.

  My surroundings started to fade. Everything around me disappeared. I kept searching for something, anything, to grab onto. But there was nothing. Everything went black and even my own thoughts were gone.

  46: Unleashed

  “Wake up…”

  A groan escaped my lips.

  “Wake up…”

  There was a voice. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from or who it was.

  “Wake up…”

  My senses slowly started to return to me. Then I realized who it was. My own voice was talking to me, trying to bring me back from the darkness I didn’t realize I was in.

  A bright light forced my eyes open. I was laying on… something. My body pressed against it along with my cheek. I blinked to clear my vision and saw my surroundings.

  Red waves of energy flowed from top to bottom with seemingly no end. It was all around me. Above me. Beneath my feet. At every side but there was no way for me to reach out and touch it.

  I pushed myself up to my feet and realized how tired I was. My knees buckled not just from my fatigue but from all my injuries. Cuts on my face and scrapes on my body dripped slowly. Even my jeans were in tatters at this point.

  I straightened up and looked down. There was no floor for me to stand on but there was something there because I wasn’t falling. A few taps with my toes confirmed it was solid.

  Every direction I could walk looked the same. Just dark red energy flowing like I was in the space between what was real and what wasn’t. Maybe I was still dreaming. Maybe this was some hallucination and I was already dead. The way the flowing red lines moved made it look like some abstract version of Hell.

  “Hey!”

  My voice was lost in the darkness. There wasn’t even an echo.

  “Hey!”

  Another pointless shout. Like anybody was actually gonna answer me.

  “Shit…”

  I squeezed the gauntlets around my hands then pounded the ground. No shake. No thud. No vibrations. Nothing.

  The last thing I remembered was Lynx throwing me. Where I was now… I wasn’t any closer to figuring it out.

  I closed my eyes. Slow breaths filled my lungs in an attempt to maintain my composure. Even if this was Hell, there had to be a way out.

  But doubt began creeping its way into my head. I ran forward and shook away the thoughts.

  It didn’t make a difference. My surroundings didn’t change. There was nothing but the energy surrounding me, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

  “What do I do? Where am I supposed to go? Shit… Dad…”

  My heart sank in my chest. All this way. I couldn’t save him. I didn’t even get a chance to see him again.

  That would’ve been enough. One last time before I ended up wherever I was now.

  “Dad…”

  A sudden breeze blew by, brushing against my cheeks. I turned to the side to look where it was coming from but there was nothing. Maybe my imagination was getting the best of me.

  Another wind blew from the other direction and I spun around. I saw something. Not clearly but it was there. I squinted and focused on one of the waves of energy. It pulsed differently from the others. Thicker. Almost like it was moving toward me. I took a step back and watched as the red energy formed right in front of me, slowly beginning to take shape.

  I blinked my eyes not sure I was seeing it right… seeing him right.

  “…Dad?”

  It was him. His hair combed so perfectly on his head. His posture straight to make it always seem like he was puffing his chest out. His chiseled jaw. The perfectly trimmed mustache above his lips. He looked exactly the way I remembered him when I said goodbye.

  He was wearing armor. Some kinda Omega gear. I could tell from the logo on the upper left side of his chest. And his gauntlets. They were just like mine.

  But something was off. He was all red like he was made from the same energy all around me. His outline phased in and out like a ghost who wasn’t really there. But even just an image of him was enough.

  I took a step forward, hesitant to get my hopes up.

  “Dad… Is it you?”

  He looked at me, his mouth twisting into a crooked smile. His eyes started to narrow.

  “Zo? Is that you, Zo?”

  “It’s me.”

  He moved forward and wrapped his arms around me. He squeezed me tight. If he wasn’t real I didn’t care because I could feel something. I was ten all over again, standing on the driveway and waiting for him to come back. And now he was here.

  He gently pulled away from me and gave me a beaming smile. I’d seen it so many times before but I never really appreciated it as much as right now.

  “What are you doing here?” he said.

  “I’m here for you. I came here to save you. To get you out of Anarchy. Dr. Redgrave said you were still here. He told me there was a chance.”

  “Dr. Redgrave… How long has it been?”

  “Seventeen years.” />
  “Seventeen…” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Twenty-seven years old. You’re a man now… All grown up. How’s your grandma?”

  I shook my head. “It’s been about ten years since…”

  “Right… You an Omega now?”

  “No. I’m a trainer at the Bloody Guts. I got a few fights under my belt, too.”

  “Ha! My boy’s a fighter.” His proud smile grew even wider. “You use what I taught you?”

  “Straight right hand. Won my first seven fights by knockout. Before I… Before I retired…”

  “You retired? Already? You’re still so young.”

  “I know… It’s just…”

  My head dropped down as I stared at the invisible floor, waves of red energy continuing to flow underneath my feet. So many damn things were running through my head. I’d been holding it with me for so long. I thought I’d take everything to my grave. Now he was right here in front of me. I had a chance to tell him everything. But my emotions were getting the best of me.

  “Dad… It’s not the same without you… It didn’t mean anything to me… I wish… I wish you were there to see it… I wish you were there for everything.” Something caught in my throat and it was getting harder and harder to get the words out.

  He squeezed his gauntlets around my shoulders and forced me to look at him. I blinked to clear the tears welling in my eyes so I could see his smile.

  “You’re amazing,” he said. “You’ve accomplished so much. Just like I knew you would. Don’t let anything stop you from living your life, you hear me?”

  “Dad—”

  He shook me. “You hear me? Don’t stop anything for me, okay? Live your life. Don’t listen to anybody else. Not even what you think I might say. Understood?”

  I nodded because I couldn’t get the words out.

  “What happened?” he asked. “How did you get here?”

  “Just like you did. I went from zone to zone. There’s a Herald there. Lynx.”

  “Lynx. The pale man.”

  “Yeah…”

  “I fought him, too. My body started to give out. Humans weren’t meant to be out here.”