THE DARKSENT, PART 1
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Plumes of smoke billowed into the air as an intense fire raged through five city blocks. Several buildings looked like they’d been sawed in half, and all around were police vehicles and ambulances, with medics frantically rushing the wounded into the back of trucks, some sense of desperation and urgency to their action.
“Hey, you guys can’t be here!” a police officer yelled at Dante and Dang, one who had an entire half of his face covered in blood and was clutching an odd weapon that protruded from his left shoulder. Upon closer inspection, the weapon looked a lot like a spike, and it looked like one made entirely of shadow. “We’re cordoning off a five-mile radius, there’s something loose in here. You gotta get out of here.”
Dang and Dante exchanged wary looks and without saying anything, they walked right past the officer. The officer yelled for an entire minute but fell quiet after an inhumane roar filled the air, causing it to tremble against their skin, the ground quaking beneath them. After the roar, the officer’s yells turned into stuttering sounds, after which he gave up, turned on his heels and ran for it.
Dang pressed a finger against the comms in his ears. “Daedalus, did you hear that?”
“That didn’t sound good, Dang,” Daedalus’ voice was grim. “You sure you don’t need me for backup.”
“No,” Dang shook his head. “Dante and I will check it out first. If it goes south, Daniel and Megan are on standby. You’re the last resort.”
“Well, that isn’t offensive at all,” Daedalus muttered.
“Anything goes wrong, we need the guy who knows stuff about the multiverse and cosmic energies alive,” Dante said. “But it is crazy though. Only just arrived on this universe and I’m already having to deal with an apocalyptic event?”
“It’s not apocalyptic,” Dang said quickly. “Gotta be optimistic.”
“I don’t know, dude,” Dante said, casting a glance at a bleeding woman who was wheeled past them on a stretcher then. “This gives me pretty insane apocalyptic vibes. Like a doomsday event or something.”
“That’s not helping.”
Dante shrugged and went on in silence, the both of them getting closer and closer to the source of the roar they’d heard earlier. After a few minutes of silence, the ground quaked beneath them once more, and then Dante pointed up at a truck that was falling out of the air, right at them.
Dante snapped a finger and an explosion altered the truck’s course so that it missed them by a sufficient amount. Although shards of glass still went flying right at them after the truck hit the ground, and Dante had to summon a wall of intense heat to shield them from it.
Dang ran a hand through his hair again. “Looks like we’re dealing with a pretty angry anomaly,” he sighed. “What a drag.”
“Let’s end this quickly?” Dante asked.
Dang looked at him and nodded. “I’d prefer that.”
“Alright,” Dante grinned, his eyes turning an intense orange. Smoke started to issue from his skin, as well as from the soles of his sneakers. He lowered himself a little, adopting the stance of someone about to surge forward. He looked at Dang, gave him a nod, and then yelled: “Go!”
Dang took off first, charging forward with incredible speed. Dante waited until Dang had gained some considerable distance on him before surging forward, a trail of flame in his wake. Dang leapt high into the air, and so did Dante, with Dante propelling himself with jets of flames.
Dante extended a hand toward Dang’s feet. A smile formed on his face as he got closer and closer. The moment he made contact, there was a combustion that sent Dang flying, giving him a boost of frightening incredible speed, the wind itself parting and forming a trail around him.
Dang flipped through the air with incredible nimbleness and agility, arms outstretched as he embraced the sensation.
Dante reached out and caught Dang’s hand just as he started to drop, then hurled him in the right direction, well over a flaming skyscraper. Just after sailing over the skyscraper, their anomaly came into view.
On one hand, it wasn’t a doppelganger.
On the other, it would probably have been preferred if it’d been a doppelganger. What awaited them, the source of all this chaos, was a fifteen-foot-tall monster with scaly skin that had glowing purple spikes jutting out everywhere. Veins of purple light spread across the monster’s skin, connecting to its eyes, and it had wings made of shadow.
The monster let out a powerful roar, and the air trembled once more. For a moment, Dang’s breath stilled, as did Dante’s, the both of them taking a moment to process the sight below them.
The Spike monster looked up at them, its purple eyes glowing angrily. It roared once more and made a sweeping gesture with one of its hands.
Out of nowhere, spears made entirely of shadow materialized and shot straight through the air, zipping right at Dante and Dang.
That spurred the duo into action. Dante gave Dang another propulsion, and the both of them spun and twisted in the air as they dropped right at the monster, cleverly avoiding the spears that had been sent at them.
“Dante!” Dang yelled, extending a hand toward his doppelganger.
Dante looked at Dang, then at the monster. He understood at once and nodded to indicate just that. He caught Dang’s hand, then spun around in the air a few times before letting go of Dang with explosive power.
Dang shot through the air like a projectile and struck Spike monster’s head feetfirst, the impact sending out a shockwave that caused the windows of surrounding buildings to explode outward, sending a shower of glass down onto the street below.
The monster however, didn’t appear fazed by that hit. Even when Dante crashed an explosive flaming fist into its face a second later, Spike monster remained on its feet, unmoved by their combined strength.
Dante, who’d been expecting his attack to do a lot more damage gasped when it didn’t, his eyes widening, face slacking in horror and confusion.
Spike monster grunted, and made an odd motion with its spiked tail.
“NO!” Dang yelled, launching himself off the monster’s head and right at Dante with all the force he could muster.
Dang slammed right into his doppelganger and the two of them dropped to the ground, rolling a few times before coming to a sliding stop on their feet, both their faces hardened.
Some of the buildings in their immediate vicinity crumbled, the top half of the buildings sliding right off and crashing to the ground as though something had cut right through them perfectly.
Dante looked around, a little confused by what had just happened. Then he noticed that Dang’s shirt had been ripped as though a chainsaw had just gone through it. For a second, it looked like Dang hadn’t taken any damage.
And then blood started to trickle out of the cut that ran across the diagonal length of his torso, as well as across his face.
“What?” Dang murmured, his eyes wide with shock as a hand went up to his face to feel the blood trickling out of his wound. His hand quivered somewhat, with the disbelief that the monster’s attack had managed to land. He thought he’d moved quickly enough to avoid it.
“What the hell is this thing?!” Dante demanded, his smugness gone now, replaced with an understanding of the severity of the situation.
“That attack just then,” Dang murmured, still in disbelief. “I haven’t felt anything like that ever before. If I didn’t activate my Resonate on time, I think I’d be dead right now. What the hell is that thing?”
“Are you okay?” Daedalus’ voice came through the comms.
Dang took a moment to respond, his mind spinning as he processed the situation. Finally, he calmed his nerves. He understood.
“Ah, yes,” he answered, drawing in a deep breath and relaxing. “But I’m sorry, Daedalus, I’m going to have to go radio silent now,” he added as he removed the comms from his ears and stashed them in his trouser pockets. He held up both fists and stared at the monster with deadly focused eyes. “I’m going to need all my attention for this thing.”
He looked toward Dante whose face was still contorted in fear and confusion. “Now, now,” he addressed his doppelganger, tilting his head a little to the side. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of this thing?”
Dante chuckled lightly. He relaxed his fists and at once, blue flames engulfed them, an aura of his energy coating his entire form. He held up his fists, a defiant look in his eyes as he stared down Spike monster.
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“It’ll take a lot more than that to scare me,” Dante scoffed. “I’m going to burn this thing to a crisp.”
“That’s the spirit,” Dang grinned. “Let’s go.”
The two of them took off at once, moving with speed that blurred their movement. Dang leaped right at the monster and pressed a finger against his ring.
“Resonate!” his voice boomed and at once, the ring morphed into a bo staff. He spun the staff around as he moved through the air and struck Spike monster in the face with it with such force that sent out a shockwave. This time, he managed to stagger the monster backward.
Dante had constructed flaming swords in either hand and it was with those that he attacked the monster, slashing at the beast from all over, propelling himself with jets of flames from his feet which allowed him to cleverly maneuver around the monster and dodge its counter-attacks.
Once, Spike monster slashed at the air with its tail and sent a massive blade of shadow at the both of them. The attack had caught Dang while he was midair and in such a position where he couldn’t exactly maneuver out of the way, so he’d crossed his hands and used them as a shield. The blade connected and the impact sent Dang hurtling backward through the air and crashing through the wall of a flaming apartment.
Dante on the other hand had propelled himself out of the way and kicked at the air, launching a blast of flame at Spike monster from his feet. The monster let out a powerful roar and generated a frightening wind current, one that extinguished Dante’s flame and simultaneously sent him flipping through the air.
Dante slammed into a streetlight before crashing on the top of an abandoned Prius. He rolled off the top of the vehicle and hit the ground hard with a groan. He felt a wet sensation in his ears, and raised his hands to them instinctively. Sure enough, his ears were bleeding.
The monster’s roars were deadly.
“Ah, that’s not good,” Dante groaned and pushed himself to his feet, staggering slightly, his vision a little blurry.
He blinked to get his vision to refocus and it was mid-blink when he felt the powerful wind once more. This time, it didn’t send him flying, he just felt the gust against him. His vision refocused, and his heart sank at once.
Spike monster towered directly in front of him now, staring down at him with those murderous purple eyes.
How had the monster moved so quickly?
The monster swiped at Dante with a hand, and Dante’s hand flew up instinctively to shield himself. The monster’s hand connected, and Dante shot through the air like a projectile, slamming straight into the wall of a building.
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he slammed into the wall and he felt the wind be knocked out of him momentarily. Spike monster didn’t care though, with the monster charging again and without any hesitation.
Dante summoned a shield of flame but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the beast. Spike monster crashed straight through the shield and slammed into Dante headfirst, sending him crashing through the wall entirely and into another building.
Dante flipped through the air a few times before regaining his balance, not that it was much good, considering Spike monster was already charging at him once more.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Dante snarled. “What the hell is with this speed?”
Dante snapped his fingers, and triggered a series of combustions in close proximity to Spike monster, each explosion rocking the monster off balance, very clearly dazing it. Spike monster slowed to a halt and shook its head, smoke issuing from its scaly skin now, some of its spikes having been blown off by Dante’s combustions, gaping holes now left where they’d once been.
Dante shot the monster a murderous smile and held out a smoking hand. “Let’s see if you’re fast enough to survive this.”
Dante snapped his finger again, and a powerful explosion rocked the entire building this time. Dust crumbled from the ceiling above and cracks formed in the ground below. Dante smiled, and then vanished in an instant, his entire form blurring as he zipped out of the building.
He made it out of the building just as the entire thing collapsed, the monster’s wails echoing through the air as the building dropped down on it.
Dante landed on the ground and slid to a stop, spinning around to observe the collapsed building. There was silence. The rubble didn’t move, nothing did.
Dang landed hard on the ground next to Dante, having pulled his shirt off entirely, the cuts he’d sustained earlier already started healing. His eyes looked incredibly cold, and his lips were pursed tightly together.
“Is it dead?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Dante admitted, and wiped away some of the blood trickling down his face. The barrage he’d been on the receiving end of just moments earlier had done some significant damage. But it wasn’t anything he couldn’t take.
“If it’s still alive in there,” Dante continued, “It’ll be hurt pretty badly. Nothing can walk away unscathed from a building coming down on it like that.”
“Are you sure about that?” Dang asked, his tone cold, almost murderous even.
“No,” Dante answered honestly. “Just wishful thinking, really.”
At that moment, the ground rumbled beneath them with such intensity that their bodies quaked. Dante and Dang exchanged wide-eyed looks and then the doppelgangers split, just as the ground below them opened up, with the monster charging out from below them, roaring loudly as it did.
As the beast emerged, so too did what had to be over a hundred spikes made entirely of shadow, spikes that shot right at Dang and Dante. Despite their attempts to maneuver and avoid the spikes, the simple truth was that neither had been expecting the attack and the spikes shot through the air so quickly that there wasn’t much they could do.
Spike after spike pierced their skin and flesh, cutting them all over, droplets of their blood falling to the ground below.
By the time the barrage of spikes ended and both doppelgangers had their feet on the ground again, they’d become bloodied messes, cut all over by the monster’s spikes, and were now breathing rather haggardly.
Dante was clutching his left arm and stood in a somewhat lopsided manner, struggling now to keep his eyes open. Dang’s left eye was shut against his will, since blood had pooled around it from the nasty cut that he’d just received.
Despite their wounds though, both doppelgangers remained on their feet, although it was evident that doing so took a lot of effort from the both of them.
Dang spat blood from his mouth, wiped it off his lips with the back of his palm and stared right at the monster.
Spike monster shifted its feet across the ground and tilted forward a little as though it were about to charge. The doppelgangers tensed, readying themselves for a potentially catastrophic attack from the insurmountable obstacle towering in front of them. They were doing their best to keep their visions in focus.
Silence settled over the field of battle, the only sounds being the crackling of the flames that had razed down apartment buildings and grocery stores, and the thumping beat of the monster’s heart.
Dang concentrated, focusing on feeling the air around him. The slightest shift in the air would indicate an attack about to land. He would have enough time to get out of the way if that happened. That was what was required of him. He understood that much now. There was no way to beat this thing without giving the fight a hundred percent of his focus.
Spike monster moved both hands simultaneously and the doppelgangers clenched their fists at once, firming their feet against the ground, getting ready for what was to come next.
The monster cracked what looked an awful lot like a smile, a smile that revealed the jagged razors it had for teeth, and then it brought its hands together.
CLAP!
Dang flinched, expecting an explosion of some sort to follow or perhaps even another shadow attack. But nothing happened.
Nothing at all.
Spike monster did the same again, bringing its hands together. CLAP!
CLAP!
CLAP!
CLAP!
Dang’s eyes widened as he understood what the monster was doing. The smile on its face, the movement of its hands, that look in its eyes.
The monster was applauding.
“INCREDIBLE!” Spike monster roared, its voice booming around them, trembling against their skins. “Absolutely incredible! I’ve never fought people who could survive Spike Rain before! Just incredible! The two of you are absolutely incredible! Oh, this is exhilarating, it’s fulfilling!”
Dante gasped and took an instinctive step backward. Dang on the other hand remained rooted to the spot, although his mouth dropped wide open and hung like that.
Neither one of them had been expecting the monster to be capable of speech. If what they were fighting was capable of intelligence, then that meant it knew and understood perfectly well what it was doing.
That meant the destruction around wasn’t the doing of some wild, unintelligent beast.
No, it meant the destruction was the machination of a lunatic.
“What the hell is this thing?!” Dante queried, his composure almost entirely gone now, the look of fear and confusion returning to his eyes.
“I am Arkanis the Darksent,” the monster bellowed. “And today, you have brightened my existence with your display of resilience and strength. Take heart, children, for you are strong. I hope the knowledge of that will ease your path to peace in the afterlife.”
“So, you’re smart, huh,” Dang said, nodding his head in understanding now. He relaxed his stance and straightened somewhat. He relaxed his fists and stared straight up at Arkanis’ face. “Who are you and what do you want here?”
“I want what I have always wanted,” Arkanis responded. “To battle to the death. I was on the brink of victory against a foe when I was consumed by a light. That light brought me here, to a world not quite like mine. But I see that this world still has warriors worthy of me. I can find my satisfaction here, my entertainment.”
“I see,” Dang nodded. He flipped his bo staff over in his hand and it morphed into a sword with a blade that glinted dangerously. “You know I was having such a good day until you popped up,” Dang sighed. “It might not sound like a lot but I don’t have a lot of exciting days. Most times, I only ever get my excitement off work and even then, it’s rarely ever enough. The people I have to fight are never strong enough. They don’t excite me enough.”
Dang took a step forward and slashed at the air with his sword. The slash sent out a powerful, whipping wind current that sent rubble flying and ruffled his hair and Dante’s. Arkanis’ expression changed a little then, hardening somewhat.
He pointed his sword at Arkanis and opened up his left eye, one that was now glowing an intense crimson.
An aura of crimson formed around Dang and his blade, the air around him seeming to crack under the intense pressure he gave off. He took another step forward and the ground cracked slightly beneath him.
“Steel yourself, Arkanis,” he bellowed, his voice booming far and wide. “I’m excited now! And you’re going to die.”
Arkanis chuckled and leaned forward once more, a purple aura engulfing the monster’s body. “Very well,” Arkanis roared. “Come child, let us battle to the death and test the limits of our excitement!”
Dante let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. He took a few steps forward too, smoke issuing from his wounds as they healed rather rapidly. Once his wounds had closed, golden flames burned to life in his eyes, and the same flames formed around his entire form, sending out a wave of intense heat.
“If we’re all letting loose now, it would be a shame to be left behind,” he said, sounding bored. He stared straight at Arkanis, his eyes burning intensely. “Apologies, monster, but I do not want to be outdone by my doppelganger. I’m going to have to kill you before he does. No hard feelings.”
“Excellent!” Arkanis roared with laughter. “This is it! Come then, and try to burn me!”
Dante and Dang leaned forward, exchanged looks, and then they shot forward, a trail of gold and crimson in their wake, with Arkanis charging right at them, leaving behind a trail of purple and shades of black.
The air around trembled with the power of the three of them, the power of beings who were, in that moment, operating at the current peak of their powers, heads and shoulders above their peers, the rest of the world at their feet.
It was, more than anything else ever could be, a true clash of those with no regard for their limits. A clash of those capable more than anything of reaching out and grasping their true potential.
It was a clash of titans.
And the entire city would feel it.