8 minutes.
It might as well have been an eternity.
“Judas vs the Messiah,” Kaz muttered, as the two behemoths stared each other down. “That’s comical.”
“Pretending to be a God… truly despicable.”
The mere sound of Judas's voice was enough to induce a migraine. Like being shouted at by a military drill instructor through a megaphone, directly into your ear.
Trent remained surprisingly composed. “Who’s the one acting like a false God? Judas? Is that what you call yourself? A treacherous snake?”
Judas took a deep breath before responding. I don’t know if it was just my mind playing tricks, but I swore I could’ve felt the air pressure drop when he did so.
”I don’t come from your world. My very name has been tainted by your deceitful scriptures,” he began lifting into the air, his gigantic wings producing rough gusts of wind in the process. “This world doesn’t deserve a reprieve. But as the paragon of virtue, I’ll grant light in the darkness. A gift to your miserable species. By killing you first.”
“Not sure which one I hate more.” Dex muttered under his breath.
Trent laughed/sneered, before holding up his hand. “My disciples… this is our first trial. Once we eliminate this degradation of a deity, we’ll be on the path of solidifying ourselves as the legitimate ones,” he looked at Judas, his eyes swirling like hell. “You’re strong, sure. But you never could’ve been an ally.”
Judas scoffed. “Do you honestly believe I would ever ally myself with a mockery like you? You are to me what an ant is to a human. Below nothing.”
Kalos stepped forward and cracked his knuckles, causing bits of the bizarre residue that constituted his skin to fly out.
“You’re sure hard to look at, aren’t you?” He said, before rushing towards Judas.
His arms grew larger and larger as he ran, to the point where he began adopting ape-like movements. As he got within a few feet, he raised a fist – now the size of a boulder, and attempted to strike.
A subtle smirk formed across Judas’s lips before he casually flicked it away with a single finger, tearing the entire limb off in the process. Kalos was left speechless, hardly being able to comprehend what had just happened.
“What…?”
It was the only word he was able to articulate before his head was disintegrated by a yellow beam that Judas shot out from his eyes.
Judas remained still afterwards, silently beckoning for anybody else to try.
Brando and his master took the challenge next, only to explode from a single punch, showering the area with dog-creature-guts. The ritual-lady was third, attempting to bind Judas in place with her (not) ESP powers.
“These beings exist in realms even you aren’t familiar with.” She said, her eyes fading into sheer white as she presumably exerted every ounce of her strength.
However, it made no difference to Judas.
He nonchalantly stepped forward as blood began leaking out of the lady’s mouth, her eyes wide in utter disbelief.
“How are you…? How?” She rasped out.
“Not only am I familiar with these beings,” Judas said. "I conquered them centuries ago."
He raised a hand, causing the woman to lift up with it.
”The crux of my power exists on a level you couldn’t hope to comprehend. It’s shameful that you even tried.”
He closed his fist, simultaneously squishing the lady into a bloody, basketball-sized mass of flesh.
She turned out to be wrong. Espers certainly did exist.
Trent’s messengers were suddenly down to two.
“Well,” Soze said, turning to Shen. “Guess you’re up.”
“Why don’t you give it a shot instead, big guy?”
“You know the pecking order, don’t you? The strong go last.”
“Right,” Shen said, stepping forward. I could see him trying to hide a smirk. “The strong…”
A pair of dark, bony wings suddenly popped out from his back. “Looks like all of my problems solved themselves,” he said, lifting up towards the hole in the barrier that Judas had created. “I really do hope you all kill each other.”
Right before flying away, he turned his head towards me and winked. Another silent question.
Are you gonna survive this?
Soze grimaced. “He’s trying to save his own ass. Unsurprising. I’ll chase him down later. No need to worry about scum like him.”
He extended his blade, pointing it right at Judas. “I hope you know that the powers you’ve seen so far pale in comparison to mine. And yet… mine pales in comparison to the Messiah. This is hopeless for you.”
Trent's expression remained stone-like as he said this.
In response, Judas held out his hand. A colossal, blinding, golden blade materialized in front of him, with smoldering sparks shooting out from it in every direction as he grasped it.
”I was once a swordsman, back in my mortal days. You could’ve called me a prodigy,” he pointed his own weapon at Soze. ”I haven’t met another practitioner of the blade that could duel with me in over 2000 years. Let’s see if you can evoke a shred of fighting spirit out of me.”
“A prodigy, huh?” Soze responded, marching forward. “Everybody’s a prodigy these days.”
He reached up and removed the cover from the top half of his face, revealing four sharp, slanted, glowing, crimson eyes, with a fifth – larger and circular, at the top.
“I don’t like doing this…” he said, his voice growing more and more distorted. “I never feel like myself… it’s like I go into a frenzy every time.”
The ensuing battle was completely incomprehensible to me. But one thing was for sure… Soze was definitely holding back when he fought against us. The two were respective red and gold blurs zooming through my field of view, absolutely overwhelming my human sense of vision and reality. I couldn’t follow anything.
After about ten seconds, they stopped, sliding backwards in opposite directions on the field. Judas didn’t seem to have a scratch on him, while Soze looked like he’d just swam through a sea of needles. He exhaled as blood dripped from cuts covering every inch of his body.
"I’m impressed," Judas said. "You defended 830 out of 1000 slashes. But still… you couldn’t land one on me.”
Soze grunted, before chuckling something ominous. “Oh... you're gonna force it, aren't you?”
He took his sword and ran it down his abdomen, shredding his bandages before ripping them off completely, revealing massacred skin beneath.
“I’ll have to resort to forbidden techniques.”
He took his sword again and lopped off his right forearm. A few seconds elapsed before a new arm grew in its place. It was dark and veiny all over, with a giant mouth at the center of the palm. The veins quickly expanded, enveloping the rest of his body, covering his wounds as they did so. He grasped the sword in his new hand, with the mouth biting the handle, keeping it in place.
They rushed each other again. Or… I assumed they did. At that point, they must’ve been moving at beyond hypersonic speeds. I couldn’t see anything at all. Not even blurs. The gusts of wind being produced from their clash sent me flying backwards, and I could feel a sharp pain invading my eardrums.
This time, they stopped after only 5 seconds. Once again, they both skidded in their respective directions.
I looked over at Judas, who was still looking no worse for wear.
Soze was unmoving, seemingly frozen in place. At first, I couldn’t discern just how bad his injuries really were.
”I am surprised, Judas said. He turned his head, revealing a small cut on the side of his neck. “Nobody’s been able to draw blood from me in 1500 years. And that took the entire military might of a type 2 civilization.
Soze remained still.
”This time, you defended 14,000 out of 15,000.”
All of a sudden, Soze began falling apart one square inch at a time, before turning into a pile of cubed flesh on the ground.
”Still not enough to earn my respect.”
And with that, we were down to the final two.
“How much time has passed?” I asked, whispering.
“Two minutes.” Cecile muttered in response.
I looked over to see Joel still picking away at the device.
Oh, God. I thought.
Trent stepped forward, facing Judas directly. He smiled.
“I know what you are.”
”And what is that?”
“Just another trial.”
Judas scoffed. ”Whatever you say.”
Trent began ascending upwards, the dark aura surrounding him growing in intensity.
“You’ve shown me the light, Judas. What I need to do in order to reach ultimate divinity.”
Six portals suddenly materialized around him.
“I’ll show you my true strength. I won’t live in anybody’s shadow. Not yours. Not even the existing Gods themselves.”
From each portal, dark, armored dragon-esque creatures emerged, breathing black fire in their wake. Each one was about the size of a school bus.
“These beings are physical manifestations of my own aura. An extension of my deepest soul. Take them out, and then I’ll fight you myself. In the meantime…”
He turned to look at us. “I’ll have to eliminate the riff-raff.”
Trent sent one of the creatures after us while the other five rushed Judas.
Kaz stepped forward, attempting to stop the dragon in its tracks. He managed to halt it for a few moments before getting launched backwards. The creature released a massive gust of flames from its oversized mouth, nearly scorching my skin right off.
At that point, all I could do was evade.
“Damn it! If Trent pushes Judas too far, we’re fucked!” Cecile shouted.
Cecile struggled to block with her mechanical arm as the dragon swiped at her.
I looked over to see Judas effortlessly cutting each of the dragons down as they attacked him, utterly unfazed as he was engulfed in their fire. However… the creatures remained relentless.
At the same time, we were struggling immensely against just one. Kaz stood up, limping back into the fray, only to be blasted by flames as the dragon tossed Cecile aside. He grunted in pain as his skin was burnt to a crisp.
“Shit…can’t avoid it now…” he muttered, plunging his arm into his chest.
Before anybody could ask what he was doing, he’d pulled both of his remaining two hearts out.
“Kaz, what the hell!” Cecile shouted.
He just grinned. “You gotta keep your best tricks a secret ‘till the last moment.”
He took both organs and slammed them together, causing them to inexplicably fuse into one. Against all logic, the new, larger heart began beating, and he inserted it back into his chest. As soon as he did this, the dragon charged at him again with a fury of slashes and fire.
I was almost certain he was done for.
But then the smoke cleared…
Kaz stood there, already in the process of healing from his burns, grabbing the dragon by the neck. He was also… bigger. His already massive musculature seemed to have been augmented to ridiculous levels. He threw the dragon upwards, before taking its head off with an airborne roundhouse kick.
“What the hell was that?” Cecile asked.
“We don’t need to dwell on it, ” Kaz responded. He looked over at Joel. “Please tell me you’re fucking done now.”
Joel held up four fingers and Kaz cursed. We turned our attention to Judas, who’d cut the rest of the dragons into smithereens.
“Are you going to keep wasting my time?” He bellowed. "If you’re going to fight me, just do it."
Trent lowered his head slightly. “You’re still looking down on me, aren’t you? They… always do.”
His voice began to quiver, although he didn’t sound scared. Just angry.
Judas smirked. “Then give me a reason not to.”
“So be it.”
Trent closed the portals, before a thick dark violet smoke immersed his entire body, eventually forming what appeared to be a massive dragon head atop a giant humanoid body.
”After years of exploitation, humiliation and torment, this is what I’ve become. What they’ve forced onto me. My true core.”
“Who pissed you so bad that it caused you to take on this ungodly form?” Judas asked.
”EVERYBODY.”
The dragon-head version of Trent charged towards Judas, roaring something fierce. Judas stepped back, readying his devastating blade. He dodged the attack and swung hard at the head...
But his blade shattered upon impact.
Visibly surprised, he left himself open for a two-fisted strike that buried him into the dirt. But Trent didn’t stop there, unleashing a frenzy of follow-up blows that shook the ground around us. Eventually, Judas caught one of his punches and retaliated with an eye-beam blast.
The force was enough to send Trent up and through the barrier, before he weaved away from the beam and dove right back down. Judas dodged the calamitous landing, the force of which reverberated underneath us, staggering everybody.
They stood up, staring each other down once again.
“I see…” Judas said. ”You’re different from the rest. No normal willpower could’ve yielded something like this. You’re motivated by something esoteric, aren’t you? Experienced hardships incomprehensible to most others.”
”You wouldn’t understand.” Trent growled.
”I’m sure I wouldn’t. Which is why I’ll take you fully seriously. Know that from this point on, I won’t be looking down on you."
“Alright,” I heard Kaz say from beside me. “I guess this is how it ends for us. Really wish I did something better with my life.”
I looked over at Joel, still feverishly doing something with the device. Before I could even ask, he held up two fingers.
But we don’t have two minutes!
”I appreciate it,” Trent said. “But I still view you as nothing but a trial that needs to be overcome. An enemy, and nothing beyond that.”
”Of course,” Judas replied. ”I'd be insulted otherwise.”
The realization of impending doom was a hard one to swallow. We were about to be collateral damage from a clash between genuine titans. I was less than insignificant in that moment. An utterly irrelevant presence.
Yet… my understanding was that if we were going to die anyway, I might as well try something. We were so close.
Just stall!, I thought to myself.
Before the two could engage and simultaneously guarantee our deaths, I stepped in and began shouting.
“HEY WAIT! JUST WAIT… FOR A SECOND.”
Confused, they both turned to look at me.
”Who the hell are you?” Judas asked.
”You people are still alive?” Trent added.
“Yeah, look… I just wanted to ask you a question,” I turned to face Judas. “Why do you work for the US government? They got dirt on you or something?”
”What?” He responded, sounding somewhat angry.
“Yeah, you know, it just seems weird how-“
”You think I work for your species? It even pains me to speak in one of your pitiful languages. I could demolish this pathetic country considered some great empire by you people at any moment.”
“So uh… why don’t you?”
I was treading on dangerous waters here.
Judas let out a short laugh. ”Why would I disclose that information to you? I have my own goals on this planet. I won’t waste any more breath on you.”
I sneaked a glance over at Joel, who was now holding up only one finger. I turned back, this time addressing Trent.
“Look man… what’re you even trying to prove?”
His dragon-head sneered at me.
”Are you mocking my resolve? A fucking pest like you wouldn’t understand. I agree with Judas… the human species in its current state is worthless… cold… cruel. I’m going to rebuild it all from the ground up. Turn it into something worth respecting.”
I took a deep breath, calming my quaking nerves, speaking as slowly as possible. “I mean, I get it… some bad shit happened to you in the past. But bad shit happens to all of us! Why didn’t you just cope for it in a normal way like everybody else?”
”What??”
I could feel his bloodlust piercing my soul. I sounded calm on the outside, but my heart was about ready to collapse.
“Got it!” Joel’s voice came from behind me.
He stood up, grasped the device and shot some kind of beam onto the ground in front of him, opening up what looked like a blue, swirling vortex.
“Jump the fuck in, now!” He shouted.
I didn’t need to be told twice. Cecile, Kaz, Dex, Harris and Joel himself began leaping in one-by-one as I frantically scrambled over, motivated by the sound of Trent barreling towards me from behind, ready to utterly wipe me off the face of the Earth.
He almost did so as well, scraping the back of my neck with one of his talons as I jumped through, being the last one to do so.
However… I’d made it. Someway, somehow… I’d escaped that hellish school.
The relief was euphoric.
But now a new question presented itself:
Where the hell were we going?
---
Credits
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