Just as they completed their contract.
A force came out of the portal. The members shifted their gaze toward it.
The leader rushed to see the portal. "Oh fuck... It's here."
Scientists rushed downstairs. Only the lab leader remained. "Kaelen, be prepared with those chains."
Kaelen finally asked them, "Hey, what's happening?"
"Just be prepared," the leader said.
A leg came out of the portal. A human leg.
Their reaction worsened.
The man walked out of the portal. He gazed around him. A long smile covered his face. He slowly reached out for his gun. As he touched it, he gained speed. Bullets rushed everywhere, changing direction in the air.
The number of bullets kept increasing. Kaelen turned his chains into armor, covering wherever the bullets attacked.
Kaelen rushed at the man. He stood in the same place, firing every second. Kaelen rushed at him.
The man reached out for his back. A hat came out. Kaelen knew what it meant. He dismissed it. Then he put it on.
Kaelen stopped. He really was the magician.
It made no sense. Kaelen was imagining himself rushing toward the man, but his body couldn't.
A normal follower had no right to be this strong.
Rowan took over.
Kaelen could see the fight, yet he couldn't. His eyes were frozen in their place. But he still knew that they were losing. His body was getting hurt. Then Kaelen saw a fire. A fire inside him. Something started moving inside his body.
Kaelen took over. He walked toward the magician. Every step came with a new bullet piercing his skin and dropping.
The magician was only a few steps away. Kaelen jumped at him, his hand covered in rage.
The magician moved his rear leg back. But it wasn't enough. The punch connected. The magician fell.
Kaelen immediately got down and started hammering him. The magician laughed. Blood was piling from his mouth, and he kept laughing.
Suddenly, the gravity strengthened. He couldn't raise his limbs. The corner of his eyes caught the magician. The magician couldn't stand because of his powers either. Yet, he still laughed.
The floor shook. Something from the other side of the portal caused it.
Another monster appeared out of it. A Minotaur with an axe. It grabbed Kaelen into the sky. He still couldn't move.
"Fuck."
"Nothing changed."
"I am as weak as I was before." Even with all that power, he remained the weakest in the room. He always did. In the statue room, the house, and now here.
The city from the Void and the real world appeared before his eyes.
Buildings overlapped. Cities fought for their place.
The worlds pressed onto each other.
The Minotaur's grip weakened. Kaelen fell from his hands.
Just then, the two worlds aligned on top of each other, mixing together.
Kaelen sized up with the giant.
The giant swung his hand. Kaelen ate it. And smiled, attaching a chain to the beast's chest. He pulled it. A heart came out, still throbbing. The giant collapsed into dust.
Kaelen punched the magician. Kaelen felt legs pressing against his chest. The next second he was in the air.
The magician hooked one legs across Kaelen's chest and wrapped the other around his neck.
Kaelen was still in the airborne. The magician caught Kaelen's hand, trapped it against his thighs and lifted his hips.
Kaelen's shoulder was forced backward.
"Still."
"So weak."
The magician tightened it.
"Aghh." Kaelen screamed in pain. That was all he could do. A loud pop sound came from his shoulder and the pain stopped.
"Fuckkk." Kaelen screamed from the top of his lungs.
The members stood up, unable to walk properly.
The magician gazed at them. They went flying into the wall.
The magician let go of Kaelen.
Kaelen lay down on his back.
The magician stood in front of him. He reached out for his pockets. The same prop gun, but not a prop in his hands. The gun faced Kaelen.
He closed his eyes and covered them with his arm, accepting the end. "This is so miserable," it was nothing like Kaelen had expected. The peace he should have felt wasn't there. What was there to live for? He was about to be free from everything. He had played this so many times in his mind, but never this way.
The sound of the trigger came, but no bullet.
Kaelen removed his hand and opened his eyes.
"It's so sad that I can't kill you." The magician shook his head in disappointment. "Since the gods consider you the strongest."
His hands moved in a flash. The room shook from the sound of his gun.
Kaelen stood up. The magician laid there in front of him.
Kaelen got up. Immediately, he left through the portal.
The streets looked the same at first glance.
The posters of the god "Kaelen" were everywhere. They had no face, but right next to each of them was Kaelen's face with the title "The Preacher."
A man near him noticed it first. "The Preacher," he shouted.
Everyone in the street got down on their knees.
How bad could the day get from here? Creating a god with a few sentences.
Kaelen played with it. He had to. "Yes." Kaelen lifted his hands. "He will be here soon." His tone changed. "But I have to leave now."
The crowd followed. As expected of religious people. But what reason did they have?
Kaelen pointed toward a follower. "Why do you believe in our god? Tell us all."
"He is our lord and savior. The one who saved us from the earthquakes. We all thought we would die. But he is the only god that helped us. All hail Kaelen."
Earthquake? Did the Minotaur cause them? And how did it fix them?
Kaelen put his hands over the shoulder of the worshipper. "And how did our god do that?"
"When the city was falling on us, when we should have died, the only true god came to us."
Kaelen smiled. Getting worshipped for causing something and then fixing it isn't really new. The god really is with us.
One of the followers stood up. The magician.
Kaelen lunged at him. His right hand flew straight into nothing. The magician slipped it and countered with an uppercut.
Kaelen was sent flying into the sky. The magician pumped up his legs and jumped. In a second, he was in front of Kaelen in the middle of the sky.
A moment ago, his physical ability was nowhere above that of an average human. And now he was jumping into the sky. It made no sense. The flow of energy was the same in both worlds, yet Kaelen outsped him. And Kaelen had to find out what.
The magician was a bit below Kaelen. He went for a body hook. Kaelen switched their positions. The magician lost his motion. Kaelen sent his chains into the man's shoulder and pulled him. He then kicked, destroying his shoulder and sending him diving into the ground.
The surroundings disappeared. Kaelen was surrounded in a room, slowly shrinking. He made the worlds collide. The room tore apart.
Kaelen looked below him. The magician had grown gray wings on his back. Kaelen did the same, his chains turning into blue wings.
They flew toward each other. They hit each other with a right hook at the same time. For a moment, they forgot all their training and swung at each other. They stood their ground, throwing haymakers at each other's chins while protecting their own.
Kaelen fell first. The magician got on top of him. Kaelen kicked him. Both of them got into their stances. Blood came out of both their noses. They had a lot to say. But none of them wanted to go first.
Kaelen rushed at the magician, detaching his wings to attack him right before he struck. The magician defended his punch. But one of the wings managed to get him.
The wings flew back to Kaelen. But the magician ripped them apart.
Even while falling, Kaelen was as still as he could be. His surroundings faded. And the worlds pressed against each other again.
The wings came back.
The magician was ready for it. He had his hands raised together. A sphere of light was formed between them. A light beam came for Kaelen. He couldn't dodge it. He knew that. The light came. Kaelen accepted it with open arms. It pierced through his heart.
"Fast regeneration is amazing," Kaelen said to himself.
He looked at his chest. It hadn't healed. Nor was there a heart.
A shadow whispered to him. His own shadow. The one thing that knew Kaelen better than himself.
"I was only a human weakness. I took care of it. You are different."
Rowan took over. He dodged the light and countered with chains. He was composed, unlike Kaelen. He didn't think of the fight. Only the sequence mattered.
"Kaelen. Don't let that being control you."
Kaelen didn't like Rowan taking control or saying something he didn't understand. No matter what he did, Rowan had control.
Rowan took off the magician's hat.
Kaelen gained control back. No deception from the magician affected him now.
Kaelen looked at his own words from before. Belief. That was it. Kaelen tore the hat. The magician's body split with it.
The belief had changed its direction quicker than the wind. And a new god rose from it.
And the heart came back.