“Isn’t it great when old friends come to call, like your friend Chopie here. You two go back a ways now, don’t you?” Duke saw the robed figure that spoke with him as well as its twin companion. One wore a with robe, the other black. It was the dark-robed Entity who spoke. It continued, “Oh, you thought that you were the only one we could bring back from death? That’s rather myopic of you. And to think, we granted your friend here everything we granted you just so that you could become twins.”

  The white-robed Entity soke up, “There’s nothing quite like twins. Surely you know that.”

  Chopie joined in, “So, Duke. You stole my kingdom. It’s only fair that I take your spot here. Don’t you think?”

  “This is pretty piss-poor for a joke. I’m leaving now.” Duke didn’t wait for a response and turned for the door, which, of course, was no longer there. Schooling his reaction, he activated TELEPORTATION and was shocked when there wasn’t even a sense of resistance – it just simply did not work. Stupid Entity fuckery. Some day I am going to be strong enough that they won’t be able to fuck with me like this.

  “Did you really think we would let you leave without finishing?” You haven’t gotten any smarter, have you?”

  Duke turned back to them, anger boiling hotter. He was about to unleash a tirade when he was interrupted by a message that he was not able to ignore. It flashed into his vision and would not minimize or otherwise go away until he read it.

  *** Duke, do not lash out. That is what they are trying to provoke. If they actually do anything, I’ll intervene, and they do not want that. Let them say what they have to say so we know their plans. They are shit at keeping their plans secret. Prepare for the monologue. Duologue? Whatever. Just let them ramble on. ***

  Duke noted the message from the Overmind and schooled his expression and returned to them with a smile, “So, you created a mini-me out of this idiot? You didn’t even grab his twin sister? What kind of weak attempt is this?”

  “Sister? Twin sister? Did you even look for that?” The black robe lashed out at the white robe.

  “White robe responded, “I found the subject. What were you doing at the time? No, don’t speak. I’ll tell you exactly what you were doing – nothing! You could have at least paid attention!”

  “I found the first subject!”

  “And look how well that worked out!”

  Duke looked over to Chopie to see the man completely bewildered and lost as his masters continued to argue. He decided to make things worse and spoke to the man, “You know they are going to be at it for hours. Did anyone tell you what you were getting into with those two as your masters?”

  Chopie stared back at Duke, still incredulous. His grand plan for lording his new Abilities over the upstart crumbling around him by the second. Finally, words stumbled out of his mouth, growing in confidence as he spoke “I…I have every Ability they gave you and I have been training them all up. I am your superior in all things! Surrender your ranking to me!”

  “That’s the best you got? Really? So, you Grandmastered everything already?”

  “Grand…what?”

  “You have all your, what, four Abilities up to Grandmaster already?”

  “Four? I have all three at Adept, almost Master! I am beyond powerful! I can heal from anything and can go wherever I want whenever I want!”

  “Oh, child. You are so far behind the curve. You know I hated you back on Teldin. You were a petty and cruel king, focused on your own power plays at the cost of your citizenry. But to see you now, see what they have made you – I have to say that I pity you. You will always be chasing after me and falling further behind by the day if you don’t stop and change who you are.”

  Chopie stared back at Duke, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he tried to process what he had just said. Duke could see the man’s brain trying to connect with Duke’s words.

  “But, we are enemies. You killed me!”

  “And you sentenced me to death, at least twice. You enslaved your own citizens, sentenced them to unimaginably horrible deaths only to bring them back as undead. Who’s the bad guy here?”

  As Duke spoke, he pushed his Psyche out, putting invisible pressure on Chopie. Meanwhile, he could still hear the twins continuing their heated argument. It did not sound like they were going to end their argument anytime soon.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You see, Chopie. The twins are assholes. Cosmically powerful assholes, but assholes all the same. They didn’t bring you back for you, they brought you back to use you as a tool against me. Don’t let them use you like that.”

  Duke could see the combination of his Psyche and words were starting to have an effect, swaying Chopie. It didn’t hurt that the man was so obviously confused as to who he was and what his purpose really was. Duke decided to go for the finishing blow.

  “Come on, lets go out the door and get out of their influence. Make the choice to be free of them, if only for now.” Duke continued to push with his Psyche and felt his PURPOSE flare to add additional weight.

  Chopie finally folded under the pressure. He nodded to Duke and quietly made his way to the door, opening it easily. Duke did not wait to follow him out the door and quickly through the gate of the estate.

  “OK, we are out of their estate, but they can still operate within the city, Chopie. Let me take you to a safe place outside the city where they can’t follow.”

  Chopie nodded and Duke TELEPORTED them to the cavern where he had set up the Forge dungeon. He immediately started making a new Dungeon Core while Chopie looked around the cavern, attempting to get his bearings. Duke planted the Dungeon Core while Chopie had his back turned with a gentle toss behind a stalagmite.

  The dungeon was not complex and it formed in a matter of seconds, the entryway having all the trapping of a gilded place gate. Duke smiled as Chopie stared at it, still unsteady from the push of Duke’s Psyche.

  “Come on in. This is the safest place in the whole of this world.” Duke opened the palace door and stepped in with Chopie on his heels.

  “This is wonderous. It reminds me so much of my own palace.” Chopie’s expression changed with his words as he broke free of Duke’s influence. Anger coated his words as he continued, “The palace that you stole from me! The LIFE you stole from me. Now I’m going to take your life once and for all!”

  Duke had already used DUNGEON ENGINEERING to move the exit to the other side of the maze of passages that made up the “palace,” so his next move was almost academic in its simplicity. He TELEPORTED outside the dungeon, a feat only possible for someone with Mastery over TELEPORTATION and experience crossing interdimensional barriers. Something he was sure Chopie had never encountered in all his “practice.” Finally, he collapsed the Dungeon Core back down and tossed it in his INVENTORY.

  Duke chuckled to himself and made his way back to the surface, TELEPORTING back to his place on the platform in the city. He found that the majority of the crowd had dissipated and dispersed. He shrugged and looked towards the crowd to see if there were any more who wanted to get out of the city for a chance to earn points. As he waited, he was amused by the fact that no one had disturbed the globe he had left behind. Guess nobody wanted a globe souvenir.

  By ones and twos, Contestants came up to Duke to find out if he was still offering safe passage out of the city.

  “Of course I am still offering passage out. Same deal as always. 100,000 points or 20%.”

  It took less than five minutes for Duke to be mobbed again. The press of the crowd increased as the bottom ranks finally had hope of surviving the Contest. All they had to do was kill enough monsters in the wild to gather the thousand points. Two or three kills could be enough to earn the points. Duke just hoped there wasn’t someone waiting for the hopefuls to arrive so they could be butchered.

  As he quickly worked through the crowd, he found it remarkable that these were all beings of at least Tier Five, and they were reduced to this desperate plight. Back on Teldin, they would have all been powerhouses, able to carve nations out for themselves. It made him wonder if Teldin as a whole was wildly underpowered. I wonder if it’s a Mana density thing or if being on one of the outer arms of its galaxy has something to do with it.

  When the crowd started to part around a figure approaching him, Duke prepared himself for another unfriendly encounter. He watched as the overly large cloaked figure pushed its way past those impatiently waiting for a chance to make a deal with Duke. What was most odd was that every individual who was pushed out of the way left the area.

  Finally, the figure stood in front of Duke, it’s head at eye-level for him due to the platform’s height. Two scaled and clawed hands reached up and pulled the hood back over its head revealing itself. A draconian smile split its features as Mole offered Duke a tray of food.

  “I thought you might be hungry from all this work, friend.”

  “Thank you, Mole. I am hungry and this will hit the spot,” Duke acknowledged another customer before returning his attention to Mole. He distractedly accepted the customer’s contract and sent them on their way. All the time, he remained focused on Mole.

  “It is my pleasure. You are getting quite the reputation out here, Duke. The number three Contestant helping the bottom of the barrel to escape certain death. Do you have some sort of hero complex?”

  “No, not really. Excuse me a moment. Yes? Contract accepted and off you go. Now where were we? Oh yes, not a hero complex. I simply saw a business opportunity and have taken it. Every one of these fine folks is willing to give me 20% of their Points earnings for the rest of the Contest. In order for them to survive, they will have to earn enough points to have 1,000 points after paying me my 20%. Since they have been trapped here, most have a few points at most. Even if they have 500 points already. They will need to earn another 625 to be left with 1,000. That gives me 125 points for that person. I figure I’ll make at least 15,000 points, probably closer to 100,000, just sitting on my ass and waiting for the Final Phase to begin.”

  He stared at Duke for a moment before breaking out in laughter. “You are one-of-a-kind, Duke. One of a kind.”

  “Often imitated, never duplicated. I like to say.”

  “Yes indeed.” Mole hopped up onto the platform next to Duke and kept him company while the crowd started to get more and more desperate as the day wore on. He heard nothing more from the Twins or their vampires.