11
"Never allow it?" Gexinke repeated, his voice seeming to rise from the depths of an ice cellar. "Who are you to define 'harm'?"
"I swear in the name of the rightful guardian of Atlantis," Boren Lee declared firmly. "Anyone who tries to use the power of our ancient civilization for slaughter and destruction will face my harshest punishment."
"We are the same," Gexinke said softly, as though stating an established fact.
"We share the same genes and ancestry, but that does not mean we share the same soul." Boren Lee refused to yield. "We are utterly different."
"Do not forget our origins." Gexinke spread his arms as though embracing the entire void. "This world was always the domain of Atlantis. When our ancestors rose to power, humans were merely savages hiding in caves. Now, I am simply correcting history's mistake and returning the world to its true masters."
"History can be corrected, but not by you," Boren Lee retorted coldly. "Atlantis needs order and balance, not another..."
"Be reasonable, Boren Lee." Gexinke shook his head, his aura beginning to surge. "Power is the only eternal truth. I awakened a hundred years ago and have accumulated the power of a hundred thousand Atlantic Oceans. You have only twenty thousand. Slogans cannot bridge a fivefold gap."
"The new generation overtakes the old. That is the natural law of succession." Boren Lee's lips curved slightly, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
"Natural law?" Gexinke sneered, his laughter shrill and grating. "The weak are prey to the strong, and the strong reign supreme. That is the unchanging law of nature. A hundred thousand against twenty thousand-that is heaven's will."
Before his words had faded, both men unleashed their auras at once.
"Power of the Atlantic Ocean!"
"Power of the Atlantic Ocean!"
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