Chapter 28 – Beauty

The purple crystal shines brightly as it caresses the skin of Mebuyan. She turns her head and took in the beautiful world that she managed to maintain over these countless decades.

She closed her eyes and reminiscing the time where the dead tried to appease her. The greatest artist made beautiful jade sculptures, clay figures and wooden carvings offered to her but all she declined as she has no use for them.

One day, the Aswang Swarm took place. More and more dead came to her realm and with it, a peculiar man came to her realm seeking help. At first, Mebuyan was ignoring his plea and demands his return to the realm of the living but the man was determined.

The man saw the dead trying to please her and he took her on a deal. He asked Mebuyan that if he managed to please her, she will need to help him against the swarm. She agreed but will only give him three tries.

The first concoct a mixture that allowed anyone to have the strength of 10 men for an hour. Mebuyan scoffed at the man and proudly states that the dead don't need to fight in her realm as they are all living in solitude.

Next, he used his magic and weaved a huge dress for her. The man filled it with jewels and made it from the finest silk. He explains that the wearer of this dress will allow them to hasten themselves on growing. She rejected it as well; she replied that she did not need a dress since her realm is filled to the brim with jewels and her milk allowed children to grow faster.

The man took a step back and looked around him. All he sees are the spirits in her realm shambling about with nothing to do. The man figured it out. Mebuyan and her subjects are bored.

The man took a handful of seed from his pocket. He sprinkled by the foot of a mountain. He put a drop of the concoction earlier and covers the seeds with the dress. In a few seconds, he flipped the dress and showed the seeds are now full grown rice.

Mebuyan was entertained by this as she never saw rice in a long time. The man continues his work until he was able to fill the mountain with rice. At the top of the mountain, he slams his staff, and the rice all across the mountain was filled with dark green hues.

The man smiled and declared the rice can now be eaten by the dead.

The spirits gather by the rice he made and proceed to touch it. The sensation of the rice field made them happy and reminds them of the times they have when they were alive. The dead began to cultivate the rice and cook them.

Mebuyan was satisfied with the beautiful site she saw. She turns to the man and asked his name and asked why had he come here for her help.

"Glorious one, my name is Masiken and I am here on behalf of the Mangagamot. Our village is in turmoil and we are powerless before the Aswang Swarm."

"You are brave Masiken, are you aware that time moves differently here? You might return days or even months after your initial entrance to my realm."

"I am but it doesn't matter if I cannot avenge my clan. Some of us survive but I cannot say for certain if Antrian will survive a year from their attacks. And I am here to ask your help, by giving me a fragment of your power"

"I am aware of the Swarm but it is not my concern. Bathala gave me instructions to never interfere with mankind."

Masiken looked up and met with Mebuyan's purple eyes. Mebuyan can see that this man is serious. Though she righteously understands the situation, she won't lift a finger to help him. She turned him down.

The Masiken slowly walked in front of her and instead ask for her perfect black lock of hair. "A strand will do my lady, as one beautiful is enough to remind me of our time here."

Mebuyan plucks a strand of her hair and gives it to Masiken.

He grabs the strand and placed it in front of him. He hurried to bring out a pot and started to heat it. Once the pot is hot enough he throws the strand of hair and a horn from his pocket and proceeds to burn it into ash.

Mebuyan watches with curiosity. She opens her black book, The Book of the Damned, and searched the name of Masiken; there she read the summary of his life and to her surprise, the book's content began to edit itself from what is happening - he should die a few moments from now from his wounds from the Swarm's attack but the book goes on and list a new set of actions he will perform.

Mebuyan takes a closer look at the man's feet and can see a pool of blood. "Curious." She muttered with excitement as she sees the content of the book change from dying to being reborn into a guardian.

Her book is absolute truth and always knows when and how all creatures will die. And for the first time, she witnesses the book corrects itself.

Masiken gathered all of the ash and began to bathe his body in it. He breathes in the ash and closed his eyes. He remained still for a moment and he started to murmur things that Mebuyan can only assume his fears. Masiken face trembles with fear. He bits his lip and tears began to fall.

Few more minutes and his face began to relax. He opens his eyes and grabbed a lotus flower from his pouch and raised it over his head. "I pledge my loyalty! To the book and its Chronicler! Now grant my power that was promised!"

The ground shakes and smoke fills the area surrounding Masiken. Hands of absolute darkness and the foul stench of rot fill the scene. From the ground, a devil appeared with his devilish grin shining grotesque teeth.

The air began to fill with shining splendor. And out of nowhere, feathers of light and beauty fill the scene. A graceful and beautiful creature of light appeared and stand beside the Masiken. The angel removes the foul stench from the area and smiled at Masiken giving him relief.

"A devil and angel. . ." Mebuyan chuckle as she had never seen the two races meet on common ground without trying to kill each other.

The angel gracefully weaved a new body for Masiken. Once done, and took his consciousness out from his old body and placed it on his new one. The angel gave him new clothe and a new look on his liking.

The man was then seated in front of the devil and was asked to sign the contract. Once done the devil asked him what power would he like, Masiken replied "I lived my life as a witch doctor. Alchemy was my life. Give me the best magic that can allow me to mix and conjured the strongest potion and concoction. With it, I defend or avenge the world above from the Aswang Swarm."

The devil laughs and lifts his hand. A powerful gust of wind surrounds him. The devil points his hand to Masiken and says it is granted. The angel and devil stand side by side and asked him what weapon he wishes to use. Masiken replied he wish to mix potions faster and more effectively.

The angel and devil transformed his old staff into a sturdier staff laced with magical gems and weaved strands of golden as they write a foreign language that only the Chronicler can read. "It will be unbreakable," says the devil. The angel then grabs his coat and provided him the power to place any potion and material he likes. It will act as an infinite pool of storage and all Masiken needs to do is think of the potion or material he wishes to withdraw or store.

The two figure was about to leave when they see Mebuyan.

"Wow! It's been a long time Mebuyan!" The angel gleefully flies above her.

"It is Iophiel. How is up there?" Mebuyan smiles and she looked at the devil.

"Hey, there big sis." The devil smiled with a much less menacing presence.

"Iblis, you grown horns now?" Mebuyan chuckle.

Masiken grabbed his old body and looked at the three figures. He thanked them before he left the scene to hide his body.

Mebuyan opens her eyes as she fondly remembers that day. The day when she finally knew the previous Chroniclers plan to save the world from the Aswang Swarm is by creating a Nephilim body and infused with the soul of a human or creature and giving the one who performed the Ritual of Power the strength from both realms and none of its weakness. But what she doesn't understand is why did the previous Chronicler left in a hurry. Why leave Jasmine alone without any clear message?

Why indeed! But it's not up to her to know. Maybe it's all Bathala's plan or another strategic movie from the previous Chronicler. All she knows is she needs to guide her if needed.

Mebuyan kept tabs with Iophiel and Iblis as the three of them agreed that this world is changing for the worst. Kidnapping and being sacrificed to snake idols, war raging across continents and now she heard from Yama that Orochimaru confessed and said that he got his powers from an old mummified leg. She prays that everything will work out as Bathala intended it to be.

She looked over the mountains and she can see some souls toiling themselves to create beautiful rice terraces the Masiken started. She sometimes wonders if the dead did this for her or do they this since they have nothing better to do in the afterlife, but one thing she is certain, the dead here are much happier since Masiken gave them their rice field.

The spirits are persistent in turning this rice into a gift to her. The old masters of wine are now able to make the finest rice win, the most scrumptious food from the old dead cooks, and all sorts of beautiful produce from all forms from this rice are made to appease her. Thou she denies all gifts from them; she cannot deny the joy of looking at the beautiful rice terraces across her realm. It does put a little touch of beauty in her gloomy realm.

Mebuyan receives a new batch of babies in her realm. She collects them and began to walk back to her pool. But before she can give the children their new home in the afterlife, the ground beneath her feet shakes.

She expects Iblis to come out as this is the main way how that demon travels to her realm but a huge worm drills out from the ground. It was huge enough to even tower Mebuyan and her mountains. It immediately borrowed back to the ground and left a red portal from wench it came.

From that very same portal, demons pour out of the hole and began to destroy everything they see. These demons are human shaped, equipped with swords, and have black and red skin. They have no horns like Iblis and wears war tattoos on their body.

With them comes a cart being pulled by other demons. Atop the cart is a huge pig demon. It lies lazily on the cart. Its snout began to twitch as its appetite is stirred from the smell of the souls around him. It opens its wide gaping mouth and it inhales every spirit it comes across.

Bat-like demons also emerged from the portal and began to terrorize the sky. Their jaws can hold ten souls and throw them to the ever-hungry pig demon.

Angered by this transgression, Mebuyan shrieks! Spirits of long dead warriors awaken to war, heroes of all race and sizes raises to arms and arrives to aid their mistress. Diwatas flies above her realm and began to launch series of spells at their invaders. All souls are alerted and gathered to form a large army to combat the demons.

They immediately gather around Mebuyan and form their ranks. And Mebuyan shrieks again and signals the start of their war. And so the souls of the dead clashed with the demons!

Mebuyan hurries back to her pool to place the babies in safety. She dipped her arm into the pool and pulled her weapon, a giant kris.

Twenty more demonic worms emerged; bringing more waves of demons to invade her realm. Mebuyan noticed this is not a war she can win if the pig demons can suck all manner of souls from the battlefield. She was about to charge toward one of the pig demons but a worm manages to strike her from below.

Mebuyan quickly gets up and manages to slices off the head of the worm. The worm wriggles and it tried to escape but Mebuyan quickly slices it till it can't move. As it lies dying, Mebuyan examines the worm. There she saw writing along its body. She reads the strange message "Bathala is dead, praise be Kali!"

Mebuyan roars. Her voice can be heard echoing across her realm "Incien demons! Your invasion will go unpunished! Other realms will hear about this!"

The demons laugh and they yelled back "Soon, Incien will be ours! Other underworld realms are now being invaded! Who are you to stop us?!" They all laugh as they continue to battle her minions. Thou her souls can kill the demons, they are easily taken off the field if one of the pig demons can get near them.

Before Mebuyan can reply she saw the murder of ravens filled the sky each carrying bottles of blue liquid. The ravens fly above the demons and release bottles. The bottle crash as it hits the ground and its blue liquid sets the demons ablaze in furious blue flames. It instantly turns them into dust.

The bat-like demons tried to catch them by their jaw but the ravens are too fast for them to keep up and too small for them to fit on their jaws or claws.

At the top of a mountain, Hel controls the raven with her powers. Her eyes are gleaming with green magic. Her hands dance in the air as she redirects her instructions to the birds. Hel is grateful for her grandfather's wisdom and magic allow her to control over ravens.

"The blood and wisdom of Odin flow thru me! Time to show Mebuyan my gratitude and a chance to defend my second home!" she thought to herself.

Beside her is Masiken who grabs potions from his robes and throws them to the air where a raven will grab them and waits for Hel's instruction. And behind them is a cauldron mixing a new batch of potions for this fight.

"Holy water! The damned birds throw holy water!! Kill em!" The demons shout as their archers began to fill the sky with their arrows.

Diwata in the sky used their power to turn the winds against the archers and favor the ravens. This made their arrows fly into the ground without hitting any of their targets and boosting the speed of the raven.

Mebuyan's army cheers as they have a firm grasp of winning against the demons.

But the war just began. One of the pig demons stops inhaling spirits. It began to gag and barf. Then it vomits putrid grime of black goo. The goo began to bubble and boiled to form a face and a body. More and more faces emerged from the goo until it stopped. And when it does, all of the faces burst out from the goo into the field. There a new batch of demons emerged. The pig demon smacks its lips and resumes inhaling more spirits.

This new batch of demons carries the face of Antrian souls it just inhaled. They are converted from souls with free will to demons that fight for the invaders of their home.

"Hel, redirect the ravens to the pigs leave the worms to me. Masiken, find a way to plug those holes! The worms are digging portal from their realm to ours!" Mebuyan yells.

Masiken throws all of the remaining holy water bottles into the air and the ravens catch them. He pointed at the cauldron and instructs Hel the potion is almost ready. "When the water turns purple, make your ravens drink from it." He then leaps from the mountains and makes his way to the nearest hole.

He arrives and peers over a hole that a worm left. He sees a red portal underneath the hole and sees some runic symbols by the edge of the portal. With his vast knowledge of magic, he was able to decrypt its structural weakness.

He wrote counter runes by the edge of the hole while chanting its meaning. Each time he wrote a rune with his staff, the portal flickered and after writing it all the needed symbols, the runes burned and the portal closed.

The demons detect this and realized Masiken can close their portals. He now is the attention of the demon army! A huge line of demons began to form ranks and is now going after Masiken.

Mebuyan's ghost army was there to the rescue! But whenever they are nearing victory, a pig demon emerged from the ranks and inhales them into its belly.

Hel seeing that her raven has used most of the holy water, instructed them to drink the now purple substance on the caldron. One by one the ravens grew in size until they reach the size of an adult cow.

Mebuyan noticing the ravens grew large and stronger; realizes this is the same concoction Masiken first made when he entered. "He really love making things go big and strong"

The huge ravens dive into the battlefield providing enough time for Masiken to close more portals. The ravens manage to turn the tide of war back to the spirits! They easily plucked and crush the pigs and releasing the spirits they trap. Hel, also enters the battlefield wielding two ghastly short swords and like his father conjured armor. She donned her family's Viking armor. She sprung into the fray and with her magic; her ravens are dominating the battlefield.

The ground beneath them shattered! Demons, spirits, and alike are scattered like ants as a huge colossal red demon emerged from it. This huge red demon wears only pauldron and faulds to protect himself. This demon is so huge that its head reaches the sky and Mebuyan seems a little doll to him.

The huge red demon proudly flexes its bulging stomach. "This is the Antrian's underworld? What a horrible scene!" The demon shouts at his minions and began to laugh. "No matter, Kali sent me to personally supervise this invasion and once I am done with this realm, I will turn it into my beautiful paradise!"

He picked up a handful of spirits and opens its mouth to devour them whole. Mebuyan leaps and slices the huge demon's toe, the pain was so intense that he let go of the spirits as he cries and exclaimed he felt burning on the sliced area.

Mebuyan recognized the big red demon and its bulging stomach. "Kumbhakarna, oh how the prideful and wise demon of Incien fallen. I thought participating in wars wasn't part of your job? Let me guess, Kali gave you an offer?"

"ARGH! I almost forgot, Kali did say the rulers of the underworlds are wielding holy weapons. That's why my toes didn't regenerate" He stretches his hand and all of the worms cracks the earth and began to attack Mebuyan in all directions.

"Kali, gave me something that all demons would want – power. In exchange for power, Kali wants me to kill you. I do hope you understand this is only business! Now run along and play with my pets as I devour your army and maybe I might consider you as my pet when I became this realm's master."

As much as Mebuyan wants to kill the Kumbhakarna, she was being pushed by the swarm of worms attacking her in all directions. All she can think now is how the demon of Incien, Kali, acted so bravely against her. And if the demons are to be believed, other underworld realms are being invaded by other Incien demons.

"Where are the angels when you need them?!" She yells as she slices two heads of the worms across her.

Mountains are ravage and trees demolished by the worms. The relentless worms emerged from the ground and started to swarm her. Though Mebuyan won't let up, she was kept at bay from the Kumbhakarna.

"One of them is closing our portals, our pigs are against those huge ravens, and Mebuyan is distracted with my worms." Kumbhakarna thinks to himself. He laughs as he easily grabs a handful of spirits across the realm happily gobble them down.

The war is turning in the demons' favor as the number of spirits began to dwindle. What left like a day of battle, Masiken began to feel his body is waning. Unlike Hel and Mebuyan who are intertwined with the underworld, he is still human and needs to rest. His fingers began to turn numb from exhaustion but he presses on or there will be no underworld for them to call home

Masiken just finished closing another portal but he felt a strange movement underneath his feet. Another portal he thought to himself but this one gives a blue hue. The ground opens beneath him and a blue portal shine. From it crawled a man of brown skin, black hair. There Masiken can see its eyes filled with rage, the man's hands are smothered with blood, and guts of demons are covering all over his body. He dons a green armor that has a face in the middle of it; its eyes closed and its mouth tightly shut. His hair is unkempt and his beard stretches at his chest level.

Masiken readies his staff and prepares for a counter attack but the attack from the man never came. The man kept a straight face and grunts.

He turns around from Masiken and saw the demons heading their way. The man opens his palm and small blue portal and pulled a long sword. His armor suddenly spoke in a grim voice "Two is ready."

Multiple blue portals appear above the man. Crossbow bolts fly from the portal and hitting the demons and they too burn in holy fire. The demon that lived didn't stop and proceeds to throw themselves at the man. The man didn't flinch and swiftly demolished every demon he came across with his blade.

Masiken sees the man's back us exposed and sees familiar strange writing. He looked at his staff and can see its similarities. "You're a guardian too?!"

The man ignores Masiken as he continues to mow down every demon he sees. One of the demons manages to stab him in the arm but the man immediately dealt with the foe. The blood of his enemies sips into his armor and heals his wound.

The man was unstoppable. His strength and ferocity were enough to turn all the demons he faces into minced meat. Whenever his weapon breaks or dulled its sharpness, he pulled a different one from his portal. He seems capable of all manner of fighting styles and proficiency on all weapons.

"No, he is a weapon. A living weapon!" Masiken shouts and joins this other guardian as they push themselves to the next demonic portal. Their combined strength and tenacity are enough to defeat any demons in their way and eventually worked their way into the nearest portal.

"Hey, let me close this one. Just keep them off me yeah?" Masiken asks the guardian but he ignores him. The man's armor spoke, "Four is ready". The man grabbed a metal sphere from his portal and throws it into the hole below.

"Hey what are you doing?" Masiken curiously looked over at the metal sphere as it falls to the portal below. The man grabbed another metal sphere and gave it to Masiken.

The demonic portal exploded with blue flames. Its explosion was powerful enough to collapse the foundation of the demonic portal that it imploded.

"WHAT?! What is this?!" Masiken was shocked by the effectiveness and efficiency of the metal sphere that the man used. He immediately dismantles the metal sphere and there saw a strange mixture of holy water, sulfur, steel, and stuff that he does not seem to be familiar with. He stuffs it all in his magic cloak and will inspect it later for further study.

Hel flies by while riding her ravens "Masiken, I need your help! The huge demon was able to break our defenses. The raven is not doing much either, we are being overwhelmed!"

A huge shock wave blasts them out as the huge stomping feet of Kumbhakarna nears their location. Hel and Masiken were thrown to the ground, grabbing anything to save them from rolling but the man stood his ground. He stabs his sword to the ground and stands tall before the huge shock waves made by the careless Kumbhakarna.

Hel sees the other guardian's back and recognized the symbols. He looked at Masiken "A friend of yours?" She asked.

The green armor of the man lit up. Its eyes turned green and spoke, "Five is ready".

The guardian summoned a huge blue portal behind him and a catapult emerged. He pulls the rope and the catapult launches its burning stones infused with holy fire to the huge demon.

The stones hit the demon on its back and cries in pain. "HOLY FIRE?!" Kumbhakarna sees Mebuyan is fighting the worms he sent. He turns around a sees a huge catapult with a man standing beside it.

"SURA?! How did you manage to get out of Mara's domain?!" Before the demon can continue, he sees the face in green armor. "No, that's impossible. Mara's domain should be destroyed now! All that was left was her home!"

"Zero is ready" the green armor spoke again and Sura manifests small portals rotating by his fingers and arm. Their chains emerged. Sura's breathing turned heavier. Every time he breathes his heart stomp with anger. His eyes burned with hatred. His fist curls and his feet began to take him towards the Kumbhakarna.

"What a sick father you are. We bring your son back to life and now you parade him as your armor? Whatever Mara did to you and you son . . . It will never bring him back." Kumbhakarna flexed his arm and launched it at Sura.

"Seven is ready." The armor of Sura spoke.

Sura launches his chains and wrapped around the demon's fist. The first clashed the ground scattering spirits and demons away from their location but not Sura. He climbed with his chains and summons a blue portal. A huge ballista flings its huge arrow outside from the portal and into the hands of the demon, pinning it down to the ground. Sura summons two axes and began to climb the Kumbhakarna 's arm. When Kumbhakarna tries to swat the Sura off him with its other arm, Sura swings to the other arm with his chains and axes.

Masiken and Hel see this opportunity to help Sura. Hel summons all of her ravens and began to attack the huge demon. Another raven landed near them and it carried Hel and Masiken into the huge demon's shoulder.

Hel began slicing a chunk of flesh off the shoulder of the huge demon. Masiken grabs a potion with clear water with yellow-green seeds in it. He pours it all over the wounds of the huge demon.

There Masiken slammed his staff and the course of his power thru the liquid. The seeds began to rattle and trees began to grow from it. Its roots began to travel down from its shoulder assisting Sura from climbing the demon.

Sura grabbed onto the roots and summoned more of the ballista arrows whenever the other hand of the huge demon was able to break free from the first ballista round. The raven also gives Kumbhakarna a hard time keeping his attack as they began to peck his skin and tear of his flesh.

Mebuyan finally killed all the worms and began slicing the giant demon's toes off. She moves in a graceful dance of macabre. Slicing and burning every bit of meat off the demon until all of the toes on the demon burns to dust.

"Judging from your reaction, our guest is supposed to die back in Mara's underworld." Mebuyan gleefully twists her kris into the foot of the demon. She continues "Well, looks like after I send your soul into the nothingness, I will ask my two friends up there to pay Mara a visit."

Kumbhakarna is in a panic. He didn't expect this resistance from this realm. He normally gulps down spirits to his stomach like what he did in Mara's realm but this is different. He is forced to take a knee in pain. His right hand pinned to the ground by Sura's ballista, Mebuyan brings him down with his left toes gone, Hel's ravens pestering him and now the three small creatures climbing him are suddenly gone.

Before he can reach them, one of the ravens manages to pluck his eyes and rendering him blind. His screams of pain echoes over the battlefield. Seeing their captain is being defeated, the other demons are losing their morals. The spirits of Mebuyan's realm got their chance! They seize this opportunity and pushed harder than before; shields against fang, swords against claws, magic against their foul stench. The spirits are on the rise!

Thanks to the distraction, Hel, Masiken, and Sura manage to reach the shoulder of the demon.

"Hey! Sura was it? Can you lob more of those spheres into his mouth?" Masiken asked but Sura shakes his head.

"Nine is almost ready. Demonic energy conversion will be done in 60, 59, 58 . . ." Sura's armor began to count down. Sura turns his head and points to the mouth of the demon. He summons his two axes began to climb its neck.

"Is he a mute?" Hel asks.

Masiken shrugs and replied, "Beats me Hel but I am glad he is fighting on our side." Masiken throws a potion to the neck of the demon and rashes began to appear on its skin. Hel and Masiken followed Sura's climbing.

By the time they reached the demon's mouth, Sura's armor reached zero and made a follow-up reply "Number nine is ready."

Sura grabbed his weapon from the blue portal. All of his weapons before are things that they can see in the world of the living but this weapon of Sura seems to be off. It has a handle of a sword but the middle of it is broken as it shattered into smaller fragments. The fragments on the middle part are floating around a light green crystal in the middle and then it continues to form a mace or hammer-like weight in the end. Masiken and Hel see the weapon and the best way they can describe is "A broken sword, formed like mace and reinforced with magic and handled like a mage's specter."

Sura holds on to the weapon and charges its energy. Sura's armor open's its eyes and mouth and lets a huge amount of energy flowed to the weapon. Hel and Masiken covered their nose. The energy has the same stench that the demons gave off.

"Wait the armor said a while ago that it almost finished converting demonic energy." Masiken paused for a moment. He recalled the time when the armor moments ago when Sura was stabbed by a demon, the armor absorbs its blood and healed Sura. He then realized the armor was no ordinary armor, rather a beautiful alchemic masterpiece that allows converting one form of matter to energy. His eye widens as he realized how many demons that Sura have killed. His hands tremble in excitement to see what kind of destruction it can make.

And without warning, Sura fired off the magic from his weapon. The small green orb that formed from the attack slowly traveled from Kumbhakarna's lips and down to his throat. Green lighting streaks crack thru the demon's skin. His body began to heat up and boil. His skin began to burn and flames began to burst from his pores. Kumbhakarna holds his chest as he tried to keep himself together, he tried to fight off the attack by regenerating. But no matter how fast he heals, he cannot keep up with the damage that is happening to his body.

Mebuyan raised her kris! "Kumbhakarna has fallen!" Her spirits rejoiced and the demons trembled. She made her way to the battlefield and began freeing the trapped spirits from the demonic pigs. She doesn't know what kind of magic that Kumbhakarna was hit with but all she knew, he is done for.

The demons scrambled like rats. The moment they saw Kumbhakarna burning, they know they lost. They hurried back to their portals but the spirits will not let them get away that easily. They blocked off their escape and cut them off one by one. The spirits' will have their vengeance.

Kumbhakarna knelt to the ground. More of its flesh began to burn and crumble into nothingness. Kumbhakarna grab his throat and spoke "Sura, you sorry excuse for a father. Killing me won't wash the blood off your hands. Betraying your kin to save your son? What kind of – "

Before he can finish his sentence, Sura launched another blast of a green ball towards his head. Green flash escapes from Kumbhakarna's body. A large squeaking sound is heard as the vocal cords dissolve and this time it obliterates the colossal demon into nothingness.

Sura, Hel, and Masiken land safely back on the battlefield. Sura throws his weapon back to his portal and grabs a war hammer. Masiken brandishes his staff and readies himself to finish this fight. Hel summoned her ravens to her side and assumed battle formation. They ran towards the field and fought side by side till all of the demons are averted from their realm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What felt like another day of endless fighting, the last of the portals are closed and the demons are pushed back to their realm.

Masiken lies on the ground exhausted from the fight. Hel prepares to make a brew to help him revitalize his lost strength and Sura stands over the field, ever looking at the trees and the shadows, and hunts down every possible stray demon.

Mebuyan arrived in their presence. Masiken tries to get up but Mebuyan raised her hand and stopped him.

"Thank you Mebuyan for helping me defend my realm. Thou still a human, your courage is commendable and your intelligence helped us."

Masiken smiled and tries to utter a word but his parched mouth gave him a sound. Mebuyan smiled and nods.

"Hel, your time here was proven fruitful! What you showed me today validates that you, the daughter of Loki, have what it takes to manage the realm of Odin's underworld. "

Hel bows and smiled "I hope that I proved my dad proud."

"Juan would be proud. Not only have you shown your magical prowess but also showed your command over the ravens – an impressive feat! I can control the spirits in my realm but controlling living ravens are on another level. Splitting your attention and mind in a different perspective, how did you manage to do that?"

"It was just like second nature to me honestly. I cannot explain it but, controlling creatures is like our thing. My grandfather has his ravens; my father has his frogs, and I on the ravens too."

Mebuyan finally turned to Sura. "And to you, I say, your timing was impeccable. Not only you turned the invasion, but you also manage to kill that huge Incien demon."

Sura gave no reply but knelt to his knees. His armor stayed silent too. He might not speak anything but Mebuyan can feel immense anger and sadness within this tortured soul.

"I read the Book of the Damned and saw your record there. I cannot see what happened to Mara but I did saw what happened to you back at Mara's. What you and your son experienced changed you." she knelt to the ground and tap Sura and his armor.

"Sura, tell me. Do you want to continue your crusade against the demons who wronged you?"

Sura stands up and nods. He grips his hand and placed it on his chest. His armor rattled and emits a green hue as it responding positively to Mebuyan's question.

"I am glad to hear it." She stands up and looked at the three "Once you three are ready, I will need you to come by my pool. Let's talk about our revenge and helping Sura on his eternal crusade against the demons of Incien."

Sura grunts in reply and walks behind Mebuyan as he follows her back to her pool.

"Come on Masiken, you need to heal up. Our fight is not over" Hel says as she pulls him close to the nearly finished brew.

Masiken's eyes follow Sura as he walks into the fog. He is mistaken to think that the armor is a tool; no it is a living being formed as armor. With this sudden realization, an idea pops into his mind. "That might be the missing piece to create the legendary Philosopher's Stone - a soul."

He looked close on Sura's back to remind himself that he is a fellow guardian. "Is this the same reason why we Guardians are powerful? Maybe Chronicler's The Ritual of Power took notes from the Philosopher's Stone."

He chuckles the realization that Philosopher's Stone, the item that allows turning lead into gold, was the same concept of them - a guardian. A useless piece of meat turned powerful magic wielding creature. "Yes, it is. Chronicler, you are a genius and this is why I am eternally grateful for the second life you gave us."

He leans to Hel's side to take in the brewed potion. As he was drinking the potion, the cold wind began to relax them after two days of fighting. He looked around and see that the rice terrace he planted long ago manage to survive the battle.

Hel noticed his smile. "What's up Masiken?"

He replies "I am just happy I manage to see this world's most beautiful creation".

Hel blushed and kisses him on the cheek.