The journey is long and for days Gurudza has walked he has not seen a human or an animal on the road. Exhausted and alone bored by everything. Not cognizant on what lies ahead but cogitating on what awaits him on his destination. Appearing in his thoughts as frequently as these thoughts is Mukura.
He sees a settlement ahead with modern houses and instantaneously he gathers the strength needed and runs to the small settlement jocund to see some human faces and speak to someone.
Disappointed by the empty scene. Where could everyone have gone to?
There is paper everywhere and some of the smells around are fresh, smoke everywhere and the silence is just too much. He continues getting deeper into the small town but still there is no sign of life. A big bang comes from the western side of the town and he runs in that direction.
"What the hell is this?" he says looking at huge piles of bodies men, women and children dead.
He looks around, "What happened here?"
"I can't leave these bodies like this but I cannot bury them alone!"
He searches around for tools and people who can help him dig and bury the dead bodies and he stumbles across a little girl wearing white dirty clothing with no shoes.
"Hello!"
She remains silent glaring at him.
Gurudza squats down, takes her hand looks at her direct into the eyes.
"Hie, how are you?" he presses on but she remains silent.
"Okay, do you know where the other people are in this place?" he asks the little girl.
She points she begins walking in the direction where the bodies are and he just follows behind her to see if she will show him something new. As soon as they get there, she points at the piles of dead bodies.
He bends down and holds her on the head, "I mean the ones that are alive and breathing, you know the lively ones who are not dead!"
She turns and looks at the buildings and points there.
"Why did you not take me there when I asked you?"
She turns to look at him, "Because this is where you belong!" her voice sounds so sweet but her words do not match the voice and the smile on her face.
"Wait, what?"
"You have the power of the young mysterious god in you!" the voice coming from the little girl has changed and now sounds deep and dark.
"What are you?"
"You ask a lot of questions!" she lifts him up and throws him into the pile.
Her eyes turn red, and black marks emerge all over her body and she starts floating and laughing. Gurudza gets up from the bodies rushes back to face the little girl.
"Well, I guess you are not as human or as little as you look!"
She twists her neck and turns into an 8 feet tall demon with huge horns on his head pointing upward and pointy ears. Red skinned with scales all over.
"What are you to do now, demigod? Strike me down with lightning?" the demon laughs, "Is that not your specialty demigods!"
"Let me show you."
Gurudza looks at his hand thinking what he should do. After what the demon has just said, it sounds like he will be waiting for a lightning strike. So, what now?
"What are you thinking about boy? No matter what you do!" he splits himself into two and the other half rushes in front of Gurudza, "You cannot defeat me I the red beast of death!"
"The red demon of death or the red beast of death! My father defeated you once and he said it took him a long time to discover how but once he did, he was able to send you back to the demon realm!"
"I see, so you are the brat of Taruziva the great chief!"
"Yes, and this time I will make certain you will not return to the land of the living!" his eyes change looking fierce.
The demon smiles looking down at him, "You have heart kid, I will give you that but this is where your journey ends!" back hand slaps him and Gurudza goes flying into the bushes and both follow through fast. Jumping over every obstacle laughing.
"Make this fight a good one for me kid!" he shouts running with excitement.
Gurudza rises from the ground, stretches his body and turns to look at the direction where the red demon is coming from. Creates a lighting spear and throws it and it hit something and creates an explosion. He kneels down and starts breathing heavily trying to rest but being circumspect just in case the demon survived the explosion.
He looks at his clothing and they are all torn up, "What the hell!"
"You seem to be worried about the wrong thing at the moment kid." The demon whispers from behind him.
Gurudza turns quickly to strike and the red beast grabs a hold of his hand hurting him. Gurudza screams loud.
"Hmmm the pain! I could never really forgive and forget what your father did to me kid, I will just have to take it out on you, thanks to Gwanhoya I get to continue my beautiful art of inflicting despair upon this wretched world!"
Gurudza continues screaming in pain. The red demon looks at him and increases the firmness on his grip.
"Screaming as I speak? How rude, kid!" he looks around, "After I am done here, I will burn everything with you among the dead people of this small town!"
The red demon breathes out steam from his nose, "It is sad, you did not excite me much! I had such high hopes for an exhilarating battle."
"Sorry, to disappoint!" Gurudza replies with a deep shaking voice with red eyes that developed from screaming in pain.
"For your trial, I shall tell you my name before I kill you kid! My name is ....."
"Aamon, the demon of wrath who serves under the arch-demon Azazel! I know what you are demon." He interjects.
"I am honoured!"
A sneer appears on Gurudza's face, Aamon is perplexed by this.
"Why are you laughing, kid?" he asks confused.
"Divine punishment!" he shouts and lightning strikes Aamon giving Gurudza enough time to escape.
At the Dark Forest
"Did you feel that power, Garamba?" Gwanhoya asks looking up in the south direction where Gurudza went.
"Yes, I did! I thought Taruziva is dead or is it that he is still alive somehow, lord?"
"No, that is not Taruziva, that is his so-called son!" she answers but seems to be in deep thought, "But how can he have grown so much in a short period of time?"
Garamba does not answer tears filling her eyes about to fall down her cheeks. Gwanhoya feels the change of her emotional state and looks at her only to see tears falling down her cheeks.
"Why are you crying?"
"The red beast of death! He is back on the realm of the living. His defeat in the hands of the chief was ...…."
"Humiliating!" Gwanhoya interjects, "Let's hope he will not be such a disappointment yet again!"
Garamba glares at Gwanhoya who goes on in front of her. She waves her hand sending a tiny dark cloud into the forest.
Minutes later, a witch comes and whispers something in her ear and she advances forward to where Gwanhoya is.
"I apologise, my lord but I have some business to attend to!"
"No need to apologise, Garamba. It is alright, you can go and attend to the matter at hand."
"Thank you!" she bows and departs with haste.
At Alabaster Weald
Genteel still sleeps and Catherine beside her. The residents of the enchanted forest feel the intense lightning hit Aamon.
"The chief of Domboguru is engaged in battle!" one of the witches, shouts looking at the south direction.
"But against who? Who would dare face him?" another one comes in with a question.
"Should we alert the queen and apprise her on this?"
"No, let us let her rest."
"I agree with you!" another one jumps in.
At Chivi/Chibi
Holding his crushed hand, he gets into the town. A child rushes from the west building grabs his hand and drags him back inside with her.
As soon as he enters his gaze meets with crosses, drawings, artifacts and salt lines surrounding the whole room and people looking scared. Children held tight as if they are shielding them from fear. The little girl who dragged him is calm but her innocence gets to his heart.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome, sir!" she moves into the crowd.
Gurudza turns his head to the hand which is broken. A woman approaches him, holds the hand looking at it and takes him to another room in the building where the medical supplies are and she attends to his broken hand.
"Thank you, ma'am! Does this building have some sort of barrier around it? To protect you from the demon?"
"Depends!" she answers
"On what?"
"On the obvious!" she replies looking at Gurudza with suspicious eyes.
"I understand, you do not trust me!" Gurudza looks at his hand while she fixes it, "But if you do not trust me then why are you treating my broken hand?"
"You ask a lot of questions young man!" she sounds and looks annoyed.
"Well asking is essential to understanding everything in this world!"
"A smart one, I see!"
"I do not know about that but thank you." Gurudza stops talking.
The two remain silent for a while as she attends to his broken hand. The woman sighs loud bending her head.
"We have created barrier stands and lines, there are layers of barriers just in case one becomes weak and we keep on checking and fixing the barriers so the demon won't be able to get in!" she opens up to Gurudza.
"I am glad." He stares at her, "What is your name?" he asks staring at her and she pauses and stares him straight back into his eyes.
"If you are thinking of going back out there, don't! You will die, that thing will kill you like it killed all of them." She says staring at him.
Gurudza laughs softly, licks his lips, "I asked for your name not if I should go back out there!"
"I know, I just thought I should say it because your eyes were saying it all."
"Saying what?"
"That you want to go back out there and fight that thing."
"I have to go back out there and face it. And you probably have phones, laptops and stuff in here. Why did you not call for help?"
"Yes, we do but they are all out and the network was cut off as soon as that thing came her and I don't think it is from this world. I mean the way it looks it must be like those aliens in movies!"
"It is a demon and the name of that demon out there is Aamon!"
She freezes looking at him in terror thinking how can her possibly know that name. His face seems so intense and like he is in pain. That smile that was on his face gone just like that.
"You can't be serious! Is that why you are here? How do we know that you are not working with the demon?" she holds her head, "I just told you about the barriers and I am also treating your hand." She laments.
"Heyy, relax alright! I am not here to harm you! I am on a journey to a certain place and I just passed by here and tried to figure out what is wrong and while I was doing that, I had to face the demon and most probably it went soft on me because it wanted to inflict as much pain as it can on me!"
"But why?" she looks confused, "What made you so special?"
"Because my father fought this demon before and send it back to the demon realm but now it has returned and I need to do what my father did before."
"So, trying to make you not go back outside to face it will not work?"
"Yes, it won't but at the moment I need to heal my broken bones before I can go back outside and confront the demon!"
She smiles looking at him and reaches for his left hand. Gurudza shakes her hand.
"Hopefully, this means you are going to tell me your name now!"
"It's Rudo!"
"Mine is Gurudza, nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you too!"