The Pagoda of the Cannibal Giants (人食い巨人の塔) “Hito kui Kyojin no tō” was unlike any thing Furyo had ever seen, even in books and movies. It was a yawning chasm, that spanned from deep in the earth where vast underground seas delved into the magma belt, driving steam and pyroclastic energy high into an open ceiling where only the most daring bird creatures roost. The procession came to stairs they could not climb with out ropes and grappling hooks, so a mighty lift was lowered on screaming chains as the counter weight of tons slowly raised to lower the platform. The lift its self was so vast the opposite end was not visible in the dark space. Echoes of distant chant, symbols and war drums made the place feel ominous. Voices so deep and slow they sounded like geological processes turned to music haunted their vision. Sound waves so slow and scary they made the ear drum and eye stop communicating where the humans had to be carried so they wouldn’t go into convulsions and suffer other worldly visions from disturbances of the neural context and spine.

Above them shafts of light showed walls and pillars so old the very materials used to build them were petrified. Like a ruined cathedral, pieces of the walls and ceiling had crumbled, leaving faces of statues and floral motifs the size of cars lying forgotten on the floor like a vandalized place of worship. Ferocious statues of Buddhist protector demons filled every wall and alcove. Furyo notices a queer effect of light and shadow where Giants seemed to stand so still that they ceased to exist, or birds flocking around the open shafts of light would fall from the sky and be picked up by benevolent sentinels translucent to the human visual spectrum. Everywhere the empty space revealed luminous eyes on towering specters only half way perceptible, possibly as a greeting or a warning. Furyo bowed to every creature that made him want to abandon every thing and run, but Machiko stopped him as projecting power and silence was the only way to not be mistaken for “Food of the Gods.” This is the domain of the benevolent demons Buddha blessed with knowledge of the universe for their protective devolution to the early Bodhisattvas. Pantheons of Hindu and Zoroastrian Devas mixed with the Asura and Ahuras. Who gave subtle nods to each other as they are the manifestation of light and dark in opposing cultures who demonized the other sides celestial caucus along the ancient Silk Road.

Coming to a midway mark, the entourage stopped to interact with a hall of courtiers of the Giant monarchy. Here statues of Giants fill every wall, generals with faces like malevolent tigers, horses, lizards, oxen and great beasts half eagle half lion reared back in poses of warfare. Glowering executioners and famous death scenes rendered in stone stood nearly 100 feet tall. Machiko explained these are not statues but the ancient Cannibal Giants themselves who slowly turned to stone as epochs passed, making this place their memorial tomb. Many moved from the earlier realm lost to sea level rise since the last ice age. Horses the size of jumbo jets and fu dogs as large as mountains lived here in these beautifully rendered stone edifices. Furyo shuddered at the enemies monsters of this scale would have been fighting. Ghosts live here by the thousands, tribes lost to eras so distant only the rocks and tree spirits remember them. Among the throng of moving races of myth and curse, there are cremations beside ritual suicides, immolation and flayed families meditating for some unknowable purpose.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Now around them they see plainly the Ghost Tribe Shinto priests walking among the deposed groups like the Fox Spirits, Tengu, Tenshi, Yurei, Yokai and creatures so strange only ancient Chinese hell scrolls could name them. This was a place where the hell of the human being was the paradise of the etherial. Crossing other processions and what looked like a strange carnival of dancers, jugglers and fearsome beasts made Furyo feel insecure. Nothing in the world was as strange as the vistas here. Shadowy silhouettes of blackness watched with glowing red eyes as the phantom mountains of the sea made their yearly trip into the Giant kingdom to settle disputes and offer tribute to the Cannibal Gods. Deer men and horse faced demons carried skins and hidden gold of ancient kings lost to the human histories, Bird Women and Rock Apes traded pearls with the Whale Gods and Cephalopod race that gave up the land when earth was still reshaping from the impact that created the moon. This place is so large it hosts its own atmosphere spitting odd hail and phantom lightning bolts among the mist of electrical chaos above. Is this some magic or unknown technology to use alternating violence of storm and rain to power unseen vessels of power?

The final lift was densely packed with cults and dignitaries from other celestial spheres. Furyo sees what look like Angels but lack any feeling of holy wisdom, these monsters of fire and sparking electricity looked at him like a cockroach crawling across their silverware. Uninterested in his story, seeing only a lesser being with the audacity to stand beside entities that watched stars die and supernovas turn into black holes. Some Celestial Women smiled at him, Hawk faced Tengu and Giant centipedes regarded him as food but stayed a comfortable distance out of regard for the Cannibal Giant warlords who escorted them. Coming to the top of the Pagoda of Hell, Furyo sees the windows turning amber from the dying sun rays struggling with black storm clouds grumbling thunder into the space. Here the grey sky and blackness of space touched the great painted ceiling showing a battle between primitive forces of light and dark at the dawn of time. Ghoulish armies of terror clash in a volcanic field of burning shapes and feasting beasts, painted by inhuman hands in a time so remote it bends ideas of the origin of the universe. Abrahamic faiths lifted from earlier traditions have no way to process the deep histories of the Eastern cults buried in caverns and hidden valleys. This place causes mental illness and fractured spiritual beliefs in even the most resolute shamans, steadied by decades of mystic devolution and meditative practice.

A terrible baritone shakes the floor here. Sounds so intense and rhythmic they cause human beings to start coming apart on a molecular level. These songs of creation and destruction are ended so as to not wipe out the lesser beings among the royal heights of the inhuman vanguard. Here is a space made of so much precious stone and metal its a wonder the entire structure isn’t free falling under immense weight. Gold and diamond pillars hold up a roof of stone unknown to human eyes that sparkles with the fires of stars in blackness. 10,000 ancient giant kinds frozen in time sit on mighty thrones along the walls. Caustic incense and cooking fires bring violent tears to human eyes. More and more Furyo has come to suspect Rikki an Machiko are not fully human. They present as asian women so beautiful they hurt the eyes and please the soul just by looking at them, but an otherworldly grace mixes with an undercurrent of hidden knowledge of the secrets of the universe. Something he cant place leaves Furyo in awe and discomfort. They could be the Ten no-Tsukai (天の使い), Celestial women or some other form of shapeshifter. Could they be ancient vampires of trickster Fox Spirits here to betray him at the 11th hour for some political advantage yet unseen by his dim mortal mind?