Furyo awakens in a graveyard temple falling into the sea. He is kneeling in icy water and on sharp rocks. A deep throated chanting in a lost Buddhist tongue resounds off the ancient stone markers and cliffs. A burned out temple looks over him threatening with waves crashing through its ruined interior, the roof has partially fallen in, housing aggressive crows. Dead trees bend in harsh wind and every where dark shapes of angry Angels stare at him with inhuman hate. This must be the opposite of the Devil powers he has gained. Angels with faces of Lions, Hawks, Snakes, Horses, Antelopes and Owls glare at him. He doesn’t feel as if this is the Judeo-Christian pantheon, could be something ancient even to the Phoenicians and Babylonians.
A voice like steal bending a tornado comes from a Lion form holding a spear. It’s unintelligible but somewhere deep on a primal level, he understands it as a challenge to his moral compass, questioning why he is seeking lost spirits of the murdered and kidnapped instead of going on his own quest for vengeance. That’s a fair question, he doesn’t really know. His silence is taken as disrespect and the Lion Faced Angel steps forward with a hellish roar, in a flash driving its spear up to the space between his Adams apple and chin, raising his face with the cold metal barb tugging at his flesh.
Out in the Black Sea, among waves of violence is a new shape, as if pulling light in like a black hole a portal awakens in the edges of reality. All around him he is suddenly shielded by other angels, spirits he saved and people he didn’t know were dead. Angelina, Machiko, The 3 call girls from the plane, the kids he saved and Emi Noda all surge forth to protect him. In life these girls were no angels, promiscuous and deceitful, in death they have acquired the spiritual flames of otherworldly authority. Furyo stands his full height, getting a glare from the Lion Faced Angel.
With the help of the spirits as sponsors, Furyo is formally inducted into the Tenshi Tengu, Angels of Fire Clan. These are not Christian Angels of some pastel faced Cathedral, these are the demonic temple guardians of Buddhism. Creatures of a ferocious worldview where great and ancient demons are protectors of souls and the natural processes. Bridging the gaps between worlds and conquering lesser evil spirits who prey on lone travelers and missing school children. These spirits judge over particularly heinous crimes like organ harvest, human trafficking, murder for hire and war for profit.
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A flood of pain comes over Furyo, feeling a history unknown to but a few on the 10 worlds Buddhist souls incarnate on. In the cosmic past an asteroid hit a port earth destroying it and creating the moon. As the dust of stars, glaciers of ice and core geological base metals swirled around the wounded earth in great rings like those of Saturn, a race of primeval predators arrived to feast on the struggling life. The predecessors to vampires were shapeshifters of some fantastic antiquity. These were a god-like race that fed and spiritual pain, suffering and sacrifice.
Long before humans hundreds of far more technologically advanced civilizations rose from the primordial clay and slime to wield vast powers in the sky and seas, only to be led astray by the vampires who played them like pawns in a cyclical game of using knowledge of war and science to cause these creatures to destroy them selves over and over again. This drew other more benevolent races of god-like beings to intercede and stop the vampires from causing so much suffering and strife. Outlawing fiendish strategies the vampires used across the universe to enslave worlds.
What we think of as gods, monsters, spirits, magic and curses are the influence of these primordial races of god-like beings who have been fighting among them selves in a vacant dimensions parallel to our own. Sometimes great human leaders, prophets, generals, kings and monks have attended some wisdom from the good spirits and other deviant travelers have giants unknown powers of creation and destruction. A small bit of these powers can rend worlds apart, split the atom or free the future of hundreds of generations. It’s not cut and dry, good and evil, it’s a long game of oblivion far outside of what human minds can grasp.
Seeing a mere bit of this is enough to drive most men mad, or cast their spirits in exile, living in the vast wastes of deserts on the moon, Venus and mars as punishment for attempting to fly too close to the light. Causing eternal torment to those who would be like icarus on wax and feather wings. Furyo is embued with the Tenshi Tengu powers of the benevolent spirits, wings and hands that can form gouts of fire to rip holes into the spirit. Gateways made of superheated plasma would spill from his eyes and hands as easy as sneezing or blowing his nose. Now with this far greater understanding of the makeup of the universe he has reached the final test of his worldly ways. Would he become a holy exorcist or remain an assassin for hoodlums?