Now, Northern Philippines
The first thing that Philip did as soon as he entered the meeting hall was to shove a lunging balbal back with such ease that the huge aswang might as well have been a toddler.
Another balbal rushed forward, but Philip slapped it to the floor.
More attacked and he dealt with them quickly.
He noted that only the balbals had attacked.
The mandurugos stayed at the far end of the meeting hall standing protectively in front of a small group of children and teens.
“Good, you stay there. I don’t want any of the kids accidentally getting hurt,” Philip said.
“Then leave our village,” a mandurugo said.
“Go away!” a child cried.
The balbals eyed Philip with hunger and menace, but seemed wary enough to refrain from rushing him again.
He had seen the viciousness of their kind out in the rainforest.
The tentativeness these ones showed lent credence to them being new to the class.
Which was good for them and him.
He’d rather not smash parents in front of their children.
He was trying to think of something to say when the wooden floorboards beneath his boots suddenly lit up with dark light.
“Huh?”
The light coalesced into a circle around him.
Symbols he didn’t recognize flared into existence all around the circle’s edge.
Philip cursed.
Magic.
A sudden spike of pain shot through his body.
The eye-watering kind.
One that he had forgotten existed.
Foolish of him to think that there weren’t things out there that could hurt him.
Then again, he had tanked fireballs to the chest before with barely a tingle.
The pain vanished just as quickly.
In its place was an overwhelming feeling of enervation.
Bone-deep fatigue assailed Philip all at once. So much so that he dropped to one knee.
His limbs felt like they weighed tons, which shouldn’t have been a problem for him.
Yet, he could barely keep his eyes open.
The aswangs began to inch toward him.
Outside the meeting hall, grim-faced survivors of the fierce fighting had finished butchering the aswang fliers that Cal had left broken in the dirt.
Some had taken relish in the opportunity to take vengeance for fallen comrades.
While others had ignored the twisting in their stomachs as they became executioners.
“It had to be done,” Hanna said while wiping her blade clean.
“No trials.” Demi’s face was carved like a sculpture.
“A jury of their peers? Prison? Those things don’t exist. Not for monsters,” Hanna said.
Demi mulled over how to respond and decided to keep silent.
They had to focus on their larger goal.
“My Danger Sense just spiked!” Del said.
“Same here!” Jimenez said.
Dark circles of light appeared underneath each person.
“It’s a spell. I can feel the magic,” Jake said.
“Dark, harmful,” Alexa added.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m just going to take a big step over to the right…” Trevor said. The young man strained, but his boots remained inside the glowing circle as symbols began to appear. “Uh… guys, what do we do?”
“Mages, I want counters, now!” Demi snapped.
Jake took out a smartphone and blasted the circle with a shock spell. “Not even a smudge.”
“In theory a strong enough spell could disrupt the formation,” Smores sat in the middle of his circle. “But the possible feedback…” he shrugged.
“He means it’ll go big-fucking-boom,” Mouthy said.
Hanna stabbed at her circle without effect.
Suddenly, three floating figures appeared in their midst.
They appeared to be men, small, wizened. Though it was hard to tell due to the desiccated appearance of their unclothed torsos. Their eyes were deep, black pools, with an eerie pinprick of white light in the center.
When they opened their mouths to chant they revealed a black void that seemed to have no end.
Their words were incomprehensible, but the magical power being generated was unmistakable.
“I was wondering if they were going to show up. Aswang: Mangkukulam. The most magically inclined aswang class. We’re about to be cursed,” Smores said.
“Shoot them!” Demi barked.
Too late.
The aswangs completed the spell.
Everyone was trapped.
They felt a split-second of indescribable pain before merciful darkness spared them.
“Betrayer,” the mangkukulams spoke as one with three separate voices.
They pointed to the one person not in a spell circle.
Ginessa.
She quailed back, but couldn’t run or fight back.
“The Elder’s demise is on your head.”
Ginessa’s eyes widened.
“You did not feel it through the connection?”
“I was freed from Porfiro’s slavery!” Ginessa said defiantly.
“Then suffer before your death.”
Ginessa shrieked.
----------------------------------------
The massive, village-wide curse spell was like a beacon in Cal’s enhanced sensory perception powers.
The air boomed in his wake.
Miles eaten up in seconds.
He found every one of his people incapacitated inside circles of dark magic.
His father was inside the meeting hall underneath a pile of balbals, but from the looks of it he was still doing alright.
A trio of mangkukulams floated a few feet off the ground in their midst.
Ginessa writhed on the ground in front of them.
Cal zoomed by and hammered at the mangkukulams with wave of battering force.
As one the trio turned their gaze to him and held up their hands to disperse his attack with a multiple-layered shield of dark magic.
The tempo of their chanting quickened.
Cal felt something pass through his telekinetic shield. “Wha—” his jaw clenched from the spike of pain that lanced through his body.
Fortunately, pain was something he was used to.
He telekinetically grabbed the dirt beneath the mangkukulams and erupted it like a volcano.
The mangkukulams lost focus for an instant.
Cal’s invisible grasp took them higher into the sky. His second telekinetic wave pulverized them. He ripped them apart and cast their remains to the winds.
Down below the spell circles faded with their casters’ deaths.
“You okay?” he alighted near Ginessa.
“Yes, thank you.”
Cal regarded the unconscious people. “Keep an eye on things out here for a second. I’ve got one more thing to take care of in there,” his gaze traveled to the meeting hall.
“Please, don’t hurt them. Most of them are just like me. They didn’t have a choice,” Ginessa pleaded.
“They’ll have one now.”
He stepped into the meeting hall and seized the balbals assaulting his dad in telekinetic grips.
“Thanks, but I was getting my wind back,” Philip shook his head groggily. “You have something to do with that?
“Took out the aswangs cursing you.” Cal stared at the balbals.
They snapped grotesquely distended mouths in his direction.
“Changed back or die.” Cal added just the tiniest of telepathic nudges to his words. There had been too much death already.
After a tense moment the aswangs complied.
“So young,” Phillip said.
“Much too young,” he agreed.
“What are you thinking?” Phillip said.
“I— I’d like some advice.” He released the aswangs. “Don’t leave this building,” he warned them all. “Dad, a word outside?”
“What about the children?” Phillip said
“They’re safe enough in here. The aswangs have already fed tonight,” his face twisted.
“We’d never hurt our own!” one of the aswangs glared.
“But it’d be different if you didn’t have enough blood? And flesh?” he snapped. “C’mon, Dad. I’ve got a decision to make.”
“So, what do we do with them?” Phillip jabbed a thumb back to the closed meeting hall doors.
“I can’t just kill these ones. They haven’t actually murdered anyone. However, they have partaken of murdered victims’ flesh and blood. How does one set a punishment for that? What if that isn’t possible? I can’t jail them,” Cal sighed.
“They’ll need a source of blood that doesn’t involve killing other people. That shouldn’t be too much of problem. Plenty of hospitals for a never-ending source. And there’s also animal blood. Can they survive on that?”
“For a time, but they need human every so often.”
“What about for the ones that need human flesh?” Phillip’s blanched.
“Basically, the same rules. Animal or monster is okay, but they need human.” He took off his helmet and let out a long breath. “Only the mandurugos can function with the hospital idea. Figure I can claim a hospital in some out of the way place and let them stay there. I can’t see how the flesheaters can coexist with normal people.”
“Yeah. I don’t think anyone would willingly hand over their deceased loved ones’ bodies to be food,” Phillip grimaced.
“That’s not even accounting for the manananggals. They need viscera. The fresher the better.”
“Why not confer with the others?” Phillip regarded the rest of their group slowly coming back to consciousness.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I decided to take complete responsibility for this. Either I kill all the aswangs or I set them up in what amounts to a game preserve. That’s not even accounting for what to do with their human children. Sure, their parents have a monstrous class, but…” Cal shook his head.
“Well, it’s like you said. Without blood, how long before they turn on their children?” Phillip said.
“What else am I going to do? Turn the kids over to the datu’s people? That’s a recipe for abuse and exploitation. Children of aswangs won’t get a fair hand.”
“All you can do is make the decision with the best intentions,” Phillip said.
Cal frowned. “I don’t think that’s good enough in cases like these. My good intentions won’t matter when the consequences are horrible deaths for many people.”
“Well, you wanted my advice. I don’t like the idea that my kids are killing people even if they are monstrous and deserving. I don’t like how that could change you guys. So, put them in that hospital. One with a cafeteria so that there’s food for their children. Make them swear that they won’t turn the children into aswangs. You’ll just have to check up on them to make sure they keep their word,” Phillip said. “Killing in a life or death struggle is one thing,” he pointed at the meeting hall, “this isn’t that anymore. I don’t want you to turn yourself into a murderer.”
“And the balbals? A hospital won’t have an eternal supply of human corpses,” Cal said.
“They’re just so young,” Phillip whispered. “I’ll take care them. Make it quick.”
Cal raised a brow. “Thanks, Dad, but no. I’m definitely not going to let you do that to yourself just for me. I’m the one with the stained hands. Not you. And I intend to keep it that way for Mom’s sake.”
“That’s a low blow, Anak. And your hands aren’t stained. That wasn’t your fault. You were under the influence of a powerful monster,” Phillip laid a hand on Cal’s armored shoulder.
“It was still this,” Cal tapped his temple, “that killed a friend. I have a few hours until the sun comes up. I’ll have a decision by then.”
----------------------------------------
Now, Manila
Eron hit the road.
Literally.
Going face first first into the concrete did nothing for his broken nose.
He had been mid-leap between two high-rise buildings when something big and hard had knocked him to the ground. He spat out another tooth as he pushed himself up and staggered toward his original destination. “Good thing these things grow back now,” he said.
The fog swirled around him.
It was like swimming through a gray soup.
There was a weight to it at times that defied explanation, which was something that he had encountered often in the post-spires world. Granted he was probably the most well-traveled individual on the planet. Having been to most of the major continents over the past decade.
Except for Antarctica.
Oh, he had flown close once, but had decided against checking things out.
Something scuttled across the asphalt.
Many things.
“Aw, shit… going to be those giant centipede things,” Eron groaned.
He hurried into the building.
Disgust had him running right through the glass doors.
The inside was no better as he was immediately beset by fog-created shades of sigbins. The bleating, goat-like monsters were accompanied by their customary foul smell.
They jumped Eron.
He punched them until they dissipated back into the fog.
The scuttling drew closer so he rushed to the elevator.
He leapt and climbed until he reached the end. A quick trip up some stairs and one broken door later he was standing at the top of the building.
Naturally, he couldn’t see anything of the city.
All he could see was gray.
“If you could see what I see you’d give up.”
Eron spun, fists raised, at the sound of a familiar voice. “Tito Carlos. Missed you back there. Busy?”
His great-uncle stared out over the gray-shrouded city. “Hope is a fool’s errand in the world that this has become.”
“Agree to disagree on that. Sure, it’s sucked for the vast majority, but I’ve seen some good pockets. A future peaking through the dark clouds.”
“I’m sure you had a lot to do with that. Those ‘pockets’ of yours? How do you think they’ve been doing while you’ve been trapped here? Have they survived without you? Thrived?”
“They’re fine!” Eron snapped.
“I’ve touched a sensitive topic. See, even you don’t have hope. Once you’ve been subsumed, like the rest of us, what will happen to those places and people? Death, most likely, at the hands of some other great monster.”
“Why are you here and why aren’t you punching me in the face?” Eron said.
“To bring you hope,” Tito Carlos turned to Eron with a wry smile on his wrinkled face.
Eron lowered his fists. “New kind of attack? Psychological warfare? A trap?”
“You have a small window to escape. You and you alone. If you run and jump as fast as you can for the perimeter, you’ll be able to get out.”
“Why?”
“It rests.”
“How about you be less cryptic,” Eron said flatly.
“There are… controls… I can only say so much and I can only do this much, right now, because its hold slackens in sleep,” Tito Carlos said.
“Does this have something to do with why you and the other heavy hitters were missing back there?”
“Stop wasting time and go!” Tito Carlos raised his voice. “This is your best and last chance to free yourself from our hellish existence. Floating in the gray void of a world that seems real and not. Only to be brought out to fight. To inflict pain and to be hurt in return. Not knowing if we are just shades of the real person, even though every thought in my mind and feeling in my heart screams out that I am me!”
Eron’s eyes narrowed. “That almost seemed genuine. The passion was a nice touch, but you’ve fooled me before.”
Tito Carlos smiled sadly. “The ‘heavy hitters’, as you call us, were needed to fight and help it subsume an extremely powerful monster. The—” he opened his mouth, but no words came out. He shook his head in frustration. “The fog expanded over an ibingan nest. The ibingan wasn’t pleased,” he shrugged.
“What is that?”
“A giant, snake-like dragon. Very magical. The ibingan actually managed to do damage before it was taken.”
“So, like a wyrm,” Eron mused.
“Whatever you call it in America. You’re missing the point and wasting your opportunity. It isn’t fully conscious. It’s not watching the perimeter. It won’t be able to turn you around when you try to leave, so go, now!”
“How much time are we talking? I’ll need to gather everyone.”
“You’re not listening. You have ten, fifteen minutes.”
“Well, thanks for the info, but I’m leaving anyone,” Eron said. “So, you say that the wrym— ibingan managed to injure the fog with magic? Like, did it breathe fire?”
“Tsk… you have a chance to go back to your family.”
“I’ve family here too,” Eron held his great-uncle’s gaze.
“Then, if you hurry you might be able to grab Madalena and take her with you.”
“The fog can be hurt. It can be destroyed. That would free you and everyone else.”
“Yes! By a giant, magical dragon! You are none of those things!” Tito Carlos threw his arms up.
“Thanks, Tito. You’ve actually managed to give me a bit of hope. I mean, this could all still be a trick, so…” Eron shrugged.
“I can feel it stirring,” Tito Carlos sighed. “Once last warning. The ibingan will add its strength when it was been fully subsumed. The girl’s wards won’t be able to hold. You’ll have to consolidate those sanctuaries of yours.”
Eron nodded.
“Well, I tried. Your dad can’t get mad at me cause you’re too hard-headed to listen,” Tito Carlos snorted.
“We’ll find a way,” Eron said.
“To?”
“To free you. To free everyone.”
“Hope?” Tito Carlos laughed. “It might just be because its hold on me is weakened right now, but…” he shook his head. “False hope is worse than none.”
“Agreed, which is why this isn’t that,” Eron said.
“I… hope you’re right,” Tito Carlos said.
Eron watched as his great-uncle slowly faded back into the fog.
He took a deep breath and leapt.
----------------------------------------
Madalena pushed the shuttle with everything she had.
The driver swerved around the rusted jeepneys and cars littering the road.
Brake lights flashed.
She shifted her grip to the bumper and dug her heels into the ground.
The tires screeched and smoked, just like the soles of her boots.
A loud crash shook the shuttle and Madalena ate a face full of metal.
“What’re you doing back there!”
Cherry’s voice was high-pitched and annoying.
“Don’t stop pushing! They’re coming from everywhere!”
Madalena grunted and pressed her hands back to the back of the shuttle. She pumped her legs and got back up to speed.
Something latched onto her back. Sharp claws cut through armor and clothing.
Wind whistled past her ear.
The weight was gone.
She felt something wet run down the back of her left ear.
Madalena looked up and noticed Cherry smiling down at her sharp-fanged. All perfect features and luscious silver hair that waved in the air.
“You’re welcome,” Cherry said.
“You cut my ear,” Madalena hissed.
“All you have to do is run or stop. I’m the one keeping everyone inside safe,” Cherry rolled her eyes as she stabbed long, blade-like fingers into another monkey-like shade monster leaping out of the fog.
The shuttle swerved into a down-slope. Forcing the two women to hold on for dear life.
There was no stopping the shuttle if either of them let go and that meant they’d be at the mercy of the fog. Their chances of making it back to the sanctuary in that case were low despite their abilities.
The shuttle nearly fishtailed out of control while Madalena managed to get her feet under control enough to jump onto the bumper.
Unfortunately, she was heavier than she looked and the bumper had already been loosened.
The bumper dropped off and her boots dragged along the asphalt. Sparks trailed as the leather covering the steel-toes was quickly eaten away.
“Stop it!” Cherry yelled.
Madalena dug her fingers into the steel and set her heels. She wasn’t looking forward to what would happen once the soles had been eaten away. Her skin was tough, but she wasn’t confident that it was tough enough to avoid getting scraped off.
The shuttle swerved again and the hinges on the back door gave.
Madalena found her self tumbling along the asphalt.
Sure enough she felt the sting of road rash on the exposed portions of her skin.
She rolled to a stop. The shuttle was no longer visible in the thick fog, but the road had leveled, so she knew it would eventually slow to a stop without her to push it.
A huge shape began to form out of the fog in front of her.
She took the shuttle door and held it as a shield in front of her as she ran right through the form, dispersing it for a moment. She spun and hurled the door through the form again before sprinting down the road with everything she had.
Moments later she nearly slammed face-first into the shuttle again.
Scared eyes stared at her from the opening in the back.
“Push! Push! Push!” Cherry urged. “I can feel something big coming!”
The other people joined in the urging.
Madalena grit her teeth despite the pain from shredded skin and pushed.
The fog stole her ability to use her senses beyond her immediate area. So, she only knew that whatever huge shade monster she had temporarily disrupted was on her heels was thanks to Cherry’s panicked commentary.
It figured that only a monster could see in the fog.
“You’re not helping!” Madalena shouted.
“So, you’d rather not get a warning when it’s about to bite your head off?” Cherry sneered down.
“Stab it or use a spell!”
“Nope,” Cherry shook her head. “Definitely won’t work and my spells aren’t the aggressive kind. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
“Could’ve fooled me the way you’ve been cutting up the other shades,” Madalena muttered.
“Those were easy, this one… not. Oh, shi—”
Madalena felt Cherry’s blade-like fingers spear over her head. She had been shot at before and the aswang’s fingers moved as fast as bullets.
A sound like metal clashing with metal rang in Madalena’s ears
Cherry hissed in pain.
Madalena looked up and saw the aswang cradling broken fingers.
“I just saved your life. Maybe you won’t be such a miserable bitch,” Cherry hissed.
“Saved your own life, you mean,” Madalena scowled.
Cherry was about to respond when her head suddenly snapped to the front of the shuttle. “You’re going to have to push faster!” she turned back to Madalena. “Everyone, hold on!” she shouted into the shuttle.
“What? Why!” the driver shouted back.
“Just keep a tight grip on the wheel! The road’s blocked!” Cherry said. “If you slow down that thing’s going to catch us and we’re all dead,” she hissed to Madalena.
“The road wasn’t blocked on our way down,” Madalena said.
“We were on the other side, stupid,” Cherry said.
Madalena’s entire body hurt. Her head and heart ached from seeing so many different shades of her family. The knowledge that Eron had stayed behind to fight their family weighed heavily. Despite her dislike of her cousin, she knew that without Eron none of them would’ve survived this long.
And now she had no idea if he was even still alive. If, when she next saw him it would be as another shade.
She had already been running on adrenaline and she didn’t know if she had more to give.
Madalena glanced up at the frightened faces looking down at her from inside the shuttle.
They were all counting on her to survive.
She dug deep and found something.
A second wind or something more?
Strength surged into tired muscles.
Madalena roared and the shuttle lurched forward.
Cherry cursed as she had to stab her fingers into the roof to stay on.
A loud crash jarred the entire shuttle.
Metal screeched and people screamed.
Madalena kept pumping her legs.
She had done it. The shuttle had barely slowed.
“Putang—” Cherry cursed as she sent one blade-like finger stabbing behind Madalena.
The aswang cursed as she retracted another broken finger.
“I only have four left,” Cherry’s face was twisted with pain. “Hey, you people in there, don’t you have guns? Spells? Any little bit you can add to distract it or slow it down.”
“We can’t see shit to shoot at!” one of them shouted back.
“Just shoot over resting bitch face’s head, trust me, you can’t miss it,” Cherry said.
“Aswang bitch, calling me a ‘bitch’,” Madalena frowned.
She winced as gunfire erupted out of the back of the shuttle.
She could hear the rounds striking the thing chasing them.
It was close.
“How far are we from the sanctuary?” Madalena said.
“I don’t know, just keep pushing and don’t slow down,” Cherry said.
Spells streaked out over Madalena’s head.
She just kept her head down and pushed, running for all that she had, trying to ignore the desperate fight to keep the shade monster from catching up to them.
Minutes passed like hours.
An eternity to Madalena until she finally noticed the brake lights flashing and the shuttle’s tires squealing.
She stopped pushing and pulled while digging her ruined boots into the asphalt.
The bright glow of Lilah’s ward illuminated the gloom and kept the fog away from the sanctuary.
Cherry landed lightly next to Madalena and thrust ruined hands in her face.
“You can’t ever question my loyalty again,” Cherry said before she stomped into her restaurant lair.
The rest of the people filed out of the shuttle with stunned and glassy-looks in their eyes.
Madalena had seen that look too often in the recent past. Seen it staring back at her in the mirror. She forced herself to look okay, at least as far as she could tell before addressing the people. “Let’s get everyone settled in. There’s plenty of open apartments on the second and third floor. Lots of food and water. Take whatever you need for now.”
Grateful people thanked her as they walked past her and into the restaurant.
Madalena took a moment to scan the edge of the ward’s effect.
Something big swirled the fog as it paced in front of her.
“Fuck you,” Madalena shot it a rude gesture.