His Vision

Gwanhoya returns back to her cave with the body of Taruziva and Mukura, places them both side by side and continues into the deeper parts alone. Illuminates the cave with fire, kneels and begins to chant. Red smoke, emanate from the ground, and in front of her appears a demon, like a shadow image, showing no face but the shape of horns, wings, arms and legs. She bows her head.

“Have you made yourself useful on earth yet and made any progress on preparing for my arrival?”  

“Not yet my load!” she replies lifting her head up.

“Hmmmm, what is the reason behind this delay?” 

“Unforeseen circumstances arose, the current chief and the descendant of my executioner Chikanda intervened!”

“I see, so even after having your status being upgraded from witch to demon, a mere human still managed to defeat you?” 

“My lord, my body still has not evolved mu………?”

“Silence!” enraged by the excuses being put out by Gwanhoya he shouts shaking the cave, “I did not take you under my wing and get your status elevated for you to give me excuses, Gwanhoya! You are a demon whose name means death, failure is not an option. Do what needs to be done or next time I will not be so lenient with you Gwanhoya!” 

The demon in the shadows recedes back into the darkness and the red smoke vanishes. She returns to where she left the two bodies. Takes the chief’s body outside and teleports to his royal home. Re appears floating in the air on top of the people waiting for the ruler of their land to make an appearance with Takada waiting anxiously for him to bring back both her daughters. Throws the body of Chief Taruziva to the ground. And the people jump in terror without look at what has been thrown. Move away from the body and look up only to see Gwanhoya, floating and her skin mutated more with a brick red colour with black lines all over. 

Takada shocked with this turn of events, seeing Taruziva lifeless lying on the ground! She drags herself closer to his body while the others stare at Gwanhoya who is floating. 

“Ta, Tar, Taruziva! Taruzivaaaaaaaaa!!!” she cries out loud and falls to the ground like her tears.

Everyone turns to look and sees the chief lying on the ground and they rush to surround him. Gurudza, the child of Taruziva rushes outside to see what the commotion outside is about. His enthusiastic searching eyes lock on his father’s lifeless body. 

“Who did this!?” Gurudza asks forming fists on his hands, “Who did this?” she shouts again asking looking down at his father’s body. 

“I will give you a little while to mourn and bury your ruler! But the next time, I will………”

Gurudza fiercely hurls a lightning bolt on Gwanhoya who dodges, surprised by the development of another human that can use such magic. 

She slowly comes down, fixated on Gurudza who looks fearless, scowling at her. Lands on the ground and immediately starts walking towards him with a black aura emanating from her body all over. All the other people in her way clear up except for Gurudza and Takada. 

“You must be his son!” she scoffs, “I do not see the resemblance but you do resemble an ancestor of yours that sentence me to death though.”

“Who are you and why did you kill my father! Your aura does not feel human at all!” he stands his ground but the evil feeling emanating from her is making his body dwindle bit by bit. 

“Nxcoww, Are you not a smart one! But the opposite can be said also since you tried to strike me with a lightning bolt!” she lifts him by the jaws looking at him deep into his eyes and at this point her body has mutated and looks completely disfigured.

“Where are my daughters you with!”

“The other one is still sleeping after being knocked out by the Chief and the other one, you are looking at her!” she shows off the mutating body, “Do you like what I have done with the body?”

“You witch, I will kill you!” Takada jumps to attack Gwanhoya who throws away Gurudza, pushes Takada back by stretching her hand towards her.

“I am offering you sometime to mourn such a great warrior and if it was not for your daughter killing him would have been impossible, I would have been send back to the underworld. So, I will spare you just this once to mourn and nex……...”

“Where is my daughter you witch!” 

“You mean the young one? I have her, I am going to make her kill you herself while I watch! And I am not here to fight rather I am here to return the Chiefs body!” she disappears in front of them all. 

Gurudza turns to Takada, “I have seen those two ones over there! Which daughter does she have and where is Mukura and Monalisa?”

“That witch, has possessed my daughter and took Mukura from!”

“But that is not possible! That thing that left right now did not even come close to resembling Monalisa at all!”

“That is because it is still evolving in the body it possessed!” one of the advisors comes forward from the back of the crowd.

“What do you mean possessed and evolving?”

“Come with me young prince,” he turns away and begins walking, “We were hoping we would be able to wait before telling you the truth but with the death of your father, the circumstances have changed!”

The two head to the cave with the drawings left in the yard. 

Arrive at the entrance of the cave, “You may enter young prince!” he points into the cave.

“What is this place?” 

“It is a cave as you can see, but old. Inside it is everything you need to know. I think this cave appeared during the time everything began or the ancestors drew everything in its walls so that it can be passed down from generation to generation.” 

“So, you think the best way to mourn my father is to come here and look at some ancient crap?”

 Lays his hand on Gurudza’s shoulder, “I understand your pain young prince, but right now you need to be strong and take up the mantle after your father and face this evil before it spreads to the ends of the world!” 

“Do you really understand? Do you?!” tears begin flowing out of his eyes, “I have no one anymore! He was the only one I had left in my life, I do not even know what I am going to do!”

“Perhaps, now is not the right time for you to be in here!” sighs, “Let us leave, we will return when you are ready!”

The truth in this predicament they are in, is the need for him to grow faster. Even before the return of Gwanhoya the darkness has been spreading quickly on different parts of the centuries old kingdom. The face of Gurudza weary, his spirit has been torn apart and at that time when Gwanhoya came, trying to confront her, his spirit was crushed but still he did not show signs of shattering.

“Wait!” he stops looking at the drawings, “What is that thing there? Beside the woman kneeling!” 

“That is the demon Surgat! A lesser demon who ages ago when he attempted to invade the human world was thwarted.”

“Who thwarted it?”

“I have no idea, but whoever did is the one who left us this in here!”

“Ohh, does it tell about what happened back then? How they stopped it or how they did it?”

“No, but it speaks of a time when the evil shall attempt to rise again and if you have noticed for the past few months, your father has been busy and barely had time for you, time to train and teach or impart wisdom to you. The darkness has been rising ever since, and next he was planning to leave to settle the river god but now he can’t and it is up to you now to continue what he had started and make sure nothing happens to this chiefdom and the whole world.”

“You are putting pressure on me that I cannot handle! I can barely do even half anything my father did!” 

“I know and I am not going to lie to you, your skills and power still needs some work but at this moment that is what we need to refine it so that you can save your people!”

Gurudza touches the wall on the drawings, “I do not think that is possible at all. You are a magic practitioner, right? You, you can take over the mantle and you will be able to stop that witch lady or demon thingy, you should be able to do something about her right?”

“I can’t!” the advisor looks down.

Stares at the advisor, “Why?”

“Because, even if I tried, I do not have the power to do so!”

“You are still not making sense, I have seen you spar with father.”

“That is just us playing like we did when we were kids, the only one who could match him almost at an equal footing was Tofireyi. Those two could fight for hours and still barely show any fatigue but enthusiasm to fight more!”

“Wait, you mean Mukura’s father? How is that even possible? No, father would have mentioned this to me!”

“Your father promised to take care of his dear friend’s family on the death bed and to keep them away from the world of magic. And I am pretty sure the demon that did this is the one that killed both of them!”

“For what reason?” Gurudza seems thoughtful, feeling the art on the wall with his hands.

“I do not know!”

“But it must be connected to this somehow. There must be a connection……….”

Swallowed by the darkness, Gurudza enters into a hypnotic state, with his eyes white with a white aura coming out of his body. A small boy in a golden robe appears in front of him, holding a stuff shillelagh with flowers on the knob, terraforming the earth’s surface creating the cave and the homes in the surrounding area seem ancient. 

The boy goes in and he follows, to see what is happening but the boy is no longer in the cave. Light enshrouds him blinding him for a while. Appearing in front of him are people dressed in ancient regalia holding fire torches looking at the drawings in the cave.

The boy appears again after the others have left and this time with the one man wearing a white robe. 

“You sure are taking a long time to decipher the meaning of these drawing Chikanda!” the boy speaks going closer to the man in the white robe.

“I know father, but also in here is the new place where I can connect with you! And not pretend to not know or not have any connection with you!”

“If only you listened, all of this could have been prevented if you did as I told you! Several times I allayed to you not to trust that woman and now look, she has killed a lot of people and for what! Only because you sympathised with a mad woman who did not deserve your sympathy!”

“It is of no use scolding me now father! Everything has already occurred and she has been dealt with already.”

“Scolding you is because I do not want you to repeat the same mistakes again!” the little boy shouts at Chikanda. 

“I am liable to mistakes father, after all I am half human and I command godly power because my father is a god who parades himself looking like a young boy.”

“Do not mock me boy!” a quack occurs in this instant in the cave and Gurudza looks around to see what is going on and why he is not affected by it.

“What are you going to do father? Punish me by killing me for talking back to you?” 

“What an insolent child you are, this is no time to squabble, I will deal with you later for this transgression,” he pauses and exhales loud, “This cave contains information on what Gwanhoya was doing! Gwanhoya will one day return to finish her work and if that happens, the world as we know it will be a destroyed.” His face and voice are giving off a lot of concern as he speaks.

“What is it that she was doing?”

“She was summoning a demon to the earth realm, the demon might not be as powerful, but it is one of the most cunning ones in existence.”

“But if he is not that powerful, why do you seem to be worried?”

“The thing is my child; the demon is one who unlocks all doors for the seven princes of hell and if that happens!” he stops talking. 

“I understand now! So, what do I need to do since I am the cause of these circumstances due to my chivalrous nature!”

“Ensure the continuation of your bloodline! Like I said I will grant your descendants with power to fight and protect this chiefdom…….”

“But the power can be passed down…….” 

“I know, but I have seen something that has made me change my view on that, hence I said, ‘the one who will be destined to succeed the current will gain power’ but only from a certain element but will be able to learn to utilise the other elements but will not be as powerful.” He cuts off Chikanda after being cut off previously.

“As you wish father, I am sure you have a good reason for doing this! If I may ask, what is the name of the demon?”

“Surgat!” he looks at Chikanda for a while without talking, “And descendant of yours and a descendant of Gwanhoya will be the ones to fight the battle against evil whenever it rises again. That is what I meant by ‘light and darkness’.” After saying this, the boy disappears. 

“Surgat, huh!”

Gurudza wakes up sweating and panting with people looking at him anxiously. With haste he wakes up from the bed they laid him, through the crowd of people waiting for him to wake up, on to the caves to scan the drawings on the walls again. 

“These drawings do not say what happens after Surgat is resurrected!” he speaks to himself, “And who is this other descendant and who are the descendants of Gwanhoya!?” he shouts questioning glaring at the wall.

“My children and their late father are descendants of Gwanhoya!” Takada answers him from the entrance of the cave, “How do you know that name?”

“I saw it in some sought of a vision or dream, I do not understand what it was but you confirming that for me means I was not hallucinating!”

“I understand, that is why you passed out at that time!”

“Yes, but I don’t understand, if they are her descendants why is she causing your family so much trouble?” 

“The tale of Gwanhoya depicts her as the most powerful magic user of the family and used her magic for evil, later on her family betrayed her and to her family might just mean close to nothing because of that betrayal.”

“Like how you treat Mukura! Like she is nothing to you.” Gurudza attacks Takada over her unjust actions towards Mukura. 

“Yes, I agree that it is similar and I know I have done wrong and I have always segregated her, mistreated her but I need my daughters to be with me again, I beg you to help me!”

“I don’t know what I can do, because my magic knowledge is close to nothing at the moment, father told me to focus on combat training first and there I could fight at almost close to an equal level to him but I still lack hand to hand with no weapons but with weapons I can fight very efficiently.”

“Physical combat will not be enough Gurudza, you need to be able to use various kinds of magic and master also your main magical attribute! I have books that can help that my husband kept and some he wrote that can help you!” he moves close to him, “My husband, his main magical attribute was air, but he was also able to manipulate other magic which many failed and also your father mastered many magical attributes whereas his main was gravity.”

“I guess you are right! I have seen father use many other attributes including mine before. And I always thought maybe it is because he is my father but if I can use many forms of magic like I will be able to defeat her! Sadly, I need to have someone to fight alongside me like my father and your husband did and then I will be able to avenge my father’s death!” a cold look appears in his eyes while saying this.

And although she is delighted seeing his conviction and the hope it brings her daughters back, worry arises of him falling because of his anger in the battle against Gwanhoya, but what to do she doesn’t know and how to begin. 

She turns to leave him wondering while looking at the drawings.

The decision 

Gwanhoya standing in front of the opening of the cave waiting for Mukura to wake up. Her body is close to being fully mutated now. 

“I hope you had a nice sleep! But unfortunately for you, you missed all the fun today!” she turns to look at her, “You get to rest some more, but tomorrow we begin everything!”

“And what is it that we are going to be doing tomorrow?” Mukura comes out of the cave slowly into the dimming light of the sun.

“A massacre of course! Preparing for the ritual to open up the gates of hell and let he who opens doors enter!”

“Does this one who opens doors have a name?”

“Yes, he does!” she smiles cunningly, “His name is Surgat!”