21 ARTEMUS’s SURPRISE (2/2)

It took a ten-minute walk from there to Bakunawa's shrine. For Zeba it took almost forever as she held her head down wondering what happened to Prodea. She's becoming more sinister than ever, killing thirty of those medical casters that some of them, if not acquainted with, are her good friends. She's not used to her new methods. Sure, she has been insufferable and mainly tortures everyone around her with hurtful words to get what she wants but she doesn't kill people in order to achieve something. The use of mind-games, finesse, and her Bathala-given intellect is what she boasts around to people, not the use of Dark Magicks and forbidden rituals. Prodea has truly changed since their return from their trip to the foreign lands of the east. She just felt thankful that Prodea regards her as one of her closest friends and that she wouldn't disregard her existence like what she did with Karr, whom has been her loyal bodyguard for twenty years - at least that's what she wanted to believe.

”Prodea,” echoed the voice of Bakunawa, disturbing and scary Zeba noted as she sees him walking out of his front porch in his ragged old cloak. ”I see you got my message. Good thing too since you've foolishly offered your head willingly to me.”

”I don't care what you think you senile old trash,” she exclaimed stepping forward removing her cloak and evening gloves, revealing her five new Amplifyers to him glowing a bright radiating energy field around her, ”but I'm done playing games. Let's just get this over with.”

Prodea has two circular sapphire stones embedded on the back of her hands occupying its full width. Another two rectangular emeralds are to be found at the back of both of her forearms almost five inches long and about an inch and a half wide. The last one, the rare Red Emerald, is found on her chest that she formed as a little triangle which is the brightest of them all. All of these Amplifyers have tattoo markings around it acting as a runic spell to facilitate the free-flowing transfer of her elemental essence coming out of her spirit and her human vessel, which is her body.

Zeba was surprised to see that many Amplifyers in one person. She got three Amplifyers on her forehead already and that is more than enough to drain her every time she tries to conjure elemental techniques. She had helped her put the red emerald on her chest last night but that's because Prodea has some spare energy to fuse with it. She just realized why she needed the lives of those thirty medical casters. Fusing with Amplifyers needs life force emanated by the spirit and if the elemental essence of the spirit is not high enough it'll take a toll on the human vessel, absorbing further the basic life force essential in moving and thinking, incapacitating the person to a mere lifeless state known as the Sleep of Death. Based on the intense illumination of the Amplifyers, she did not just capture the souls of the casters to activate the fused Amplifyers, she trapped them to break the limits of the Amplifyers giving them to be activated to a near perfect glow mimicking the diamond Amplifyer activation, pulsating a near-white beam that look as though she had enchanted herself with the white fire.

”Impressive, little apprentice, but you won't get lucky this time.”

”Yes, I will,” she replied smiling jumping back twenty feet engraving the earth as she lands with a huge runic summoning circle stretching for about thirty feet in diameter, with her at the center. The summoning circle magically moved in a counterclockwise rotation with little rotating runic circles being etched inside as every second passes. A moving summoning circle, gasped Zeba as she witnessed one of the few things only a Yagisivian can do. She is not a Yagisivian but because of her Dark Arts, she practically became just like one and with the help of those thirty naïve souls she has tricked into forfeiting their lives, she became much more powerful.

Zeba knows when it is not safe to stand around, soshe dashed on backwards to the sidelines, slow as she is, to get a glimpse of every second of the event on the great battle of the millennia: Prodea versus Bakunawa, Mortal versus Immortal, Nagozulian versus Yagisivian; A battle that has never been seen for a thousand years; A battle that Prodea is very confident in winning.

”I can't take any chances now,” said Bakunawa that echoed all around as if thunder.

Zeba was frightened with this feat, talking while chanting a summoning ritual. It's impossible, she believes. There is an impaling voice coming from him reciting an unknown language of Bathala's Heralds, almost drilling a painful drive on her head but he can also speak fearfully loud as if two people are within him: a disturbingly scary high-pitched voice and his alarming loud normal voice which is reverberating fearsome vibrations through her body disabling her to move, forcing her to sit down weak and helpless. She could only see his eyes, his piercing blood red eyes with a bright yellow snakelike iris that never blinks. His whole face is pitch-black even though Prodea has been lighting the place like noon, a faceless monster without a left arm but still frightening indeed. She could imagine him more frightening if his body is complete and if his monstrous face is revealed.

In her life as a Daomagarian, she had never witnessed such an excessive display of energy emanation coming from a living being. This match is truly above anyone's level that she knows of. She just sat there frightened as her heart pounds fast feeling both their energies fight off as if dominating one another while they are readying themselves in combat. A very destructive, obviously dangerous, epic match that is reserved only to the most powerful beings alive and she now has half-a-mind to scurry off to save herself from getting caught in the crossfire. If only she could move. If only she could muster enough courage and fight the whispering voice of Bakunawa, his confusing and irritating voice that sucks away her will to move rendering her in a feeble state of just watching the fight. She wonders why Prodea can stand this challenging power and how she can still etch some complicated spells from the ground without breaking her chants and her stance and the activation of her Amplifyers. This just proves her enormous and unrivaled strength, determination, and concentration - she thought convinced as she tries to crawl further away, inch by inch, in hopes that his voice would escape her head as their distance furthers.

The grounds became deaf silent all of a sudden giving Zeba the energy to scurry further on the sides together with the tall grasses where she could hide. She is now curiously looking at Bakunawa floating on his front porch looking at Prodea who is still etching some summoning circle on the grounds. She was searching for something to help her figure out what's happening when all of a sudden, a high-pitched screech engulfed the whole shrine making her cover her ears in pain.

A huge splash of waters began erupting in the ocean near the shrine. In a matter of seconds, a towering sea dragon emerged opening its vicious mouth boasting two humongous fangs around countless of blades of teeth all lined up evenly. It rose reaching for the skies scaling to at least a thousand feet as if jumping and eating the moon, burning its color to blood red engulfing the skies with further darkness. The frightening dragon has two small arms with long dangerously sharp claws on each of its three fingers. It used this to land on the grounds to pierce the earth, stabbing it to bleed water to flow like flood as if it has created its own enchantment without having the summoning ritual performed.

The Nanreben has awoken again she screamed in her head in fright as she saw its bulging green snake-like eyes looking at them with its fiendish blue green mirror-like scales reflecting the red moon. She only saw the Nanreben at a distance when they last visited, and she was overwhelmed with joy that time having to witness the awakening of one of the five remaining Immortal Titans. Now, being too close to the gigantic dragon, she feels an insurmountable amount of fear she never dreamt of ever feeling; a dreadful feeling that she believe is far worse than anything she could ever encounter in her lifetime akin to impending death. Its sharp eyes created a painful stab in her soul disabling her to move further while making her experience pain to radiate on every part of her body that can feel. She still wonders how Prodea, who's now looking at the huge sea serpent, can manage to block all this suffocating magic she's feeling. She understands she only feels the residual effects of Bakunawa's magic, and that of the Nanreben's, which is all directed to Prodea. She knows what she's feeling is only a tenth, nay even a twentieth, of what Prodea is now experiencing but still she is on her perfect stance with her fast chanting and her swift engraving on the earth with her summoning skills.

It screamed its long powerful shriek once more summoning a tidal wave to engulf the fields. Zeba felt the thousand pound force smashing her body to the ground but she saw Prodea still standing on the ground, still etching and chanting her ritual unharmed and apparently dry as if she did not even get touched by the deadly force of the sea.

She was about to turn around to move away further when the summoning circle of Prodea blasted a white light towards the sky. It illuminated the fields bright as day and burned almost all the things around it including a statue debris on the far corner. Zeba smiled for a second commending herself for thinking ahead and escaping to where she's at earlier. If she hadn't moved from her spot, she would have been burned to a crisp by now.

A screaming fiendish monster, extending almost the same size as the Nanreben, violently escaped the earth in just a matter of seconds. It is a raucous serpent with stacks of burning coal forming its body blasting a hot blazing coat of red fire from the head to its tail as if having a thorny pelt from the roaring fires that escapes its molten scales; it turned the temperature of the grounds to at least thirty degrees higher burning the air dry, making it thick and hard to breathe. It has no eyes, only a long snout with two large fangs that continuously drip magma but still it's as if it can see the roaring Nanreben, taunting it with its earsplitting shrieks. Its backbone has protruding huge scythe-like sharp spikes from its head to tail making it deadly if it got the chance to slither and constrict anything with its multiple smoldering lances.

Prodea can now be found on the top of the head of its summoned beast looking down on them. Bakunawa looked up and jumped to the head of his Nanreben making both of them match up eye-to-eye with Prodea now speaking in a surprisingly loud voice echoing all around, enchanting her voice to amplify murmuring some incantations.

Seeing this, Bakunawa ordered the great Nanreben to lunge forward to attack. The slithering Nanreben roared a fearsome pitch as it rushed towards the fiendish serpent. It released a thick jet of water from its mouth spraying the large serpent's face.

Prodea anticipated this move and made his summoned beasts to bow parrying the blast but this left herself vulnerable to the titan's sharp claws, which the Nanreben expected. The great Titan jumped and opened its claws directing its black lethal sharp force to the face of the burning serpent aiming to kill Prodea who's standing at the top of its head. Prodea managed to move away dodging in the last second but the mighty claws of the great beast managed to break-off half of the fiery snake's face.

As soon as the Nanreben landed on the ground from its attack, Prodea finished her incantations and spontaneously summoned two thousand fireballs to counterattack, thinking about the small window of opportunity from the titan's vulnerability consisting of a few milliseconds it needed to ready and position its long body up to attack again. She released the fireballs flying to Bakunawa at an impossible speed. One thousand of which moved to blast the face of the Nanreben and the other one thousand made its way to Bakunawa only to arrive exploding before ever making contact. Bakunawa saw to this earlier on, sohe made sure to create elemental defenses activated within his great beast leaving them to appear unscathed from her attack having only a thick black smokescreen to cover their vision as a result of the encounter.

IT'S A TRAP! Bakunawa figured as he magically waved his arms to expunge the black smoke all around him and the Nanreben's eyes only to reveal that he's been tricked once again! The fiery serpent's ten feet smoldering spike at the end of its tail came forth lashing at an inconceivable speed. The Nanreben moved quickly avoiding the sharp protruding spears of the blazing serpent but it didn't help much. It's fast gliding movements made it possible for it to stab the Nanreben's body just above its left arm below its neck. The titan roared a thunderous shriek of agony as the spike leak molten magma searing into the titan's scaly skin. The sliding fiend made its way moving closer trying to position itself to constrict the Nanreben while Prodea attacked with heavy fire Magicks into Bakunawa. Upon seeing this deadly scenario, Bakunawa called for cold waters to rise all around his legendary Titan. The force of the rising waters cut the tail that's been stabbing the Nanreben in half. He then created a wind-water summoning much like a winter blizzard all around dropping the temperature down to at least fifty degrees colder with his Water Serpent blasting a furious jet of water trying to take vengeance by extinguishing the flaming serpent. Prodea smiled snickering as if mocking Bakunawa in his defensive enchantments as she retreated back moving at least two hundred feet away from him and his crying Nanreben.

Taking into account the mass of the fiery serpent and its reaction time to their successful attack earlier on, Bakunawa thought that she couldn't move it fast enough at her will. He was tricked into thinking that it is an Elemental Summoning just like what she did when they last met, and this mistake almost cost him his Nanreben. Elemental Summonings are much more like summoning a puppet. The bigger it is the harder it is to control and move, much so to attack with. He originally thought he summoned this elemental fiend to become her shield from the Nanreben's massive attacks, but he's mistaken. Dim'ion's Magicks made it possible for Prodea to instill a living soul in its core. He sensed it being close to her gigantic burning serpent. She actually succeeded in trapping and enslaving a poor mortal soul into fusion with Mother Earth. An abomination! An immoral and repulsive skill made and perfected only by Dim'ion!

”I'm not the same Prodea you battled last time. I'm more powerful now!” Prodea shouted with an amplified sound that can be heard clearly all around the battlefield.

”I know,” replied Bakunawa with the same loud resonance charging a huge blue water sphere the size of his shrine's dome that is in rubles on his left, ”You've become so rotten that you're now relying on Dim'ion's Dark Magicks! Defiling an innocent soul is a great insult to Bathala. You should be punished!”

”OH, PLEASE!” she mocked with her arrogant tone, ”as if you do not use Dim'ion's Magicks! The very foundation of Yagisivian summonings are based on Dim'ion's...”

”That's where you're wrong,” he interrupted finalizing his channeling spell, ”Dim'ion's skills is based on Ana'giel's Magicks and the majority of our summonings came from Ana'giel himself!”

Bakunawa released the bulging water sphere towards Prodea's fiery snake. The massive water orb released hundreds of tentacles of gushing waters like blades piercing her summoned titan on impact, making it shriek in pain as it continues to extinguish its fiery skin. The Nanreben joined in as it clawed the ground once more to create a torrent of water below the shrieking monster, trying to put out its flames further.

Water is a tricky element. It is without form, but it is solid and is greater than the element fire making it that much harder to block. This property of water can become most problematic for anyone receiving an attack coming from an elemental summoner for the attacker can shape it to their will and surprise any would-be defender. Prodea knows this for a fact and she knows she'll be at a disadvantage knowing that her main tri-element attribute is fire and her enemy, the immortal Bakunawa, is fond of playing with water. But, as always, she has prepared for this day and thus she has another card up her sleeve that quite literally lies behind her sleeves if she's wearing any.

Prodea lifted her right arm and the emerald Amplifyer began to pulsate its blinding glow. Shortly thereafter, a gust of wind bellowed all around her summoned giant. It formed a field of rushing whirlwind that destroyed the form of the gushing tentacles of the huge water sphere and pushed the moving waters below her great serpent.

Wind Of course, is stronger than water for the wind can reshape its form or in their case disrupt it from forming and shake its structure making it lose its shape and be rendered useless. Certainly in order to do this, the Blower should have a Wind Summoning greater in force than that of the Caster's for gushing water rapids is much more harder to disrupt but because of Prodea's newfound power, with the souls of her servants being trapped inside her new Amplifyers modified through Dim'ion's Magicks, she can now come toe to toe with Bakunawa's powerful spells.

This jaw-dropping act surprised both Bakunawa and Zeba. Such roaring winds destroying everything in its wake are the elemental skills possessed only by Legendary Nagozulians that have lived thousands of years ago. Prodea's wind essence is nowhere near this powerful they thought as a crumb of fear began to shake inside their heads. The awakening of this stormy gust cleared all the clouds in the sky magnifying the moon's bloody glow.

”I didn't expect you could amplify your wind essence to ten times that of your true essence,” Bakunawa shouted cramming another set of summoning to counterattack, ”but you forget one thing! I'm still the most powerful summoner there is!”

Bakunawa retaliated using Earth Invocations to summon sixteen large slabs of hard stones - measuring at least twenty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and ten feet thick. He made it move about countering the rushing winds of Prodea until the wind blows weakened to a harmless strong wind.

”Impressive,” ringed Prodea hinting an infuriated tone, ”I didn't know you can summon the Sixteen Walls of Heaven. Must have drained you a lot bringing forth that kind of powerful defensive technique.”

Bakunawa just scoffed revealing his smiling eyes as he positioned his slabs of silver walls around Prodea's malevolent beast. Prodea's eyes widened as he flipped all the slabs horizontally ready for an attack position.

The Sixteen Walls of Heaven is one of the most powerful techniques a Yagisivian can summon. It is a thick framed shiny silver-colored stone slab that is famed for its near-indestructible qualities making it the most powerful physical defensive barrier to ever been summoned. Every stone slab has a ten feet runic number starting from one marking every slab to sixteen. The strength of the stone varies and increases its durability as the slab number reaches the slab number one - which is the most indestructible of all the stone slabs. These walls are rumored to have been created and chiseled by Bathala's herald Ana'giel himself and that up to now, no one has ever scratched its surface - except for the sixteenth slab which has a boring hole on its center that is marked by the Emperor Dogal's ultimate skill a thousand years ago. Every stone slab is unique, but each shares its very sharp edges that can rip through piercing almost anything on contact. When placed on top of each other, the fast-moving velocity can act mimicking the movement of shears that can eviscerate and/or squash almost anything.

Bakunawa moved the stone slabs simultaneously attacking the wretched snake and Prodea in all directions. Like sheers, it forcefully slid through each and every stone wall snipping the fiery serpent. The resulting slams of those sixteen walls created an ear-splitting explosion vanquishing the flaming serpentine once and for all including Prodea in it. No one can escape that kind of attack. The Sixteen Walls of Heaven cannot be penetrated by any kind of Magic so there will be no hope for Prodea's escape.

The resulting cloud of black smoke and dust engulfed the fields as Bakunawa looked down feeling regret killing another soul in Nagozul which he hasn't done, and has vowed not to do for almost a thousand years.

He jumped to the ground from his towering titan now walking to the rubles of his shrine feeling ill. He knows it's the right thing to do but he feels rather miserable for killing her apprentice. He really did love Prodea as a father would her daughter.

”GRAND PRINCESS!” shouted Zeba screaming out almost sniveling, running to the silvery walls. ”Grand Princess where are you!?”

Bakunawa turned around and noticed the lonely Zeba crying her eyes out running towards the stacked walls. The Nanreben was hissing to attack but Bakunawa stopped it before finalizing its resolve giving her time to mourn about her loss.

”PRODEA!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!” she pursued clamoring for a reply.

”Go home you fool... Your master is now at peace...” said Bakunawa with an eerie pitch which Zeba noted stopping her further from saying another word.

Zeba then noticed him raising his right arm as if waving at someone far to the mountains, looking sorry as if giving a signal and an apology, but she did not bother dwelling on the thought for she had to search for Prodea's remains somewhere on top of the stack piles of those silvery walls.

A blinding light flashed on the skies illuminating it like day rushing from the stacks of those Sixteen Walls to the Nanreben.

”IT CAN'T BE!” Bakunawa shouted as he saw a figure of white light reaching the Nanreben.

The great titan roared in both fear and pain as the figure enveloped in white light grabbed its eyebrows burning it, punching cleanly through penetrating its head. The white figure released a violent discharge of roaring white fire cremating its head to charcoal black.

”The... the... the Cloak of Dim'ion...” whimpered Bakunawa as he sees his mighty titan slowly fall down to the ground dead, creating an earth-shattering ravage on impact.

The skies gradually returned to reveal the clear blue morning as the bloody moon slowly faded away being overwhelmed by the sunlight.

”Yes,” she replied almost sinister with the emerald gem in her chest amplified to a maximum, ”the cloak of the devil himself... the legendary white fire enchantment.” Prodea smiled now walking towards him after jumping off from the Nanreben's poor incinerated face.

He miscalculated. Bakunawa put the sixteenth wall into the top thinking that he needed the much stronger force from the first wall below the base of the serpent and the less force on top assuming that Prodea is a Nagozulian mortal whose skills wouldn't dream of scratching even the sixteenth slab.

The original Walls of Heaven consisted of only nine stone slabs. The only weakness of the first nine stone slabs numbering slabs number eight to sixteen was the force of the scorching White Fire of Dim'ion's cloak. Because of this, Ana'giel fashioned another set of seven stone slabs just to perfect this ultimate wall of Physical Defense that even the White Demon cannot penetrate.

Bakunawa did not know that she can conjure the White Fire and turn into the White Demon. He did not know that Prodea's triangular Amplifyer fused in her chest is in fact the rare Red Emerald developed by the renowned Royal Seer Juni Merl. He was not informed on the facts of this new revelation.

The prophecy suggested that she will kill Juni but did not specify that she would obtain the Red Emerald and yet she has it which only proves one logical reason: it is up to him to ensure that she doesn't escape his grounds with her Amplifyer still intact. It is in the prophecy that she wouldn't have one so he has to be the one who should destroy that thing even if costs him his life. That would explain his untimely death as an immortal, he now figured as he laughed thinking about the intricacies and the deception of Bathala's Prophecy.

”Why are you laughing you cretinous monkey!? Be afraid you buffoon! Even immortals are not impervious to the white fire!”

”I know...” he said almost forcing to hide his laugh, ”I lost my face and my left arm being tortured by the same powers of the white fire you conjured...”

”Then you know you're going to die...” she enunciated making it clear to him, almost confused with his reaction standing twenty feet in front of him.

”I've accepted it a long time ago and I've come embrace it,” he replied which puzzled Prodea even more, ”It is as predicted. If my soul is being called upon by Bathala, who am I to sway against his will...”

”Again... that prophecy? What is that?” she asked maintaining her distance close enough to anticipate his move but not too close to burn him in the white fire's intense heat.

”You didn't know about it?” he laughed almost making fun of her, ”The one that your father wrote on Bathala's behalf? I thought you have pried it from someone's brain by now...”

”Tell me, you pathetic insect, or I'll make sure you suffer dying on my hands!”

”Grand Princess!” interrupted Zeba, ”ON TOP OF YOU!”

Prodea looked up in the sky and marveled on thousands of runic symbols being etched up high on the returning blue skies of morning. She's been stalled to stand there long enough for Bakunawa to complete his ritual.

”Oh, silly Prodea,” Bakunawa chuckled as he knelt praying finishing his incantations, ”I've always known you're smart, but your persistent curiosity clearly disrupts your brain processes and attentiveness...”

Prodea tried to move but she's been glued firmly to the ground like a huge monument. She wryly smiled as she etched runic symbols of her own around her.

”I know this spell you imbecile! In a matter of minutes, I can free myself from here. Just one single touch to your head and I will end your miserable existence in an instant!”

”A few minutes is all need...”

Prodea scoffed at his ridiculous reply. ”You can't come near me! You know that! And no elemental or physical attack can destroy me while Dim'ion's cloak is activated! I am now an immortal at par with you, you delusional wretched Yit'ard!”

A beam of light came down from Prodea coming from the circular runes on top of her. She began floating as she saw Bakunawa releasing one hundred Phantom Hands all around him. She fought releasing her own two Phantom Hands, but it was subdued easily by Bakunawa. Fear overwhelmed Prodea's eyes as she noticed the fingers from Bakunawa's ghostly hands to lighten up with different runic markings.

”Are you going to try to remove my cloak?” Prodea shouted now forcing a smile. ”You cannot fight Dim'ion's Magicks with just the Phantom Hand! And you most certainly cannot remove the White Fire Enchantments completely even with one hundred of those!”

”Who says I'm removing all of it completely?” he smiled with smiling eyes as if satisfied.

Prodea knows that look. Juni looked the same way before he killed himself in front of her, soshe anticipated what he's planning to do.

”NO!” she shouted fighting forcefully the energies that bind her. ”I will not let you take my Red Emerald away!”

”Very good Prodea,” he whispered almost ignoring her, ”at least your observation skill is still as sharp as ever.” He moved all of his Phantom Hands to scrape the field of energy that covers Prodea. The ghostly hands carefully pulled hard, layer by layer, the white fire enchantment as if uncovering multiple sheets of blanket on a bed, looking as though he is operating a surgery in her chest, only to reveal a small opening towards the triangular Amplifyer only four fingers can enter.

He pushed another Phantom Hand inside to pull the Amplifyers out, but it immediately backfired and burned the hand dissipating it.

Prodea laughed hysterically seeing him being puzzled from trying again and again.

”Look at you, you pitiful fool. Do you think I haven't thought of placing enchantments against the Phantom Hands? How do you think I got the emerald in the first place? I know that the Phantom Hands is the only one that can safely remove the Amplifyer without leaving any residual energy from the user. Its either that or you try to physically take it from me by obliterating your spirit simultaneously with your vessel to fuse with the gem which is completely impossible!”

”Hmmnn... I see... thanks for the tip Prodea...”

Prodea jeered clicking her tongue hiding her nervous eyes, ”I dare you to try to put your hands near my chest. It'll burn your hands before you ever touch it... even if you uncover an opening in my cloak the residual heat all around my body will burn you to charcoal black...”

Bakunawa enveloped himself with blue cold waters and went closer to her. ”I know that Prodea. I have dealt with the white fire before. don't try lecturing me on things that I know long before you're even born.”

”H-how can you dream of destroying your soul and your vessel at the same time!? No one in the history of Yagisiv Haya can do such a skill! It is one of the missing spells created by Dim'ion and no one has ever acquired it much less know it!”

”That's where you're wrong...” Prodea's eyes widened as his eyes revealed a smile, ”I know how it is done. It was pried out of my brain and used against me. It is transcribed to one of the missing scrolls a thousand years ago. It is the cursed spell placed on me by my great granddaughter and YOU!”

”B-but that's not true! If it is, then you should've been dead already!”

”Precisely my point. It doesn't work that way. One should perform the spell on himself, not on others. That's why it lost its potency. That's why you can only transcribe a set of rules to the person being cursed. In the end, death is a choice chosen by the cursed. In the end, free will is all that matters.”

Prodea's fear became evident as a drop of tear accumulated in her eyes. ”Just drive a blade right through my heart and be done with it.”

”Ha! Good luck tricking me into submission. I know I only have one chance to get near you before your enchantments burn me. And I also know that you have your heightened regeneration in place brought by Dim'ion's Cloak, soyou need not play coy with me thinking you don't know that either.”

Prodea shrieked in frustration seeing that he didn't fall being tricked. She's been playing vulnerable just to lure him to do that, but the events did not play according to her plan.

”So, you're going to reveal my secrets? Huh? To whom are you going to reveal it with!?” she laughed taking solace from the only thing she thinks she can control. ”The only people in these grounds are YOU, ME and my loyal ZEBA! Your death will only be in vain! After destroying my rare Amplifyer, all my secrets will be buried with you through your grave - that is, if there's something left of you after you explode!”

”That's where you're wrong my dear Prodea. Someone is watching us from the sidelines long since the moment I've unleashed my Nanreben...”

Prodea's face began lighting an unimaginably fearful façade revealing a scared, vulnerable and lonely Prodea that hasn't been seen ever before as Bakunawa turned around and looked in the mountains.

”Goodbye my friend,” he whispered with smiling eyes as he redirected his now normal eyes, his big blue round eyes, to Prodea as if composed and peaceful, ”It is done.” And then he pushed three fingers to the opening touching the Amplifyer, disrupting the glow of the red emerald before exploding a blinding light all around the fields.

”Prodea!” shouted the ever concerned Zeba running to her spot. ”Are you all right?”

Prodea woke up lying on the ground with a burnt Amplifyer on her aching chest covered in trickles of blood.

”He really did it...” she whispered, not angry, not furious, but worried. This surprised Zeba much considering that she's not usually this calm and composed especially when losing. Though she won to Bakunawa, it cost her her precious Red Emerald which she thought to be worth being furious about. So, she got to asking.

”What's wrong Prodea? Why are you feeling so concerned about that Old Immortal Guardian? Isn't it your plan to eliminate him?”

”Yes,” she said sitting down on the ground feeling glum, ”It's my plan to kill him but not like this. I didn't plan on making him suffer. Now that he sacrificed himself destroying his soul and vessel by way of Dim'ion's Magicks, he will now wander off trapped in this world being flayed slowly, torturing him every day having no Physical Vessel but trapped in this world... much like the spirits of Karshivyk...”

”Isn't that...” asked Zeba with a glint of doubt which Prodea thought to be very insulting.

”It's not a myth Zeba. The Karshivyk are true...” she said surprisingly calm and woeful.

”Where do you think his soul is now?”

”I don't know Zeba, in between our realm and the underworld I suppose,” Prodea murmured giving a deep sigh almost teary. ”Let's just pray to Bathala I'm wrong about this one.”