Mermaid Blues: Beasts, Giants and Spirits

Bontoc Siege

Gaddo opens the door. He found Ana crying on her bed. He looks at her with threatening eyes. His glare pierced through Ana's heart, making her be frightened. He walked toward her.

"I...I can't. I am sorry," she told. Her eyes are filled with pity, grief, and distress as they shed tears.

"You are abusing my patience! What is taking you so long ?" he asked as he raised his voice.

"I...I can't get through Kuya Benjie's thoughts... his memories are too painful. I...I can't ...I don't want to. It is too painful, I don't want to see his past anymore," she said.

"You told us that you are going to remove all the tattoos from Benjie and Wendel. We have an agreement! If you can't, then Benjie must die immediately. Don't make me do something that you will never like. Wendel is of no use to us anymore. We might as well execute him."

He turned around. He was about to take a step forward toward the door. However, Ana halts him. He looks back.

"Wait!" she calls. "I...I will remove his tattoo. Please, don't kill them. Please..." she begs."Give me more time."

He rubs his beard in frustration. "Okay, I am giving you until today to remove Benjie's tattoo and whoever the last of them's tattoo. If you don't, you know what will happen," he threatens. "We... we are running out of time! Understand that!"

Ana nodded. Then, he turns away and begins to walk towards the door. While walking, he told her something. "We'll transfer you somewhere away from here. Prepare for departure."

The door closes. Ana watches the door close. She continues to cry in agony while her brain is trying to recover from the trauma she saw in Benjie's childhood.

***Blue Water***

Everyone was getting ready in the inventory. The men of the association are all suited up. They are preparing their weapons and gear. They were preparing for an invasion of the secret mansion of Gaddo, located in Bontoc. After preparing, they immediately rushed outside to the front yard.

In the front yard of the Association Headquarter...One hundred agents have gathered in that place. They are standing still as they fall in line into three rows. They are facing the balcony where Cielo stands. He is up there overlooking the agents. The sun is getting warmer as its rays hit their skin, but they don't bother.

"Listen up!" Cielo shouts. "We must have to waste a single no time at all. The leader of the hunters must have to be captured today. Free his captives from dying in his hands. Today his reign of terror must have to stop. We will go up there, in Bontoc, and find Gabriel Umali once and for all. Understand?"

"Yes, sir!" they replied in chorus.

"Let's end this today. Because today...we are going to stop the hunters. Today! We will stop them from further hurting our world. Kill them if necessary. Remember, the mission here is to save the world. Retrieve Ana Camilo, Benjamin Romero, and Wendel. Not only that, we must get the leader of the hunter, Gabriel Umali. Whatever happens there, stay alive."

"Sir, yes, Sir," the agents responded.

"Now, go! Go! Go!" he yells.

Immediately, the agents run towards the choppers parked on the grassland behind them. All their weapons are ready. Their armors are fully equipped on their bodies. Everything they need is with them. All they have to do now is to go to Bontoc to find and raid the hideout of Gaddo.

Back on the balcony, Cielo is still standing at the spot where he is. Gaston went over to him. Cielo turns to his right to see Gaston. Gaston is still limping, being assisted by the crutches.

"Oh, come on," Cielo moaned with dismay. "When will you stop using those crutches?" he complained as he teased.

"Shut up," Gaston talked back. "I am not a Lignodon like you who regenerates fast, you know."

And so, Cielo walks down the stairs to head to the chopper which is waiting for him. After a few moments, when he already got inside, the chopper immediately went above ground. It fled to follow the choppers that had fled before it.

::::::::::::::::

In a mountain, West of Atok, Benguet. A place where bountiful flowers are planted. A place where the coldest temperature in Benguet is recorded. A place where people seldom go.

Gordon, Simon, and Lola Silvia are standing in a garden located at the very peak of the mountain. That place is a perfect location to meet with a spiritual being, since there are no people. The garden where they are standing is a property by Silvia's son so they can be as private as they want.

"Who are we going to meet here, Ma'am Silvia?" Gordon asked as he is getting impatient.

"You'll meet him soon enough," Silvia replied.

"I am already freezing cold," he complains.

"That's because you aren't wearing a thick jacket," she said.

"What time will this spirit friend of yours come? We had been waiting for an hour. Why isn't he coming yet? I should have been doing something important right now," he complains.

"If you are so impatient, then you shouldn't have begged to come with me," she argues. "Also, why haven't you ordered your pawns to come to study the ephirmise instead of you?"

"I thought this trip would be interesting because I got to see an ephirmise for the first time," he told. "Now, I am bored."

Silvia looked at Simon, her grandson. "Is he really your pack leader? Because he is acting like a kid right now," she whispers.

"He's just excited," the grandson responded.

The fog has gotten thicker. The temperature went down further. Gordon looks around while hugging himself. His jacket can't generate heat anymore. He looks to the left. He suddenly saw something in the distance. He could see a silhouette of a man standing. He suddenly felt goosebumps as he realized it was moving toward them. Then, he realized there was a tail swinging behind the man. The silhouette is huge, he can tell the man is nine-foot tall.

"Uhh...is that your friend?" he nervously asked the old lady. He points toward the direction of the silhouette. Silvia and Simon look in the direction Gordon was pointing at. They immediately recognized it was the friend they had been waiting to come.

Gordon gulped deeply. He never thought he would expect to get too nervous. He could feel the aura emitting from the creature which made him tremble in fear. He froze to where he stood. The flowers planted in the field suddenly dried out.

"WOAH!" Gordon exclaimed in terror as he looked at them wither. Simon, got startled not because of the plants suddenly dying, but because of Gordon's reaction.

"That is him," she said. "The ephirmise you are fascinated about," she told Gordon.

The ephirmise stopped twenty feet away from them. It is enough to reveal its appearance to humans in the fog. Gordon got scared, at the same time amused by the design of the spirit. A snake-headed creature with a human-like body but more muscular and scales of jade and amethyst cover its body. An entity that couldn't maintain its shape due to human perception to a three dimensional being.

Just when the spirit stopped further getting close, Silvia immediately spoke. Her tone is rebelling, arguing, and protesting at him.

"You! It is you, isn't it?"

Simon and Gordon are startled by the behavior she's showing.

"Why are you upset?" the spirit wonders.

"You are the reason for all of this! Gabriel Umali...you know him, right? You know why he wants to destroy this world and kill the seven links of Lumawig all this time," she said.

"Yes...indeed... I am," the spirit replied.

"About the ephirmise who cursed Gabriel's clan back thirty years ago. Are you the reason?"

The snake-head spirit hisses. He doesn't want to reply. He begins to tilt its head from left to right. The spirit stares at her with its tongue sticking out.

"You are the one who cursed his clan, aren't you?' Gordon supports Silvia's question. "Are you the spirit that Gabriel Umali wants to kill in exchange for both realities?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny the accusation," he said instead.

Gordon turned away as he sighed in frustration. Silvia sighed and she looked down in stress. Simon rolls his eyes and he sighs in frustration.

"What do you mean 'neither confirm nor deny'?" Gordon protested.

"Don't you know that he is willing to kill the world hoping that you will die with it?" she complained. "How did this happen? What has gone wrong thirty years ago?"

"Hmmm..." the spirit begins to think, hesitant to tell the story.

"Tell me, my friend," Silvia was determined.

"I might know who did that to his clan. Let me tell you this, I have no idea who that man is. I am not the only ephirmise lurking in this world. Be careful who are you accusing, Madam Silvia," he said.

"Then who? Other than you, who did it?" Agatha stubbornly asked.

"I told you, I am not the only ephirmise in this world. There are others who might be responsible for that man's curse. He might be in the spirit world resting peacefully without anyone bothering him."

The old lady didn't react for a while. She squints her eyes as she stared at him suspiciously. "What are you really hiding, my friend," she said.

"If you don't have any more questions, I have to go. I have more important things to do," he said.

"Like killing?" Gordon mockingly said.

The spirit looks at him. He is anxious about the pack leader.

"I am sorry. It just came out of my mouth. I was just told that you are a spirit of death and one of you was responsible for almost killing an entire population of Asia. So, I thought maybe it is your job and you are proud of it," he justified.

"Trust me, you are lucky I respect life while doing my job," the ephirmise replied. He looked away. He runs away at high speed. He disappeared into the fog.

:::::::::::::::::::

Bontoc Mountain, Province...

The villagers of Guina-ang are terrified by the sounds of destruction they are hearing. They hear explosions and gunshots echoing throughout the place. The sounds rumble like thunder simultaneously hitting the ground. The children are scared. The parents are bothered. The elders pray. They can tell it is coming from the north of their village. They suspect that rebels are gunning on the soldiers again.

On a hill north of Guina-ang where the mansion of Gaddo stands. The hunters are defending the base from the outsiders, who are the Association of the Cordilleran Marksmen troop led by no other than Cielo. The hunters are hiding behind the wall around the mansion. Cielo and his team are outside the wall hiding behind the granite rocks which are rich in the area. The hunters throw grenades at the enemies. Some of them keep on shooting silver bullets.

A loud boom is heard. A grenade exploded in front of the rock where Cielo is hiding. The rock tore down as it explodes. Luckily, Cielo is not affected by the explosion. The rock became like as height and as thin as he is. And so, he lowers himself down to hide below the tall cogon grasses.

The association is also firing back. They are smart enough to shoot almost two-thirds of the guards. Three of the agents climbed up trees to serve as snipers. The people who transformed into wolves that are affected by the explosion of the grenades quickly regenerated their wounds and injuries as quickly as five seconds. However, they still have to be careful with the silver bullets. Silver bullets are more dangerous to them than explosions.

A grenade was thrown on the closed gate. Boom! an explosion occurred causing the gate to collapse. The impact of the explosion not only brought down the gate but the enemies who were near it. Not that the obstacles were cleared down, the wolves have no problem intruding the hide out.

Two more wolves made it to the gate , immediately, they entered through the gate and made it to the other side. Some wolves who made it to the walls climbed it up instead of getting through the gate.

Cielo is in his mid-mutation. His skin is growing fur. His size grew thrice as big. His hair has gotten as white as the polar bears. His eyes turned blue. He is now looking like an abominable snowman. He is trying his best to use his sharp eyes to dodge the bullets from the enemies. He approached one enemy hiding on a log lying horizontally next to the wall. He grabs the enemy's head and he threw him upward. He picked up a stone and he looks up. He can see a man standing right above him, shooting an agent. He throws it to the man. The man standing on top of the wall is shot to the forehead with a stone.

"Kabellen!" he calls. "Cover me," he commanded.

"Kabellen" is a family name of an agent girl who is hiding on a rock behind him. She is not a Lignodon, just an ordinary agent trusted by Cielo.

"Sir!" she replied.

Cielo turned into a wolf. All his clothes on him are torn out. He is a wolf with wooly white fur. He is twice as big as an ordinary cordilleran wolf. Unlike the common wolves, it has blue eyes. It is obviously from the winter lands in the Northern countries like Russia or Alaska. He climbed up the thirty-foot tall wall to get to the other side.

The agents who have successfully went beyond the gate broke the front door by force.

Cielo successfull got inside as well. He split up with his men. One by one, he slams every single door he could find. Until, he stumbles upon a door in the basement, opens it up, and then he enters through. He spotted a guy lying on the floor. It is Wendel. The guy is unconscious. Ceilo turns back into a human. He approaches the body.

He crouches down. "Kuya?" he calls as he shakes him. "Wendel. Wake up!" he said.

He doesn't know that there is a man coming from behind. He doesn't realize that there is Gabriel Ramirez walking slowly and carefully in order not to make a sound. Gabriel is holding a syringe filled with liquid silver. Ceilo is so focused on being concerned with the guy he's familiar with that he forgets to remain attentive to his surroundings.

Ceilo positioned the unconscious guy in a sitting position. Then, he squats at the casualty's side so that he is facing in the same direction as Wendel. He brings Wendel's near arm over his shoulder and grasps his wrist with his that is away from Wendel. He puts his arm near the unconscious body's waist. He stands up, helping Wendel to rise to a standing position. Now, that he is carrying him through support carry, he is able to move the body out of the basement.

But he suddenly felt that there was a needle stabbed in his back. "AHH!" he yelled in pain.