Blood Moon

Calm Before the Storm

Augustus stared at the mystery in front of him. Demons around them were cowering back into the shadows of the forest as he stood there frozen. Just meters away from him stood an abnormally large belua, pierced with black shards in every visible skin. It stood there impaled on countless sharp spikes, his black blood pooling on the earth beneath him.

What happened here?

There was too much going on around him, it felt as if his mind was going to burst. When he found out about Luna’s existence, he was bewildered and intrigued, it was what led him to abandon his troop. Luna’s existence is a mystery in itself, she alone was a marvel.

But what is this?

He gazed at Legosi in a new light, as if he was looking at an entirely different person. He trembled at the sight of the felled trees behind them as Legosi continuously tried to shake Luna awake. He looked around to confirm what he saw and sure enough, he found Legosi’s sword lying a few feet away from them. Was he able to cast that spell without the help of a holy weapon? How? Releasing power bare handed is difficult, it would be a struggle to get it to move the way you want as mana from nature will immediately merge with the surrounding environment once released. Holy weapons help you direct your mana so it would move the way you want it to. To be able to use it to do an offensive attack at such a large distance is an impossible feat, but yet, the fallen redwood tree would beg to differ. He c****d his head to the side, trying to read Legosi’s mana. When he finally came into contact with it, something cold caressed his soul. Augustus jerked backwards, shocked.

Could it be?

“What are you standing there for, Augustus? Help me!” Legosi’s panicked voice cut through his trance.

He’s right, now isn’t the time for questions.

He set to work. He ran up to them and knelt beside Luna, placing a palm on her forehead. “Her mana is in shambles, Legosi. Too much emotional distress. I’ll transfer some of my own to her to regulate it, but it won’t be much. Luna will be the one to put her mana back into place.” He muttered a prayer under his breath and his palm emitted a bright white light, seeping into Luna’s skin. As her body absorbed it, the frown on her face softened a bit. She let out a sigh. She slumped onto Legosi’s arms, releasing soft and relieved breaths.

Legosi picked her up and held her close to his chest. They heard a whimper behind them as they started to walk and saw Rigel limping towards them. “Oh, you poor thing.” With wave of a hand, Augustus rose him from the ground. Swirling white light covered his body, keeping him afloat. They went home like that, Luna on Legosi’s arms and Rigel held up in the air by Augustus as the red sky was overcome by darkness.

All the Kings looked up at the sky in confusion and shock as trails of black smoke spread over the continent. Small black fractals continued to fall from the sky like black glittering dust. “What’s happening?” King Harold left his carriage, alerting his men. “Why is he sky turning black?”

“I’d like to know why too,” King Xerxes agreed, his eyes trained on king Xanadu. “Do you know the reason for this?”

“I can hazard a guess but we will still need to confirm it. It is alarming enough that the blood moon started without warning but for the sky to turn out this way, including that loud explosion miles away from us, it could only be done by one person.” He replied, his gaze on the direction of the explosion.”

“The child from the prophecy…” King Ulysses said. All eyes turned to him. They looked up as the sky was finally completely converted. They stood there in anticipation, sensing that there would be more to it. They weren’t wrong. The ground started to shake once more, hellish moans rising from the ground. They looked around, trying to see if the demons were closing in once again, but they were nowhere in sight. They heard the wind howl and they looked up to see what was happening. The black smoke in the sky started to swirl, accumulating speed at ever round. It seemed to form a hurricane as large as the continent. They stood there shaking and helpless, not knowing what to do.

And just when they thought the hurricane will sweep the land, it seemed to curl in itself. As the smoke gathered, the sky was left bare. Sunlight seeped past the thick black smoke as it continued to swirl and in a split second, it exploded, sending strong wind all over the continent. The carriages were tipped over and some of them started getting swept away by the wind. The soldiers gathered around their king, embedding their sword on the ground to hold them down and used their shields to shield them from the wind. When the noise died down, there was dead silence. They hesitated to lift their heads from the shield, fearing that something else will happen, but there was nothing. They slowly rose and looked around, flabbergasted by the sight all around them. The sky has reverted back to its original form.

“Was the blood moon…canceled?” King Ulysses asked in disbelief. Even King Xanadu stood there, clueless about what just happened.

If that was indeed the child born from hell, why did it stop the blood moon?

Before anyone could say anything, a bright light appeared on the field. They all took a step back, covering their eyes from it. As the light dissipated, they realized that it was a portal. It was big, the largest one ever made in history. When it finally cleared, they saw King Michael standing in front of it.

“I guess forcibly recruiting warlocks across the land has paid off.” King Alexus muttered. King Michael took a step forward. “I originally planned to simply just transport here to help you against the demons, but now there has been some change in plans.”

He spread his right arm open and gestured them to enter the portal. “Kings, I think you will agree with me if I were to say that we need to resume our meeting.” All the Kings nodded.

Luna stirred her sleep, her eyebrows knotting. Beside her, Legosi as fast asleep and Augustus was downstairs treating Rigel. She turned her head side to side, as if she was in a bad dream.

“What have you done!” a voice spoke. Luna opened her eyes and realized that she was back at the forest once gain. The forest in her nightmares. “You don’t realize the weight of your actions, foolish girl. You had brought doom upon yourself.” The voice seemingly close to hers spoke with hissing sounds.

“Silence, demon.” Luna spat.

“Then silence yourself! I am you, fool!” from the darkness, another version of herself emerged. Luna felt as if she was going to lurch at the sight of her. She hated seeing her face, hated the way she looked like her.

“No, you are not, you are merely a part of me, at my disposal.” She replied confidently. The demon laughed. “You can’t even control me.” She started to close in on her, movement soft like a snake, as if taunting her.

“Accept it, little cub. You are a demon. And you had just waged war upon your own kind. Traitor.” She said with contempt.

“You forget,” Luna interrupted her. “I am a human just as much as I am a demon. I had chosen my side.”

“Yes, the wrong one.” The demon gracefully walked around her, her red eyes studying her with disgust. “Do you truly believe that if you help these human they will treat you as one of their own?” She asked sardonically. Luna felt her throat tighten. There was merit in that question. There was no guarantee that they’d accept her. Legosi, Augustus, and the chief were all miracles. “Humans are just as devilish as us, capable of evil and hatred. They are not as innocent as you perceive them to be. The humans you’re trying to protect are nothing more than vermin.”

“I never claimed that they’re innocent. I had lived with them my whole life, I know what they are.” Luna replied, snarling at her. “But the blood of those vermin runs through my veins. I will not side with you, it doesn’t matter whether they’d accept me or not. Your existence irks me more than humans.” The demon snarled at her.

“You will regret those words. You don’t know what’s coming to get you so you better prepare. Don’t think for a moment that what you’ve done had no consequences.” She retreated back into the darkness. As her alter ego disappeared, the ground beneath Luna gave way. Before she could grasp onto something she fell oblivion.

When Luna came to, her body was drenched in sweat. Her heart pounded inside her chest as she tried get her head stable. When the spinning stopped, she looked beside her saw Legosi’s sleeping form. He had fallen asleep with one hand clutching hers and the other holding a wet cloth. On his right was a basin filled with water and she realized why she woke feeling more refreshed than she thought she would after what happened. He looked exhausted, as if he had stayed up all night. As she stared at him, she noticed how his hair shone like gold under the sunlight.

Wait, sunlight?

Luna stood up abruptly and pulled her hand away from Legosi, running towards the make-shift window. Legosi woke up due to the noise, groggily turning to look at her. Luna stared wide-eyed at the sky, confused. “What?”

Was I dreaming?

Luna questioned the events that happened last night. She was pretty damn sure that the blood moon had already started. “The sky returned to normal the other day, Augustus said it might have had something to do with you.”

Luna turned to Legosi and saw that he was already awake, his hair disheveled and his eyes looking at her sleepily. “What do you mean the other day?”

“You’ve been asleep for days, Luna. The sky came back to normal just minutes after you collapsed.”

So he had been taking care of me for two days?

A slight tinge of red appeared on her cheeks and Legosi wondered whether he was just seeing things. “And the demons?” Luna broke the silence.

“Gone. The townsfolk had already finished cleaning up the mess. The barriers are still there though.”

“Hm.”

“Luna,” Legosi called out to her, a serious look on his face. “Something’s off with this. The sudden start and stop of the blood moon is a mystery. Even now that it has stopped, I don’t feel relieved at all.”

“Good,” Luna gazed deep into his eyes, as I conveying something. “This is merely the calm before the storm. We have no time to lose.”

“What do you mean?” Legosi approached her, his eyes staring back at her. “This peaceful days are to our advantage, but make no mistake. They’ll be back with vengeance.”

The door opened Augustus entered, behind him, Rigel sauntered in. he immediately approached Luna, nudging his wet nose on her hand. “How have you been?” He caressed his head, her hand so small in comparison to his hugeness. The wolf whimpered and snuggled closer to her. “He had one of his front legs broken, as well as some of his ribs. I treated him so he’ll be alright, just needs sometime to recuperate and get all of his strength back.” Augustus sat on the bed, staring intently at Luna.

“That night, what happened?” he finally asked. Although Legosi didn’t say anything, the look on his face says that he was also intrigued. Luna ran he hand on her hair and sat by the windowsill.

”Truthfully, I don’t know what came over me. I never knew I could do that, it just…happened.” She struggled to find the words that could explain what happened on that field, she didn’t know what happened either. It all came by lightning fast.

“Was there a reason for you to be triggered like that?” Augustus pressed her on. Luna was silent for a moment and then she remembered the demon she encountered on the field.

“Yes, there was.” She sat upright, eyes wide. “There was this demon, a belua. He could speak.”

Augustus drew in a sharp breath, his mouth agape. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, he spoke quite clearly.”

“Luna, only the sentinels has that much intellect. Only deceivers in some cases can form coherent sentences especially when inhabiting a particularly strong host. Saying that a belua spoke could topple over all the knowledge we thought we had of them. Think about this carefully, are you certain?” Augustus leaned over to her, his face grim.

“I am certain, Augustus. He even taunted me, saying-” She stopped herself. She doesn’t know how they will react to her being called ‘Queen’ by a demon.

“He said what?” Legosi urged her.

“Just some threats…it was what pushed me over the edge. Even the fact that he could speak clearly unnerved me, it was easy enough for it to make me lose control.” She continued.

“Damn it,” Augustus’ fist landed with a loud thud on the bed. “If only I could access the Castle’s library, it would be easy to solve this.”

“Were you not permitted to go inside?”

“No, only the witches from the tower are permitted to enter the library, with King Michael as the only exception from that rule. And that fool barely does anything to address the sorcery hidden inside.”

“Why?” Legosi questioned.

“Because he doesn’t have the power to do so. The whole castle relies on its warlocks and witches, so much so that the people from the tower had gained political power. His authority is no longer absolute, his methods turned out to be a double edged sword. Now if he openly shows any form of disagreement or contempt towards the people of the tower, even if they are below him, they will be able to retaliate. The Kings of the west are watching us closely, if he slips, he will be dethroned and our kingdom will be claimed by the west.”

“And that’s what you want to happen, right?” Luna said with certainty. “Yes, but to do so, we will need help.” Augustus walked towards them. “Where can we get that?”

“From one of the kings from the west.” She replied confidently.

“Are you out of your mind?” Augustus looked at her as if she was demented.

“No, I am certain he will help us.” She reached over Legosi, grabbing the golden necklace that hung on his neck.

“Didn’t you know? One of the Kings is a bagani, one that the church was forced to hail. His name is King Xanadu, and his Christian name is King Xavier. He hacked his way to the top by obliterating the demons on their borders and taking control of all camps that held his people captive. When their number became too many to ignore and their territories widened, the church had no choice but bind him to them by hailing him as a king and granting him a portion of the kingdom.”

“How strong is he?” Legosi’s eyes sparkled with interest. “I don’t know. It’s hard to measure his strength. According to the stories, his skills in both spell casting and combat are unparalleled. He rarely uses spells when fighting as his physical prowess alone could suffice so no one could really tell how far his power goes.”

“That’s something that you should attain, Legosi, you can’t rely on your power alone.” Luna said to him firmly.

“That’s right, in my experience, warlocks that rely too much on their spells are the ones to die early.no matter how strong your spells, if you are unable to stand up to a physical fight, you will be one of the decorating bodies on the battlefield.” Augustus agreed.

“I know. I’ve been building up my stamina, I just need more training. But how are we going to ask for help from this man?”

“Well…” Luna racked his brain for the right words to say his proposition but before he could, Augustus spoke up. “We’re going to have to leave.”

“What?”

“We can’t stay here, the reason why the demons are coming is because of me. This is a small town, we can’t move freely without putting people’s lives at risk. In here, we are at a disadvantage.” Luna continued.

“She’s right, if we leave, the demons will follow, and it would be safer if we leave this place.” Legosi pondered over their suggestion and he couldn’t find anything to disagree with. They were right, Luna’s presence here is what draws the demons in, it would be better to fight in a place where they will not worry about anyone but themselves. “All right, when are we heading out?”

Just two days after they agreed to leave, they were already on their way. Amalia even waved them goodbye as Ataska carried her on her arms. After the death of her young daughter, Amalia surely helped her cope. Before they left, Chief Faramus gave Luna a ram embrace. “Remember your way home, alright?”

Luna gave her a warm smile. “You know me, I never lose my way.”

They went through the path that Amalia and her people took, it was the path that connects to the west. As they walked, Legosi got the urge to ask Luna “That king that you speak of, how can you be so sure that he’d be willing to risk his people’s and his own life to help us tear down this kingdom? That he’d welcome us at all?”

“I am not all-knowing, I just have faith in his hatred. No one hates our kingdom more than he does, he’ll help us I’m sure.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Legosi asked.

“God, help us all.”