Siquijor
Siquijor island. This island was infamous in the Philippines for it's hexes, spells, and all sorts of malicious sorcery. From unexplained swelling of one's belly to insects coming out of your mouth among many other things. On the other hand, it was also where spiritual healers gathered. There has never been a science to it, but there have always been people, even executives that would make the annual trek up the mountains to visit their healers. They would always swear by it.
The majority would probably laugh at it, but after everything that has happened thus far, who knows? This island, which was known as the home to Aswangs* was also an island of beauty. Surrounded by turquoise waters and lush greenery.
In the temporary camp setup by both Hana and Mabini's respective troops. Apple had already joined up with her Mage Corps, indicating how valued Agimats are.
Exiting out of the Bakunawa's inner world, everyone had a look of reverence towards the four most powerful beings in the Sovereign Nation. Especially towards Luna, their leader.
Hana came up to them and greeted them. "I'm glad you four made it here in such short notice. I'm sorry to inconvenience you, I know you already had quite the situation in Bohol."
"Hana, you worry too much. The situation there might have been intense, but it wasn't enough to tire us out." Luna replied. Indeed it was true. With his current stamina, and the fact that the most 'tiring' fight he had was with Sura inside the cave, he had easily recovered by now.
"If you would all follow me, Apple is currently analyzing the Agimat."
"Lead the way."
The Agimat was found in the San Juan municipality. It was just as described, it had the form of a sword, impaled into the ground. The most peculiar thing about the scene is that there was purple mist flowing out of the cracks around it. This was why they called for Luna instead of just taking it. If it unleashed something of great consequence, it would be too late for regrets.
When they arrived at the scene, the happiness on Apple and Mabini's faces were apparent.
"Luna, Sura, Max, Elder! Thank goodness you guys are here, we haven't been able to make heads or tails out of this thing, and we don't dare to make rash decisions." Apple stated.
Trying to scan the mist, Luna ended up with no results as well. "I'm just as stumped as your guys are, unfortunately."
Looking towards her last hope, Apple turned to the Elder for some answers. "Elder Aran, are you familiar with this?"
"It seems that the Agimat is acting as a seal to whatever is underneath. While I'm not sure what it may be, these factors are quite random, you see. There's no way of knowing. We can only pull it out and hope for the best." Elder Aran shared his insight on the situation.
"Alright. We don't quite know what the consequences will be, but if it's some kind of Area-of-Effect, it will endanger the troops as well. Apple, have the troops to fall back into the Negros islands for now." Luna said.
"Will do, but Lord Lu- erm, I mean, Luna, are what do you plan on doing?" Apple who was still in the middle of getting used to just calling him 'Luna' as he asked her to before, was quite curious.
What kind of genius plan will their fearless leader have this time? She thought. Only to be stunned at the answer he gave them all.
"We're gonna grab it, and make a run for it." Luna replied
"This..." Everyone was stunned. This was his master plan? But when they thought about it, this seemed to be the safest option. If this seal summoned monsters, that would be fine. They could eliminate them as they got out, easily. But if it released some sort of poison gas, they would lose way too many men soldiers, even the Agimat would not be worth all these trained soldiers in value alone. Let alone that these were considered their brothers and sisters in arms.
They couldn't do anything while the troops were still returning back to their base, so they killed zombies and mutant beasts to pass the time. Luna tried his best to search for any survivors, but to no avail. It was like everyone just up and left.
The sun was starting to set by the time the troops got back to base. Angry Bakunawa had the spatial gate ready just in case they needed to make a quick run for it.
"Alright, everyone be on your guard." Luna warned.
"Preparations are ready, Lord Luna, if anything comes out within 20 meters of that rift, we'll be ready for it." Elder Aran assured.
"Father, Emergency Food is currently scouting from the skies as well. He'll send out a signal if he sees anything we can't." Maxene had finished her preparations along with Emergency Food as well, they made sure no other factors were in the vicinity to cause any extra complications.
Luna, Sura, and Mabini cleared out any zombies and mutant beasts Emergency Food spotted.
It was finally time. Looking at the sword, it looked like an ordinary brand new Longsword. The only noticeable part of it was it's guard, it's color was gold, and it curved upwards and it had ornate patterns etched onto and on the blade as well.
"Here goes nothing." Luna grabbed the hilt of the sword and just as he attempted to pull it up a menu popped up in front of him.
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When applied claimed by a
A sword forged by the Blacksmith Flavio from a mysterious meteorite. Originally, the meteorite was only enough to forge a Balaraw(Dagger), but once the dagger was pointed towards the sky, it gathered atmospheric energy which causes it to magically take the form of a sword. The sword, which now contains Flavio's spirit allows it to live on as a blade that will help humanity to cut down evil creatures.
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"YES!" Luna commanded. The sword was instantly pulled out, and he could feel the power radiating from it. He wanted to get this done, as it was already starting to get dark.
Moments later, rifts started to appear around them. As all sorts of monsters known to have appeared in the Philippines before, crawled out of them.
"Father! Emergency Food is reporting that rifts are appearing around a 2-mile radius around us!" Maxene reported, as he told Emergency Food to head back to them, for his own safety.
"Retreat! We're getting out of here!" Luna made the call instantly. As they were retreating, he had already issued the command to have the troops on the walls be ready for a tough defense.
Thankfully, they were prepared for the area around them, which gave them enough time to fall back into Angry Bakunawa's inner world. He immediately turned around and rapidly flew back towards the base.
A swarm of Manananggals*** came out of the rifts. These winged monsters were pretty tough to kill. Their upper bodies would separate from their lower body to fly and hunt for prey. According to the legends, the only way to kill them was to find their lower bodies and pour salt on it or burn it, which makes it so they can't reattach themselves. If they're still not back to their lower halves by the next day.
One thing was for sure: If you were going to be on the defensive against these monsters the whole time. You're going to lose that battle of attrition.