Aunt Tien Ha

The roaring from the ball of flames intensified. As the heat grew blinding, Jasmine closed her eyes trying to ward off the sight of the unholy entity.

Aunt Tien Ha had her arms folded around Jasmine, chanting calming Buddhist mantras. Although her voice was low and calm, Jasmine's head was right next to her face and she could hear her aunt's voice even above the bellows of the demon and the black clad men's hums.

Unable to stop herself, Jasmine looked out on all the horror and saw Anh Hai, levitated high above the men's heads, throwing ball after ball of blue fire at the changeling bobbing demon heads.

As the attacks continued, she saw the individual heads of the swordsmen struggling and straining to break free of the constraints of the fireball.

And then the unthinkable happened.

With a mighty heave, the screaming heads broke free of their constraints and went hurtling off into different directions.

Jasmine cried out with fear as she saw Anh Hai struggling to maintain his line of defense against the powerful demons.

Unable to contain them, he sank back down to the ground and formed into a semi-circle with his men, all facing the horde of howling heads that were gathering power to charge across his front line.

That was when Jasmine realized exactly why he had taken six men with him.

There were seven demons, one for each man to conquer. The one-on-one fight meant that there was no such thing as a loss. All had to win or all died in the attempt.

With a howl that contained seven centuries of built up rage, the heads hurled themselves at high speeds towards the men.

Instantly, there ensued a horrific fight in which man and fire pitted against each other in a desperate bitter struggle for dominion.

Spatters of blood and streaks of sparks flew like red-gold confetti, covering the atmosphere with high voltage particles so charged with energy that they hummed and sizzled, popping and hissing like live wires.

As the men and the fireballs rose higher and higher towards the sun, Jasmine could see the power struggle outlined against the azure sky.

The heads were taking bites at the men and throwing themselves at the man-sized targets. Meanwhile, the men were trying to evade them while at the same time, lobbing their own blue streaks of lightning at the heads.

"The men are getting weaker," Jasmine stared at the sky with a worried frown.

Anh Hai was holding his own, but some of the men looked as if they could no longer keep up the battering.

They had lost too much energy and their own physical blood in trying to gain control of the demon heads which kept coming back at them, grinning in macabre delight at the torture they were putting the men through.

Aunt Tien Ha looked up into the sky.

Her eyes were clear and steady as she withdrew from Jasmine and crept out of the tent into the open where the battle raged on overhead.

Some of the fireballs noticed her and immediately zoomed in on her slight body but the men continued to keep them back as they increased the speed at which they lobbed their furious blue flames.

Unperturbed, Aunt Tien Ha stood with arms outstretched and eyes wide open. Her lips mumbled prayers as she began to rise straight up into the sky.

Her brown-clad body rose to the height of the war zone where the men and the fire heads were battling, but she did not stop there.

She continued to rise higher and higher, and then she paused, hovering above them like a beacon of light, drawing the moths to her shining radiance.

With a screech, the fireballs left the men and homed in on her light. As the men desperately tried to steer them away from Aunt Tien Ha, the balls abandoned all attempts at fighting with the men and concentrated on their easy prey hovering above them like a delicious prize, awaiting their voracious attacks.

Just before they reached her body, Aunt Tien Ha shot up higher, into the clouds.

All the orange fire heads screamed after her.

For a second, Jasmine lost sight of Aunt Tien Ha through the puffy white clouds and hoped against hope that the gentle Aunt she had known all her life would be able to escape.

But then, streaming back down towards the ground was Aunt Tien Ha, attached by seven bald heads of fire, eagerly consuming her body.

She was not resisting the attacks, even pressing forward to embrace two of the heads into her bosom.

The men paused, not knowing what to do. To fire at the balls would mean a direct hit on Aunt Tien Ha, but to do nothing was even worse.

Aunt Tien Ha took matters out of their hands. She streaked towards the mangrove, taking the hungry fire balls along within her embrace. Just before she crashed into the tops of the banyans, Anh Hai shouted a command.

All the men's fingers pointed at the direction of the disappearing nun. From them, streaming as one, a deep cobalt blue flow of energy shot into her midsection and engulfed her body in its radiance.

In a wild flash of brilliance that eclipsed the sun, temporarily blinding all who were there, Aunt Tien Ha, along with the seven fire balls, exploded into a fire burst of kaleidoscopic colors, wiping out the entire mangrove thicket to the nub.

In the afterglow of the explosion, a gentle gray ash swirled about, caressing the inhabitants of the area, leaving behind a deep calm and the light scent of sandalwood incense.

Far below, where the peaceful oaks spread their foliage, a girl was sheltered within a canvas tent. She laid on the ground in a sleeping bag, curled up in a tiny ball, reliving her nightmare over and over again.

Beside her sat a man with his hand on her back, transferring warmth and energy into her body. He was chanting healing mantras and burning gently aromatic incense in an effort to drive out the private demons inside her head that, powerful as he was, even he couldn't see.