Chapter 9: Divinities and Demons

Deep, green, and dark, the moss-covered Sea of Trees rose silently around the spellbreakers. No birdcall. No rustling of the wind. It was a quiet so loud that it drowned out the pulses of intense magickal and spiritual energy running through the forest's massive roots.

Icewolf, clad in his Hanshin Tigers jersey, cocked his head to the side and looked into the endless forest. "Uh...bros? I think we must have gotten turned around somewhere, eh? This doesn't look like an ocean to me."

White Tiger, in a white and black hakama, looked over at the junior fighter. "Uh...what?"

Kengo and Colt came up behind the others and stood in silent acknowledge of the immense woods.

Robbi gave the champion a little shrug. "You said it was a sea. This is a forest, dude."

Joseph blinked, suddenly realizing that without Spike present, someone had to fill in the himbo quota. That himbo was Icewolf. "It's a...metaphor, Robèrt. It's like an ocean full of trees."

"Oh, I get it." Robbie looked into the forest, the swirls of green and black, with a canopy that blocked out the sunlight. It looked like perpetual night. He sniffed. "Er...not to freak you guys out, but I think there's...bad mojo here, bros."

Kengo, in summoner's garb, agreed. He'd been brave during last night's fight, braver than he'd ever been, but humans scared him far less than the spiritual realm.

He explained the magnitude of the situation to his peers. "The Sea of Trees is one of the most haunted places in the world," he said, reverently. "In ancient times, during famines, the infirmed and elderly were abandoned here to die. Now their souls wander the forest. Plus, it has always been a hiding place for..." He swallowed. "Oni."

Colt scratched his head. Hair combed and pulled back into a bun, and dressed in his golden-rod embroidered hakama, the former president of the GSA looked radically different than his normal gentlemanly, cowboy aesthetic. Reverend Ikari, Kengo's old master, and head priest of his temple, had gifted Joseph and Colt specially embroidered, traditional wear as a form of armament. The enchanted threads were said to empower geomancers like them, especially those connected to the air elements (wind and water for Joseph, and lightning for Colt).  

The Texan tested the unfamiliar name on his tongue. "Oh...ni?"

"Ogres," Joseph explained. "Demons. They're bad news."

Colt acknowledge his concern, but he'd been in crazier scrapes before, and by now the strange dangers associated with the Divine Chalice and Wellsprings was old news. Even so, he had practically gotten on hands and knees to keep John Henry from joining along the expedition. Icewolf, Joseph, Kengo, and himself were more than enough, he reckoned.

"We're seasoned fighters and magi--we can handle anything. Now, Yuki and Rai provided us with the intel we need." He reached into the folds of his robe and withdrew the tied parchment, unfurling it. "The Divine Wellspring's location was concealed by the spirit summoners of the former clan who presided at the base of Mt. Fuji, before they were exterminated by Shogun Mi...Mimi..." olt stumbled, struggling with Japanese. "Minamotoooooo no Yoritomoooooo during the Genpei war. Er..." Colt scratched his beard, sighing. "Looks like Yuki likes her history. Let me skip to the good parts."

Waiting patiently, Kengo and Icewolf suddenly looked into the direction of the deep forest at the same time. "Something's out there," Kengo whispered to the excitable jock, who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, bro, I felt it too."

Colt, oblivious (and Joseph entirely too patient to tell him to hurry along) continued. "The exact location of the Divine Wellspring of Wisdom has been narrowed down to a shrine located in one of two caves located at the base of Mt. Fuji, a cave of ice or a cave of wind." Colt eyed his company. "Hence, why Joseph and Icewolf will head to the cave of Ice, and Ken and I will mosey to the wind place."

Icewolf smiled. "Aw yeah, Wolf and Tiger! What a tag team, bro!"

Joseph held up the blue Chalice he and Deadboy had recovered in Hong Kong. "I admire your enthusiasm, Wolf. No doubt your ice magick will come in handy. Just...restrain yourself a little this time, okay?"

Robbie grumbled and crossed his arms. "What's that supposed to mean, bro?" But before he could protest further, his ears perked up on that unusual sensation. "Er...you guys feel that?"

Joseph looked around. "We're being watched. There's a presence here."

"Like the calm before a storm," Colt added. He held out his meaty arm. Tendrils of electricity danced across the surface of his palms. "Be on guard, gents. This place is mighty eerie."

Kengo shivered. "It is fine. It is fine. It is...only...the most haunted place in the world."

The four men proceeded inward, along one of the pathways treaded out by spirit summoners and monks of the past. Kengo explained that it was custom for many onmyoji--exorcists--and summoners alike to come into the forest for training. Such tasks ran the gamut of providing succour to lost souls, to vanquishing vengeful spirits, and even fighting the demonic holdovers still lurking within the trees. 

"Then again," Kengo added, "these trainees do not always come back..."

Icewolf cringed. "Yeah...I'm starting to wonder if this is a good idea, eh? Back home, we have all sorts of stories of scary spirits that live in the forest. It's a powerful place. Full of old magick, y'know?"

Kengo could tell his friend and co-worker was a bit unnerved. He decided to distract him. "Do you miss your family?"

"Oh yeah," Robbie said, tucking his arms behind his head, "but we're used to being far apart. I got my mom and dad, but a lot of my cousins are actually in the states. Wisconsin. Michigan. My clan covers a lot of territory, and 'family' can sometimes be a pretty loose definition."

"It is like that with the spirit summoners, as well," Kengo said. He flinched as a branch broke underfoot. "Eeesh." 

"Come on, big guys, you gotta' show these ghosts some courage," Colt said. "You're ridin' with two champions! Remember what I always say in training, boys, mind over matter. Now, Wolfie, I heard Mr. Iron is taking you under his wing once the championships are over, that true?"

Robbie's face lit up. "OH, totally, boss man! He's gonna make me the toughest spellbreaker ever! That's right, Joseph. I'm comin' for ya."

The White Tiger smiled, encouragingly. "Is that so? You better get good, Robbie. I never back down from a challenge." 

He stopped, suddenly.

As did the others.

Joseph's eyes darted to the tree line. "Speaking of which..."

The silence had, up until this point, proven unnerving for Colt's team of fighters. Their threats were usually confined to the ring. Inhuman opponents were rare (though not entirely uncommon), and the realm of magick more grounded in the mundane for them than the peculiarities lurking on the fringes of enchantment. 

Kengo would have gladly taken the silence back. The rustle of leaves, in all directions, all at once, gave him no comfort...

A low hiss, like the sudden escape of air, or the beating of hundred insect's wings in unison, came at them in a wave, followed by disturbances in the branches and forest floor. At first, Kengo thought they were being beset upon by forest creatures, timid rabbits of foxes that lived in the undergrowth. Instead, what assailed them was fair strange. Tiny creatures of gray fresh, hairless (like rats) with pearlescent eyes. The long, fanged imps with disquietingly long limbs crawled out of their hiding places, hissing at the intruders. 

The hairs on the back of Robbie's neck stood on end. "Oh crap, OH CRAP! What the hell are these gross things?"

Even Joseph and Colt, masters of their elements, were aghast at the inhuman onslaught.

And though Kengo was just as freaked out, his knowledge of the supernatural served him well. "Gaki," he said, through clenched teeth. "Like gremlins. One or two is not a problem. But this many..."

The creatures advanced, albeit slowly, taking slow swipes, gnashing their teeth and drawing back.

Joseph, who knew enough about magickal entities (though not these unsettling creatures), knew more about fight tactics. "They're scared of us," he said, taking a fighting stance. "They're edging closer. Testing the waters. I suspect they mean to overwhelm us." 

Colt had heard enough. "Stay the course, gents." He held out his hand, the electriicty spooling into a ball of glowing plasma in his palms. The creatures drew back t the light. "Let's light 'em up, boys."

"Wait," Joseph said. He took stock of the situation, in rapid time. "We should conserve our powers for the trials that lay ahead. Something tells me these demons are only the first vanguard." 

"Tch." Frustrated, Colt dismissed his electricity. "Well, y'all better do something quick, boys. You know how downright embarrassin' it'll be if I get eat by a bunch of naked, scrawny rat things?"

Joseph was right, Kengo thought. The gaki had numbers on their side, and had corralled them into a circle. A stray bolt here could light the whole forest on fire, and--though Kengo wouldn't dare say it out loud--Icewolf was too reckless with his cryonic abilities, and would probably freeze them to death in the process.

There was an easy way out of this. Two years of spellbreaking had shown Kengo that the path of least resistance was always remaining calm, feeling out your opponent's weaknesses, and waiting for an opening.

He found it. Glowing with blue fire, Kengo stomped onto the ground, taking a sumo stance. It was enough to force the gaki back. They hissed at him, in retaliation.

Kengo wasn't going to wrestle them (indeed, their small size put him and his compatriots at a disadvantage). Instead, he pulled off his robe, skin bare to the coolness of the forest. "Great Bear King, Minoru, come forth!"

Skin rippling with light, the tattoo on Kengo's broad back came to life, enlarging itself, ink transforming into flesh, fur, and muscle. It was still a bit of a shock for his fellow spellbreakers to witness; the summoning. Colt, Joseph, and Robbie all wisely stood back at Minoru, the sun bear spirit enjoined with Kengo, sprung from out of the fighter's back.

The golden-eyed bear stretched his claws to the dark canopy, yawning. "Damn it, Kenny, I was takin' a nap. What's--"

"Hssss!" the gaki, clawing at the air, suddenly sprung forward, hoping to overwhelm their pray with numbers.

Minoru merely groaned at their attempt. "Oh, these little runts?" Ugh, Gaki. Just about as smart as they look." Minoru, on his hind legs, took an intimidating step further. "Hey, you little s***ts, why don't you let us pass?" Joseph, Colt, and Robbie made sure to keep out of his way.

The head of the creepy, wriggling, gray demons sprung up at challenged the spirit. "HSSSS!"

The Bear King bared his teeth at this foes. Tongues of blue fire sprouted from his jaws, dripping with malicious intent. "Awright, you punks, HAVE IT YOUR WAY! ROAAAAAAR!"

The bear king rared his head back and roared out a jet of blinding, blue flame. Whatever its material composition, it didn't burn the forest floor, or set anything alight--but the gray imps were certainly frightened enough of it that they all retreated back into the shadows.

Having shielded his eyes from the supernatural blaze, Kengo lowered his arms from his face. There was no sight of the gaki. Just one monstrous, giant bear. "Wow, Minoru! I didn't know you could do that."

"Huh." The bear grunted, scratching the top of its head. "S***, I didn't know I could do that either!"

Colt beamed with pride. "Looks like you're getting more powerful, Kengo."

His job done, the bear spirit dematerialized into blue sparks, like fireflies. "Now, wake me up when you come across a real problem. I enjoy my little naps..."

The eerie silence returned to the forest. Colt and his companions uttered a collective sigh of relief. "Well, that's that. Take a moment to collect yourselves, boys. We need to move on before it gets dark and things really start to get freaky."

So, they moved along, further down the twisting path into the ominous woodlands. Robbie, who had gleefully taken on giant men twice his size (and often won) was starting to get freaked out. He looked around the woods, eyes darting at the sound of every branch crushed underfoot, or every swaying treebough.

Deep breath, bad wolf, he told himself. You're just a bit jumpy. Remember, your ancestors were like, super scary hunters. This isn't nothin'.

"...Robbie..."

"Yeah?" Robbie said to Kengo.

"Hm?" The large fighter, tying up his robe, looked at Robbie askance. "Yes?"

"Why you whisperin my name, bro?"

"Uh...I wasn't."

"...Robbieeee..."

"Grrr. Who the hell..." Robbie whipped his head towards the sound of his own name. Then, his eyes grew wider.

A translucent figure, with long hair and a bloodstained kimo, floated through the trees towards him. "Robbie...come join usssssss"

"GAAAH!" Robbie screamed. "IT'S THE CREEPY GIRL FROM THAT MOVIE!" He threw out his hand, and the brush immediately in front of him immediately frosted over with ice.

Kengo grabbed his hand, and Joseph jumped forward to his defense, ready to kick the head off anybody who came close. Kengo tried to calm his friend down. "The ghosts cannot hurt you," Kengo cautioned. "They feed off magick. You have to ignore them, okay?"

Robbie gulped. "I hate this stuff, bro! I'm used to crushin' little prettyboys necks. Not wrestling ghosts!"

"Kengo is right," Joseph said, trying to maintain some semblance of calm between the four. "We need to keep a level head. Kengo knows how this stuff works."

Kengo smiled, uncomfortably. Oh, great. No pressure or anything.

Keeping his head down, Robbie followed the three others further into the woods, doing his best to tune out the unearthly whispers that followed.

Finally, the fighters reached a diverging path. A rotting, wooden sign, barely concealed by overgrowth, pointed them in two directions. 

"Well, that's that," Joseph shrugged, examining the sign. "Hmm...a fork in the road. How frustratingly metaphorical."

Colt tapped his finger against his chin. The path looked the same in either direction. Just more of the endless, forest labyrinth. "Wehlp. Ice cave's this way. And...wind cave's that way. We can try both, or we can cover ground and split up."

"I don't want to be out here at night, bro," Icewolf said, taking a firm stance. "But...then again...'let's split up' is usually what they say in horror movies before someone gets killed. And like, it's always the most ethnic person who dies first!"

"Robbie," Joseph said, pointing to him and Kengo, "ignoring the virulent racism of Hollywood horror movies, most of present are...as you said...'ethnic'. How do we quantify that?"

Colt blew a loose strand of hair out of his face. "Great grandpappy was Scottish, if it counts. Anyways, you have a point, Wolfie. We have two champions and two...er...promising upstarts. Stay the course. You and Joseph check out the ice joint, and Ken and I will do the wind one."

Joseph looked at Robbie, nearly as pale as the spectre that had tried to tempt him. "You got this, Wolfie." He put his hand on his shoulder in reassurance. "Tiger and Wolf, right?"

Robbie recomposed himself. "Yeah. Totally."

Satisfied with that, Colt nodded to Kengo, who looked just as green around the gills as Robbie did. "Looks like this is where we go seperate ways, gents. Please, be careful. And don't do anything stupid!"

Joseph winked. "Won't do anything you wouldn't, boss!"

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of!"

Here is where the path diverges.

Which road will you choose?

-Follow Joseph and Robbie to the Ice Cave-

-Follow Colt and Kengo to the Wind Cave-