Pilgrim, p.47
Pilgrim, page 47
“Doesn’t need to happen here?” Norwin Dawa took a look around the room. “These people are nothing more than cattle,” he said, which was something Danzen had heard him say before. “We are the wolves.”
“Then let’s take this somewhere else. Perhaps to the forest…”
“The forest? Do you know how long it took me to find you?” he seethed. “No, I’m afraid that this is going to happen here. It’s over. Whatever this is, is over. You are not one of them, and you are no longer one of us. You are nothing.”
Several thoughts raced through Danzen’s head as he stared his opponent down. He knew if he drew his blade that it would simply be batted away by Norwin’s bindings; he also knew that the assassin had no knowledge of the weapon on his back, his Blade of Darkness. But if he reached for it, Norwin would be able to respond before he withdrew the glaive.
He could tell everyone to run using his Demon Speak power, or he could command them to fight. Either way, most would die.
“They know what you are, right?” Norwin Dawa laughed. “Who you are…”
“Please, Norwin. Not here. We can settle this, but not here.”
“This should be beautiful,” the assassin said as he cracked his knuckles. “I can’t wait for them to see what happens next.”
A sharp pain bloomed within him, several of the people in the room gasping as a floating ghoul of a woman took shape behind Danzen.
“I’m sorry,” Soko whispered as she withdrew her blade from Danzen’s lower back.
“Run!” Danzen cried, his vision tainted red. “Run!”
He instinctively flung his blade forward, which threw off Norwin’s trajectory for a split second.
Danzen swiveled to face Soko, portals opening up on the floor, people scrambling out of the way. Tables flipped over as Norwin’s bindings scissored through the room. Clawed hands appeared out of the portals, Norwin laughing maniacally as his bindings continued to wreak havoc.
Astra appeared in Danzen’s hand and he swung it at Soko, who pressed back, the tendrils of her cloak flying outward as she withdrew her blackened blade, which she had apparently retrieved from the river outside Tudan.
“Focus, Pilgrim!” cried Jelmay, who was now to Danzen’s left, his voice breaking through the madness. “You can’t let them die!”
Several of Danzen’s mangled hellspawns leaped toward Soko, the female assassin instantly engaging them, spinning as she cut the creatures away, as more crawled out of portals and lunged for her.
There would soon be more in the room than there were people.
Danzen withdrew his Blade of Darkness, a weapon in each hand as he instinctively spun, cutting through one of the demonic creatures just as it reached him. A few of the villagers were able to escape to the other side of the bar, others hiding behind tables, still scrambling to get free.
Danzen fell to a knee, feeling the wound caused by Soko’s blade. Everything was a blur until Jelmay appeared in front of them, the bakeneko still in the hermit’s form.
“You have to fight back, Pilgrim, you have to fight back!” Jelmay told him, his ears flitted back and his eyes burning with an intensity Danzen had rarely seen from the bakeneko. “This is going to seem strange considering what you will encounter in the future, but…”
Jelmay began to morph, his shoulders pressing back, muscles bulging from his shrunken form as white robes stretched across his chest, as red hair took shape, as his features sharpened.
“Let’s end this,” he said in a different voice now, one that was deeper, one fit for Danzen’s demon brother. Jelmay lunged forward with a punch that landed squarely in the throat of a sinewy demon who was just about to reach them. He cried out, and attacked another.
Seeing his friend in action ignited a flame within Danzen, the former assassin finally getting control over his emotions.
Ignoring his wound, which he knew would eventually heal anyway due to his power, he shot forward and loosed Astra in one direction while spinning his Blade of Darkness, the shadows in the room pooling to its tip as he sliced through several hellspawns.
One target at a time.
It didn’t take years of training for him to know that this was the only way to get control of this particular situation. The demons he could kill indiscriminately, but it was Norwin Dawa whom he would need to handle first, and then Soko.
Norwin locked eyes with Danzen and sent his bindings twisting forward, some of the remnant-enhanced fabric staying back to form an armor around his chest and waist.
Danzen hacked the tendrils away, utter rage boiling through him as he neared his opponent. He was just about to send his Blade of Darkness forward with a razor-sharp burst of shadow when he heard a familiar scream.
He had heard this scream before in the Asura Forest, when he had gone after Enkhmaa.
Danzen pressed back to get his bearings, the cry for help reaching his ears again. He looked to his left to see a partially broken table, Yeni and Enkhmaa with their backs to it, the two girls on the ground as a hellspawn with two sets of arms crawled toward them, the muscles on its back writhing and bulging. The demonic being was just reaching them and opening its jaws, its blackened tongue falling out of its mouth, when Danzen brought his Blade of Darkness down and sliced its body in half.
Enkhmaa looked up to him and darted toward him. She latched onto Danzen’s waist, Yeni soon doing the same, both girls hugging him.
He blinked twice, and looked around the room to see that most of the villagers were out now, that Temur was protecting Elder Sonders, the stocky man wielding a wooden stool, his face drenched in blood. Jelmay held his own, the shapeshifting yokai fighting demons dangerously close to Soko.
Not knowing where else to go, and sensing that Norwin Dawa would reach him soon, Danzen sent his power into his calves and thighs. He held the two girls tightly as he shot into the air still holding both his blades, the back of his neck and shoulders tearing through the ceiling.
Danzen landed on the rooftop, and dropped to the ground, the crumpled roof tile raining down around him as he shielded Yeni and Enkhmaa.
“Run,” he told the two. He released them and turned back to the entrance of the tavern, charging back in.
There was no other option now but to end this the exact same way it started, with Norwin Dawa. The assassin turned just in time to greet Danzen with a barrage of binding attacks, Danzen cutting them all down as he wielded both of his weapons with the fury he rarely exhibited.
To distract Norwin, Danzen sent his sword forward, Astra whistling through the air as Norwin moved to knock it down with his bindings.
The shadows extended from the tip of his Blade of Darkness as Danzen pivoted to the left to avoid a diving hellspawn. The shadow from his blade sprung forward, slicing Norwin’s arm off at the shoulder.
The assassin cried out; Danzen caught Astra by the hilt and loosed the sword again in his direction. Astra dug into Norwin’s throat, an arc of blood spritzing the air as the sword yanked itself back out.
Danzen sent forth the shadows at the tip of his Blade of Darkness, eviscerating Norwin Dawa, what was left of his body falling into a mess of viscera on the floor of the tavern.
A demon tackled Danzen, the monster’s jaw distending as it gnashed its teeth, its beady eyes filled with delight.
The hellspawn was blasted aside by a swell of purple energy, Danzen looking left to see Elder Sonders aiming his cane, power radiating around the handgrip, the jewel in the wolf’s mouth. As Temur stood by for support, the Elder blasted more of the hellspawns away, their bodies falling to the ground and eventually disintegrating.
Danzen rolled back to his feet and looked to the front of the room to see Soko in her white mask. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he knew that she was looking right at him.
He pointed his sword at her, Danzen starting to bare his teeth.
The woman melted away, the tendrils of her cloak sucking up into a ball and disappearing completely.
Even as he moved to engage more of the demons, Danzen realized that this was how she had appeared behind him. It was also how she had vanished back in Tudan before being trampled.
As he cut through monsters of his own creation, he noticed the portals starting to seal up. He also experienced something that he rarely felt, fatigue.
Danzen found it hard to stand once the room was cleared. He started to fall; Jelmay rushed over to him, once again in his bakeneko form.
“You’re injured,” he said, concern in his yellow eyes, his whiskers drooping as he helped Danzen stand.
“Must… Kill… Them all…” Danzen said, tasting blood.
The former assassin leaned on him, and as he did, Jelmay led him to the front entrance, past Elder Sonders and Temur, who looked utterly dazed, the whites of his eyes at odds with the crimson on his face.
“Pilgrim… wait!” Elder Sonders called after him.
“No…” Danzen whispered, shame coming to him as he felt the stares of the crowd gathered outside of the tavern.
Sudden movement on the roof next to the tavern caught his attention. Danzen glanced up to see a single demon trying to get away. He loosed his sword in its direction, his blade stabbing into the demon’s back. The creature rolled off the roof and onto the ground as Danzen’s weapon returned to his hand.
“My monastery…” he told Jelmay.
“That’s where we're heading, Pilgrim, just stay with me.”
“Are there more?”
“I don’t know…”
“We have to check. I…”
Calling forth his strength, Danzen leaped into the air and onto the rooftop where the demon had just been standing. He hunched over and pressed himself back to his feet, scanning the ground for any that may have escaped.
A weakness came over him, and as he took a step forward, he slipped, the former assassin tumbling down the rooftop.
He hit the ground and everything went dark.
“I’m fine…” Danzen told Jelmay as he appeared at his side.
“Come on…” The bakeneko helped him stand again. “Let’s get you out of here.”
****
They were about halfway to Danzen’s monastery when Jelmay stopped to catch his breath. “Whew! I’ve got to tell you, Pilgrim, when you said you released your demons, I did not think it would look like that. By the grace of Sunyata, that was utterly insane.”
Danzen pressed away from the bakeneko, a shaky hand going to his sword. He drew it, and pointed it at Jelmay, most of his face shrouded in darkness.
“Whoa…” Jelmay stumbled backward and fell, landing hard on the dirt.
Danzen heard something in the forest across from the road, something scurrying away. He glanced toward the noise, and then back to the yokai.
“You knew this was going to happen,” Danzen finally said, his lips curling. He was still experiencing pain, but it was starting to subside, his wound already in the process of healing up. “You even told me to bring my weapons. You knew.”
“I don’t think you understand how my power works.” Jelmay stood and dusted off his legs and his vest. “It’s the same reason I didn’t know your name, the same reason my predictions have been wrong so many times over the course of my lifetime. I get glimpses of the future, and the only glimpse I had was that there would be an attack at some point. I don’t know any of those people, those assassins. But the female one, she was close to you, I could sense that.”
Danzen nodded, his sword still drawn.
“I can’t describe how my ability works other than it operates through images that I then do my best to decipher. That and intuition. Like that woman assassin. I knew that she would cause you more trouble at some point, but I didn’t know when, and not until I saw her did the pieces connect. Do you think I would have put people’s lives at risk like that? Who knows if anyone was injured or not…”
“I can never go back there…” Danzen said as he lowered his blade. “Everyone knows what I am now. I’ve ruined the village.”
“It’s a big village…”
“Those people trusted me, some of them were my friends,” Danzen felt something well up in his throat. “No, this is it for me here in the valley. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.” With that, he sheathed his blade and turned to his monastery.
He walked faster than he normally did, Jelmay struggling to keep up with him.
“Pilgrim, we need to take a moment to think about this! You can’t just leave after something like that; you have friends now, and as strange as it sounds, this valley is where you are supposed to be.”
“This is not up for discussion.”
“Pilgrim…”
Danzen nearly fell forward as the pain once again blossomed within him.
He felt haggard all of a sudden, exhausted, overwhelmed through the combination of the attack and the emotions he was experiencing. He felt raw, like his skin had been removed and everyone could see what was inside of him, like he had been exposed for the fraud that he was.
The stranger who had shown up to town was a cold-blooded killer whose blood spawned demons. How could anyone ever befriend him after that? Who could ever care for or love someone like that?
No, he had to go.
With a grunt he continued forward into the night, ignoring the sounds all around him, not at all concerned if someone tried to kill him at that moment.
Danzen reached the bottom of the hill and looked up to his monastery.
“Pilgrim…” Jelmay said once he caught up with him, the bakeneko sucking in deep breaths. “Wait…”
Danzen ignored the bakeneko as he charged up the hill, each footstep taking more of his energy. He collapsed before he made it to the top, Yama reaching him immediately. The lion dog bit down onto Danzen’s robes and dragged him to the door. When this didn’t work, he got behind the former assassin and attempted to push him forward with his muzzle.
“We need you out here,” Jelmay said once he reached the door of the monastery. He opened it, and Kudzu appeared in a matter of seconds, confusion on her face as she saw Yama pushing and tugging at Danzen.
“What happened?” she asked as she reached Danzen, her snout just inches away from his face. Her nostrils flared wide and Kudzu took a step back. “Your blood…”
“It wasn’t pretty,” said Jelmay as he helped Danzen to his feet.
“I can stand on my own,” Danzen said, trying to push him away.
“Clearly, you can’t,” Jelmay told him. “Just let us help you.”
“What happened?” Kudzu asked again.
“I’ll catch you up in a second.”
Jelmay led Danzen into his monastery. He was eventually helped by Kudzu and Yama, the white fox pulling on the former assassin’s robes and the lion dog pushing from behind. They managed to get Danzen inside and on his back, where he lay uncomfortably across his Blade of Darkness.
Summoning what energy he had left, he sat up and removed the weapon, letting it fall to the side. Jelmay helped him take Astra off, Danzen eventually lying back down, his eyes fixed on the cracked frescoes above him, just a bit of moonlight making them visible.
“We should get you to your bed,” Kudzu said.
“No…” Danzen slowly turned his head to her. “I can rest here. I must leave in the morning. Thank you for all you have done.”
“Leave? Where would you go?”
“To the Brotherhood. I have to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
“Basically, we fixed the two guys who lost their souls and assassins showed up, two of them,” Jelmay explained. “One was…”
“Soko,” Danzen said, recalling the way that she floated there, the momentary hesitation that he could read on her face, even if she wore a white mask.
“Yeah, her. And another guy, a real pair of bull testicles, that one.”
“Norwin Dawa,” Danzen said.
Yama, who rarely entered the monastery, sat next to Danzen, the lion dog looking at him with concern and occasionally licking the sleeve of his robes with his stone tongue.
“Well, whatever his name was, you killed him. But the other one got away,” Jelmay explained. “So they came, and they unleashed his demons…”
“They did?” Kudzu asked.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before, and hopefully, I never see anything like that again…” Jelmay launched into a brief explanation of how the portals opened up and demons clawed their way out.
“I’ve ruined everything,” Danzen said, cutting him off. “Tomorrow… I leave.”
“You need to rest,” Kudzu said, but her voice seemed far away now, an echo to it, as if she were calling to him from the opening of a well, Danzen trapped at the bottom.
“Sleep…” he whispered, and as the words left his lips a deep slumber came over him.
Danzen was suddenly back at the Diyu Brotherhood, standing at the base of the steps that led up to the buildings, several of which were carved into the steep rocks that formed Mount Laksh. He held both his weapons, his Blade of Darkness in one hand and Astra in the other.
Seeing the steps was the last thing he remembered before a swell of crimson blotted out the image, Danzen falling into a deep sleep.
****
Danzen Ravja awoke with a gasp. He was in his bedroom in his monastery, no recollection of how he had arrived there.
He sat up and took a look around his room, calculating what he would need to bring with him.
He hadn’t come to the valley with much, and he would not be leaving with much either. His weapons, his masks, the field diary, kip, any of the robes he had that were still salvageable, and a few odds and ends to make his journey smooth were what he planned to carry with him.
Once his plans were settled, he started packing, Kudzu joining him as soon as she heard noise.
“You’re going?”
“I already told you I was.”
“I don’t think you should,” she said. “I… Jelmay said…”
“I don’t care about the cat's predictions,” Danzen told her, his voice raw, the former assassin already on the verge of using his Demon Speak ability whether or not it worked on her.
