“I need to go back immediately. I am sure this is not the only attack tonight!” weakened and limping away from the gigantic corpse, Lolo Gani slowly made his way towards the entrance of the tree’s cavity.

In this fight against the large group of bal-bal, Lolo Gani was able to hold down the fort with only one bamboo spear and his trusty sundang. However, as great as his achievement in defeating them all, it came at a great cost. Nearly losing his life in the process, getting poisoned, and ultimately exhausting a large amount of his stamina as the time it took for the whole fight was roughly around two hours.

Returning to his spot after the exhausting battle, Lolo Gani immediately sat down and poured some lana oil on his palm and rubbed it on the wound on his left thigh. The wound has started to turn black due to the poison and the soft green glow on his body that was preventing the poison from spreading is starting to fade away. After rubbing the area where the wound was, Lolo Gani started to chant and slowly, the wounded area started to bleed but instead of the bright scarlet blood, it let out a black viscous fluid that had a rancid smell. Even Lolo Gani was not able to tolerate the smell and a sour look appeared on his face.

After five breaths, bright red blood started to ooze out from the wound on his thigh, signifying that the poison had been expelled from his system. He was not happy though for during this process, he also lost some blood, which means that his fighting ability will be affected. Lolo Gani was only hoping that he would be able to protect his apò until his ritual is complete.

Not wasting any time, Lolo Gani ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt to tie the upper part of his thigh to prevent it from bleeding. At this moment, the soft green glow that was covering his body dissipated, almost at the same instance that it disappeared a heavy feeling of exhaustion fell on Lolo Gani’s body. Even though he has been sitting since he came back, when the buff given to him by the agimat disappeared, he felt like he had run hundreds of kilometers non-stop.

He was panting heavily, and large amounts of sweat drenched his body. Good thing that when he and Lumawig came to this clearing, they were well prepared. Drinking large mouthfuls of water, Lolo Gani was able to mitigate the feeling of exhaustion on his body even by a little bit, giving him slight comfort.

After resting for a while Lolo Gani was just about to start meditating when he heard a rustle. The sudden noise startled him, as he did not expect that another foe would show up, just a few minutes after his life and death struggle against the group of bal-bal. He did not stand up though, as he is confident that the barrier will be able to defend against the enemy attacks even for a short time. However, he was surprised when he saw what came out of the forest.

An old man came out of the forest, he was bald, his clothes were torn in various places. The old man continued walking towards the edge of the barrier and then stopped. When Lolo Gani saw the old man, he relaxed a bit, for he knew that no human will be able to see where they are right now, thanks to the enchantments he set up earlier. However, a moment later, his eyes narrowed when another person showed up, this time it was a young man, he followed what the old man did and just stood at the edge of the barrier. Then after the young man, a kid, around nine years old stepped out of the woods, then a middle-aged woman. One after another, more and more people came out of the forest and either stood near the barrier or behind the person who came before them.

This time, Lolo Gani could not help but stand up and walk closer to them, to examine them and their weird behavior. Surprise painted his face when he saw that there are at least a hundred of these people and more are showing up, crowding the small clearing with their numbers. Aside from their large numbers, these people are covered by a thin black fog-like substance, the same substance that covered the group of bal-bal he observed earlier. Their eyes, though appeared to be lifeless, reflect madness within; all of them have disheveled looks.

“So, there IS someone or something controlling these things!” realization hit Lolo Gani when he saw these people covered in a thin layer of fog-like substance.

Finally confirming his suspicions, Lolo Gani’s heart fell and his face became grave. Now that he knows that there is a mastermind behind these strange events, he could not help but feel powerless. Just the group of bal-bal alone was enough to kill him had he not prepared sufficiently, and with this large group of humans, even if he were at his optimum state, he would still die due to exhaustion.

“May my ancestors' spirits help me. Inang Selia please protect Lumawig!” Even though Lolo Gani was afraid he had already resolved himself to protect Lumawig at all costs, even with his life.

Despite knowing that these humans are being controlled by someone or something powerful, Lolo Gani is unable to release them from the creature controlling them. He also cannot bring himself to start killing these humans, for he knows that deep down they are innocent, and the only reason they were here was because their dungan might have been suppressed by the one controlling them. Faced with this dilemma, Lolo Gani chose to sit back down at his spot and focus on recovering. Since they have not launched an attack, Lolo Gani wanted to recover as much strength as he could.

“Maybe the one controlling them will show up tonight.” A furrow decorated Lolo Gani’s brows as he was deeply worried. He can only sigh and close his eyes. Soon after a chant started, and Lolo Gani was covered by a gentle white light. Slowly, some of the wounds he sustained in the previous started to heal, and the stamina he lost is being recovered at a faster rate than normal.

Meanwhile as Lolo Gani was busy fighting, the group of bal-bal earlier, Busau who have been preparing this whole time started travelling towards Dumadalig. Bringing all sorts of corrupted and evil creatures and monsters with it, the deity of destruction arrived at the quiet barangay and started a massacre. Any humans found by its minions are all mercilessly killed. Adults, and children alike, even infants, are all killed in a brutal and gruesome manner. Some are ripped apart by a group of ferocious aswangs, especially if the victim is an infant, the aswangs would scramble to get a piece of its luscious and soft meat.

Some people would be picked up by kapres, a giant that is mostly covered by hair; has a greasy appearance and usually inhabits balete trees and is squeezed to death. These giants would then drink the blood they squeezed out of their victims. The crunching of bones was like music to Busau’s ears as it would howl with happiness every time it hears such sounds.

The tikbalangs, a creature with a horse’s head and feet, and human for a body, are no slouch either in joining the massacre, every human it sees, it would charge head on to the human’s location like a boar and ram them with its steel like bodies. Most of the time, the victims will explode on impact, but on rare cases that their victims survive the impact, the tikbalang would come to the dying victim and stomp them to death. After killing its victim, it would then revel on the feast that is the mangled corpse of its victim.

Cries of terror, pain, and sadness can be heard all throughout the barangay as all kinds of monster feast on the human flesh of those who did not listen to Lolo Gani’s warning. Dumadalig is destined to disappear from the map tonight.

As the killings raged on, Busau who was controlling these creatures is gaining strength for every death and destruction caused by those it controls. All the negative emotions released by the souls of the people when they die are partly consumed by Busau and the others are sent to the Spiritual realm. A look of happiness is evident on its mouth, as its grin has almost reached the either side of its face. The many faces that decorated its body are also giving looks of satisfaction.

After killing all the inhabitants in Dumadalig, Busau then looked in a certain direction and started heading there. Its speed, neither fast nor slow, and the multitudes of creatures it brought with him followed suit. Not one soul was left alive on Dumadalig, only death and destruction were left of the once peaceful barangay.