The moment Lolo Gani’s abyan appeared, his eyesight was enhanced by at a factor of four. This means that even with the fog and the total darkness, he is able to see like it is daytime. Lolo Gani also received additional buffs on his agility and perception. With a new added strength from summoning his abyan, Lolo Gani was able to quickly kill more enemies. The last six bamboo spears he has were all thrown towards Busau who is now being encircled by its controlled creatures in protection while continuing to devour the humans.

Four of the bamboo spears that were thrown were successfully blocked by Busau’s minions. However, two of the spears found their target, and hit Busau on its right chest and left part of its abdomen, respectively.

Screaming in pain, Busau immediately yanked the spear on its right chest. The wound inflicted by the spear was giving it a searing pain. Next, it pulled out the bamboo spear that embedded itself on Busau’s left abdomen.

Lolo Gani on the other hand did not stop to see if any of his spears hit the monster currently consuming the humans. After throwing out all the remaining spears he has, Lolo Gani goes on a killing spree against the horde of the monsters. Every time his sundang would flash, a supernatural creature would perish; for every lash of his buntot pagi, even the toughest kapre would fall. Lolo Gani looked like a god of war inside the white fog, while continuously killing monsters left and right.

It was at this time that Busau, clearly irked by the lone human killing its minions, released a terrifying roar. With that roar all the white fog was blown away, immediately revealing Lolo Gani’s location, at the same time, it also revealed a large number of burning corpses. The whole battlefield is drenched in blood and the smell or burnt flesh hung on the air, and different body parts decorated the land around the tree, all of them are from the monster horde.

The sundang on Lolo Gani’s hand is dripping with blood from all the monsters he had killed. The mouse-deer abyan he summoned is running around him, giving him enhanced abilities that made him move at superhuman speeds. However, his buntot pagi is already broken. Somehow, amidst his fighting, his buntot pagi was broken by a monster; however, he did not even stop for a single second, despite the destruction of one of his weapons. The moment the white fog was blown away by Busau, Lolo Gani immediately stopped attacking and retreated back near the entrance of the cavity.

“Lolo!” a worried shout sounded out as Lolo Gani made it back; Lumawig was worried for his lolo but was gobsmacked by what he saw. Tens, maybe hundreds of corpses, either burning or dismembered are scattered on the ground. Some of it he knows, while most of them, he has no knowledge of.

“Lolo! What happened here?” regaining back his wits, Lumawig immediately asked Lolo Gani.

“These are all supernatural beings! They are trying to attack you while you are doing the ritual.” Answered Lolo Gani.

“Mawi, apò. I’m glad that you chose to continue on becoming a babaylan.” After a brief silence, Lolo Gani said his heartfelt appreciation for the choice that Lumawig made.

Lumawig was not surprised to hear his lolo’s words, despite so, he still felt warm in his heart.

“Lolo, my ritual has finished, but why are they still here? Also, I heard a terrifying scream the moment my ritual was done.” With a questioning look on his face, Lumawig inquired to his lolo as to why the monsters are still around.

“It is because of that creature.” Lolo Gani answered in a grave voice, pointing to where Busau is.

“That? W-what IS that?!” Lumawig asked with a tremulous voice, a hint of dread is evident on his face.

Who would not be afraid, as Busau’s appearance looks like stuff from which nightmares are made of.

“I have no idea. I have never seen or heard anything like it, and that monster also seems to control these monsters.” Lolo Gani explained briefly, never taking his eyes off the monsters surrounding them.

Busau on the other hand has now stopped consuming the humans under his control. It slowly turned its head to Lolo Gani and Lumawig’s location. A creepy smile appeared on its mouth and in the next second, moved at such a speed that it looked like Busau disappeared from his previous location and appeared at another, instantaneously. This seemingly simple movement of his made Lolo Gani and Lumawig turn pale. Lolo Gani was faring better, for he was still able to see a blurry image of Busau moving, Lumawig on the other hand was not able to see anything.

“So fast?!” blurted out Lumawig, fear apparent in his eyes.

“It has gotten so much stronger just from consuming those humans!” Lolo Gani also blurted out in shock.

“Apò, get back into the cavity for now. Take this with you and start chanting it as soon as you enter!” Lolo Gani instructed Lumawig and gave him a piece of paper. On it, was a chant written by him. Lumawig knew that he would only be a deadweight if he continued to stay outside, so he followed his lolo’s words and entered the cavity of the tree again. As soon as he entered, he opened the sheet of paper and read the chant; after reading it a few times, he was able to memorize it and started chanting it from memory.

Meanwhile, as Lumawig started chanting, Busau who has now moved into the midst of its monster horde, faced the sky, and then opened its mouth. The moment it did so all the thick black-fog like substance covering all of its minions started to fly upwards and gather above Busau’s head. After gathering for a few seconds, it descended into its mouth. The monsters and humans under its control started to shrivel at a fast speed until they were nothing but dead husks, their life essences being sucked out.

As Busau continued to feed on the life essences of its minions, its body started to change. Its color became dark red like blood, and a pungent smell emanated with it at the center. All the faces that made up its body grew sharp teeth, and the howls of sadness and anguish they were emitting were replaced by roars of madness. And the lone mouth that decorated Busau’s featureless face manifested another mouth at the place where its eyes should be.

Seeing the monster’s transformation filled Lolo Gani’s whole body with dread. He even almost dropped his sundang, and even his abyan has stopped running and perched on his shoulders, trembling. At this point, Lolo Gani slowly reached out for the last bottle of potion he had set aside. The one bottle that has a concoction of leaves and several roots. Holding it with his left hand, Lolo Gani threw it towards the dark fog gathering above Busau’s head and threw a stone to break the bottle.

The concoction inside the bottle splashed all over Busau and it even drank a good amount of it. The bottle contained a powerful poison that is effective against beings like the aswang and other creatures with similar natures. The poison weakens the life force of these beings so that they can easily be defeated or killed. Lolo Gani was not entirely sure if the poison would work against Busau as he still did not know that what he is facing is a deity that brings forth destruction. And thankfully, this deity has been weakened for over four hundred years, or the poison will not be even able to make Busau scrunched up its face in discomfort.

Immediately, the poison started to act inside Busau’s body. With the poison inside it acting up, Busau’s consumption of the life essences abruptly stopped as a high-pitched painful howl was emitted from its two mouths. Despite growing powerful quickly, it was still not in its most powerful state as it was a long time ago. The life essences it consumed was being burned by the poison, effectively making him lose strength by the second.

Angered by the interruption, Busau disappeared from its place and appeared in the blink of an eye in front of Lolo Gani. It then launched an attack towards the old man at lightning speed.

“HMM?!” Lolo Gani’s eyes went wide in shock after Busau appeared in front of him, and then a look of extreme pain replaced his shocked reaction a second later. Although Lolo Gani was able to see its movement much better as compared to a few moments earlier, he was still a little too slow to completely avoid Busau’s attack. In just a moment after Busau appeared, Lolo Gani’s left hand was separated from his body! The attack was so quick that even with Lolo Gani’s improved perception, he was still not able to come out unscathed.