Chương 20: Call Of The Masquerade (V): The Spirit King

[When a destiny comes calling, we sometimes have no choice but to answer. It might not be out destiny, but fate screws us over and then it becomes ours to live, our to bear, and ours to fight for and fulfill.

In the Wulin there's no shortage of destined ones, chosen cultivators who find themselves masters of great destiny with the very fate of the world in their palms. Most never seek such responsibility. And more often than not, such a destiny can turn out to be a very fortunate and lucky encounter for the cultivator, bringing them to heights of power and fulfillment no one ever understood.

But many of those destinies are unfortunately riffed with misfortune of the worst sort. And all it does is drag it's chosen ones into an ocean of despair, anger, hate, pain and death. We make our own destinies, but fate fights us every step of the way, forcing us into living out the destiny it has chosen, rather than the one we want.]

"You should open your eyes now child, the worst is over."

Alex shot forward with a gasp, and let out an even more startling scream at the sight in front of him. He was surrounded by masquerades, the most ferocious and scariest outside of the pages of a book, or a screen. Some had bodies made of wood, others were made of pure elemental energy, some had bodies made of grass or woven cloths. But one thing they all had the same was their horrifying masks. The very sight shook Alex to his bones as he tried to look for an escape from this circle of horrors.

"You have nothing to fear from us Eleojo, we're family!"

Alex was startled by that comment. He looked up to see the masquerade who had spoken, and couldn't help but blanche at the thought of being related to this horror. It's mask was painted a deep shade of red, with a huge nose and wide brimmed lips. A wooden mask that was actually showing facial expressions like it was actually human skin, the very sight of it sent shivers up and down his spine as Alex felt as if his body was covered by a thousand different varieties of discomfort causing insects.

"I am known as Égwu Áfià. The patron spirit, protector, guide, and the very first of the Álē bloodline among others. To put it simply, I am your ancestor, and this is the Éfòjálé Ki Dór Ógánē." The masquerade said to Alex.

"The what now?" Alex asked confused. But the masquerade seemed angry by that question.

"Have you no knowledge of your father tongue!, Has my bloodline falling so low that the rot of time has wiped out our heritage!" he roared out in anger.

"Whoa, whoa. I know what it means. I'm just surprised such a place exist, especially with a name such a this." Alex explained rapidly, trying to calm the angry masquerade down.

The sight of the masquerade being angry was so chilling that Alex feared for his life. Besides years of moonlight stories from the older generation about the fierce anger of a masquerade left very unwilling of experiencing even a hiccup from this mysterious beings.

"so what does it mean" the masquerade asked, obviously trying to test Alex and his claim of understanding the words.

"it means the heaven or the sky that is down, or that is the ground." Alex answered with his fingers crossed.

The Igala language had many descriptions of things that only shared a single word. So in translating something like this, he could only give a general exposition without knowing exactly what they mean.

"Its is good you know that much. My bloodline has no disappointed me. Even if half your blood comes from those savage invaders. You have done me proud by what you have achieved at such a young age."

Alex did not understand, what was it he did that has left this scary masquerade proud. Was it the sloppy translation, that couldn't be it right. As a matter of fact wasn't he supposed to be dead, how was he here. Or maybe he was dead, and this is just what the afterlife looks like, this place did have heaven in it's description after all. But before Alex could ask about his musings the masquerade continued.

"This is place is the sky on the ground, the resting place of the ancestral fathers and mothers of the Igala people. And the place where the test for the next Spirit King of the twelve masks is carried out. It is a world between worlds, unaffected by time and inaccessible to anyone but the dead kings or souls of individuals who performed great merits to the Igala people. It is the place where you will accept your destiny, as the next spirit king of the seven masks."

"...."

"okaaaaaay. That's very good, it's nice. So I have a few questions that I need answers to. First of all, what's a spirit king, second am I dead, third what's with the fighting. And fourth how can I leave."

"Your questions will be answered. I believe in the world today, the practice of Qi is the most prevalent activity, the journey of training the body, the soul, then combining both of those practices to achieve immortality. But Qi is not the only source off power in this world, the empire in the north use mana, cultivating two different paths of knighthood and magelife.

The spirit king however is one that take a different path. He's a guardian of history, of our people, and the one of the bridges between the world of spirits, and the world of the living. As a spirit king, you cultivate and train your spirit according to the number of masks you're able to awaken and defeat in your trial. As a spirit king you have access to the supernatural forces that is hidden deeper within the very fabric of this world itself. It would give you the power to see and converse with ghosts, and spirits, magical or Qi oriented.

It also gives you the ability to connect with the spirit of all living things, giving the ability to tame beasts, or even humans too. You can make contracts with spirits from the spirit world, and summon them to aid you in battle, but in other to achieve all those, you would have to give each of your masks their own essence.

Giving you masks essence means you orient the type of power an individual mask can have. Given one mask the essence of fire means you can use and control fire, then using the mask as a medium, you can summon different genres of fire spirits to aid you in battle. The essence of a mask could be anything as long as you can channel the power into it, it can be the essence of fire, or killing, of fertility, or even kindness. Each essence you choose for you mask, will carve and design you mask into an image that suits it. You have seven masks in all, which means you have a choice of choosing seven essences.

The masks can keep on growing in power, infinitely. All you have to do is make sure it keeps receiving the essence you have chosen for it, particular the same essence but in different forms and concepts. For example, I once heard of a flame that was froze rather than burnt, and another that purified and cleansed anything it came in contact with. The only thing they have in common is that they're all essences of flame, if you gather all of them into a mask with the essence of flame, the mask will go stronger, and so will you.

But the spirit king is not just born to chase for power, you're meant to protect the spirits of this world, and this world itself from the spirits within and those that hide beyond. This has now become your destiny"

Alex blinked in surprise. There was so much info that he almost didn't get what was being said. But he understood it all, however he didn't ask for any of this. Even more so he only shared half the blood of this masquerade, he was only partly from the Dark Continent, he only had half the blood of the Igala tribe, but yet he was the one who had to do this, why?

"Why me?" Alex asked in confusion.

"Because quite simply you're the only and most suitable choice. The hut that led you to this place it a building stuck between the waking world and the world of the spirits. Some times it here, and other times it wanders the world of the living. Only someone who has been contact with the breath of the spirit, or has the power of a spirit in any form can see it. And seeing is not enough, there's a barrier around it that will drive someone with a weak spirit mad for just coming close to it alone. You might not have known it, but you passed every test we put in place, and you were able to awaken seven masks!

Those of your predecessors who achieved that number of mask had to be trained for decades before the underwent the trial, and they barely manage such a result. Also each and everyone of them has to be at least at the ninth level of the open meridian realm. You took a test designed for the open dantian realm at the body refining realm, you're not just the only choice, you're the perfect choice."

" But I've ever met this breath of the spirit that you're talking about, I don't even know what it is. And I didn't train for this either, are you sure this was not a fluke?" Alex asked as everything still seemed unreal to him.

"Did you fight seven blank masquerades?" Alex nodded.

"Did you win?" He nodded again.

"Then there's no fluke. It's a shame that no one had been able to subdue all twelve masks for the last 12.000 years, but seven is just as good, and the things you would be able to achieve with seven, might even be greater than what you can with twelve.

Come young Eleojo, prepare yourself for the ancestral blessing ceremony. With what you're going to face in this world, you need our blessings."

Alex was not even allowed to protests as all the masquerades huddled around him and gave him a pail of water. As they did so, Alex noticed that none of them allowed him to see what lay beyond their huddle.

They were preventing him from seeing where they were. It was very strange for Alex, but he also remembered some stories from his childhood about masquerades who tool kids with them to their abode, it's usually a shrine of some sort. But the crux of the matter is, those kids went in, but they never came back out.

This was probably a fail safe to stop him from being stuck here, if he saw what lay beyond, then he would probably not be allowed to leave.

With the pail on his head, Alex was actually asked to dance in a circle, he protested at first, but when one of the masquerades suddenly materialized a while, he got down to booty so fast it left his gazing ancestors shocked. Alex was still very afraid of them.

After he had been forced to dance, it was the turn of the masquerades as they also danced around him too. And in all that time, Alex was not allowed to spill even a single drop of the water he carried on his head, if one drop touched the earth below, he would have to start all over again.

Luckily for himself, being at the ninth level of the body refining realm, afforded him some degree of control over his body, so he was able to keep the pail relatively steady. After the whole creepy and sudden dances, Alex was asked to pour the entire pail of water on the ground. It left him twitching in annoyance as he was just forced to dance and not allowed to spill a drop of that water, and now they were telling him to pour it all on the ground...seriously.

Alex did not have much of a choice, so he did as he was told and poured the water out. The ground below his feet rapidly turned into a puddle of mud, he was asked to stand at the end of the puddle while his ancestor's masquerade stood at the other end. Then masquerade proceeded to walk through the muddy ground, his long white robe dragged over the muddy ground as the mud around was stirred. Then Alex was asked to kneel and receive his blessings.

"As you have poured this water on the ground, wherever you go in this world, the earth will never be hard for you!" as soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud crash of thunder as the entire world shook. The ancestor masquerade seemed to loose a bit of its luster as it seemed to become a little faded.

"As you have danced with your elders, the wonders of the earth and joys of the sky will dance with you!" there was another boom of thunder, and this time lightening even struck right on the ancestor masquerade, chipping off a piece of it's mask that fell to the ground with a plop as it gut stuck in the mud.

The piece of wood floated into the air, and rapidly expanded, turning into a walking stick, similar to the ones Alex had seen etched on the walls when he came in. There were words on the walking stick, but each of those words flowed through and around the gnarled looking red wood, giving the walking stick a rather ferocious look. The walking stick floated towards Alex and fell into his hands, at first it was a little too big for his size, but it rapidly shrunk to fit his fourteen year old frame.

"That walking stick will be your guide and your teacher on your journey to become the next spirit king. Everything you have to learn about spirits, and your masks, this walking stick will teach you. It also holds your masks for you, and whenever you need them, you just have to pull it out from it."

Alex looked at the walking stick again, and saw that on the top of it, it was shaped like a pedestal, on etched onto the surface was a mask. Alex put his right hand on it as if to pull out the mask, and one of the seven blank masks came up, still glowing with the pale blue and green flames. Alex placed the mask back on the pedestal, and it disappeared back into the walking stick. Then he looked up at his weakened ancestor and asked.

"Does it have to be a walking stick, it doesn't seem very fashionable."

"...…"

"...."

"You can will it into any shape or form you want. The wood is polymorphic and will respond to all of your commands." The masquerade answered after being silent for a while.

Alex suspected that he might have been contemplating his stance about Alex valuing tradition. Alex was about to ask another question before he was stopped by the sudden chanting of all the masquerades, there was a rhythm and beat to it that Alex could not really pick out. It was fast and pounding, yet slow and soulful.

That rhythm robbed him of all his senses before he felt a sensation of falling, his back hit the ground hard and he was forced to open his eyes.

The sun was streaming through the open window of his room in the inn. It was morning. The birds were singing and the bustle of the town was beginning to reach a crescendo of the early morning rush. The door to his inn was pushed open and Anya walked in with a wide smile.

"Rise and shine son of heaven. It's time to prepare, the bus to Lokoja city leaves in an hour. Your dad wants you down in fifteen." She said as she walked into the room like she owned it.

Alex was a little perplexed by the sudden turn of events. Had everything he experienced been only a dream...….but it felt so real. At the moment Alex did not know whether he was relieved he was free from some sort of massive responsibilities, or sad and angry he dreamt about being given supreme power over spirits. Then he asked Anya ask.

"Hey what is this?"

And right there leaning by the bed post was a walking stick with the carvings of a blank mask on its head. It wasn't a dream, he really did just become The next Spirit King.

SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO
Anone

Please vote, comment and review. But above all I hope you enjoyed it. This chapter is not edited since I rushed to complete it and the recent chapter of Kael Cor: a vampire’s awakening. So please bear with my mistakes. Thanks for reading and God bless you.

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