CHAPTER 9: HELL BEAST

Amaya and Grell, who have stepped foot in Vietnam, were struggling to find some food to eat. No, no because they lack money, but because there were too many to choose from. It made them dizzy.

The road, which was not overly wide, was filled with people. Tourist mosley, like them. On each side of the road, on the wide pavement, were merchants shouting usually, trying to gain people's attention. The road was scattered with litter. It wasn't completely revolting, but still, Grell couldn't help but scrunched his nose in displeasure. The smell permeated the air was a mix of various enticing delicacies and the suffocating smoke of various vehicles; pollution. He wasn't as fussy as the King; he even used to sleep in pens, so something of this caliber was truly nothing to him. But he was in despair because of Amaya.

Amaya, however, seemed to not have taken notice of any of the unpleasantness. She looked around the stalls, turning left and right, trying to decide what she wanted to taste the most. Her hair swayed gently along with her movement. Her footsteps were light, so was her laughter as she took in the humanity she had dearly missed.

"What do you want to eat?" Amaya turned to Grell with excitement and anticipation.

Heart softening, Grell looked at Amaya, eyes flowing with affection and worship, "I want something spicy," Grell told her, "and alcohol. Preferably a lot of it," he added with a grin that made Amaya chuckled.

Grell was one among them who truly knew how to indulge himself. He liked to drink. Although he no longer could get really drunk, the feeling of being tipsy, head and body light as a feather, was something he cherished. The little things in life, no matter how small, and insignificant, he will cherish, so as to never forget that they were human too, once.

He had said that. Amaya never understood that. She was never human to begin with. She functioned like one to a certain degree. But she was never one. Which was probably why she was very interested in humanity. Fascinated, even.

"Let's just get a bit of everything?" Grell suggested. Amaya's eyes shone brightly and she nodded before slowly walking to one of the stalls selling local food.

They ended up spending the rest of the night walking along the road, buying things that caught their eyes. They walked as they chatted. Mostly Grell was talking about the development of earth in the last ten years. Amaya listened attentively, fascinated.

Once they reached the end of the street, they could feel their stomachs bulging and they couldn't help but to stifle a laugh and smile in satisfaction. Amaya looked around, wanting to find something fun to do when her eyes fell to the trash scattered on the side of the road. She couldn't help but to stare at those.

Grell, knowing what Amaya wanted to do, couldn't help feeling his heart constricted uncomfortably. "Can't you just ignore it? They'll just throw more garbage tomorrow anyway and it'll be useless," he said almost pleadingly, holding onto Amaya's hand.

"It is never useless," Amaya said softly as she brought her hand up. From her palm, a soft small blue light the size of a fingernail flew slowly towards the garbage. It dove into one of the black plastic bags and disappeared. A moment later, the pile of garbage slowly disintegrated into small black particles, as small as dust, and flew towards Amaya's fingers. She closed her eyes as she slowly absorbed the particles into her body. Her whole body was shining lightly. She was calm, unmoved.

Meanwhile, Grell was distraught. He knew it always hurt when Amaya was doing the cleansing. Even if it was just a few piles of garbage, they were still garbage that harmed her. He had no idea why she had to do it like this. Couldn't the other gods make her more invincible? Or gave her some other ability for dealing with filths?

The more he thought about it the more agitated and depressed he became. He reached out his hand to try and stop Amaya from absorbing another pile of garbage. "Let them. The ritual will be done in another few months. They won't die," he said with bitterness.

"Maybe they will not," Amaya said slowly, moving her fingers and playing with the little blue light ball. "But it is my job to ensure they live," she turned to Grell with a big smile on her face. Calming, comforting, coaxing.

Grell's heart clenched. So did his fists. But he said nothing and just stared at Amaya's finger dancing along with the blue light ball. When Grell wanted to say something, he jerked his head up suddenly. So did Amaya.

The smell of blood.

Both immortals frowned. It was so thick. Even from far away. It indicated that whoever shed it, was in dire need of help. Without wasting another second, both of them dashed towards the source.

They followed their nose and soon arrived at the entrance of a children's park. It was dark and deserted. There were only a few attractions. A set of swings, jungle jim, sandbox, and a slide. Behind it was a small stream, and beyond it was a dense forest. On the riverbank, they found a body lying halfway in the water. Above it was a huge black shadow resembling a dog. A humongous one.

"A hell beast?" Grell's voice was a mix of bewilderment and restlessness. But before he could think about anything else, he noticed the body, a man, wawa twitching. Driven by instinct, he took out his broadsword and rushed towards the beast who finally noticed the arrival of the two. It bore its teeth, stained with blood, and leaped towards Grell.

Amaya, also rushing forward, arrived by the man's side just as the beast went for Grell. She checked the man's condition carefully. He was alive. Barely. Amaya closed her eyes and called upon the magic of the earth to help her maintain the last thread of the man's life.

She barely managed to close the worst of the wound when she heard Grell shouted her name almost in desperation. Amaya turned and her pupils contracted as the beats leapt towards her. She kicked up her feet and flew back, just barely avoiding the claws of the beast.

"Why in Goddess' name is a hell beast appear here?" Grell shouted in frustration as he once again attacked the beast, trying to lure it away from Amaya. "Did it come from the portals?"

"Impossible," Amaya shook her head as she dodged left and right while throwing fireballs towards the beast.

Yes. It was quite impossible. The portal led straight to the world beyond. There were no longer any hell beats there. They have all been driven to the realm of shadows. Never to see the light of day again.

Thinking about this, it felt even more frightening. If it did come from the realm of shadows, how did it do it? No one knew how to reach the realm of shadows. At least no one alive. And everyone banished there had been stripped of their magic long ago. Whatever power they once possessed, they could no longer open any door to any other realm.

So, someone from their own realm?

Grell's blood ran cold from the thought. He gritted his teeth and stood beside Amaya as she called upon the lightning to strike down the beast. At the same time, he swung his sword towards it.

The beast was nimble and managed to dodge the lightning. But Amaya was also tirelessly summoning lightning after lightning. The earth where the lightning strike scorched black and Amaya's heart hurt looking at it. But lightning was the most efficient when dealing with hell beasts. It wouldn't kill them, but if stricken by it, it could immobilize them and hurt them to a certain extent. To kill them, however, they could only use the first sunlight of the day, which they didn't have ready in their hands. They could only stall for time, waiting for dawn.

However, dawn was still a few hours away. No matter how strong they were and the beast, it would be hard to keep on fighting for hours on end. Especially the beast whose intelligence was nowhere near humans. It became agitated and impatient. Its black shadowy figure seemed to grow in size, and two red slits of eyes stared at them. It bore its fangs and growled towards them before turning around and took a leap.

"It's heading to the city!" Grell groaned in surprise and frustration as he also leapt, trying to block its way.

Amaya had erected an illusion so that people outside of the park would not be able to tell what was going on inside of it even if they were to stand beside herself. Fortunately though, it was already midnight and the neighborhood was already calm and deserted for a while. But she hadn't the time to erect a barrier that would prevent the beast from exiting it. Amaya's heart clenched as she summoned vines from the nearby trees and tried to stop the beast. At least long enough for her to erect a barrier surrounding them.

Hours passed. Both Grell and Amaya didn't look even the slightest bit tired. Only their slightly labored breathing, and their faces glistened with sweat indicated their hard work in trying to subdue the beast. The beast, however, as time passed, only became even more ferocious. Although it never managed to land a heavy blow on either of them, it still managed to harm them with its erratic attacks.

Dawn was fast approaching. When Amaya felt the energy of the sun, she distanced herself from the fight and floated onto the top of the nearest highest tree. She looked beyond the horizon, gathered her palm in front of her before slowly opening it. One hand was stretched out in front, while the other hand was stretched out to her side. One hand was gathering the first sunlight, while the other hand was busy gathering the strongest vines and the sharpest rock to be turned into a set of bow and arrow.

Amaya then gathered the ball of sunlight at her fingertips before slowly imbuing the arrowhead with it. Chanting her blessing, she concentrated to purify the light and the weapon. Her black hair and white dress swayed gently with the morning breeze. Her face was calm. Her movement was unhurried. She took a deep breath before glancing down at the battle between Grell and the beast below. She corrected her stance before taking aim at the beast.

Grell, having glanced at Amaya and found she was ready, took a leap to distract the beast, having it exposed its head for Amaya to shoot at. As soon as the arrow was released, Grell flew towards Amaya and stood beside her as they both watched the arrow strike the beast right between its eyes.

The deafening cry of the beast pierced the silence of the early morning. Grell's hand on his weapons tightened, and only when the body of the hell beast went up in smoke and then into small particles that flew with the wind did he released the tension on his body.