GODLINGS : ASCENSION (African Lore Book 1)

CHAPTER 21

Ojiji, lord and deity of nightmare was frustrated, swinging his now elongated bastard blade that was gorged on the fear of humans to cut at what some of the humans were now becoming. Poisoned by the darkness, they became creatures of darkness themselves, fighting at each other and infecting the rest of the population and so far he, his brother the deity Xanaaq and the jarumi had managed to contain them, weaving intricate sigils that shone and drew in the possessed while throwing out the normal but angry humans who were panicking. He watched a comet streak overhead towards the horizon before beautifully changing course and crash landing in the distance, he felt the air charge up, thunder booming in the distance, narrowing his eyes, he heard it like a whisper, the voice of a thousand sparks as the flames of the comet died down, stopping the humans in their tracks, rolling his red eyes as he withdrew his blade,

First born of lightning,
Chief of the eastern deities,
Sole ruler of ndi Igbo,
Lord of justice,
Striking like fate,

He appeared shrouded in lightning, blue suit with the blue line mark a few inches from his head, eyes blue as they spoke of the volume of power his body reverberated with, hands akimbo as he glanced behind at eru,

"Nightmare lord"

"Lightning brat" ojiji replied snidely,

The man laughed, his baritone voice booming, snapping his fingers as the humans screamed and swooned, the darkness pouring out of them to converge and become a being, Smokey red eyes growling down at the man shrouded in lightning,

"Amadioa!, your reign is at an end, the end of the alusi is at hand, your realm will fall!, he rises!, your cage with the primordials has broken," the darkness screeched,

Amadioa shook his head as the darkness barreled straight at him, only to find itself suspended in thin air,

"Ajo mmuo" amadioa said, addressing the creature by its real name,

"Since when did you and I become mates?" He finished, snapping his hands as lightning, both blue and red representing both creation and destruction crackled together and bombarded the demon, ripping it to shreds in the blink of an eye till nothing remained. Watching as the humans snapped out of the haze to stare at the god, terrified screams, amadioa opened his mouth to talk when he felt eru fly past him, blade on his hand as he swung it over the crowd, watching it absorb the fears and terrors into itself and leaving the human so weak that they fainted.

Ojiji landed and turned to the Igbo god of thunder and lightning, raising an eyebrow,

"I heard you were back" he said,

Amadioa kicked a knife laying on the floor, watching as it glowed with power and strike one of the creatures stuck in the cage of Xanaaq and the jarumi and blowing them up to pieces,

"Indeed, possessed the body of one of my descendants and modified it to my liking before purging the betrayals that were part of the alusi" amadioa replied,

Ojiji stared at the darkened sky,

"So is it true?, the barrier set up by you and the primordials to hold back the darkness?" Ojiji silently asked,

Amadioa moved to talk when he felt the beginning of a portal open, his powers bubbling to the surface till he saw a female form resting on a scythe, a smile on her face,

"You deities keep on piling up the bodies for me, and I'll start thinking you're trying to woo me" she said,

"Iku" Ojiji said, calling the name of death in this reality,

"Ojiji dear, what new cataclysmic event have u deities unleashed?"......

The metal god could bear it no longer, watching through his eyes as the entity known as chaos used his home, his sphere of influence, his power, his army to wreak havoc on all he held dear. He sat inside his own mind, chained ironically to the deepest darkest part of his mind, thinking back to how he could had listened to the seductive voice of the darkness, foolish enough to believe he could had reached higher than the creator himself, to rip down creation bit by bit till only he stood supreme and all the other deities bowed to him. Laughing in a self depreciating manner as he stood up, knowing what he had to do. He reached into his core, feeling the darkness watching him smugly, wondering what he would do,

"Don't son of metal, your story ends not here"

Snapping up to stare around, that voice sounded familiar, turning around, no, it was not the darkness, the darkness sounded like a void, stripping him of his freewill,

"Hope son of metal, hope"

The voice again, and in that instance he understood, silver metallic eyes shining as he sat down and stopped the process of self destruction,

"Had a change of heart hmm?"

The voice that sounded like stones grating together asked, looking up to see an image of himself staring back at him,

Darkness,
Chaos,
Evil,

Ogun looked at it head on, previously he would be squirming, trying to curl himself into a ball to hide from this vast evil, but now he just stared on,

"Hope" he muttered,

Leaving the evil puzzling about what it meant,

Hope.....

Appendix

Alusi - name of the Igbo deities of the eastern realm of Nigeria, same as orisha,

Ajo mmuo- name of a primordial demon spawned from the darkness