"Uhmmm.. what are we doing here?" Hio confusedly asked.
Night time on that same day, Hio and his company are at the top of the mountain where their servant observed the ritual that the witch and the tribesmen performed.
"Now that you're finished with sensing the essences around you, We'll now be showing you how to use the essence." Kio said smiling at his little brother.
"uhhmm.. okay?" Hio responded not knowing what to say.
"He means that you watch them control the essence young master."
"Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant. Essence, control…" Kio said awkwardly.
"Here? I don't get it." Hio blankly stated.
"You see babe,,,,"
Leo stepped beside His brother and started telling the events that happened while he's cultivating. Hio nodded and listened to his brother as he narrates the whole event. He also asks from time to time for clarification.
When Hio learned everything, his mouth was left agape and stared at his second brother in shock.
"Woah! You planned that in just a night?!" Hio was surprise to see his second brother's brain working.
"What do you think of your kuya? Isn't he amazing?!" Kio presumptuously smiled to his brother waiting for a complement.
"I thought you're a happy-go-lucky person who's always doing things without thinking." Hio said in amazement.
"Well. Some people may act different as a humdrum and as a majin." Kio said shrugging his shoulders. "You might be surprised when you see 'someone' in his majin state." He added and winked.
Moments later, people with tribal costumes began to gather around the altar at the foot of the mountain. They can clearly see their happy faces while talking with each other with the help of Rico's secondary talent, bird's eye. And with a little help from butler Elie, Rico's point of view was projected in front of them.
Suddenly, they heard a loud sound of gong echoing from the altar where the people gathered. All of the tribesmen quickly aligned themselves in lines with exact distance from each other.
The once boisterous place became quiet and organized, all the talking and wandering stopped, may it be a child or an adult, all of the tribesmen that heard the sound formed lines in an orderly manner.
"I saw some essence pulsed from the gong when it got hit." Hio said starring at the people down the mountain.
"That gong, I presume, is an enchanted flat gong taken from the Gaddang tribe of the northern region. One of its effects was said to hypnotize people by banging it hardly, letting the vibration continue." Kio said rubbing his chin. "What a shame. They can't utilize the power of the tool very well." He added, slightly shaking his head sideways.
"My dear tribesmen! Today we all gathered here to witness the resurrection of our lord Hasanggan! Let us pray as we feed him with men's negative desires and bring them back to the right path!"
The witch began to dance around the flatform before the altar to start their ritual. Crying and yelling in a language that Hio haven't heard of before. Then the tribesmen also followed
"Why is she using some weird language with her ritual?" Hio asked.
"This is the reason why Rico said that their practice is flawed. They depend on weird languages to perform magic." Kio responded.
"You may know it or not yet young master, but performing magic with incantations is slower and may go wrong if the caster is not using a language they are not comfortable with. One Mispronunciation may lead to death." Butler Elie lectured while watching the scene.
After a few rituals and exhaustive moves from the watcher's eyes, Hio and his company from the top of the mountain saw three men walking mindlessly to the place where the ritual is being held.
"Wait, is that kuya Renzo?" Hio asked when he looked closely to the guy walking.
"Yep, none other than." Kio said smiling.
"And who are the other two guys?" Hio asked still looking at the men walking like a zombie.
"The other one is ate Faye, Renzo cast an illusion hiding her lady figures and added some weird facial features that resembles some random guy from the village. The other guy is the bait." Kio explained.
"Ohh so kuya Renzo's talent is illusions." Hio said while nodding his head. "Then why do we need another bait if we already have ate Faye and kuya Renzo acting like one?"
"I need to confirm something." Kio answered. "They're getting near the tribesmen. Watch closely." He added and looked seriously to the three people walking.
As the three people approach the altar, the tribesmen parted and made a way for them to walk through. The witch then started running around in circles on the flatform shaking some dried long leafy bush while her hands are raised up high.
When the three got to the front of the flatform, the witch suddenly stopped. And looked at the three. Hio and the others used essence sensing to hear the events down the mountain.
"Why is there only three of you?" She asked the people standing in front of the flatform but no response was heard from them.
"Where are the others?!" The witch asked again with an angry tone but no one answered.
All the people around were in trance except for her, and Faye and Renzo whose acting like one, so no one answered.
"You… I recognize you…" the witch pointed at Renzo when she got a good view of him. Then turned to the man. "And you…" The witch pointed at Faye when she saw her. "You are not from here."
"What's taking so long??!"
While pointing at the three people, the witch suddenly heard a deep voice. It was from the statue that's shaped like a man.
The witch rattlingly turned and faced the statue.
"Apologies my Lord, but there are only three men that arrived tonight." She said while kneeling.
"Then we proceed with only three men." The statue they call Lord Hasanggan said.
"Bu-but my lord! One of the men is---"
Before she could finish her sentence, the statue began to vibrate and a smoke billowed from it. The smoke then began to turn into the shape resembling a human with the appearance similar to the statue's figure.
Meanwhile, the five men are silently watching at the top of the mountain when the saw the smoke billowed from the statue.
"Can we plunge them now?" Hio said muzzily.
"What do you mean 'we'? It only 'us' that'll fight them." Kio corrected his brother. "You watch us from the sidelines."
While the people from the top of the mountain are talking, Hasanggan once again spoke in a voice that sounds like it came from the abyss.
"They will fit the criteria! HAHAHAHA!" Hasanggan said greedily.
"But my Lord! Lord-Lord Belial stated that we shall never touch the village guests until he wakes up! One of them is the village's guest!" The witch hastily to his master.
"Hah! Belial said that but I said otherwise!" Hasanggan said as he took a huge leap in the air and dive at the three people down the flatform.
Lance then threw the twig that he's holding to the air and said, "Watch closely babe."
Lance began to command the essence of the twig together with the floating essence around it. He controlled the essence of the twig and added some essence unto it.
The twig began to change its form. From a dead branch, it transformed into a bow filled with essence intertwining around the bow. The flowing essence from the bow then started to drew a line from its string groves and formed as the bow's string creating a nocking point and serving at the middle when the string made of essence collided.
Leo held the grip of the bow after it was completely modified.
"After sensing the essence, gather them together from your core power to form an energy power and modify it into any shape that you want."
While Leo is telling the words, he started gathering the essence from his star core and form an arrow from it. Then he pulled the string and aimed at his target, the altar. Leo peeked a bit from the bow's sight window then released the arrow made of essence.
The arrow traveled from the top of the mountain to the altar with the speed of a rocket being fired from a rocket launcher.
*BOOM!*
A loud noise was heard when the arrow struck the flatform that separates the statues and the tribesmen. The people from down the mountain were surprised by the sudden explosion.
Hasanggan's dive was halted, the witch was blown away by the impact and the tribesmen hearing the loud explosion came back to their senses disrupting the trance spell that was casted on them. Seeing a billowing smoke of a ghastly creature from above and the aftermath of the explosion, the place was instantly panic stricken and the humdrums began to ran in all directions. Some kowtowed and begged, while the others ignored everything and just ran for their lives.
Faye on the other hand, casted a barrier for the three of them, but Renzo still held the man and the three of them jumped backwards knowing how big the explosion will be.
'Prince Leo really is a monster when it comes to doing crazy stuffs!'
The two servants thought when they saw how big the explosion is.
"now 'that' is the real cue." Kio said and leaped from his spot to jump down the altar.
"How did kuya Lance controlled the essence again?" Hio said in confusion as he watched his two brothers rushed to the foot of the mountain.