RINA'S POV:
Then, a thought, sharp and venomous as a centipede's bite, cut through the fog. Their souls. That monster hadn't just taken their lives. He had consumed them. He had not just murdered them; he had erased their very essence from the cosmic cycle. The hollowness inside me flash-froze. The grief transmuted into something brittle and razor-sharp. Rage. A rage so pure and cold it burned.
"That bastard!" I rasped, the whisper becoming a guttural snarl that tore from my throat. "I will make you pay! I swear on their stolen souls, I will make you suffer!"
I stood there, a wretched thing of dirt, blood, and tears, screaming vows at a silent, indifferent sky. And that's when the world fractured. A flicker of impossible color landed on the loose earth of their grave with a whisper of displaced air. It was a bird, but it was a creature torn from a forgotten myth, standing as tall as a man, with plumage the color of liquid sunset and molten gold. A living flame. But its tail… its tail was a cascade of a thousand impossible hues, a shattered rainbow that shimmered and flowed like a captured aurora. It ignored me, its magnificent head cocked, its obsidian eyes burning with a furious, intelligent light.
"What happened to the last fragment?!" the bird's voice boomed. It wasn't a chirp or a screech; it was a resonant, commanding declaration that vibrated in my bones. "Why is it gone?!"
The cold rage inside me was instantly smothered by a wave of primal terror so absolute it stole the air from my lungs. This was a god, an ancient and angry thing, and I was nothing but an insect in its path. It let out a scream, and the world went white. It was a sound beyond hearing, a physical weapon of pure sonic force. I threw my hands over my ears as a searing pressure built inside my skull, followed by a distinct, wet pop. The world's noise vanished, replaced by a single, high-pitched, deafening ring as hot blood gushed from my ears. I was falling, tumbling into a silent, welcoming darkness.
No. The thought was a single, defiant ember. Not yet. I have a promise to keep.
My Lolo's words, a final gift. A golden worm he'd planted in my arm. Use it only when you are at the very edge. Fear had paralyzed me last night, but now, with nothing left to lose, there was only one path forward.
"Please," I slurred, my lips clumsy. "Don't let me die."
I gathered the last dregs of my will and pushed. A sharp, tearing agony ripped through my forearm as something warm and alive burst from my skin. The golden worm, shimmering and fat, squirmed on the ground for a single, grotesque second. With a hungry, triumphant screech, the colossal bird swooped down, its beak snapping shut around the worm, swallowing it whole.
And then, in the silent, fading world behind my eyes, I heard a sound. It was a song, impossibly beautiful, a melody of pure creation. The warmth of the song flooded the cold spaces inside me, mending what was broken. The pressure in my skull eased. The deafening ring faded. Wait. My eardrums had just burst. How could I hear this?
My eyes fluttered open. The giant phoenix was gone. In its place, perched on a low-hanging branch, was a tiny bird, no bigger than my fist. Its feathers were a familiar fiery red, and its tail was the same impossible, cascading rainbow, now shrunk to the size of a child's paintbrush.
"You've finally woken up, human." The voice was the same, but the commanding boom was now a tiny, indignant squeak. I stared, my mind failing to connect the two realities.
"Stop staring and answer my question," the bird chirped, puffing out its minuscule chest. "What in the name of the fallen sky was that golden worm that came out of your arm? It has diminished me to this… this form! It has made me your spiritual slave! I am the Child of Adarna and Minokawa! I will not stand for this indignity! Return me to my true self, or I will end you!"
The bird hopped from foot to foot, its tiny rage a comical parody of its former power. It launched itself from the branch, a tiny, rainbow-streaked bullet aimed directly at my face. I yelped, swatting it away.
"No! Never again! I will not eat that worm again!" it suddenly screeched, backing away. "Just cancel the contract, human! I command you!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" my own frayed patience snapped. The bird inhaled and let out a furious scream—but it was just a high-pitched squeak. The leaves on the branch trembled slightly. It tried again and again before collapsing onto the branch, panting. "Damn you," it wheezed.
A raw, hysterical laugh bubbled up from my chest. I laughed until tears streamed down my face. "Sorry," I finally choked out. "I don't know what's happening. My Lolo said he planted it in my arm. He said it would protect me if I was about to die."
"What?!" The bird froze. "What did he call this worm?"
I dredged up the memory. "A golden lukban worm, I think."
"Golden… lukban… worm?!" The bird's eyes went wide with a dawning, cosmic horror. "Agh! I am doomed! Utterly and eternally doomed!" It threw itself from the branch and began rolling around in the dirt, kicking its tiny feet in the air.
"Stop being so dramatic," I said. "Just tell me what it is."
"That worm you fed me binds our souls!" it squealed. "And because it gestated in your flesh, steeped in your blood, I am now tethered to your very existence! As your slave! My lifespan is now divided between us! I had another thousand years of glorious existence, but now half of that is yours!"
My mind reeled. "Wait… does that mean I get five hundred more years to live?"
"No, you fool! My soul is that of a phoenix! It is immortal! The thousand years was merely my cycle! You don't just get five hundred years—you get my immortality! Every five hundred years, when your mortal body fails, my soul will ensure you are reborn! You are trapped in the cycle of existence forever!"
Immortal. The word didn't register. All I could think was that I would live. I would have time. A desperate spark of hope ignited in the darkness. "Then… do I have your power? Can I use your abilities?"
The bird gave me a look of such profound pity and disgust it felt like a physical slap. "Are you truly this ignorant? No. You are the master, I am the tool. You can command me to use my abilities, but you cannot wield them yourself."
The spark of hope died. "But I still have you," I reasoned, clinging to the thought. "A powerful weapon."
"You idiot!" it shrieked. "Your blood is tainted! Contaminated by those castaway guardians and cursed witches! Because our souls are linked, your taint weakens me! We can only access five percent of my true strength!"
"What?!" My eyes widened. Five percent. Still weak. Still useless. "What do you mean, 'tainted blood'?"
The bird sighed, a long, weary sound from such a small body. "The blood of the nature spirits you call Engkanto flows in you," it said, and the phantom memory of cold green light and the cloying scent of crushed flowers flooded my mind.
"How did you know?"
"I can smell it on your soul! That, and the stench of those corrupted shamans—the Mambabarang".
My grandfather. The crawling, burrowing darkness. The warring powers inside me. I was a cocktail of contradictions. The healer, the curser, and the monster who stole my mother. Nothing had changed. Hope was a fool's luxury.
I was still Rina. Still alone. Still nothing.