THE LEGEND OF KIWAKAAZI

Emerging from the vertical water blanket and all excited was Kiwakaazi. With one swing of the kafunde, the arm of the fourth shinko that was strangling Kaki to death was chopped off and before the beast could blink, he was turning into a stone mummy. This same weapon had been driven through his heart from behind. The tip of the weapon was very close to Kaki’s chest. The twelfth shinko attacked immediately. He drove his sharp claws through Kiwakaazi’s side and threw him. Kiwakaazi rammed into a big tree before falling on the ground. But that was not enough to stop him. He got up as if nothing had happened at all. The boy’s eyes were redder than the shinko’s. He held onto the kafunde ever so tightly. He tilted his head to his left and then to his right, and, pointed the kafunde at the twelfth shinko. “You are next!” I guess was what he implied.

Somewhere in the distant past, Zakaru and the king of death gods had commenced their great battle. Gbelemantse Kakai, towering high above Zakaru and wielding a large sword attacked first with his Bukantanga katui (invisible gold reaper). Zakaru held the Uhurusa katui (ultimate reaper of the gods) horizontally above his head. The two weapons collided and remained in contact. The death god pushed hard and forced Zakaru to his knees but the boy still held his own. Gbelemantse could not believe it; this little fly was holding and preventing his katui form cutting him to shreds. He lifted his weapon high and aimed at Zakaru whom was still kneeling before him with all his strength.

Kaki was stunned. Kiwakaazi had undergone the fabled Rahasi (guardian of hell) transformation. A thick black vest similar to the skin of a goat covered his body from just below his neck to his feet. Running parallel from his left shoulder to his waist were two other colors; red and blue. His eyeballs which were usually dark brown in color appeared redder than a shinko’s and he laughed uncontrollably. It was almost like he had gone mad.

Humans are surprisingly afraid of death. Surprisingly, because we know that it is inevitable. Anyway, it is very difficult to watch a loved one die, and, sometimes, a dying person struggles to leave behind wife and children. Who will take care of them? Who will protect, cloth and feed them? They will be lost without him/her? So such a person may make a deal with Gbelemantse Kakai to be given a few more years to finish some unfinished business. These people when they die eventually spend many years with Gbelemantse in Shiayen (the white desert) where Kakai’s castle stood. He trains them secretly to become rahasi (guardians of hell). They ensure no Shosuma (soul or spirit) trespasses or escapes hell. Finally, she understood the key to their training – it was the Uhurusa Katui (the ultimate reaper of the gods). The guardians are stronger, faster, heal quicker and more dangerous than even the thirteen generals of death. This weapon transforms the souls from its pure and untainted form to something really dark and twisted; something almost unstoppable.

Kiwakaazi was attacking the twelfth shinko from all directions. Even though he possessed the kafunde, it was clear he was still inexperienced when it comes to using the kafunde or fighting all together. Every single attack of his was stopped by the twelfth shinko. He struck Kiwakaazi a few times resulting in Kiwakaazi colliding into a tree or falling on the ground. Each time, Kiwakaazi got up and attacked the beast. It was beginning to irritate the twelfth shinko so he decided to end Kiwakaazi with just one powerful attack – “the neck slicer”.

Zakaru was in a bit of a pinch. He cannot tell what would have happened to him if that last attack from Gbelemantse had hit him. Gbelemantse was big and tall but surprisingly quick. It took only a few seconds for his katui (sword) to be lifted high above his head and strike the ground where Zakaru knelt. Lucky for him it struck the ground. Zakaru, just before he got his head smashed in by the katui disappeared. He was later seen floating in the air trumping gravity. Even after evading that attack, he still felt numb around the right side of his body; the side of his body the attack would have been greatly felt. The ground was completely destroyed and Kakai and his army suspended in the air watching on while the ground healed itself slowly, closing every crack after the devastating attack on it.

The human soul is infinitely powerful. It is said that when the gods wanted to hide power from man they decided to hide it within his soul for they portended that he will never look within himself for this power. Whiles the soul is trapped within the physical body and identifies itself with physical things, it has no power. But as soon it is released from the physical cage and ushered into a plane higher than the material world, its powers are unleashed. Gravity has no hold on such person; the elements are at the beck and call of this individual; teleportation, telekinesis and other powers can be fully utilized beyond the material plane. Only few souls ever know this. Gbelemantse realized that Zakaru had no special powers; only the powers every soul possessed. Zakaru’s secret power was knowledge about his own latent soul powers and that was the difference. That was why he had no fear and challenged Kakai as if he ever stood a chance.

While the ground healed itself, Zakaru attacked Gbelemantse. With his new ability to move between locations with speed comparable to the speed of light, he attacked from all directions. However, Gbelemantse casually brushed off every attack. He was simply toying with Zakaru. You should not play with your prey before you end it. It never ends well.

Inside Nomposuro, Kiwakaazi swung his kafunde from left to right at the twelfth shinko. The shinko caught the kafunde with its right hand, pulled it together with Kiwakaazi towards him and punched Kiwkaazi in the chest. Kiwakaazi flew backwards and stopped by planting the kafunde into the ground. After stopping, Kiwakaazi stood still assessing the twelfth shinko. The two opponents eyeballed each other for a while. Kiwakaazi took one step and disappeared. The twelfth shinko turned sharply and swung its right hand splattering blood all over the battle field.

Zakaru was realizing just how amazing it was to be rid of the physical raiment. After discovering that he could teleport, he decided to try something else; to multiply in number and it was possible. What about being invisible? Yes! That also worked. Unfortunately, multiplying in number had a limit; his limit was three. This was his first time shedding off his human body and having more than four Zakaru’s around weakens his golden cord. Three Zakaru’s now attacked the death god. Their work was to distract Gbelemantse so that the real and invisible Zakaru could attack from a blind spot. The three clones did an excellent work of distracting Gbelemantse Kakai. He completely forgot about the fourth, real and invisible Zakaru. A fourth Zakaru suddenly appeared around Kakai’s right leg and swung his katui with every intention of cutting it off and somehow missed by a whisker. Kakai lowered his katui quickly enough to crush Zakaru who once again knelt beside Gbelemantse’s right leg. Zakaru vanished and when he appeared, he waited patiently to see if his plan worked.

Kiwakaazi knelt down and so did the twelfth shinko. The twelfth shinko had succeeded in cutting Kiwakaazi’s neck. He was bleeding and held his neck firmly with his right hand to halt the flow of blood. Meanwhile, the twelfth shinko had also been seriously injured across its chest and was turning into a stone mummy. It looked like a simple piece of cloth wrapped around the shinko’s body from his feet and was climbing towards his head. Kiwakaazi fell on the ground – face down and closed his eyes.

Kaki was worried and hurried to Kiwakaazi’s side. When she got there, she noticed the injury on his neck was healing faster as she had expected. Actually, he should be dead. No one can survive the “neck slicer” of a shinko. They were so good that they severed important blood vessels and nerves in the neck. Kiwakaazi suddenly opened his blood red eyes and looked at her strangely. His injury was still not completely healed. She felt his intent to kill and took a few steps back. His wound healed. He picked himself up, tilted his neck to his left and then to his right before pointing his kafunde at her. She is next!

Gbelemantse Kakai felt a sharp pain, next his blood was pouring out. He had been cut in his right leg. He knelt down and this agitated his generals and army. Some touched their swords. Some simply took a step forward. Kakai lifted his right arm and everyone stopped moving instantly. He tried to get up but the injury was deeper than he expected it to be. Zakaru attacked the weakened god. Four Zakarus attacked from every direction; combining his abilities to be invisible with his abnormal speed. A couple more times he cut the death god around his arms and back. Gbelemantse was incensed. Surely! He was not going to lose to a mere human soul. Never! He screamed out loudly and darkness spread over the entire area where he and Zakaru fought.