CHAPTER 32
Ogadi froze at the spot as she tried to process Phillip's words and failed.
“What?” she asked unbelievably.
“I said, it is believed this land is a gateway to the underworld.” Phillip reiterated.
“That means, if anyone wanted to resurrect Dike Aru, here would be the perfect place to do it.” He concluded ominously.
They gazed upon the man who was still making inscriptions on the ground with the staff. He looked up at them and they saw his face was covered in white paint.
“It must be him!” Ogadi gasped fearfully, “He must be the one who killed those women and offered up the sacrifice to resurrect Dike Aru!”
“Holy shit!” Phillip exclaimed, “We have to stop him!”
“No,” Ogadi corrected, “We have to kill him.”
The two looked at each other and nodded before they set off to where the man was.
He noticed they were coming and sped up his inscriptions.
Ogadi stopped and brought out her phone and began to tap furiously at the screen.
Phillip regarded her impatiently, “Really? You're texting right about now? What are you going to do, stop him with the power of your texts?”
“Of course not!” Ogadi huffed, “I just sent my Grandmother a text, informing her of the situation at hand because believe it or not, I don't think we can handle the threat this man poses on our own. We can only delay him before backup arrives.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” Phillip replied sheepishly before adding, “Well, now you've sent the text, may we proceed?”
Ogadi steeled her shoulders and gritted her teeth, “By all means.”
And they continued their journey towards the painted man. This time, they were the ones who shoved people out of their way in their haste to get to him.
When they got to where he was, Ogadi's first thought was that the man didn't actually look old because beneath the veneer of the paint, his skin looked young and firm.
Her second thought was that he seemed familiar to her but as hard as she tried, she couldn't place him.
That problem was solved for her when the man smirked up at her and Phillip, “Well, well, who do we have here?”
* * *
“Julius!” Phillip and Ogadi exclaimed simultaneously.
“Surprise,” Julius yelled, not slowing down his inscriptions as he brought out the knife he'd stabbed the bouncer with and waved it menacingly in their direction.
“Do you know what you're doing?” Ogadi asked as she gave the weapon a wide berth.
Ejike's former personal assistant gave Ogadi a glance before he laughed, “Of course, I do. No need to take up such a condescending tone. I'm bringing Dike Aru back to earth.”
At his confirmation, Phillip made a move to grab him but found a well-sharpened knife too close to his throat.
“Don't come a step closer or you'll join the bouncer.” Julius threatened.
“We thought you were an old man because of your hair.” Ogadi said, mentally beating herself up. Not all people who had naturally white hair were old.
“Murderer,” Phillip taunted, “How did it feel killing those innocent women?”
Julius' features softened and his voice was laced with regret when he replied, “I didn't enjoy that. Also, I was actually doing them a favor. It is nothing short of an honor to be given as a sacrifice for something as glorious as Dike Aru's return.”
“Is that what you console yourself with?” Phillip pressed on, “How pathetic. I wonder what excuse you'll offer for stabbing that bouncer and disrupting this concert.”
“This crowd will make good hosts for Dike Aru's foot soldiers.” Julius replied, “You know, when I met you at the Heroes' Square exhibit, I was impressed by how passionate and knowledgeable you were about our culture that I offered you to join me. That offer still stands.”
“Hah,” Phillip scoffed, “You were so impressed you sent a swarm of demons after us. I always wondered how they appeared out of nowhere.”
“Another mystery solved.” Ogadi chimed in, “Julius, you should quit now. We're not going to let you resurrect Dike Aru.”
Julius was so shocked by Ogadi's brave words that he dropped the staff he was inscribing with and gave the two of them the full force of his glare.
“Oh,” He chuckled, “Remember you've been trying to stop me for a while now and look how well that's gone for you. What makes you think this will be any different?”
Ogadi and Phillip were dumbfounded by Julius' taunts and before they could recover, a voice replied from behind them, “Because we're all here.”
* * *
Ogadi saw Julius' eyes widen and wheeled about to see Ezinne, Udodi, Akunna and Ihunanya looking fierce and regal in their white wrappers. Ejike stood beside them, looking every inch as annoyed as they were.
Ogadi gave a squeal of joy when she made out two demons standing with them. She recognized the smaller one as Nwata. The larger one, she couldn't place.
“Julius, how could you do this?” Ejike queried, “It was you I saw in the mall, the old man who was buying a ticket to see a movie.”
“You question me, after all the atrocities you committed?” Julius replied, his voice rising over the still-raging pandemonium of people running helter-skelter.
Ejike took a deep breath, “Yes, I won't deny committing those atrocities but I regret them and I'm trying my best to atone for them. Do you know why?”
Before Julius could reply, Ejike carried on, “Because I thought that was what you would do if you were in my shoes. You were such a wholesome person, whatever happened to you?”
“Whatever happened to me?” Julius yelled, his neck cording with rage, “You don't to get to pretend like you don't know what happened to me. After you killed the governor's son, I got thrown into a police cell.”
“Oh my God!” Ejike exclaimed, “I didn't know.”
“Liar!” Julius accused, “You knew. You still had enough connections to secure yourself release from police detention but a nobody like me, no one, not even you came to secure my release. I was held in a cell, without charge and bail. I was held with animals.”
He shook his head as if to clear out memories and continued, “You don't want to know what those men did to me. I cried out to the policemen for help and do you know what they did? They laughed.
I suffered a lot of injuries that the police were forced to release me lest I die in their custody. The trauma of what I suffered in that cell made my hair grey prematurely.”
When Julius was through, Ejike's eyes were glistening with unshed tears, “I'm sorry you had to go through all that. I wish I had known, I wish I reached out to you earlier. I know you're angry at me, and you have a right to be but this is not the way to get your revenge. I don't know what you've been promised but please don't resurrect Dike Aru, he's bad news.”
Julius sneered in response, “You think this about you? That I want revenge? I see you're still a narcissist.”
“And I see you're still gullible if you actually believe you'll gain anything from resurrecting Dike Aru.” Ejike retorted, “I've tried to convince you to stop but you won't listen. Just know we're ready to stop you by any means possible.”
“The same applies to me,” Julius grinned maniacally. He knelt on one knee and touched the ground, mouthing the word "kulie," which meant arise.
Before Ogadi and the rest of them could blink, hordes of demons rose up from the ground, their wraith-like forms flying into the nearest human hosts they could find. People on their way out suddenly turned around and began to “I'm done being distracted by you buffoons.” Julius announced. To the demons, he roared, “Attack them!”
Immediately, the concert attendees who were possessed jumped on the eight of them.
Julius gave them one last smirk before he took up the staff he'd dropped and continued his inscriptions on the ground.
* * *
As soon as the Gate Keepers saw the feral eyes of the demon-possessed humans who charged at them, they began to murmur incantations banishing the demons back to the underworld although for every demon banished, five more rose to take their places.
* * *
Meanwhile, Ekere and Nwata tried their best to prevent demons from possessing innocent humans by cornering them and destroying their life forces before they could get their hooks on hosts.
Nwata shoved a demon into Ekere's direction and Ekere touched her on her forehead. A second later, the demon disintegrated into mist with a pain-filled shriek.
Ogadi could not believe her eyes.
“What did you just do?” She queried them.
“Nwata and I here have been preparing for this battle. We trained ourselves so we could be of help.” Ekere replied proudly.
“That's great.” Ogadi said as she cast out a demon from a girl wearing a crop top and ripped sweat pants, “And I thought I'd lost you, Nwata.”
“Not at all. I just took him with me. I came around to your neighborhood one day to see how things were going with the amulet and I saw him. I decided to train him so he could be useful in times like these.” Ekere explained.
Ogadi nodded, “How wise of—”
She was stopped from completing her statement by two possessed men who looked like they lifted weights for a living. They jumped on her and had her flat on her stomach on the ground.
Before she could banish the demons inhabiting them, one of them clamped a meaty hand over her mouth.
* * *
Ejike looked round and to his consternation, he saw his friends getting their asses handed to them by the demons.
Already, Phillip and Ogadi were effectively restrained by demons and the women looked exhausted and ready to drop from the exertion of chanting incantations and exorcising demons.
“This is futile,” Ejike mused, “At this rate, we'll never be able to stop Julius.”
Suddenly, the earth shook violently and the inscriptions which Julius had drawn on the ground began to illuminate.
Julius laughed out loud and raised his hands into the air, “Yes! It's working! Both my master and Dike Aru will be immensely pleased with me!”
The ground began to crack and open up, huge chunks of the earth falling in to form a huge hole which was filled with a reddish-golden hue.
Ejike didn't anyone to tell him that Julius had just opened the underworld. At that moment, he made up his mind on what to do.
* * *
Dike Aru stared at his large hands as they trembled and shook his head. He knew a being as mighty as he wasn't supposed to feel anxious or jittery as such feeble emotions were for humans, but he'd waited thousands of years for the moment he was about to witness.
He smiled in anticipation of what he would do when he was finally up to the surface world again. He'd had enough time to fantasize about all the punishments he'd mete out on each and every one of the foolish humans.
When the underworld shook, and some of the barriers shielding it from the earth began to disintegrate, Dike Aru let out a whoop of joy.
From his throne, he was able to catch a view of the human world. The nighttime was as beautiful as he remembered.
He was so close to taking the earth and when he did, his next step which he was attacking the gods in heaven would be in his grasp.
Dike Aru inhaled and exhaled as he waited for the gate forming to become wider.
* * *
Ejike looked at the person nearest to him, who happened to be Ogadi and without thinking, attacked one of her assailants.
The beefy man got an angry look in his eyes as he snarled at Ejike, saliva dripping from his mouth all the while.
He took a swing at Ejike and missed not because Ejike ducked but probably because the demon within the man did not have the body fully under his control.
Ejike realized this and retaliated with his own punch, which caught the man right in the jaw.
The man staggered back but didn't as much as exhale in pain.
Meanwhile, red hot pain spread throughout Ejike's hand as he tried to flex it. He ignored it and lashed out at the man again, this time with a kick. He aimed for the man's groin and swung his foot as hard as he could.
The man was prudent enough to shift so the kick landed on his thigh instead. Again, it was Ejike who suffered more pain as his feet become numb from the intensity of its contact with the man's leg.
The man smiled, “You...die...now.” Then he began to stalk Ejike intimidatingly with his arms outstretched, intent on getting his hands on Ejike's neck and squeezing until his windpipe was crushed.
Ejike began to sweat profusely as he sought an escape route. If he died at the hands of the strongman, there was no way he would complete his plan.
* * *
When Ejike first attacked one of Ogadi's captives, she thought he'd run mad. Then, when one of them completely left her to fight him, it dawned on her what he was trying to do.
Ejike was trying to distract the men so she could free herself. For some reason, he'd thought her to be the best person to render help to first.
Ogadi didn't question his motives and after a few seconds she decided on what to do. She forcefully sank her teeth into the hardened palm that was restricting her from speaking and latched on with all her strength.
The man was so surprised he immediately dropped his hand, giving Ogadi the freedom to start incanting.
Realizing his mistake, the man tried to cover her mouth again, but Ogadi reared her head back and continued her chant, speaking as fast as she could.
The man gave Ogadi a punch to the side of her head to disorient her. Ogadi gritted her teeth and willed herself not to black out from the immense pain that buffeted her head.
The man drew his fist back to follow his punch up with another one and stopped midway and grimaced.
The next moment, he released Ogadi as though she were a hot poker and began to scream, clawing at his face.
“Return to the underworld and never return.” Ogadi muttered slowly, her head still hurting from the blow she had received.
Willing herself not to faint, she rose to her full height and staggered to where Ejike who was about to have the life snuffed out of him was, and without much ado, she placed her hand on his attacker's back and incanted, successfully driving the demon away.
When she was through, she fell tiredly.