Chapter Seven

 Desolation of Orunmila

Timi started swinging the moment the creatures began to attack. Bursts, and intermittently short floods, of fire blasted from Johnny’s hands, and tens of monkey-like creatures caught on fire. But there were simply too many creatures to blast with fire. They were overwhelmed and overpowered within seconds.

Timi’s weapon was knocked out of his hands, while Johnny’s hands were pinned against his back. He couldn’t blast fire without scorching his own body, or so he thought. He wasn’t about to experiment.

They were tied tightly with ropes, and then they were led into the clearing.

From afar, the clearing looked like a local shrine. It was a small annular space within the thick, dark forest with an assortment of animal heads hanging from stakes in the ground. There were benches around and blood spilled in several places. It looked like a dreadful place, one that made Johnny’s heart to quake as they entered.

But the moment they entered the clearing, everything changed. It was as if they had stepped into a modern world. The first thing they noticed was that the small clearing had somehow expanded to the size of a wide ballroom. Rows of harsh fluorescent tubes above their heads flooded the area with light, gleaming against the mirror-polished tiles of the floor. Around the edge of the room, there was a translucent material that sort of sheathed the space from the forest beyond. It was some form of supernatural manifestation.

Dazed by the sudden change, Johnny and Timi staggered, trying to come to a stop so they could regain their sense of scale. However, their captors pushed them forward. All around the room, there were plush sofas and couches. Humanoid creatures; predator animals, like lions, tigers, and cheetahs lazed about. Some lay on couches, others lay on the ground. While yet, others patrolled the space as though they were stretching their legs.

To one end was a unique piece of machinery. It had two bulky parts separated by a space of about seven meters. These two parts were connected by a buzzing, sizzling flood of light. From this light, monkey like creatures materialized and dispersed into the surrounding forest. Emblazoned on the side of the machine was the name of the manufacturer: CONNECT FIRE Inc. Then, below was their motto: connecting Hell and the Ether to Earth since the fall of Adam…

“Is that…” Johnny began to say.

“That’s the latest in rift-making technology!” said an excited lady from behind.

They spun around to see a tall, well-shaped damsel shimmer into existence. Every living creature in the room gazed upon the lady’s beauty, murmuring in awe, and the lady seemed to revel in their worship.

She had piercing almond eyes, ebony skin that shimmered in the flood of light above, and strong and powerful legs that looked like they could support a tall building. She wore traditional Yoruba attire that covered her chest and waist-to-thigh region, leaving most of her body exposed.

“Bought it off of deity-bay some months back,” the lady went on, ignoring the dazed look that Johnny no doubt knew he and Timi were giving her. “According to the manufacturers, it can sustain a rift for hours without replenishing! Awesome, right?”

Without waiting for their response, she walked right passed them and the host of monkey creatures that held them bound to her machine. She beamed at it with pride.

“You’re Orunmila?” Johnny blurted.

The goddess turned and looked at him as though she was just seeing him for the first time. “Who’s asking,” she said.

“Don’t you already know who we are? Weren’t you the one that spoke to us in the woods as we approached?” Timi asked.

The goddess smiled. “Oh, that’s my automated fear producing system. I bought it at the Palms Shopping Mall for seven hundred thousand naira. Pretty cool, huh?” She winked her eyebrow, and the boys nodded instinctively.

Then she frowned. “So who are you again, and what do you want with Orunmila?”

Before any of them could speak, one of the monkey creatures said in a throaty, inhuman voice, “Trespassers, O great Orunmila. They are Descendants of the Patriarchs. We caught them sneaking up on the shrine with weapons. One is from Solomon, the other is from Elijah.”

A twinkle appeared in the goddess’s eye. Her phone rang before she could speak, and she pulled out an iPhone from her attire and answered the call. It lasted for about twenty minutes and it seemed to be a call from a representative of Ogun Metal Works Industries, the holding company of CONNECT FIRE Inc. From the conversation, the representative wanted to find out if Orunmila was having any problems with the machine.

Orunmila replied negative and then went on about how great the machine was. How that she had three major entities and bunches of monkey like creatures through the rift without the rift collapsing on itself. The call ended some moments later and the goddess looked at them with a satisfying grin.

“Elijah, you say?” Orunmila said after a while.

The monkey creature nodded.

“Is this true?” asked the goddess. She didn’t seem angered by the fact. She looked as if it was merely a nuisance.

Timi said, “Well, yes.”

Johnny almost sank into the ground. Why would he admit to that?

“We are here to close the rift, so we can stop Sagnarok before he triggers the blood moons and bring destruction to this city and the rest world of men,” Timi said.

The moment Timi said that, there was a whisper of surprise which was followed by a shocking silence. All heads turned to Orunmila, who now seemed so uncertain she was about to dash out of her skin.

Her features turned dark, the lighting dimming with it. “You lie,” she throated in a voice that could have put the fear of God in the creatures of the abyss.

“No!” Timi began, but was cut short by Orunmila.

“I say, YOU LIE!” she roared and the earth trembled vehemently. In a softer, but sterner and angry voice she said to Timi, “The Lieutenant from Hell had an agent here on earth—the one who wields the thunder. The boy told me that Sagnarok was coming to Earth to procure the latest high definition flat screen TV for his office in Hellquaters. That’s why they came.”

“Seriously?” Timi said, staring down the goddess. “And you fell for that load of lies?”

Johnny felt laughter burn its way to his lips. It came forth with a burst that rang through the space, piercing the silence that was tight in the room. “Dear ma, you have been deceived by a boy. Even I can’t fall for that trick…”

The word deceived spread through the attending host in whispers.

Orunmila roared in anger, shooting flames from her head and hands. She became translucent and glorious, her features turning darker and ghostly.

“She’s changing,” Timi warned, looking away from the goddess. “She’s going Nova.”

“Get out!” Orunmila yelled at the creatures around. They scampered from their positions and began vanishing into thin air. The monkey like creatures abandoned Timi and Johnny and dashed for the safety of the forest.

“It can’t be true,” the blinding white figure, hovering in the air, cried. “I am Orunmila, the god of Wisdom, Knowledge, and Divination. I cannot be deceived.”

“Looks like what happened,” Timi replied.

Orunmila let out a guttural wail and then in a rage of anger blasted fire on everything around, including the machine which exploded at once. In seconds, there was a furnace going in the room. The couches, sofa, and even the trees on the border of the room were on fire. And Orunmila was still flooding the area with the fires of her hate.

Johnny and Timi had been trying to get free of their binding since the fire started coming. They’d had no luck, and now it looked like they were going to perish by fire.

Johnny tried to get the goddess to calm down. “Look, I’m sure there’s plenty other gods who are deceived by boys.”

This was the statement that sent Orunmila over. Before she exploded in an incinerating blast of pure energy, she screamed: “I AM NO ORDINRY GOD. I AM THE POSSESSOR OF ALL KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM AND GATEWAY TO THE BEYOND!”

Johnny was sure he was going to die.

The signs were there. The goddess had begun to throb and just as she was finishing her last words, the blinding light she exuded had reached its maximum intensity. However, just before her last word, a fast, agile figure leaped into the smoky area, meandered her way through the pillars of fire and smoke in her path, until she got to them.

When she was at their side, she yelled, “Down!”

Timi and Johnny instinctively obeyed her. She threw herself over them and threw a cloth over their bodies.

Then they heard the explosion like a bomb blast. There was a wash of intense heat and an incredible flash of light. There were creeks and cracks of trees and hisses of steam. Following this was a profound deafening silence.

The girl pulled away. Timi helped Johnny to his feet, and together they gazed at the desolation of Orunmila. From where they were to a very long distance in all directions, all the trees had been turned to a very black variant of ash. It was like a black carpet had been used to cover the area.

Surprisingly, the cloth material had shielded them from the goddess.

Timi and Johnny both looked at the girl who had saved them at the same time. She was a beauty to behold. Immediately, Johnny concluded in his mind that Orunmila’s beauty paled compared to this girl’s. And she looked to be the same age with Johnny.

Johnny felt his heart skip as she brought her eyes from the destruction around her to bear on the two boys she had saved.

The moment Timi and her eyes met, recognition filled them both. Before Johnny knew it, they had both drawn out their swords and had it to each other’s throat.

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