The White Chronicle

Chapter 24 - Rion Rayong

In the middle chaos of the aswang and the other creatures fending off the frenzy attacks of this new breed of manananggal, time crawls to a halt as Juan dives into the mind of this evil. Juan cannot see anything but darkness. He feels heavy water pulling him from side to side as he hears cries of babes and swords clashing fill the void. Then a flash of images fills the empty void, sword lodge on a stone, giant lizards whose size grows beyond the tallest trees in Antrian, dragons that fly over the heavens above and a lot of images of fire and smoke fills the empty void.

Juan can feel the pull of these memories but he needs to concentrate and find the consciousness of Rayong and separate their connection from the anito. Juan believes that if he can split their bond, then the Bakunawa's control should also weaken the mananaggal power.

After what Juan felt like an eternity falling into a pool of darkness with memories he finally lands on a flat surface where the memories of Rayong fly about like flags waving with their memories of voices echoes in the eternal void.

Juan looks around and cannot find Rayong here. Juan summons his sword and etches a runic symbol on the platform an emergency exit if he needs a quick getaway. Juan knows this all too well: whenever he read minds of people, like when he tries to read the mind of Jasmine when they first meet, Juan always etches a runic symbol on the center of their mindscape so he won't get lost.

Juan then looks over the horizon and sees flags of memories. Tall waving structures taunt him to go inside. Thou he is a curious man, he will need to act quickly as can only spare so much magic. Juan sees a large cloud hovering over a flag where it shows a kid playing with three more by the meadows.

"Ah, there you are." He whispers as he deduces the cloud by the flag is the anito and the consciousness of Rayong is hiding over that memory. Juan runs toward the flag and leaps into it. It felt like he slams his body into a pool of water and came out on the other side on a picture picturesque meadow of yellow sunflowers and tall grass. There Juan cannot do anything but watch as he is reliving the memories of Rayong younger day.

"Hey Baldy!" a kid called Rayong. Rayong turns and he closed his fist ready to fight back but he sees five more kids backing up the bully. The bully keeps railing on him. Rayong knows he shouldn't fight as his parents taught him not to but his friends always remind him that there will be a time that no one can save him, he needs to learn to stand up.

"I knew that Baldy won't fight back! His courage is like his hair, dead!" The bully and his friends laugh but Rayong cannot take it anymore. Rayong charges forward and delivers and mean left hook, punching a tooth off the bully. The other kids then pilled on Rayong. He puts up a decent fight by dodging and weaving their attacks but 10 arms flying is not a fair fight against one.

He is backed in a tree, tired and out of breath. The bully stands up and spit off the blood from his cheek. "You done it, Baldy! Let's see if you can escape this time!" the bully was about to deliver their punch but then a girl delivered a dropkick onto the bully's chest. "HEADS UP!" Another voice yells from behind the tree. Two more kids appear and they pushed the other kids away from Rayong. One kid got with the brown autumn curly hair and the other one with the golden locks of blond.

The dark-haired girl pulled Rayong up and the other two kids returned to their side. "And this is how you welcome a new kid on our block? What a bunch of losers!" The girl said.

"Lancelot, let's take two kids at a time. Then let Morgana and the kid take the last two" The kid with the brown hair said.

"I can even take on three they look weaker than the new kid." Lancelot smirks. The bullies helped up their leader up. "Get them and make sure we let them know no commoners are allowed here!"