Age of Sango(Naija Demigods Chronicles #1)

Kolawole and the Gatekeeper of the Cemetery

“You may be the spirit of death, Iku, but I am the gatekeeper of the cemetery” Oya announce coolly as a cadre of cadavers wielding different assortments of weapons marched forward.

The stench of death and formalin attached Kola’s nostrils nauseating him so he turns his head to the side and spit out a copious amount of saliva.

“Not to sound ungrateful Yemisi, but where have you been?” Kola asked sounding ungrateful.

“Is it not obvious? I had to rob a mortuary.” She said to him.

Kola looked like he had eaten something bad for lunch.

On seeing his expression, she asked
“What?!”

He shook his head

“I’ll return the bodies back to the funeral home back in one piece. Hopefully.”

“I’m glad you are here now” said Omítọ̀nàdé “Oba Sango and I were getting our behind handed to us.”

“No we weren’t”

A bolt of black lightning in their direction ended their chatter as they dispersed. The energy found its way to a reanimated corpse which toppled like an unsteady stack of blocks. The undead mechanically stood back up.

Oya gave a victorious laugh “What’s dead cannot be killed again.”

The words had barely left her mouth when Iku suddenly appeared in front of her. He struck out with his hammer which she deflected with her sword however unsteadily. They connected again and again, sending showers of sparks flying, each clash resounding loudly. Iku seemed to be gaining the upper hand so Oya expelled a searing conflagration of fire from her mouth causing Death to bound backwards out of range.

The army of the dead then lurch forward with surprising swiftness for their stiff joints and swarmed Iku trying to extract his hammer from his limb. He blasted them all away with a powerful energy wave sending them flying.

Enraged, Iku raced for Oya but was intercepted halfway by oshe which flew right past in front of him.

“Don’t you ignore me” Kola seethed, righteous anger flashing through him.

“Okay” Iku said giving him a spiteful glower. “I’ll deal with you first.”

He vanished and reappeared behind Kola blindsiding him. He was about to cave in Kola’s skull with his hammer when a beam of brilliant white energy Omítọ̀nàdé discharged sent him a little distance away.

“Now this is not a fair fight” Iku said all standing up all semblance of playfulness leaving his countenance.

“Let me even the odds”

He started chanting fast in Yoruba.
Inky darkness began to pool around him giving shape to a small army of ajagon. They seemed a different breed from the ones kola had encountered before. Some of the demons walked on two legs, some four, some eight. Several were snakelike, several were birdlike. A few had multiple heads, a few had multiple faces, some had multiple hands. They all bore weapons.

All hell broke loose as Iku sicced his evil spirits on Kola and Omítọ̀nàdé, choosing to handle Oya by himself. Oya commanded her undead soldiers to protect Kola and Omítọ̀nàdé.

Iku strolled towards Oya.

“Now it’s just you and me sweetheart”

“Death versus the gatekeeper of the cemetery. . apt.”

Oya waved her irukere and muttered a spell— afẹfẹ ṣe aabo fun mi— which created a whirlwind around her. The powerful wind rotated rapidly around her in a more or less vertical axis, advancing simultaneously as she did towards Iku. The spirit of death took several steps away from his incoming foe and winked out of existence becoming invisible.

“You can’t fight what you cannot see” His laughter echoing around the space.

A beam of black lightening came at her from the east. She barely avoided it.

“Sango!!!” Oya yelled. “Play your bata drum.”

Kola unshoulder his small bata drum which became considerably larger. He began to play a beat on it whilst chanting instinctively thereby summoning a storm.

Omítọ̀nàdé covered Kola, defending his from any assault while he focused on the storm. Together, Kola and Yemisi generated a very powerful storm.

The atmosphere was violent with thunder, lightning, a hurricane force wind and a torrential downpour.

When the ground was adequately saturated and muddy, Oya used the winds to disperse mud around the area. The dirt landed on everyone including the Iku.

Oya spotted the spirit of death a few behind her as the mixture of water and soil settled on his hidden form. She dealt him a powerful blow with her blade which he deflected becoming visible. As they struck at each other, Oya attempted a disarming manoeuvre Ogun had once showed her against an opponent carry a weapon too large to be wielded adequately with a single hand. The technique worked. Death lost his hold on his hammer and it flew out of his hand.

Iku scrambled for his hammer. On seeing the unhanded hammer Kola raced for it as well, but he was much too far from it. He had a zero percent chance of getting to it before Iku caught it back. Though the odds were not in his favour, Kola willed his body to move faster than humanly possible. He squeezed on to oshe tightly as if filling it with his wishes.

And Kola did the impossible.

He had the Hammer of Death in his hand in a jiffy. Immediately, the ajagons in the clearing dissipated. Kola had teleported somehow. He was so surprised at his good fortune that his grip on the hammer was loose and Iku snatched it away from him.
Iku was about to teleport away when Omítọ̀nàdé struck him so hard on his head with her staff that it bent and Kola reclaimed the hammer. This time his grip on the hammer was iron. 

“Nooooooooooooooooo” Iku shouted acting like he felt unimaginable pain. “Please give me back my hammer.”

Death looked pathetic as he grovelled at Kola’s feet.

“No!” Kola growled “You were charged by Eledumare to take those whose time has come, instead you have been taking people anytime it pleases you especially children."

“Little ones Iku, babies”

“If people don’t die… If people do not die…”

“If people don’t die what will happen Iku. Human life is not a toy for you to play with as it pleases you especially children.”

Desperate, the spirit of death said “Please hand me my hammer. I will do anything you want"

“I will return your hammer on the condition that you swear to never take children before their time and stop the random mysterious deaths.”

“I can’t” Iku said “What I can promise to reduce the number of infant deaths to the barest minimum and the random death to about 90 percent.”

Kola refused to accept Iku’s conditions.

“Kola,” Oya said “That’s as good as we’re going to get. Let him have the hammer.”

“No way”

“The more you hold it, people will start noticing that those whose appointed time has come are not dying. People have to die for there to be balance on aye. It’s the way things should be.”

“Fine!”

Kola conceded and handed the hammer over to Iku which he cradled like an infant. Giving Kola a venous glare, he said “I hope your time comes soon.” As he vanished.
Kola let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“I’ll say that’s a job well done.” Omítọ̀nàdé said patting him on his back.

Kola beamed. He felt fulfilment.

The next morning, Omítọ̀nàdé met Kola sitting outside on a stool, enjoying the warmth of the morning sun on his face. She handed him her mobile phone.

“Read the news on the screen” She commanded.

Kola read. It was the lindaikeji blog site.
It read
Lightning Kills Cows in Ondo State
No fewer than 30 Cattles belonging to three Fulani herdsmen were struck dead by lightning in the Oke Awo bush, Ondo State. The herdsmen reported that the lightning was caused by a man and a woman. That there was lights all over. Doctors think their fear caused the hallucination.
A source said that the herdsmen took their Cattles there, which by tradition is sacred land and only the Oba is permitted to enter.

Thankfully, no herder was killed…

A wide smile broke out across Kola’s face as he looked at Omítọ̀nàdé “We made the news.”

“We’ll have to be more careful next time Oba Sango.”

“Alright.”