Blood of the Aswangs

Chapter 28: Usog vs. Kulam

"Here..." said Promethean Jedan, offering the group a USB drive. "Don't worry. I made copies."

"What's in it?" asked Anna.

"It's a drive holding the truth..."

Meanwhile...

Aurora, with Miguel behind her being ushered by a couple of demon guards, places a drop of Aswang blood in the World Forge. Suddenly, the entire planet activates with machines and gears moving. Chimneys everywhere proceed to make smoke. "There... That is the power of your blood..."

Miguel's eyes quiver, staring at the Splooge she created simply with a drop of his blood.

"This will equate to twenty years of power. But with your blood... The Splooge could theoretically be replicated over and over."

"Why not just clone us? Even... though... that's unethical."

"I did. Barely powered half of my worlds. But your blood can solve the crisis! AND THE WORLD'S COULD FINALLY RESPECT THEIR LEADER!!!"

Miguel tilts his head. "You want to be respected as well?"

"Oh, Miguel... Miguel, Miguel, Miguel... Sweet Prince..." Aurora shook her head each word before she grabbed him by the collar. "OF COURSE!!! The only things that are more precious than Splooge is time... and RRRRRRESPECT!!!"

"But Aurora. You can't just make them respect you by being nothing but an aggro jerk! That's not asking for respect! That's placing fear in the hearts of people! You can't use fear to usher respect!"

"Like what you did with Tyrone?"

Miguel's eyes quiver. "I didn't-!"

"Didn't what? Acquire more power to gain respect? Use arrogance to gain more power?"

"Prometheus said that Usog requires respect and humility."

"That's the thing, Miguel. You tapped into a different power..." 

Suddenly, Aurora, Miguel, and the guards are in space.

Aurora presents to him the Omniverse with a bright light above it and darkness beneath. "This... This is the Omniverse. It is made of a collection of Super-Multiverses each attached to one intersected moment in history.
Mine is an artificial Super-Multiverse I gathered from this area right here..." she points to the darkness below. "Hell. Hell conquered a Super-Multiverse I call the Devilish Worlds. Prometheus' world... your world... is just one of many. And our worlds share a certain form of magic. Usog, right? But it's a mistake to think Usog is one thing. Usog gives you the ability to manipulate phenomenon thru visualization and glances while remaining humble. You don't only gain power thru that. You can gain a more wild and pervasive power with your arrogance and ego. This is the power of Kulam." She warps out her version of Prometheus' bubbles, but these are red in color. "Kulam allows you to conquer... manipulate control..."

She continues on to explain it to Miguel...

Usog was first studied by ancient Usog-Users in the Cordilleras of the Philippines and in Ilocos, practicing magic that gives respect to the spirits of nature known as Engkantos. This group of peopler were originally healers known as Shamans, only using it for battle during the Spanish Colonization. Usog was used for thousands of years for healing, but soon, around 500 years ago, Shamans made deals with the spirits known as Engkantos to control nature thru glances to rebel against the Spanish in secret. They continued battling them until their near defeat only for the mock battle between America and Spain to occur leading to the American colonization times when the United States reigned supreme over the Philippines, where they rebelled in secret and forcing the United States to abandon it partially during the Japanese Occupation. Usog-Users would nearly win once more only for the Americans to defeat the Japanese at the last minute and give the Philippines independence. Today, Usog is kept secret and prayers and meditation are used to strengthen one's connection to the force.

Usog is not celebrated, however, because it was kept secret. Heroes in the past time such as Bonifacio, the Lunas, Goyo, and even Rizal were users of this tremendous power. There were hundreds of secret societies, one being known as the Modernong Katipunan, a society Prometheus built from pieces of the Philippine KKK (Kataataasang Kagalangalangan Katipunan/The Most High and Honored Society, the Pinoy one, not the other bad American one).

Kulam. Kulam comes from the Tagalog word for "black magic". It is essentially the opposite of Usog. Kulam represents one's anger, ego, and arrogance, boosting their power thru self-love. Some practices of Kulam includes killing life in order to become more powerful. The sadism empowers the individual to such alignment, making them more powerful. This makes them evil and makes them reject humanity in order to become more powerful, essentially using their ability to inflict pain in others to make themselves more powerful. There are several cults of witches and warlocks all over the Philippines in rural areas.

Kulam originated from, ironically, Spanish friars, who wanted to vanquish the Philippine rebels but ended up making a deal with Demons instead of Engkantos (who defended the Filipinos) in order to become more powerful. These friars used their powers for evil purposes such as villainous acts of rape to Philippine women and killing entire villages.

One race of demon in the Philippines became particularly powerful with Kulam. These are the Aswangs. They are a race of demon who feasts on the unborn children of mothers using their forked tongue, eats livers, and eats young children at the night. However, they learned that by becoming stronger, they can eat larger prey. Aswangs, you see, are the most proud race of demons because of their deadliness and their violent tendencies, being known as a ruthless race of conquerors who had ruled over the islands far longer than the Spanish ever did, even continuing their rule as criminal families before and political dynasties in modern times.

Miguel's eyes quiver. "Aswangs are normally proud?"

"Precisely," said Aurora. "Aswangs are a race of malevolent demons. MY demons... That's why farming them was only one of their purposes to exist. Aswangs are known to be proud, however. And incredibly arrogant. You're a warrior race who eat people and obsessively conquer islands for a living. Datus did praise one ruler... The Aswang King."

"He's real?"

"Oh, yes..." said Aurora. "The Aswang King discovered the secrets to Multiversal travel and ruled over several alters of the Philippine islands... Allowing the Spanish to exist in his land. He existed as the oldest political dynasty in the Philippines and the deadliest on at that. Even killed your mentor's wife since he stood in his way."

Miguel's eyes quiver. "That's why he used to hate me..." Miguel's lips quiver. His eyes has guilt written all over it. He felt that, being an Aswang Hybrid himself, was somewhat at fault here. He also felt horrible, realizing his insensitivity to the Reaper just by constantly being around him. He felt at fault. Hurt. Angry, even. He was, however, incredibly sorry, that the king of his own race would do such a thing. That a disgusting heathen like he is was included in the same race as a punch of child-eaters.

"Hm... Hmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhm..." Aurora kicks Miguel down and he falls to the ground. His nose turns bloody. Aurora grabs him by the hair. "Start... MEDITATING!!! Become more powerful. I want that blood POTENT!!! You've got 12 hours! If not, I'll start beating you myself..." she sneered. "Go on..." she smirked.

Meanwhile...

The CoolDudeBus begins entering Main World, but, strangely enough, an entire fleet of other flying buses follow, and within them are the students of SLRU. Flying by are thousands of heroes of different color. A bow and arrow guy. Insect-themed heroes. Animal-themed heroes. Actual Animal heroes. Guys on a wheelchair. Psychics. Super-skilled cool guys. Ubermen. And many more.