Curse Of The Aswangs (The Vasquez Brothers #1)[COMPLETED]

15: ZADE

The magic shop held large numbers of artifacts and magical books that I hadn't seen, and had me gaping on how tall it was. The space was not vast enough to contain but it was a trick of an eye, the bookshelf seemed taller reaching more than fifty feet high. There were books that were chained or had been wrapped by thorns.

"How can you have the sight?" I asked.
"You were born with a sight." Dylan said.
"My mother was a witch. She adopted me at a very young age because she wanted me to look after the magic shop. Your father and I were friends since elementary." Jose eyes switched to Ash after putting one book on the bookshelf. "And I was glad that I wasn't the only person who could see faeries, demons and aswangs. Lando knew what I was and I knew what he was. I helped him get through and Jessica to fight them. We even defeated Leviathan, the great deceiver, the king of snakes."

"Did you kill him?" I assumed.

"No, Upper-level demons are hard to kill." Jose shook his head. "But we surely sent him back to hell."

"That's a cute story." I remarked.

"Your powers being activated is what I fear most." Jose looked at Ash, with almost a sad eyes.

I clacked my teeth in response as I patted Dylan's shoulder."It's a good thing our faerie friend helped us."

Jose clenched his jaw as probably, a memory of our parents flashed before him. We sat down on the square table. Ash and Dylan just stood. "Your parents only wanted the best for you. Jessica, specifically, wanted you three to have a normal life. She didn't want you get involve with their business." Jose said. "After Lando died, she was devastated and did everything to keep you away from being a witcher. So, she cast a spell that could block you from seeing the supernatural world and from activating your powers. The spell itself was complicated, that was why she needed to perform it every year."

Ash, who was leaning against the bookshelf said. "And my theory is that the Grimoire activated it."
"Correct."
"Why are the aswangs coming after us? My only solution was to run away." With the slightest twitch of Ash's lip, he turned to look out the window.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." said Jose. "You, Jasper, and Zade needs more training. Your magical abilities are no joke."

Ash shot me an accused look. I shrugged innocently.
"They are after one important artifact." Jose lifted a finger.
I knitted my eyebrows together.

A flare of irritation washed over Ash's face. "Why is mom so afraid of us being witchers?"

"She has a reason."

"She kept a lot of secrets from us. We couldn't accept the situation right away."

"Mom didn't want us to be witchers. I get it." I was shaking my head and I didn't want them to argue.I looked over at Jose. I braced myself on the back of the high chair. "Why?"

"There's an artifact that holds an ancient magic far more superior than the current ones." He met my eyes. "The Devil's Scroll." Dread churned in my stomach. " It is a scroll created by the demon, Armos and gave it to the first aswang. It has a very purpose; it has one powerful spell that could open a portal to hell and control demons. But in exchange the user becomes insatiably corrupt."

My skin prickled with fear. "And where is this scroll?" asked Ash, his face was unreadable.

"It was stolen by Frederic Juanico, the first witcher and was guarded by the Witcher's council for over three decades. Until the manila aswang clan raided the Witcher Headquarters in 1965, where they kept the Artifacts, Juan Balderomo decided to take the The Devil's Scroll and brought it to Nueva Bonifacio."

"Balderomo?" I asked. "You mean mom's older brother."
"Indeed" Jose confirmed. "Jessica kept it hidden from the rest of the world. But this is just a town with eyes and ears wide open. 10 years ago, news of the Devil's Scroll circulated and there's an aswang that is more interested in this."

Squinting, Dylan leaned forward. "Who?"

"Enrique Virgilio. Master of the Beasts, the Rogue One, the cunning leader of the Nueva Bonifacio aswang clan. He has grown to have the curse of ghoulish features." said Jose. His eyes averted to Dylan. "How much do you know about Enrique?"

"Not much. You know the tales of The Master better than I do." Dylan answered as he stood straight.

"That's lame." I commented. "A rogue aswang?"

"Don't be foolish, Zade." Jose's quivering hand reached the crystal ball on the shelf. As if the very presence of that aswang was here in this room. "Enrique was once one of the most powerful aswangs in the Philippines. He runs the crime underworld alongside two more. He is a brutal fighter that held his loyalty to the aswangs. That's what I've heard from warlocks."

"What happened? Why did he went rogue?" Ash asked.

"However, it was broken when he found out two other Lords were known for the cruel treatment of the other aswangs. So, Enrique formed his own alliance and he claims to have killed 50 Witchers and his followers who sees him as a savior. He also despise the Witchers for killing his entire family who were mistaken as aswangs when he was a human. Now, your mom knew that he was after the Devil's scroll. I don't know where she hid it. After she died. Enrique was enraged."

"That's why they're after us." I frowned, thinking hard where would it be.

"But we don't have it." Ash said. "Mom didn't give us any clues where we might find the Devil's Scroll."

"We have to work together to look for it." Jose said. "And I had a strong feeling you three could locate the scroll."
"Great, throwing responsibilities we don't know of." I shifted on my seat. After so many hours on dwelling over this secret, I was too burden by what Jose was saying. I wanted to take a rest but it felt like the world was not a safe place for us.

Being a Witcher might be cool and all, but the burden was heavy. "If we will not save this town, we cannot save the world." Jose added.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Because your mom and I have encountered Enrique 4 months ago prior the last fight. The reason why he wanted the scroll so badly is because his goal is to dominate and overpower everyone by opening the portals of Hell."

"And control the demons." Ash said, realizing the weight of this mission.
"Let's get in going then." I said brightly which earned me some glares from Ash and Dylan.

"Follow me." Jose said. We rose and strolled into a narrow hallway. There was a mahogany door at the end.

"I bet our first classes are stuff like how to slay an aswang by putting a lot of garlic in dinugo-an and offer it to them." I said to Ash.
"Very funny, Z." Dylan said.

"I just know a little conjuration and scrying. And, I've got an intel from an aswang before I cut his hand off." Jose mentioned. "I have to go searching in the woods tonight and gather gossip from the faeries or ghost. You guys must investigate the Armando Mansion in the outskirts of Barotac Nuevo. You might find something valuable in there. Then we will go by the Nueva Shrine next."

"We're not prepared yet, Tito Jose." I said dubiously. "We might be an aswang food if we're not equipped."

Jose swung the door open, and we entered another room with a lot of religious artifacts. Crosses on the walls, statue of angels, and there were rows of stakes, stingray tails and swords. Jose pointed out to the rows of weapons. "You already are."

"Well, we're going to use our magic very soon." Ash wandered over the table filled with various weapons. " but I wouldn't send my brothers to investigate."

"This is your destiny, Ash." Jose said. "You three are born to become a mandirigma. This is your duty."

"Dude, chill." Dylan put a hand over Ash's shoulder. "Just try to investigate, will you?"

Jose wrapped his hand around the hilt of the sword and raised it. "This is a Witcher blade. They are made from a rare heavenly metal, anitos. Forged by the Blacksmiths in Capiz."

"Blacksmiths? You mean there are humans who make weapons for us?"

"No." said Jose. "They are witchers who resigned and dedicated their lives to make weapons."

"It's efficient to kill an aswang and a demon." Dylan added, studying the blade itself. "Faerie swords are different from witchers. They were blessed by the king's magic. For good luck in battle."

"Fine, I changed my mind." He grabbed one of the sword and I was struck with awesomeness. I felt like my older brother was born to hold a sword. "This will be interesting."