Chapter Twenty
🌟 "The Beginning of the Legend"
In a city in Luzon, it is a normal day in the present time. People are busy with their respective tasks and livelihoods for the day. No one notices the crime taking place inside an establishment.
This building is a small bank where criminals have managed to subdue the guards and are currently robbing the interior of the bank. The glass windows serving as walls are covered, so passersby and motorists from outside cannot see what is happening inside.
Three armed men are mercilessly hurting the people inside to quickly compel them to collect the money. No one dares to fight back, not even the bank employees, who remain lying face down on the floor. They are terrified and begging for their lives.
At that moment, one man hands over bags of money taken from the bank's vault. One of the robbers quickly snatches it and tells his companions to carry it. The robber then kicks the male bank employee, causing him to fall to the floor, and ruthlessly shoots him, even though he was not resisting.
At this, people begin to panic, and the place is filled with screams. The area is soundproof, so people outside cannot hear the commotion inside.
The robbers become irritated by the noise made by the people inside and suddenly shoot a screaming woman in the head, using her as an example of what will happen if the noise continues.
At that moment, the terrified people have no choice but to cover the mouths of their companions who are wailing out of fear.
With the successful collection of the money bags, they decide to leave to escape the area. However, as they are running out, one of the robbers accidentally trips over the foot of a female bank teller.
He is angered by the tripping incident, which he assumes was intentional, and points his gun at the young woman. The terrified woman desperately begs for her life, explaining the mistake she made, but the man ignores her and shoots her. She collapses on the floor, and her blood slowly spreads.
At that same time, something falls from the air onto the top of the building. From there, Erik, in his Diwata form, walks toward the edge of that building.
His white hair flows due to the strength of the wind at that height, and he sighs as he observes the bank building where the crime is currently taking place inside.
He fearlessly jumps from the top of that 4th-floor building down to the street.
The three robbers exit the bank door exactly as Ifugao lands in front of them. They are surprised by the sudden appearance of a woman in front of them, enveloped in the blue energy covering her body.
"Wait, are you the one they call the Hero Ifugao?"
"It's too early. You're already ruining my day. You are the cancer of this society that must be eliminated," she says while bowing her head.
They can only stop their escape and panic. At that moment, they immediately point their guns at her and threaten to shoot if she interferes with their escape.
Ifugao ignores them and fearlessly stands up from her kneeling position.
At that moment, one of the robbers doesn't hesitate when she ignores them and ruthlessly shoots Ifugao in the head.
She steps back and shakes her head, feeling the impact of the bullet on her forehead, but she remains standing and silent.
The three are bewildered that the woman didn't fall to the ground from their shooting. A moment later, Ifugao faces them again and silently raises her forehead while staring at them. They notice that the woman has no head wound, which greatly alarms them.
In a panic, they shoot her again, but instead of dodging, Ifugao catches the second bullet with her hand.
"Impossible! What kind of demon are you?" one of them shouts.
At that moment, the three collaborate to shoot Ifugao with their guns until they run out of ammunition.
Although Ifugao steps backward with every bullet that hits her body, she remains standing. They do not stop shooting the young woman until they are completely out of bullets in their guns.
They are terrified when they realize that the bullets they fired have no effect, and she doesn't even have a scratch or a bruise on her body.
At that moment, Ifugao smiles at them, which terrifies the three. The three drop the guns they are holding and pull out the knives they have on their backs.
Ifugao then winds up and prepares to attack. Even though they are nervous about the extraordinary being blocking their way, they have no choice but to fight her to avoid being caught by the authorities.
"You have no right to take lives and take the property of other people."
She strikes one of them with lightning speed, causing him to immediately fly back and lose consciousness. Because of her action, money scatters on the street due to the bag carried by the fallen man being flung away.
His two companions are shocked by what happened to their comrade, and in a panic, they throw their knives and immediately run away.
"You plan to escape, huh? Do you think I'll let you get away?"
They quickly get into a red car that they intended to use for their getaway. The driver manages to start it and lets his companions get in. Once driving, they try to run over Ifugao, who is currently in front of them.
At that moment, Ifugao raises the fan she is holding and swings it down. It lights up, slowly elongates, and takes the shape of a spear with a curved sickle at the end. The young woman's eyes are fearless, even as she sees the speeding car about to hit her.
At that moment, she uses the spear to push off, giving her the force to jump.
"Oops..."
With her somersault, she manages to avoid the car hitting her. Although surprised and confused, the driver doesn't waste time turning back for Ifugao and drives the car straight to escape.
Ifugao shows no concern, even as she sees them speeding away. She immediately points her spear at the street, and it suddenly lights up. Its form slowly changes into a red rifle-sword. This is the same sword she used in the battle in Urdaneta.
As she aims it at the speeding car, she pulls the trigger, and it releases glowing energy that acts as bullets. The bullet from the rifle goes straight into the car's tires, puncturing them. The car loses balance and crashes into a pole.
The occupants are safe, but the driver loses consciousness due to the impact of the collision.
One of their companions comes out of the car, feeling dizzy, and even though he is injured from the crash, he still manages to run just to escape the area and avoid capture.
As he runs, Ifugao winds up to throw. Her sword lights up again and slowly changes into two Arnis sticks. At that moment, Ifugao throws one of the Arnis sticks, which goes straight to the running man, and from about thirty meters away, she manages to hit him in the head.
The man rolls onto the street and loses consciousness.
"Yeah, bullseye!" Ifugao is delighted with her action and praises her own skill in throwing.
"I didn't know you could use Arnis for throwing in a fight," she says, placing her hands on her hips.
A few minutes later, in the same city, people are in a commotion in front of a police station. The uniformed police officers are in a panic as Ifugao walks past them into the station building.
The young woman is dragging the robbers, who are tied with a black whip. Ifugao fearlessly proceeds to the precinct, even though she is surrounded by Spanish police. She goes straight to the desk and speaks to the officer on duty. "Delivery, Sir," she says, smiling.
The people there are speechless, shocked by the young woman's arrival at their station to drop off the captured criminals. She sees her wanted poster on the wall and just scratches her head.
Because of her action in stopping the Governor-General of Pangasinan, the government has labeled her a criminal and ordered her immediate capture.
But even though she is on the wanted list, none of the police officers in that building attempt to arrest her. Ifugao is unfazed by the previous attempts by the police to capture her, precisely because bullets and any other kind of attack have no effect on her.
"Hold on, Sir, I'm not here to cause trouble, and certainly not to be arrested. I just want to help the people in your city."
The station chief doesn't know what decision to make, seeing a government-wanted criminal right in front of him.
"I don't want trouble. I just brought them to your station, and now I'm leaving." Ifugao slowly steps away from the station and waves to the chief, smiling.
"You know, even if I order my men to arrest you, we can't fight someone like you, so you might as well just leave."
Ifugao is delighted by what she hears and thanks him. She then repeats that she is not an enemy of the people and desires nothing but peace and safety for everyone.
"Don't worry, as long as the law is on the side of justice, I will help protect you, whether you are Filipino or Spanish," she says, giving the chief an OK sign.
Afterward, she quickly runs out of the building, and as expected, no one stops her from leaving. She jumps with full force onto the roof of a house to run away from the area.
The police inside immediately move to lock up the three and let the events unfold.
A few hours later, Ifugao stops on top of a building. She is on the 4th-floor rooftop, observing the surroundings from there.
~ Erik PoV.
In the midst of my solitude in that place, someone suddenly appears and speaks beside her. The Diwata materialized next to me without any sound, like a ghost that just popped up.
"What are you thinking about?"
She immediately asks me because she sees that I seem to be feeling melancholic and thinking deeply while observing the surroundings.
I tell her that I failed to save people again. I was too late to arrive at the scene, which prevented me from saving the lives of the people inside the bank during the robbery.
I feel bad about myself because even though I had the ability to stop it, I failed. It's shameful to call myself a hero when I can't fulfill the role properly.
At that moment, the Diwata doesn't seem to sympathize with what I'm saying, and instead of comforting me, she hits me on the head with the stick she's holding.
"Hey, what was that for?" I grumble.
"Nothing, I just wanted to stop your drama," she answers.
"You are a hero, not a god. You don't have the ability to change everything according to your will, because the only thing you can do is prevent a risky situation from ending in tragedy."
She repeats that I am not to blame for the deaths of those people since I was not the cause of their passing.
It's easy to say, but it's hard for me to accept it deep down because every time I think that those people will never laugh and be happy like before, I feel discouraged and even more guilty.
"Then why don't you just die to keep them company?" the Diwata says to me.
I smile at what she says because she can still joke in the middle of my seriousness about the matter.
"That's not a nice joke."
"Oh... wait... I have a great idea. Why don't I just hit you with my stick for every person who dies in this country due to crimes?"
"If you think it's the fault of every hero in this country for failing to save people, then you should just accept the punishment."
I don't understand if the Diwata is joking about what she said, but before I can make an excuse, she suddenly hits me on the head.
I wasn't prepared for it, so I really felt the pain. The Diwata I'm with possesses a strange magic because, for some unknown reason, the energy of nature doesn't protect me whenever she hurts me, which is why I feel so much pain. Her hit hurts ten times more than the bullets that hit me.
I start to complain, but she hits me again, saying it's because of the people who died at that moment. I don't know if she's kidding, but she says people died at that time due to a crime, and because I failed to save that person, I must be punished.
"That's enough, please! I'm going to get a lump."
"Before you become a hero, you must know and accept the reality of this world. Nothing is perfect in this world; even Diwatas cannot change everything according to their will. You cannot save everyone in this country."
I bow my head at that moment because I know that, and perhaps it's a matter of acceptance for me as a human, since I desire so much success in saving people. It's as if my expectations for my ability are too high. No, perhaps I just really want to be worthy in the eyes of other people as a savior. It might be called arrogance, but I want to be the perfect hero that people can rely on.
"Well, if that's the case, I'll be the one to tell you that you will fail, so you better stop thinking about useless things and just follow whatever your Diwata tells you. Is that clear?"
She hits me with the stick again, and I have no choice but to agree to what she is saying.
"Ah... Uh... But I just suddenly thought that you are not really my Diwata whom I should obey."
"That's not a problem because the Diwata of Ifugao will be asleep for a few hundred more years, and she won't know what you've done. For now, you will serve me."
"Wait, that's different from what we discussed!"
While I'm complaining, she hits me again to stop me from talking. I step backward from her action and try to complain again to insist that I can't exchange Ada Sid Alwa for another Diwata, but instead of listening, she hits me again.
I manage to dodge her stick as she hits me again.
"Oh, you don't want to accept punishment."
The Diwata doesn't stop hitting me, so I have no choice but to dodge and start running away from her.
"Do you really think you can escape a Diwata like me? I'll teach you a lesson on how to show respect," she says, smiling again as if planning something bad.
The Diwata starts chasing me all over that place, and honestly, I don't know if running away from her is the right thing to do, because what I'm saying is true, but she's not listening, and what's worse, she seems to be enjoying chasing me as if she's playing.
As I run and jump on top of the buildings, I glance down and see people in a park—people together, laughing and having fun: mothers and children, siblings, friends, and lovers.
I realize at that moment the reasons why I want to save people. I want to save them from tragedy and a dark fate, like what happened to my friend Alfredo. Even if I don't become the perfect hero, I will fulfill my duty to protect the peace and safety of people like them.
That can only happen if I can unite every person in this country, whether they are Filipinos who become rebels against the Spaniards or Spaniards who oppress the Filipinos.
"I promise, I will succeed in uniting everyone and establishing the new nation of the Philippines."
End of Chapter