Episode 20: The Demon King from the Temple
In the lush, steamy jungles of India life seemed pretty much like what it would always be, wild, whether for animals or any man wandering through it. The panther Bagheera and the bear Baloo have just returned their best friend Mowgli back to the "man village" where he belonged knowing he's be safe from the tiger Shere Khan, when Mowgli managed to repel the cat with the secret only man knows: the "red flower" or fire itself since that was the only thing the tiger feared. As they returned to their jungle homes together after accomplishing their mission in good spirits, they didn't realize that there was a secret temple deep in the jungle. Not just any temple, but a very foreboding one, for it was said this architecture once housed a powerful demon king. The two heard strange chanting leading to it and decided to investigate, they approach some thick jungle foilage that they could both hide and observe at the same time.
Just outside the temple 2 rows of 6 hooded figures were chanting in the strange language raising their arms high and then down and then came a 13th figure carrying two objects: one was a shadow transporter the other a bizarre artifact, almost lite a statue made of an unknown material and then a 14th came out holding a piece of glowing orange rock, caconite. The animal duo watched from afar with a bit of fright, wondering what was going to happen next, while trying to stay as quiet as they could and not be seen as well. The 14th figure raised a hand and the chanting stopped, the shadow monks were silent for a moment.
"It's time shadow monks to enter the temple and awaken the mighty demon king Ravana, on order of our Dark Master!" shouted the monk holding the two artifacts. Before they could proceed into the temple, a roar was heard and a tiger pounced on one of the lesser monks. It was the tiger Shere Kahn hungry for revenge on anything living. The monk he pounced upon disintegrated to his shock, and before he knew it, the remaining monks surrounded him in a blink with nasty daggers out, from afar, Baloo and Bagheera watched in wide-eyed horror as the next thing they heard were roars of pain, they couldn't see what was going on. Soon the monks dispersed and what was now in place was a dried up husk of the tiger, lifeless and laying on the floor, it was a frightening sight.
Before the duo could say anything after the horrifying sight, it soon began to heat up, the wave came from behind. The two animals peered quickly in the direction of where the heat was coming from and jumped forward, as flames were engulfing some of the jungle vegetation from their hiding spot, emerging up was a nearly invisible skeleton ablaze in fire, cackling maniacally. Bagheera and Baloo looked back and discovered they were now trapped, the fiery skeleton out front, and a five Shadow Monks with their jagged daggers out on the other side, things seemed hopeless, how could they evade both?
Thankfully it wasn't a few seconds, when a black hole emerged from the sky and out dropped the Z-Team, weapons out and observing the situation. One half (consisting of Zack, the lions, the arabian prince and princess, their sidekicks, plus the Kappa) faced the monks, the other half (the mice, the island and ice girls, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto)faced the skeleton. Not wasting a minute with the dire urgency of the situation they charged at the victims' assailants. First off, Zack waved his hand shouting, "Wall of Heat!" causing a searing barrier of intense heat to separate the team from the monks, who backed away. Nala stepped forward and shouted "Earthshaker!" slamming her two front paws down hard, triggering a mini earthquake, the monks crumpled to the floor, all there was left were their cloaks, nothing else.
Meanwhile, the other side was battling the fiery skeleton, the girls, were doing the fighting, while the others were trying to smother the flame out. It was an intense exchange between fire against water and ice magic. Seeing this after dealing with their adversaries, Zack passed the Shadow Bane to Elsa who then waved her arms around, generating some ice magic which melted a bit, but the water created weakened the ghost, after several spells, the fiery skeleton was too weak to melt it and then became caught in the ice. Not wasting a minute, Aladdin threw out the chest and Zack stepped forward, muttering the cursed words to catch the ghost, in a matter of seconds the ghost was drawn into the chest.
"Are you two alright?" Zack asked as he and his teammates helped Bagheera and Baloo back on their feet.
"So far so good, good thing you all came or we'd be singed!" Baloo exclaimed with relief.
"Or even drained of our lives, our tiger adversary wasn't so fortunate….." Bagheera added a bit solemnly, peering with haunting thought at the shriveled remains of their once feared foe still on the ground.
"There were others?" asked Elsa.
"Yes, they went into that forgotten temple" Bagheera gestured that way, causing the rest of Zack's team to peer that way. A feeling of foreboding came over everyone, the Z-Team knew this wasn't going to be an easy mission, for that temple looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds, or perhaps thousands of years. "One of the leaders was holding some strange objects, they must have something to do with summoning a great demon from the temple…."
"Gawrsh, then we'd better hurry on inside of there!" replied Goofy.
"Well said, and the sooner the better!" added Zack.
"I sure hope they didn't get Mowgli!" said a worried Baloo. With that the Z-Team entered with great haste into the temple, Zack and Elsa led the way with the Threat Detector at the ready, the bear and the panther followed behind, just to be sure their human companion that they just sent back to the village was safe. It wasn't just a few yards into the temple, when Zack gestured everyone stop right where they were, while he and Elsa surveyed the area around. Though made of ancient stone, the whole interior of the temple from the foyer down the halls looked foreboding enough for anything to strike when they least expect it, even with all the ornate designs on the walls looks fanciful.
"Better stay sharp everyone, this place could hold some hidden surprises, yet we'd better make a bit of haste as well in case those Shadow Monks are about to send someone to the Dark Master!" Zack exclaimed, turning to his teammates and brief traveling companions, who nodded in understanding the mission ahead of them. They forged on, up a few stairs, and then down the hallway, until they reached a chamber which then pointed out in two different directions. As soon as they entered the chamber, Mickey felt his foot get lowered on one stone and jumped a bit, everyone noticed this.
"What was that Mickey?" asked Donald.
"Felt like a loose stone….." Mickey replied. Suddenly the Threat Detector went berserk, and when Zack activated it, it showed the threat was happening in all directions, everyone looked around for a few seconds, and without realizing it, several tiles fell away which sent everyone staggering to safety, Goofy felt himself teetering forward and accidentally knocked the Threat Detector out of Zack's hand, which sent it down the now open shaft, hitting a few rocks, before ultimately falling into an underground stream. Once that moment of shock was over, Goofy nervously looked at Zack, expecting him to be furious at such a mistake, but Zack was in full composure, even with the shades still over his eyes.
"That was only an accident, I do have a feeling that we'll find it down the ways at some point." he briefly gave his teammate a sympathetic smile. "Besides it was only an accident." he tapped his hand on the dog's shoulder as well as he continued.
"Now which way should we go now?" asked Elsa.
"Well if the underground river was going down the right hand side, I think we should go that way" Zack gestured in that direction.
"But what if there's something of utmost important on the opposite side?" asked Jasmine.
"Good thinking, I think we should split into two groups…Elsa, Simba, Nala, Aladdin, Jasmine, Rajah, Goofy, you're with me. Mulan, take the lead with the others."
Except how do we know when a trap is coming our way?" asked Mulan.
"Everyone, think back to what Master Raito taught you, learn to sense danger by standing still and listen/feel all around." Understanding this, everyone nodded, and the two teams went off in the different directions, Zack's group took off in the right, Mulan's took left. Bagheera went with Zack's team, while Baloo went with Mulan's. The hallways in opposite directions started a bit long before before veering down the same path everyone was heading, they were dark, barely lit by a few holes in the walls and ceiling bringing in a bit of sunlight from the outside. Both teams reached another chamber, one different from the other. Zack's team encountered what looked like a small shrine area on one side, there was a pedestal with a painting on the wall of some blue being holding a bow and arrow in his right hand pointing downward, the other was upwards, palm out.
"Come…..come…..heroic mortals…." a voice boomed, the heroes turned their heads in the direction of the voice, it was coming from the painting.
"I don't like the sound of that voice…." Elsa said a little wary.
"You all have nothing to fear, it must be some form of divine intervention, let's follow it!" ordered Zack. Everyone did, though with caution having been unfamiliar with what's ahead.
"Kneel twice on your knees mortals…...I shall appear and assist you all!" the voice continued. The team did as told, and in a matter of seconds a white light glowed from out of nowhere in front of them, and there standing in front of them was the same being that was on the painting, just a little taller than the average man. "Allow me to introduce myself to you all, I am Rama, the son of Vishnu and protector of the innocent!" Everyone in Zack's group smiled as they were relieved to meet a god that could assist them. "You there..." he pointed to Zack. "You seem to be the bravest, wisest and most powerful of your group, I was expecting you to come in here and defeat the evil that is present, it was locked away a long time ago….the demon king Ravana, I beat him back in ancient times and then imprisoned his essence deep in this temple, but it looks like followers of a dark force are after it…" Rama said sadly.
"So that's what the Shadow Monks are after!" replied Zack.
"What's required to resurrect him?" Elsa asked, the rest nodded.
"Ravana needs the souls of two innocents offered in order to release the seal…..you'd all best hurry, it could happen at any minute!"
"You have the word of Zack Burner!"
Meanwhile, on the opposite side, Mulan's group was treking down the halls until they reached the chamber parallel to the one Zack's team was in, only this was looked like a fountain area with water coming from two directions, with window holes for sunlight to enter on the sides, plus four statues, two on each side, monstrous in creation. The statues were half snake, half man or woman, there were holes where the mouths were. The group cautiously examined the area, walking around, recalling what Zack said about the training they received from Master Raito.
What little did the group know was that there was one lone Shadow Monk perched on top of one of the statues, out of sight who sprinkled a little magic powder on top of the statue and then jumped off in silence, in a matter of seconds, a crackling sound was heard, the group turned their heads in the direction of the sound, and then stood there wide-eyed as the statue cracked open to reveal a real Naga, though with a humanoid snake top hissing loudly in cold malice as it attempted to lunge at the group with its sharp claws. Everyone readied their weapons after a few seconds and braced for whatever the thing could throw at it.
"As Zack would say, "Let's hunt some horror!" shouted Mulan and everyone nodded in agreement, just dodging an attempted bite from the Naga. The mice, Pluto, Donald, Moana charged forward whacking at the beast's head for a bit, causing it to recoil and then swing it's tail, everyone except Goofy managed get out of the way, but the unfortunate Donald got knocked over to the opposite end of the chamber where some water was coming in on the right hand side, and landed in the water, a bit hurt, but alright, and as he picked up his spear to resume the battle, he saw some strange object coming towards him, something familiar. He waited a bit and grabbed it, discovering it was the Threat detector, but a little busted inward, the screen kept going in and out.
While Donald was recovering, the battle raged on, the Naga emitted a nasty cloud of green gas from its breath, that nobody could see, but then, recalling Zack's reminder, everyone held still and closed their eyes, trying to feel the air and ground around them in case the serpentine monster struck. In the thick cloud, the Naga crept closer and closer to the group, but they were waiting. Just as the monster lunged at then with a mighty hiss, Mulan shouted "Now!" and everyone except her grabbed a part of it to hold it in place. The mice held the arms, Pluto held the tail in his mouth, Moana jumped on the beast's back and got it in a necklock with her oar, while Donald and Mulan charged forward and struck the Naga straight in the heart. As the serpentine monster collapsed and coughed it's last breath a strange glowing white light came out of it's mouth and then took the form of the same creature but with a few human elements. Moana took out the Shadow Bane, held it aloft and shouted, "The power of the heavens compels you!" a beam of white light came out and within seconds as it touched the tormented soul, it became wholly human again.
"Thank you noble ones, I'm the guardian of this temple, I've been watching over until those monks possessed me. You have liberated my curse, goodbye!" and then departed to the afterlife.
"Well now that that's all taken care of, let's get back to our trek through this temple!" the rest nodded and proceeded onward. At the same time that the two groups exited their respective chambers, they traversed down and then ultimately turned Zack's group went to the left, while Mulan's went right, eventually meeting at a junction point. Everyone was relieved to see each other alright, though Pluto showed Zack the damaged Threat Detector.
"Hope Dr. Dectavious or Dr. Castillo isn't going to be awfully upset about that….." pondered Mickey a little wary.
"It's okay, this thing is easy to fix." Zack replied with a calming smile, but then returned to being serious. "Now then let's stop the demon king before he's unleashed on the world!"
"Z Power!" everyone shouted raising their weapons highbefore continuing to trek further into the temple.
Without any further delay the reformed Z-Team trekked down the middle path which led down to an underground sanctum several flights down, until they heard some strange chanting coming from the inner most chamber before them and upon hearing this Zack gestured to everyone to be quiet, to listen in on what was happening before charging right in. Peering in from afar, trying their best to stay our of sight, they could see the same monks the bear and the panther spotted from afar their friend Mowgli and the girl he met earlier, they were struggling to get free from their chains, while the head monk was holding up the objects from earlier. Zack, having seen more than enough, pointed his sword forward and everyone charged into the chamber at high speed, burning with fury in their hearts as everyone found a monk except the head one, which Zack got to.
"Surrender monks!" Zack shouted pointing his sword at the head monk, "We've got you're compnay completely surrounded!" Everyone else had their weapons out, or were in a crouched position for the animals, but the head monk wasn't intimidated.
"Afraid you're already too late Burner!" the ritual is complete, we've drained enough essence from these two innocents and now here comes the great Demon King Ravana!" Before Zack and the head monk, was a large statue of a being with 10 heads and 20 arms in Indian armor, the eyes began to glow red, and then a few rays shot out of them, forming a humanoid shape and then stopped glowing, revealing a strange Indian man with red skin a moustache, Indian harem pants, a vest over his bare chest, holding a curved sword.
"Ah free at last from that prison! Rama will pay for imprisoning me!" the demon king smiled with sinister delight. Zack held up his sword and shouted "Flame Blade!" causing his sword to ignite in flames, and then charged forward, but Ravana easily blocked his blow, and laughed evilly.
"What's this? A mere mortal wants to challenge the great Demon King Ravana?" he smiled sinisterly. "Big mistake!" and then shoved him down almost effortlessly, causing the arrow Rama gave Zack to fall out, point first, which touched Ravana, who got shocked at the mere touch of it. At that, more heads and arms came out of the demon king, getting a little larger, in each of the arms a weapon was held, the Z-Team's courage and fury started to diminish realizing that now, they were in for the most difficult battle of their lives, with more than just two innocents (who were unconscious when Bagheera and Baloo came to check on them, there essences where taken by the Shadow Monks), but the whole world. "Ha ha ha! With you frivolous foolish mortals out of my way, I'll conquer the world!"
"Not if all of us can handle it!" Zack exclaimed in defiance as he grabbed the arrow and then pointed his sword at the demon king, which shot out a stream of fire at one of the arms, it burned a bit, but then recovered as if nothing had happened, other team members tried their lucks with their spells, but it was the same thing, the many arms of the demon king kept stopping every spell, and making any chance of weapon to weapon combat futile as that would be asking for trouble. Whenever a head was attacked, one grew right back. Luckily Elsa stepped forward, and cast her ice magic limbs were getting frozen, one by one, Simba cast his Harden Body spell to make himself like living rock on himself and Nala, to grab a few other limbs safely. "Zack now! Shoot him!" With that Zack released the bow of Rama from his other arm, fitted the arrow, aimed, then fired into the great demon king's heart and in a flash of fire, the demon king was no more, sending out a bit of a shockwave, knocking over all Z-Team members, and rendering all Shadow Monks to nothing more than cloaks on the ground. Afterwards, two glowing yellow orbs floated around a bit and then re-entered the bodies of Mowgli and the girl, who awoke as if they come out of a dream. Without any further delay, Zack ordered Mushu and Abu to release them, Bagheera and Baloo were relieved that their friends were okay. The rest smiled that their mission was over, and within a matter of seconds, Rama appeared again from behind. Zack turned around, and then offered the bow and arrow back to him.
"Thank you Rama, without that, none of us would have stood a chance against him!" Zack smiled to the god.
"An honor accepted Zack." he smiled in return. "And in return you shall have this to help you in your quest against evil…." he handed Zack another see through square disc, another piece in the map to locating what can be used in the final battle against the Dark Master.
"Without my ice magic…." Elsa added.
"And my rock magic…." added Simba who returned to normal along with his queen. "he would have defeated us all…."
"That's what teamwork is all about..." finished Zack.
From the dark dimension the Dark Master observed all the action. Though disappointed at another defeat the essence of Ravana came into his gaseous form.
"You won that round Z-Team, but you just gave me more power and soon all of you and your world will succumb to darkness!" The Dark Master laughed sinisterly…..