Ryuken’s mercenary activities were well on their way as he decimated two rival demonic titans and their armies of perverted tentacle monsters. At a beach party on the shores of Safroncris, the models of Venus Transit Women’s Wear bore witness to a volcanic explosion on top of the distant hill. They shrieked in horror upon realising that the flaming objects flying across the sky were demon body parts. But the ladies could rest easy, for the return of the Ultradjinn and the Megamarek had been cancelled.
Scorched bodies and entrails rained down all around Ryuken. The colossal, burning, titans lay dead behind him as he strolled down the ruptured cliff. Cigar in hand, he barely paid attention to his wounds, content with the two demonic corpses in his grasp for the study of the Mano ESP therapy Labs. In spite of victory over a grave threat to the world of Shuromij, Ryuken was still disappointed. He was hoping to find here the one man who failed to tell the world that the Ultradjinn and Megamarek would return on this day.
Vini Gravytun was an agent for Nishin Genma, Ryuken’s former employers. He was a precog in charge of their historical archives, including documents on demonology and ancient prophecies. As it was once Nishin Genma’s job to tackle such invasions, Vini was the man in the know on the Ultradjinn’s return and giving his conniving reputation would have likely capitalised on it somehow. Ryuken was hoping to find Vini today. The precog was a rat. Along with his partner Kinlesbon, he used his historical archives to blackmail and extort fellow Nishin Genma agents. It was Vini who mouthed off on Ryuken’s weakness for Usheana, and after the tragic events panned out through the Genma Visage insurrection, the Demigod was most anxious to wrap his fingers around that little rodent’s throat.
Sadly, that was for another day; he wasn’t here. As Ryuken dragged his fleshy cargo, he wondered where Vini could be and what could he been up to make him miss such an event.
On that moment Ryuken received a distress call from his safe house on the island of Pawaikohai. The people there had just been attacked by the Bakakumas, this time by their strongest forces yet who battered Pawaikohai’s champions to the ground. Fury and disgust brewed in Ryuken’s gut at the mere mention of his old enemy. With a snarl, he hurried back to Pawaikohai. The world of Shuromij had a long history with such a foe, and for Ryuken, his relationship with the Bakakumas was closer than he cared to admit.

Teleporting with his cargo to the safe house in Pawaikohai, Ryuken took a brief rest of his psychic batteries before changing his suit of armour. He carried the demon bodies across the shores of Pawaikohai and strolled past the monument dedicated to the local hero, Old man Pele, wondering what the crazy warrior would think in the afterlife now that many of his students had taken a beating from their deadliest foe to date.
The Bakakumas are no one’s friend. Guilty of anything illegal, they are an army of thugs practising super-powered martial arts to bully and subjugate the local populations. As a demented death cult, it was the grand aim of the Bakakumas to reduce the world to a Post Apocalyptic wasteland so they can rule over the survivors with an iron fist and fulfil their non-stop love for fighting. The Bakakumas practiced a twisted form of Darwinism, in which only the strong survive and the weak must be wiped out. Much of their philosophy and powers are derived from the Ogoncho Empire that travelled from the Big Dipper constellation through the wormhole Inanna to invade and take over Shuromij 3 millennia ago. A war-weary Nishin Genma eventually repelled the invaders with a powerful biological agent that targeted the Ogoncho aliens and rendered them extinct across worlds over the space of a few days. Inanna’s link to their homeworlds on the Big Dipper had been sealed for 3000 years, and the legacy of the Bakakumas remain a frequent menace to this day. It was Nishin Genma’s job to tackle the Bakakuma insurgences whenever they occurred. While the drug-like rush from throwing fireballs often made such martial artists stupid and despite everyone wanting to be strongest made them disorganised, history had shown many instances where dangerous individuals slipped through their fingers with disastrous consequences.

In contrast, the people of Pawaikohai Island were the good guys, though their relationship with the rest of Shuromij wasn’t always sunny. Until then a few centuries back, when the wheels of progress turned for the outside world, the Pawaikohai people were described as tropical tribal savages whose ferocity earned them a comparison to werewolves, vampires or the undead. Ritualistic cannibalism of enemies wasn’t unheard off, and by sea or beach, swamp or jungle, men, women and children here were well learned on how to fight on a patch of land populated by man-eating predators that bred as fast as rabbits. Attempts for foreign colonists to civilise the Pawaikohai people with mushy religion and the benefits of civilisation were met with the hard end of a spiked club. Adding insult to injury was the fact that the Pawaikohai people decided to civilise, advance and to a degree industrialise purely on their own merit while maintaining their own identity (minus the cannibalism). For a time, Pawaikohai was regarded as a black eye on the Shuromij map. Many of the warrior class of citizens continue some of the ancient traditions through the native formidable martial art of the Mekualuadon Wolf style, which was practiced by Usheana Mano and her close friends. This deadly art repelled all attacks by invaders in the past, but its strength ironically gained the fight-seeking attention of the Bakakumas, who in search of worthy opponents carried out multiple atrocities on Pawaikohai as they did on the rest of the world.
One of the atrocities was the Night of the Iron Fists in one of the coastal towns. In a fight to the death on the streets to settle a minor gang dispute between two rival factions of the Bakakumas, thousands of civilians were ruthlessly killed in the crossfire. It was proof of the Bakakumas to the world that the only reason a man wants to become the king of fighters is so that he can kill everyone beneath him.
The guilty party would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for the brigade of Mekualuadon wolves led by Old man Pele, who tracked the Bakakumas for days and formed an alliance with the mysterious intervention of Nishin Genma. The coalition restored order and the Bakakumas thugs were sent to their graves to meet their maker. Since then, with the amount of violence and rape committed by those twisted thugs, it was common for the Mekualuadon law enforcers to take liberties with the rules by castrating a Bakakuma on sight.

The attack that day, when Ryuken was handling the Ultradjinn, may have been mild in comparison, but the promise for much greater bloodshed was all too apparent. When he reached Mano labs, Ryuken was allowed through as an ally by the fierce, exotic armoured soldiers that formed the Mekualuadon Wolves fighting force. But as he entered the hut to greet the wounded, menacing eyes turned their gaze onto him, ever on the edge. After Nishin Genma’s betrayal and what happened to their friend Usheana, and the fact that Ryuken Kage had the Bakakumas in his ancestry meant that the Mercenary’s relationship with the Wolves was fragile. The gauntlet had certainly been thrown down that day to earn their trust. Most of all, Ryuken had to regain the respect of Hanale Mano, Usheana’s Father. Despite being a mentor and father figure to Ryuken, Hanale was currently on the bout of blaming the man for Usheana’s condition and his lack of success in remedying it. Thus, Ryuken's perseverance was all the more crucial.

Like the Chieftain of old times and an Army \ Mekualuadon veteran himself, Hanale briefed the Demigod. The Bakakuma force was led by the powerful enforcers Ryouun and the arrogant individual known as Superior Tygrontuk. After Nishin Genma’s downfall, hidden legions of Bakakumas were coming out of hiding, far stronger than ever before. They kidnapped the two children of the Island’s mightiest champions, the Kaimana brothers, Kanuha and Kamaka who were defeated by Bakakuma’s extraordinary prowess. Escaping the Island through flight, Ryouun and Superior Tygrontuk issued an invitation to the Mekualuadon wolves to a big fight 3 days from then at a location they would announce. The Bakakumas told them to train hard as they disappeared with the children into the distance.
Anyone with half a brain could figure out that this big fight was a trap. The Bakakumas were never going to fight fair. Whatever ace they had up their sleeve could wipe them out in one fell swoop. It was perilous to send men to find and rescue the children beforehand. Fortunately, the Pawaikohai people had their own trump card.
Ryuken’s mission was twofold. Firstly, he had to find and eliminate the Bakakumas, rescue the boys and shut down the source of power that was given the evil martial artists their boons. Secondly, if possible, investigate if this had anything to do with the disappearance of 3 of Hanale’s old associates, Reiyoko, Mahn and Bulru Shonat, who had been reported AWOL for some time. Hanale and Usheana Mano had been targeted by the Bakakumas before. There was nothing to say that they wouldn’t strike others close to them.
Ryuken finished his cigarette, got up and headed off immediately.

Ryuken’s search was already off to a bad start when he found it impossible to scry the areas where the Bakakumas attacked. Scrying the past events to see the Mekualuadon wolves in action was simple, but for a strange reason, the Bakakumas appeared as blackish fog. Even the children they kidnapped were engulfed by this cloak of invisibility and so Ryuken couldn’t get a read on where they went. Hanale and the Wolves would scold him for reaching a dead end, he thought, though Ryuken was flattered that Hanale was scolding him even more for his recent tactics of tanking damage, believing it to be an act of self-harm and attempted suicide. Ryuken often joked that while a shrink could have a field day analysing his war-torn psyche, he wasn’t about to start using medical conditions as shields to protect himself. That was what his fists were for.
In any case, an impulse drove Ryuken to investigate this mission in reverse by looking into the disappearances of Hanale’s colleagues. He dug deep into recovered Nishin Genma archives in an underwater hideout. While he hadn’t found the direct whereabouts of Mahn and Reiyoko who seemed to be moving all over the place, Ryuken did partly uncover documents suggesting the two veterans led intriguing post-war lives and zapped away to where they last worked.

As Ryuken journeyed across the land, he brought himself up to speed on the story of the Maleka mission. Like all wars, the Martian-Shuromij conflict was a rotten onslaught that kept itself motivated through the shared secret greed of Army Generals, Megacorporations, Arms Dealers and twisted propaganda on both sides of the solar system. What made this waste of good soldiers additionally foul was the tendency of the Generals emissaries to recruit soldiers through trickery from Planet Earth under the enticing guise of interplanetary faith that appealed to their spiritual taste buds. New Age Religions like the Fearus society would later become a thorn in the side of both Shuromij and Earth, but during this war, recruiting blind zealots to soak up the bullets risked a full involvement of the 3rd rock from the sun and the war would escalate well out of hand. Therefore, factions of Mars and Shuromij formed a team of covert black ops soldiers to strike important targets on both armies, to root out and cut off the supply chains that kept their war going. The Maleka mission as it was called was a success that brought the Martian Shuromij conflict to an end, putting the Generals and fellow conspirators out of work in this line of business. The ongoing peace process between the two worlds has never been smooth sailing, but the stability now is a far cry from how bad it could have been.

The Maleka squad included the leader and medic Hanale and his wife Ululani, the legendary Old Man Pele the demolition expert, Amiri the advising engineer, the technician Baldon, and the frontline assault was handled by Bulru Shonat, Mahn and his future wife to be Reiyoko. In addition, two defecting Martians joined the squad, the regal Caesarium and his wife Petra who provided intel on Martian forces and the landscape, as well as supplying artillery in the form of the infamous monstrous robots of Mars. From what Ryuken read, Shonat was the youngest of the team, a bright, enthusiastic and competitive man, unfortunately sharing some anti-Martian and pro-war sentiments. While his fighting prowess was a vital asset at the time, his cockiness landed him with a serious injury and he had to be shipped back home. Ironically, the leaders feared more trouble from Mahn. Orphaned on a foreign land with no idea on his true lineage, Mahn was raised on the Island of Pawaikohai. Throughout life, especially on the war front, he showed a degree of fiendish bloodlust and battle rage unseen even among the Mekualuadon wolves. Mahn would have completely lost it if it wasn’t for the psychic comfort of his future wife Reiyoko, a natural ESP practitioner outside of Nishin Genma who used her talents of military application. She was the love of Mahn’s life and they happily married when it was all over. Upon reading this, Ryuken was curious if they truly achieved happiness, for a daunting truth that only they knew drove them underground away from Pawaikohai out of the public eye. Whatever that reason could be, Ryuken hoped to find out in the old labs where the “Ultimate Fantasy” project took place.

Through Nishin Genma’s finance archives, Ryuken curiously discovered that his former masters, including Vini Gravytun and Kinlesbon, along with the cybernetic corporation Zynda had pooled their funding into this Ultimate Fantasy project. Ryuken could tell something was up if those shady figures had an interest in the Maleka veterans work. When Ryuken reached the derelict labs, the place had long been abandoned and looted of important machinery. Searching the offices, it was evident that Mahn and Reiyoko had little happiness in their post-war careers and the failure of the Ultimate Fantasy project didn’t help. The machine behind this undertaking was designed to use extra-sensory soothing waves and virtual reality simulations to heal the minds of veterans with post-war stress and traumatic depression. Mental illnesses were complex issues; hypnotics and psychic ailments can only do so much. Nothing but disaster struck the project, as subject soldiers walked out either feeling worse off or devolving to demented degrees from the experience. Even worse, the documents suggested that mass-produced models of the Ultimate Fantasy had been dumped only to be recovered by tech enthusiasts, reverse engineered and distributed by youths across the land as a compact package. The ESP waves along with the virtual reality simulations had an ecstatic effect on people far more powerful than common drugs, and left unchecked, it lead to the complete erosion of the addict's sanity. As far as Ryuken could see, this was typical mishandling of living beings that only the higher-ups were capable of. Folly enough to think war-scarred soldiers could be quickly sent back to the battlefield so easily, but what was the real aim for the benefactors who funded this project?
It was obvious that Kinlesbon was up to no good. He had earned the name "soul crusher" for exploiting men’s fears and emotions for his benefit, to set up others to undertake plans that would backfire, so that he only would benefit. From scrying the place, Ryuken could see that Mahn and Kinlesbon frequently argued over something he couldn’t pinpoint. Whenever Mahn got angry, the vision that Ryuken could see became a red blur from Mahn’s aura. Holes in the walls made by punches gave evidence of Mahn’s notorious fury, and Ryuken pondered further on what was the real deal behind this man.
Other than that, the only other reason Vini Gravytun may have interest in such a project that wired men to machines was, with his expertise, he could make dastardly synchronisations with demon summoning magic, and Ryuken prayed that this wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, Ryuken was briefly overjoyed from his scrying that Vini himself had recently sneaked in and out of the abandoned labs to retrieve a twisted, decorative trophy of sorts. He was the only lead to Mahn and Reiyoko, and possibly the kidnapped children as well. When Ryuken followed the Vini’s path through the forest, he thought he reached another dead end when he found the precog's body. But asides from the satisfaction that a past enemy had been killed, Ryuken could tell that he was onto something by assessing that the fatal wounds were from the unique attacks only the Bakakumas were capable of. The Bakakumas took the trophy, clearly of some importance and disappeared. Ryuken was again frustrated that these fighters now had the power to cloak their presence from a psychic gaze, but there was one hint that would betray their whereabouts. Vini’s body had been searched for a data key which was thrown onto the ground and destroyed. While the remains were useless to be salvaged and wired into a computer, with Ryuken’s scry he could still see the files on the key. He searched the device and made quite a discovery. Bulru Shonat was alive, well, and tougher than ever, but the data key showed horrific images of what had recently been up to. He had become a serial killer with a sick kidnap fetish, and worse still, the photos of him with Ryouun and Superior Tygrontuk showed that he had become a high ranking fighter in the Bakakuma ranks. This was what Bulru had been up to since the Maleka mission.
Another legitimate reason to why Vini Gravytun was a threat to the Bakakumas came down to a recurring name that Ryuken had been hearing in loose reference since he started investigating the derelict Ultimate Fantasy labs. It was the name Saharon, and through an extra intense scry of the memory drive, Ryuken found the coordinates to pinpoint the location of this enigmatic Island amidst the sea. To make a further link these events, a quick scrutiny of news reports on the media suggested the string of murders committed by Bulru along with the kidnapping of women happened along a pattern by the nearest coastline. Nearby, many people addicted to the offshoot Ultimate Fantasy simulations were taking their chances by vehicles to find sanctuary across air and sea. All the evidence implied that Saharon was an ideal hiding spot for both the Bakakumas and Ultimate Fantasy addicts. Ryuken vaulted onward, but from here on he could only speculate on the history of this mysterious Island and the secretive schemes that would now be uncovered there.

Ryuken briefly over-exhausted his powers as he teleported halfway across the sea and realised there was an aura about the Saharon Island that was clouding his precognitive radar and perhaps would explain why this strange place had been seldom visited let alone colonised by the Shurokiu for thousands of years. His powers slowly returned by the time he swam to the shores. There, the sodomised, eviscerated bodies of the Fearus society who made a pilgrimage here provided further evidence of Bakakuma activity. Ryuken would later comment that these New Age zealots had an incidental involvement here, but he was curious as to what drove them this Island in the first place. As Ryuken journeyed up the hill and through the chasms of the many canyons, danger could have been lurking behind any corner and he had to tread carefully now that his radar had been fuzzed out. Throughout the journey, Ryuken reminded himself of why he kept fighting, in part for his undying love for Usheana, a sassy lady of whom many described as a beautiful personification of Tiger shark ferocity. Ryuken recalled how they first met, the circumstances behind their friendship, their training, and their later romance and farewell when he was sent to Britonum, but also what drove Usheana to become a warrior for the Mekualuadon wolves. Usheana Mano was an only child whose mother Ululani passed away shortly after her birth. Raised by her chieftain father showed young Usheana much of the ropes, but Usheana was particularly driven by the death of Old Man Pele, the only other man she ever loved (not for his looks). The would-be Godfather single-handedly fought off a vicious group of Bakakumas known as the Sadistic Six when they attempted to kidnap young Usheana. Pele sacrificed himself so that Usheana could escape. Swearing to have vengeance from then on Usheana trained to become a Mekualuadon wolf, but she never found the war veteran's killers, and in the moment of consoling her Ryuken wondered what could have been done about it. Later, upon doing some deep research in the restricted archives, Ryuken was shocked to find that the Sadistic Six were part of Nishin Genma’s policy of “rallying around the flag”. The grand order could have done more to stop the Bakakumas, but allowing them to commit horrific atrocities often gave Nishin Genma the chance to whip up support for their cause and hatred for an enemy who provided good sport for testing new psychic powers. Letting enemies run amok was also the difference between Nishin Genma receiving funding from certain benefactors and receiving nothing at all, and the Sadistic six were indeed profitable cash cows.
One day, the Bakakumas led by the Sadistic 6 infiltrated a wormhole facility that had been making expeditions to the Ogoncho homeworlds on the big dipper (the Bakakumas emblem with the Phoenix) and proceeded to slaughter the colonists in sadistic orgies of violence. Although the facility was funded by Zynda itself, both the megacorporation and Nishin Genma deemed it expendable, leaving the colonists to their fate while giving their own agents the order to stand down. Ryuken realised then he was motivated far more than vengeance and the eventual dismissal of his own Bakakuma bloodline. The Sadistic 6 was a menace that had to be stopped. Disobeying direct orders, the near 16-year-old Ryuken snuck into the facility, braved the wormhole jump across the universe and took on the Sadistic 6 all alone. After a brutal battle amidst disturbing activities, he succeeded in killing them and was instantly punished by Nishin Genma. This was the reason why he was later sent on the suicide mission of the Britonum war on Earth to atone for his disobedience. The horrors he faced in that city would later dwarf anything he experienced on any planet. However, among many sickening acts he bore witness to on the Ogoncho homeworlds, the one dagger to Ryuken’s heart confirmed there as it was on Shuromij was the link his ancestry had to the Bakakumas and the Imperialistic invaders from that doomed patch of the universe. By proxy, he was the sworn enemy of Pawaikohai Island, the people, and the Mekualuadon wolves. In his despair, it would seem a miracle that the people there would put that aside with greater interest in the better nature of Ryuken’s heart. Besides which, Usheana had no qualms in the fact that she herself had no part in that narrow-minded notion of “pure blood.” Pawaikohai tribes had accepted a few foreign pirates into their masses in the past, of which Hanale and Usheana were distant progenies.

Now in the present, travelling across the chasms, Ryuken couldn’t help but draw comparisons between this strange land and that of the ground he trod across the Ogoncho homeworlds. He soon encountered a vacant, monastery built by ill-fated slaves for the Bakakumas, and cautiously entered. Upon inspection of the architecture and discovering that the panels were built on top recognisable impressions over 3000 years old, Ryuken’s realised his theory was true. The whole island of Saharon was not of Shuromij origin. It was a huge lump of rock that plummeted from the Ogoncho homeworlds during the invasion of his world, sending crashing tidal waves to nearby shores in their wake. The Ogoncho Empire anticipated that loyal followers to their conquest would form a group like the Bakakumas. They granted their subjects this patch of land as a weapon against future enemies like Nishin Genma. The whole island resonated with a spiritual energy that if absorbed gave the Bakakumas an aura of invisibility to conceal themselves against the detection of their all-seeing foes. No wonder then this island was their sanctuary where they could train and grow their powers in complete secrecy, but even worse was yet to come.
Ryuken translated a stone engraving written in the old Bakakuma language that coded their messages, grudgingly admitting that he probably had an easier time reading it due to his own distant Ogoncho ancestry. It confirmed his theory while revealing the additional benefit to the Ogoncho gift. Even when extinct and reduced to powdered husks, the Ogoncho was still the plague that kept giving. Deep in the root of the island, the Imperialistic aliens had included a gateway to the world of ghastly demons led by the titan Gurudhum. The prophecy spoke that if their followers could defeat these creatures and absorb their essence, then they would have the strength to slay their enemies and bring on their much-desired apocalypse.
How much power this crazy plan would realistically grant the Bakakumas, Ryuken could only guess. Yet Bulru and his men were more insane than ever, and their unsettling interest in the Ultimate Fantasy project along with, as Ryuken feared, Vini Gravytun’s wisdom in demon summoning was beginning to complete the bigger picture of his investigation. That was why they were after that strange-looking trophy. With occult incantations to digital imprint, the trophy was the key to Gurudhum’s realm, and with the Ultimate Fantasy machines, whatever poor saps wired in were going to be vessels for his minion's return!
Before Ryuken left, the buzzing of flies and the rotten stench of blood and flesh compelled Ryuken to investigate one last chamber of horrors in this monastery. Here to the Demigod’s absolute disgust, the Bakakumas had been practising one last ancient ritual from their early days; The Masturbation of the War God.

It had been custom for Bakakumas to pay tribute to their main war god Hatchijin with the offerings of the severed hands, heads, and genitals of their foes. The wailing of amputated victims strung up in this chamber would give a lamenting chorus before the presence of the Bakakuma god, but the repugnance didn’t end there. The tall statue of the Hatchijin was built with a long barbed phallus to penetrate the very wombs of poor female sacrifices that were thrust upon it. One by one the women were perforated from crotch to mouth, their entrails and gore-splattered down into a reservoir. The Bakakumas believed by pleasuring their war god his spiritual sperm would mingle with the blood of the sacrifice contained in this reservoir. The followers would drink from it and inheriting Hatchijin’s essence, they would receive a great boon in power and become Ithyphallic.
As Ryuken scryed this chamber, he realised Bulru and his men did this to also inherit the island’s essence and become invisible to the psychic radar, and to further horror, he could see they used all the women they raped and kidnapped from the neighbouring lands for this unholy sacrilege.
Ryuken snarled again. The only cure for the Bakakumas was to step on their windpipes, press down until they stopped breathing. They were a disease that had to be wiped off Shuromij, and he loathed his Bakakuma ancestry all the more. Just as he was about to summon the power to blast this sacrificial chamber away, a sudden overwhelming surge of energy had built up behind him. Ryuken realised that he fell into a trap. He should have known that for a treacherous fighting force that aimed to be the strongest the Bakakumas didn’t care for the mantles of their war gods for they would slay them too. Ryuken had limited time to summon his powers in defence as the entire monastery was engulfed in a thermonuclear explosion.

With the building reduced to rubble, a wounded Ryuken tunnelled up like a miniscule mole. Reaching the surface he was greeted by the demeaning laughter of the Bakakuma legions of different sizes and styles, all led by Superior Tygrontuk and Ryouun. Bulru Shonat was already summoning Gurudhum’s army using a colony of brain dead junkies as gormless vessels wired up to a great ziggurat that functioned as one big Ultimate Fantasy network. Superior Tygrontuk confirmed that everything Ryuken read in that monastery was true, but there was one icing to the blackened cake that needed to be told. Bulru’s fellow soldiers in the Maleka mission, Mahn and Reiyoko had been kidnapped. Reiyoko would not only be sacrificed but with her potent psychic powers, she would function as the fuse for the great machine to open up the gateway with the key to the demonic titan’s world. And Mahn? In a deeper chamber of his own, he would be the vessel to resurrect Gurudhum himself. In Occultist circumstances, this was why the war frenzied soldier was orphaned on this very island. He spent his whole life trying to deny it, trying to escape, to make peace with it, but in the end, it was Mahn’s destiny of Royal Ancestry to unleash the hellish gift of the Ogoncho Empire. And Ryuken thought he had multiple bad inheritances.
As Ryuken clutched his wounds, Superior Tygrontuk mocked him further by saying he should have accepted his Bakakuma destiny and joined their ranks. Instead, he threw his lot with Nishin Genma and for that, he was deemed weak and must be destroyed. Then nothing would stop the Bakakumas as they carved their path of destruction across Shuromij.
Ryuken hissed that they had clearly been fed further information through Vini Gravytun and Kinlesbon who were at one point in league with their sworn enemies, and this drove Ryuken to boiling point. Because of Nishin Genma’s policies, they toyed with so many adversaries not caring who died for their own profit, overconfident they would solve any problem no matter how far it got out of hand. But they played with matches and immolated themselves instead. Now Nishin Genma was out of the picture, enemies like the Bakakumas were far stronger than they could handle and other mismanaged dangers of equal and greater power were on the warpath ready to take whatever they desired. Countless more could perish.
Yet as Superior Tygrontuk readied his ludicrous stance to strike down the Demigod, the hardest thing for Ryuken was to bury his laughter. Now Nishin Genma was gone, there was nothing holding him back.
A surprise counterattack reduced Superior-Tygrontuk to a pile of gore, as the Bakakuma force stood back in shock. Nishin Genma may have troubled them before, but they had yet to sample the true power of a Genma Visage Demigod, one who didn’t just have the strength but a wealth of training to go with it. More terrifying still to some of them was that from Ryuken’s technique they saw he had been taught by the much-feared berserker from the Pawaikohai island, Usheana Mano herself.
Upon killing the few cowards who took steps back in fear, Ryouun rallied his men and women to hit Ryuken with everything they got. Parrying, counterattacking and stealthily striking down the fighters, showers of bone and crimson fluid drenched the air. The Bakakumas had no idea that by attacking Ryuken they had already spelt death upon their own foreheads.

At the peak of the Mountains, Bulru Shonat had indeed carried out his plan. Reiyoko in her death throes was no more. Prior to then, to Bulru’s joy, he had a chance to dispose of the Nishin Genma fugitive Kinlesbon. Like Vini Gravytun, Kinlesbon had the grand end game plan to use the research from the deliberately sabotaged Ultimate Fantasy project to summon an army of demons underneath Saharon. They would then bind them to their will, renewing Nishin Genma’s influence and take over the world. Kinlesbon would gas-lighted anyone who got in his way, but instead, Bulru caught wind of both everything, including the Obsessed Cult, the term given for the collective of Ultimate Fantasy addicts on this island who had been reduced to savages. Bulru was additionally infuriated that two men of Nishin Genma were exploiting their sacred island right under very noses. Now deprived of the means to finish his plan and with the law, the Bakakumas and Ryuken Kage after him, the only escape a desperate Kinlesbon found was through the Ultimate Fantasy machine. The narcotic hypnosis from his own infernal machine completely destroyed his mind and rewrote his former personality, but he was nowtoo doped up on virtual ecstasy to worry and care by the time the axe fell.
Ironically, it was his manipulated subjects, the Obsessed Cult that finished him off. Kinlesbon had tricked them all into thinking he was their god-emperor, but when Bulru mortally injured the man, the Obsessed Cult in deranged lunacy tore into him like a pack of animals, for cannibalism wasn’t unheard among their horde. Regardless of poetic justice for all of Kinlesbon’s deception, the Obsessed Cult had been completely corrupted in mind and spirit by the pleasures of the Ultimate Fantasy machines and many false gods of social media. They sought the death of anyone that tried to make them see reality.
Bulru himself was most impressed by the Cults tenacity to weed out the weak, but although he was a Bakakuma, he wasn’t blind to the observation of one tiny detail. The Obsessed cult came to this Island to escape the authorities. They believed the special cables that Vini and Kinlesbon previously installed to build their unique grand ziggurat for the Ultimate Fantasy network would give them unending access to their virtual simulation drug, but on a remote island like Saharon, the Cult had no idea that it wasn’t powered by any Shuromij power grid. Instead, it drew energy from the very Gateway to the world of Gurudhum itself. Each time a cult member plugged themselves into the machine for their fix, a little bit of evil, demon ferocity slivered through the gateway to rework their very minds, making the entire Cult more than ripe for a later full possession.

Delighted, Bulru wasted no further time. Setting everything up, plugging every cultist into the ziggurat, Bulru placed the Trophy key into the control panel, flipped the switch and the unholy Sabbath began. Reiyoko shrieked in agony when her power was fully exerted and she was atomised in the rupturing explosion. The portal opened at the top of the ziggurat, blasting away the tip of the mountain and opening the sky. Fiendish apparitions flew through the air and sank into the vacant minds of the giggling, froth-mouthed Obsessed Cult . One by one in a blinding light that engulfed the chamber they gave their lives to transform into Gurudhum’s minions.
Down below, Mahn himself beaten and broken had long given up on pleas for mercy, for the Bakakumas were not famous for such a virtue. Tears in eyes, Mahn finally accepted his destiny and hoped that when Gurudhum finally possessed him, he would soon have his revenge. The wiring and cables came to life and perforated the veteran. Pumping him with new life, he howled that he would have his vengeance.

Ryuken had beaten Ryouun and his men to a pulp by the time he made it to the battle scene, but it was too late to stop the summoning. There at the top of the cliff, Ryuken saw it all. Like an ultraviolent mosh pit, flamboyantly dressed martial artists were locked in mortal combat with a demonic bestiary of nightmarish kaleidoscopic variety. With one-eyed goliaths, serpent men, giants of gut-churning horror and so much more, the Bakakumas had certainly picked their dream fight, but for a group of mortals partial to occasional cannibalism, to try and absorb these fiends life essence was to bite off more than they could chew. A deadlock was apparent from the many fountains of blood, limbs and eyeballs that flew through the air, but Gurudhum’s forces were winning. It looked like the whole army of demonic legions had the Bakakumas on the barb-wired ropes, but amidst the carnage of this hate box there was one ray of hope.

The cries of children revealed that the kidnapped sons of the Kaimana brothers were still alive. They escaped their captor and in dire peril, they hid under a small enclosure as the battle raged on. Ryuken carved a path of violence to reach over them before a collapsing demon could crush them. Snatching the boys from the jaws of death, Ryuken teleported them to safety in a nearby canyon. Regaining their breath, it was a rare moment for the Demigod that he had met the few children or people for that matter in existence who didn’t fear him. As the children recognised Ryuken beneath the Genma Visage makeup it seemed that despite his quest to regain the trust of Pawaikohai Island, he was, in fact, a respected legend there the whole time. He had, after all, defeated their enemy, the Sadistic 6, and Usheana called him Orca for a reason.
For the time being, Ryuken’s mission had been momentarily paused. The fate of the lost members of the Maleka squad was sealed. He couldn’t let either the Bakakumas or the demons leave this vile island alive, but the children’s safety was his top priority. He had to wait until the battle was over before making his next move.

Across the battlefield, Bulru Shonat and the newly born Mahn-Gurudhum faced off. Their fated showdown was at hand, and Bulru couldn’t wait to absorb the monster's power. Having toyed with his former colleague enough, the Bakakuma leader gestured his hands inviting the hulking giant to a test of strength.

Bulru Shonat was said to have been the strongest fighter in his legion’s recent history and definitely the most scheming, and Mahn-Gurudhum crushed the idiot in one blow. Limbs flailed, the earth shattered from the force of the punch as carrion birds flew far away for dear life.

The shockwave caught the attention of the Bakakumas and the demons. The creatures withdrew to welcome back their master, not realising that a little of the former human host had rubbed off on the great demon. Mahn-Gurudhum mercilessly killed everything in sight from his demon army to the remaining Bakakuma legions. Energy blasts that could level cities bounced off him like confetti. He blasted them all away with his demonic arm cannon, the titan laughed in sadistic glee as heads and rib cages swelled, expanded and exploded, washing the battlefield with an ocean of gore, and the world beyond Saharon would get a similar treatment. As Mahn-Gurudhum was engrossed old blood lust, Ryuken seized his moment, volleying through the air and unleashing a kick that shattered the titan’s jaw. Unharmed by the Bakakumas and demonic legions, Mahn-Gurudhum had now met a true threat to his power.

The Demon Titan got itself back up from crashing onto the ground. It nursed its broken tusk before defiantly brushing off the Demigod’s attack as the gentle patter of wind. What really struck Mahn-Gurudhum then was the heartfelt expression of pity across Ryuken’s face, who attempted to appeal to the demon’s better nature. Ryuken knew all about dealing with a rigged destiny, the pain it caused, and how people feared you for it. But letting the outside world suffer was not the answer. Ryuken called that out to Mahn, who was a loving husband to his wife Reiyoko, who could turn this around if he could let go of his fury.
Mahn was long dead, leaving the controlling entity Gurudhum to laugh at Ryuken’s mercy. There was nothing left that a mortal could find redeemable in the great beast, and in Mahn-Gurudhum’s eyes, nothing that could stop it from obliterating this world from existence. As it pointed its weapon at Ryuken, Mahn-Gurudhum was curious to see how its destructive power would affect a Demigod, but was suddenly alarmed to be staring down the depths of its own energy weapon.
Ryuken’s mask of pity turned to a cheeky grin. The demon titan had been suckered by magical infiltration. When Ryuken kicked Mahn-Gurudhum’s tusk off, he slivered some of his power into the blood vessels within the stump and into the demon’s body. Then through constant eye contact that they were making, Ryuken placed a discrete hypnotic glamour to activate this power in the body just like he did to Straig a while back. Now, with complete loss over its body’s functions, Mahn-Gurudhum could only curse Ryuken with every profanity in the book as its demon cannon activated, fired and blew its own head clean off its own shoulders. Poetically, it shared the same self-destructive fate as every felon there on the Island of Saharon.

By this time, Ryuken had deducted from past research that when the Bakakumas claimed they would absorb the soul energy of the dying demons, they were speaking in the pure metaphor of conquest. They never had such power, not even from Ogoncho's gifts. Bulru Shonat's plan had all been a giant training exercise; a maniacal rite of passage to prove themselves worthy among their Bakakuma peers. At the cost of many lives and endangering much more, it all ended in the Bakakuma's own annihilation. A zealous death cult enthralled to a dead empire that would have enslaved them regardless, most likely using Gurudhum's indiscriminate legions to exercise the merciless methods of scorched earth and victor's sadism. Yet now, the army of Bulru Shonat would proceed no further in their march across the world.
Ryuken had serious lamentations for Mahn. Picking up the trademark lucky helmet that had previously been attached like a necklace around Gurudhum’s neck, it saddened Ryuken that this was all that was left, a single totem of the man’s duty. Mahn and Reiyoko had both been atomised, and Ryuken could only hope whatever spirit world there was beyond the veil, they would find that peace they long sought after.
Everything about this battle was tragic, such a pointless waste of lives to fulfil an idiotic plan. Even the Obsessed cult could have had better lives on better paths. Bulru Shonat was vermin that Ryuken didn’t even think was worth spitting in his direction. Yet upon inspection of the remains of the Bakakuma leader, he recognised a concealed emblem Bulru kept on his person which closed the book of one more saga. The Sadistic 6 was really the Sadistic 7, for Bulru was the hidden mastermind who organised their atrocities the whole time.
With a sigh, Ryuken had seen enough for one day. It was time to take the boys home now that it was all over. The Bakakuma movement had taken a serious loss, and whoever remained loyal to the cause out there was a worry for another day. As the demon bodies began to dissolve, Gurudhum’s world completely emptied, Ryuken wished this god-forsaken island from the black stars would be buried by the sands of time. In the meantime, he at least hoped that the fresh cadavers of the Bakakumas didn’t spoil the vulture’s digestion.

Back on Pawaikohai, a hero’s welcome was given for the boys return to their teary parents as the crowd cheered all around them. By Mekualuadon lore, after returning from hell itself, Kaiko and Kawihani had sure earned the title of Orca, given to their bravest warriors. Warts and all, above all else the Pawaikohai people kept themselves going through love, companionship and the unyielding drive to rise against the odds. Kinship was a bond stronger than the self-destructive pursuit of death.

In solitude, however, under the chorus of tropical birds, the Elder Hanale Mano nursed the helmet of his fellow late soldier. He couldn’t believe two of his old friends were dead in tragic circumstances, and their murderer to be, the mastermind of many murders had served under his command the whole time. Once again another wrinkle of woe had been added to Hanale’s saddened life, yet in mourning, he still pursued that the stability of the universe was something worth fighting for. For that, he was beginning to forgive once more the very man who rescued the boys, who defeated the adversary and brought closure to this mad ordeal.

As the sun was setting, Pawaikohai’s celebrated hero was nowhere to be found. Across the Pawaikohai coast, the weight of today’s events had placed a weary strain on Ryuken’s shoulders. True as one man, he achieved in a few hours that could take teams of men days at best. Yet, the inevitable cycle of mass murder was one of many that were coming full circle all at the same time since the demise of his former masters, and he could only dread what other horrors of history would soon be unearthed. This was the price to pay for succeeding the Genma Visage, the eternal battle he must face.
Retiring for the day, he had to get away from the chatter of the surface world. Ryuken sought a bed within the cool currents at the bottom of the ocean, hoping the fond memory of his lover Usheana and the Pawaikohai’s goddess of the sea would give comfort and rejuvenate his being for a time.