The loud scraping of stone to iron as a man sharps his long-forgotten but faithful swords. Even though they were decades old, they were still sharp enough to cut through the thickest of amour. The man, a veteran long out of the game war of combat, straps the two swords to his waist as he finishes gathering the rest of his weapons and gear. His hands were shaky and damaged due to years of combat and old age. As he leaves his home, he wraps his long black and grey hair in a ponytail as his mostly grey long beard blows in the wind.
As he leaves his home, he places flowers on three rocks and lights incense next to them before proceeding on his way. As he traverses through the jungle to his destination, he pulls out a letter written for him which states. " You have forgotten about me for too long now. You paid the ultimate price. Find me, my darling, so we can have our last dance." As he reads over the letter, he sighs heavily as his old body and bones force their way up the rough terrain to her. Even after twenty-five years, she has been the one constant source of his pain and anguish.
"I thought I was finally free of you. Yes, am still afflicted by your curse, but I was happy and you took everything away from me yet again. Why would you choose to return after all these years? Why not kill me? Why leave me to live?" The man shouted as tears flowed down his face.
"But I guess the time for questions and answers are over. The only thing left is to do what I had set out to do all those years ago, which was to kill you, Delilah, then die myself. At least in death, I know you won't harm anyone else again." The man continued as he reached the entrance of a large cave.
As he braced himself for what he would have to encounter inside, he began remembering what led him to this point twenty-five years old. He was a young man of Japanese descent name Jin Takahashi. At twenty years of age, young Jin was a huntsman who made his living hunting various animals and beasts. Whether it be hunting them to sell as meat or medicinal supplies or killing a powerful beast that attacked a village., to receive prize money. Young Jin did it all for the right price.
One day as he was wandering through a village that was just attacked by some sort of creature he could over he the villagers speak about how they will pay any price for the beast to be slain. With the prospect of untold riches, Jin quickly approaches the villagers and offers his help. The villagers spoke about a monstrous beast. They killed livestock and villagers alike and offered hundred and fifty bags of gold coins and a horse for anyone who can get rid of it.
Unfortunately for Jin, several other hunters, twenty of them in total, have already gathered to take down the beast together. The young Jin was upset that his riches would have to be split by twenty other men, as he believed he was strong enough to take the beast head-on alone. One hunter approached young Jin and explained that several hunting parties have gone after the creature and all were found dead. Whatever the creature was, it was fast, strong, and merciless in nature.
Jin agreed to team up and sharing of the riches as the hunting party gathered themselves and prepared for the hunt. As they tracked down the creature, Jin observed that the surrounding hunters were experienced and trained men that were years ahead of Jin, yet still they were afraid to take on the creature by themselves. "What type of creature will make harden trained and experience men scared like this? But ever it is, it is still no match for me." Jin thought to him as one hunter spotted a trail of fresh blood.
The hunting party quickly took after the fresh trail of blood, not wanting to lose the creature. After several minutes, they arrived at an enormous cave. The cave itself was spooky and had a feeling, like death itself resided in the cave. The hunting party, including Jin himself, steps back as they feel the spiritual pressure of something far greater than themselves lurking inside the belly of the cave.
The men look at each other, wondering what to do, as none of them ever felt anything like this before. Spooky and unsure of themselves, the men debated on who should go inside first, as their hardened disposition turned into frail cowardice. After several minutes, the hunting party decided to enter the cave together, ambush whatever was lurking, and get out of there as quickly as possible. Jin was a little unsure of himself and still ran to position himself in the front of the hunting party to prove himself among the older hunters, who at this point in time were more concerned about their lives than looking cool. But young Jin was still full of overconfidence and pride as he strolled inside.
Inside, the men were distraught as the floor of the cave was littered with bones of livestock and men alike. Bloodstained the walls of the cave as the feet of the men sunk into the sea of bones."What could have done this? There must be hundreds of people who died here." Shouted one hunter as bones of children and even newborns were being found. "Whatever it is it is pure evil and greed. I have been a hunter for twelve years now and I have never seen any creature or beast cause destruction on such a scale before. This thing is pure evil." Replied another hunter as more and more bones litter the floors as they journeyed down inside the cave.
As continued into the deeps of the deadly cave, more bones paved the way, but now the party found various weapons of fallen hunters and warriors that came before them. Hundreds of swords, spears, knives, chained weapons, etc, mixed in perfectly with the bones of their fallen wielders. Some of which were still holding their weapons even though they were just dust and bones now.
"Now I am scared. Look at all of this carnage. It can't be one creature doing this, it must be a pack. Nothing on earth could be this strong." Shouted one of the hunters as he began losing himself in fear and desperation. "Get ahold of yourself. We are too far deep to turn back now. If it is a pack, we must ambush to get the upper hand or wise we are dead, OK!" shouted another hunter as he tries to calm down the previous hunter. All the while, Jin thought to himself that the piles of fallen hunter bones just meant they were weak and unprepared for the beast and thus they died as they should. But he wouldn't. He was a true huntsman and will fell this beast and collect those riches even if he has to do it himself without the help of these old cry baby hunters.
As the terrified men traverse through the cave, they finally see an opening as light could be seen at a distance. They decided among themselves that they will sneak inside what looks like the creature or creature's dent and observe them before landing a quick-killing blow. Jin yawned at the plan as he believe the others were overreacting but wanted to get it over with to collect the prize money agreed to their plan as they approached the light.
As the hunting party entered the other side of the light, all they could see was nothing. No colossal beast like a bear, tiger, or lion. Not even a pack of smaller predators like wolves and other pack creatures. The only thing the men could see was some freshly killed human corpses suggesting whatever killed them was still around somewhere and at the far distance a stone chair no more like a throne opposite to them. The men look around, confused as no sign of whatever could have attacked these people anywhere to be found.
The men separated, looking for clues as no creature meant no reward and none of them wanted to return empty-handed, even though they were terrified beyond belief. They had come too far to turn back now. Suddenly, then heard the loud eerie laughter of a woman coming from nowhere. The men quickly regroup as the laughter was so sinister that the pours of the men raised and the hairs on their arms stood straight as a pin. The laughter seemed to fill the entire cave as the men could hear it from every direction as it seemed to be closing in on them.
Suddenly, a beautiful young woman appeared in a white kimono with pink flower patterns on it. She seemed to have appeared out of thin air as she approached the petrified group of men. As she walks slowly over to them with a pleasant smile on her face, the men could not help but feel scared and relieved at the same time as she stares and at and says " Hello boys, what can I do for you?"