by Nihar Sharma
“Why are you hiding in that rack” Vikram whispered.
“Keep quiet, he will hear us” she replied.
“Who?” he asked again, “I cannot see anyone here except us.”
Loka kept silence as she could see that guard was too close to her and it looked guard sensed something and rushed towards with groaning.
Loka whispered “Vikram, come here” he rushed to her. “What are we doing here?” his asked to know. “Map” she responded. “Map?” he asked again in surprise but she didn’t bother to reply.
“Just help me finding a blue colored envelope” she requested him.
He held his breath and dared asking her again “Unless you tell me why we require the map, I will not help.”
She glared at him and replied in anger “My lord, it is you, who wants to get out of this place and this map will lead you outside. Though we are mice so we can escape through holes or other ways but you? We require this map to locate where Huster is too?” and she grinned.
They have been tired of searching for the map, there was no such blue envelope. Vikram was tired searching for and sat in the corner.
“Oh god” she exclaimed, “We have found it.”
Vikram looked at her; she was holding that blue envelope. He took it from her and tried to open it but she stopped him from doing so.
“You said this is a map, if we don’t open it how can we see the map?” he asked.
She replied “This is not an ordinary map and you are not in human world, this is the dark world and dark magic is everywhere, this envelope holds few blues souls who will guide us, so we will open it in right time.” Then someone screamed “They are here”. They got scared.
A SECRET STORY:
“What?” screamed Slista on her husband during the dinner?
Aaditya was invited by Hades and his family to have dinner with them, they all sat in the dining table and Slista was serving food along with her daughter Naida. As Hades came from a mission successfully, his best friend Duster had arrived to have dinner with them. He was bachelor so he frequently used to visit them and especially when Hades was out, his family depended on Duster for small needs and he was also second rank leader after Hades and he acted as Hades in his absent. He also took care of Slista and his niece Naida. He was brother to Hades and they brought up together.
Duster suggested sending a spy to netherworld. They all were worried about the current situation. If gods lost the war the darkness would plunge and every single world would be savaged and the evil and pestilence would take over and whole world turned into a putrescent place to live. Rebels and massive civil war would break in, and if dark lord lost the war then the human world would be no longer mortal, chaos would spread and a battle for power would begin. In this disrupted balance, all would fall in breaking truce which might bring an endless war.
Hades advised “If we send one of us then he might not come back as a spy, but as an ambassador he might come back.”
“Hmm…” replied his friend, Duster “For that we need a diplomat.”
Aaditya realized he was in a political dinner not in family dinner. So he just kept his tongue busy in tasting delicacies of food.
“Who do you suggest my dear friend?” Duster again asked.
“Either you or me” Hades suggested.
Then his wife Slista screamed at him. “Neither you nor Duster will go for this dangerous task.” She was angry with that decision to be made, she didn’t want her husband to leave again for another mission nor did she want to lose Duster.
Aaditya nudged Duster “Oh that name Hades is after Greek god who takes care of netherworld, isn’t it?”
Duster shrugged and busy with eating seemed he was not interested in talking.
Hades smiled and replied “No, the chief of this tribe is known as a Hades and that’s how my name is taken place, my actual name is Luuster. It is a long story”
Aaditya nodded “We have time, you can proceed.”
“Luuster, where did you find him?” asked Duster.
“In dark chamber near that lake’s bank, the white stone has been broken that means someone has destroyed the secret world and that monster, flesh and blood of dark lord too.”
Aaditya was silent. Then Duster sighed “Lord Goat knows what will happen next.”
Hades patted on his friend’s shoulder “My dear friend, don’t worry. That dark chamber has been closed millennia ago but I have no idea how that got opened.”
Duster looked at Aaditya and asked “How did you reach there?”
He had no intension to answer; if he opened his mouth then he might get into a trouble. So being little diplomatic, he replied “I don’t know, I have been taken there with information that I would be taken to dark lord’s court and he will decide my destiny.”
Aaditya sighed and added “came there through a portrait.”
“A portrait” Duster furrowed.
“A black magic in deed” Hades said.
Aaditya looked at Hades and asked “I have heard this name several times the dark lord, who is this guy?”
Hades replied “He is the most dangerous soul, evils believe he is the only god, where human world is not aware of it and gods want him dead.” He sighed “There is a story behind every name and every name has a story. This is about the dark story about a man who stood and plunged into darkness.” Aaditya and Naida took interest so they were paying full attention.
He continued “There was no devil and evil forces once upon a time, all were living in peace but the gods and goddesses weren’t respected and worshipped that much, so they were powerful but the fear had plunged into their hearts, if their greatest creation mortals didn’t worship them they might had lost their immortality and nobody would require gods and goddesses, one world one universe. There was no heaven, no earth, and no netherworld.
But the gods and their court companions were little jealous about the human beings. Gods and other powerful people like kings have enough gold to enjoy their luxurious lives that common men could not but they had nothing but their happy family and their own lands. They used to harvest enough food to survive happily. But that was not accepted by gods and they had decided to make different worlds so control would be easier and they could achieve what they sought for. Their plans worked out. They used their divine power and made three different worlds, Heaven, Mortal world i.e. earth and Netherworld. Three brothers had distributed their worlds and power.
Rebellion stood up, and many more worlds had been created. The earth had been endangered and only gods could save human world. So human beings started worshipping gods and goddesses and they got the extreme power and they created their empire the most powerful and safest. They got control over, sunlight, cloud, rain, water, wind, storm, earth quake and so on.
Gods used to rain heavily, earth quakes and all this natural disaster so human beings could think of them, the fear had become the weapon to put them into worshipping and praying. But the netherworld was the most peaceful and holiest place at that time. That lasted for long and gods had suppressed the rebellions completely. The Titans had taken over the whole control but he gave freedom to netherworld, so the souls can rest in peace. Over the periods that place had slipped from his grip and became the place for bad souls too.
The monks, sages went to heaven and requested gods to make a place for good souls to rest in peace in heaven, the bad souls were disturbing them. And the souls were invading the human world crossing their boundaries which was not good signs.
The Titans had no choice. He could not destroy the netherworld otherwise the bad souls would create problems for human world. Good souls had to be allowed to travel to heaven and if they didn’t do, then human would stop praying and worshipping which would destroy their reign forever.
So a place for the good souls was created and for transferring and deciding the good and bad souls 5 agents were appointed, Air, Fire, Wind, Soil and Water.
This plan worked out for thousands of years, and the
gods become the most powerful, and netherworld turned into the junk and punishment cell for bad souls, which was designed for that work only. Time was the most effective weapon; the land which was thrown uncared had turned into the most dangerous crop land for evils to rise against gods and bad against good.
The netherworld started creating the evils forces, invading human beings became frequent and sinners increased in numbers and went out of control without a master. Evils had reached to the doors of heaven so gods had to take actions against them. So they started a war but due to the lack of the effective leader and leadership the evils lost the war and they were thrown back into the hell.
And the peace availed for long. No wars, no ambushing and people started praying to gods more and more.
But one day after millennia, a miracle happened. A goddess landed in human world for watching the beauty of the earth with her friends and they started playing into crop field. She never had seen the crops in her long lasting life.
There she met him, a son of the farmer of that land. He wanted to save his crops from those divine women who were playing around. He caught her tight and dragged her into his hut, her friends flew away and informed divine guards, and they approached quickly and arrested that boy.
The father of that boy had apologized to gods and her too, but his son couldn’t. He wasn’t stubborn; he was stunned with the beauty of hers. Both had locked their eyes with each others. Guards took her with them and punished the boy with whips brutally but left alive. But he didn’t flinch for while as he was lost in her eyes. She first time felt like feelings in her heart beat after so many long years, she could feel mortal. The love sparked at both ends in both hearts.
He used to be lost in her memory and dreamt, and she used to come down to the earth alone and watched him. Both had fallen in love, started meeting each others. But the news had reached to divine ears.
But they were happy with each other’s arms, decided to soon get married secretly. So they had planned a secret marriage.
The time skipped before the plan could take shape into realty, and luck had slipped from their grip. She wanted to hide and he tried to protect her but the wrath of gods had burst on them. The divine soldiers who used to protect her, they had raped her before him and left half dead.
He was beaten half dead too, presented in heaven’s council. He was alive enough to hear the words of council. They had shown mercy and sliced her throat with the golden knife which was made to kill immortals.
He cried, pleaded for her life but they didn’t listen to him, her father walked away and ordered his soldiers to kill him.
But the destiny had already decided the fate; the strongest divine soldiers couldn’t kill him. They chopped off his head from the body but the head had found way back to its body. An old magic that council forgot, an immortal could give his or her immortality to any mortal but then golden knife couldn’t kill him or her. It was the black magic by nature herself to keep control over all.
She had given her immortality to her husband long ago. Immortality belonged to her heart and she had given to her love. She had a fear that one day soldiers would find him and would try to kill him so she had taken her steps before anything could happen worst.
Gods had realized and threw him into underworld with power to do bad deeds, gods had chosen him because his heart was killed and no more love, empathy left in his heart. He was the perfect man to deliver the results and stand up on their hopes. They asked him to scare people so they could come to them for safety and pray for them more and it would give them respect and admiration. But gods had no idea that man would stand against them, so he slowly created his world which is known as an netherworld where the gods are paralyzed with powers, only the devil can use them and day by day the fear increased, the gods demanded little so they could have attention but they did not imagine that devil created by them would put them in risk. Devil found his disciples; the souls who had have crimes done can join his team, as days went on the power increased. He brought chaos and plague on earth, killing innocents and destroying temples and human beings and gods joined hands to defeat him.
And one day after a long war, he was killed by someone who was in true love; the man who killed him was Naduse later became the lord of the netherworld.” Hades took long breathe and looked at Aaditya and smiled, Naida sat on her father’s lap and asked “now, he wants to do same as previous one did.”
He smiled at her daughter and replied “no, he would fight for his own world because I know him, we used to be friends once.” Aaditya yawned, because he was tired. Duster left already in middle of the story and Slista in her bedroom. Hades advised to have rest.
HEAVEN IS DISTURBED
“Father, are you crazy?” the prince screamed at his father, the king of gods.
The king cut in “Mind your language”. Prince lowered his head but breathing heavily in anger. The queen interrupted, “dinner waits for none, please come and have seats.”
“Yes, highness” Yamraj showed utter respect for his queen and king. They were three on table discussing about dark lord. The divine prince wanted that giant reptile born out of dark lord’s flesh could be unleashed against his own father. But king disagreed “we will ambush from different sides and killed his whole army along with that monster.”
“But my lord, the plan sounds wonderful, no doubt in it but” Yamraj hesitated and the prince’s eyes on him and kept the morsel on plate to hear Yamraj’s plan.
“What do you mean by?” asked king “do you have any doubt?”
“My lord, I just want______” Yamraj couldn’t complete his statement.
“Stop this non sense, I have been ruling this place and Universe before you both was born” king threw his bread away on the table.
The queen cut in “Please be calm and have dinner” kept her hand on her husband’s shoulder. The king breathed in and nodded to his beautiful wife. She advised king “Please listen what our old friend wants to say first.”
The king looked into his eyes and nodded, “My lord, what prince says, it sounds impeccable.”
“I am not worried about that. The thing that worries me is if Torriyan comes into reign then he will ruin our world alone and we cannot do anything that is well known fact.” King’s words caught their attention, and prince started enjoying the mature conversation.
“But my lord, that boy is weaker since then. And if we try to kill Torriyan first then dark lord will attack us and everything will be in serious trouble. And if that boy couldn’t be a prodigy soul then it would be a war without any reason jeopardizing the availing peace.” Yamraj had a valid point, “we cannot depend on prodigy soul to turn the side, and here I would say prince is right.”
“Might be” king spoke “but dark lord has to die with or without any reasons. If he got control over that so called prodigy soul then we would be better running from one world to another.”
“Then we have no choice my lord” added Yamraj “we need to unleash that giant monster and attack from both sides, hybrid attack would leave no choice for them to prepare.” Prince also nodded as he found little interesting over here as king stared at his son and smiled, clear symbol that his son’s idea was accepted by elders.
“Hmm…” King smiled “we will find something to work out over this, as this is the ultimate plan and it has to work otherwise we all will die like mortals and when gods die it means nothing except oblivion. No existence, the whole history turns around” and he sighed.
The maids came with towel and bowl filled with hot water and half piece of lemon for hand wash. Yamraj washed his hand and couldn’t keep himself away from a piece of delicious mango cake.
“Yummy! It is delicious” he appraised and looked at the queen.
“It is from the garden of heaven, so its taste is the best in universe” answered the queen with modesty.
“Garden of heaven, wow” Yamraj exclaimed “it has been a long I haven’t walked in your garden.”
The queen looked
at her husband and smiled “why not”, and then they all walked into the beautiful streets of heaven garden. King’s guards were always ready, since the universal chaos over power and game of death started. It seemed like Yamraj had something, he sensed a smell of fresh soul passed from here.
“What happened?” asked queen as she found disappearance of happiness from his face. He started looking around and trying to find something.
“My lady, I can smell a soul passing through this gate” he was confident.
“What” she surprised with his statement “it cannot be possible, souls can’t come here.” But Yamraj was busy in more information. He closed his eyes and trying to rotate the Kalchakra’s pendulum for while.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked him again to confirm. Yamraj never lied, and she knew that but it was question of security then. King was little far conversing with his son about the strategy of war so he also joined with his son, the divine prince.
“The fresh smell ensures that soul has passed from here and no one could observe it” he added to his king.
“How could it happen?” the king asked his head of the security of that garden. “How could a soul walk into this garden freely?”
“This is very bad if a soul walks free anywhere in heaven, it should either be in prison or in its designated place. It seems the heaven has lost its power to control souls” Yamraj added spices.
“My lord, my apology but we never ever saw a soul roaming here” the head of the security pleaded.
“What do you mean?” king screamed in anger “is Yamraj a liar?”
The head of the security was speechless, Yamraj never lied.
“My lord” Yamraj called the king, “I can smell an angel too.”
“What?” king surprised and he glared at the queen, she used to look after the fairy and angels matter and welfare. She nodded and started walking with her body guards and maids towards the angel cave where they used to live.