Dushyantaa hid in the storm’s shadow, slinking between wide trees hidden in the blanket of water. The ground grew to a stew, muddy steps wrapping Dushyanta's calves. Swift shadows, shades darker than Dushyanta’s, followed behind. His darting could only keep him apart for so long. He had to reach the palace, for if he could not, then the portal to Gehenna would be forever closed.
“Dushyanta!” A voice howled. “Stop where you are!” Lightning flattened a depression around Dushyanta. Parting the clouds, five figures surrounded the fleeing man.
“Jinny of Peach Mountain…” Dushyanta said with spite.
Jinny burped, his pudgy lips spitting phlegm. Wiping the top of his shaved head left a greasy feeling between his fingers. Jinny used this grease to lighten the frizz of spiky hair covering the back and sides of his head. His long gaping earlobes fluttered with the coming breeze. Scratching under his tummy, he lifted his bare feet to the heavens, with a slam down he tilted the planet by one centimeter. The rope that held up his bottoms shook and loosened, a haori of invisibility waved over his shoulders as polka dots entered Dushyanta’s sight.
“Dushyanta, you know that you don’t belong here… Whatever reason you have for crossing over you need to forget. Rest and accept your fate, move on,” Jinny said with pitying eyes.
“Pity me not, I am not a slave to God. I was given the choice, if it was so wrong, then it should have never been possible. Awaken, envelope me, Leviathan!” Dushyanta cried towards the sky, the clouds reconnected. Together they spun, the fishing rod morphed with eyes and teeth. Rabid hunger plagued Dushyanta’s mind, the corruption seeping into his very being. As though he were drowning, he entered the lake. Jinny and his crew chased, yet the separation never shortened. As though locked at a fixed distance.
“Shit! It’s a curse. Benjamin, begin a prayer!” Jinny shouted. Opening the branch of life, Jinny cast down spears of fossilized oak, but even they could not touch Dushyanta. They arrived too late, Dushyanta had begun the stabilization of Gehenna with the World.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“It’s sloppy all around, I can’t take this with me… Half way there… To a New World,” Dushyanta dropped the fishing rod into the lake as he reached down to open the doors to the celestial realm. “Open Zodiac Palace, I believe in truth, love, and justice, I will clear a path for my brethren. A land where death no longer exists, peace and happiness for all.” Dushyanta clapped—
“Welcome…Dushyanta,” Willow whispered.
“Thank you for having me.”
“It is our honor…” Willow said, softer than whisper.
“It is going according to the plan,” Dushyanta said, avoiding eye contact with the other four sitting.
“As you say Dushyanta…how is the last piece coming along?” Willow asked.
“Six months in the World…six months is all I will need.”
“Understood, then we will prepare in accordance with your schedule.”
Jinny stared at the black pool consumed by a speciation of Rot. He dared not touch, until he saw the figure floating to the surface. Bronze skin, thick wavy black hair that coiled at the ends, within the grasp of the rising boy was an ornate fishing rod that had just caused catastrophe. Jinny leaped towards a wave of wind, riding above the bubbles of death, Jinny swept up the boy. As he cradled him, Jinny felt the inauspicious energy. Shuddering, Jinny almost dropped the boy back into the sludge.
We best be careful of this one. “Send a report to Lord Xertoz, a calamity class has spawned. We must have this entire forest closed off, let no one enter.”
“Aye!” The five men accompanying Jinny saluted as they quickly turned to their duties.
