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Underworld | One week earlier, after the fallout at the cave
Dali lay flat on her back, with Dansh beside her, face down in the fog of dust. Dansh stood up and wiped at his eyes, then walked over to check on the enchanters, but they had all died. Their skulls were cracked open. His three enchanters’ dead bodies lay over their blood as it was gushing out from their heads, skulls clearly visible.
Dansh screamed in anger. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” he cried, looking at their bodies. “But I promise I will take vengeance on your death.”
He shifted his look to Dali.
“And you! You can’t die,” he yelled. “I spent hundreds of months trying to wake you. I even made a shield around us. If I’m alive, you better be too. My hard work can’t, just can’t, fail. You need to wake up, take revenge on those bloody humans, rule the world, and of course, make me immortal ... WAKE UP!”
The dusty fog suddenly began to evaporate in the air, mere feet away from him, as if a force was moving toward him. As it neared, his eyes captured a clear picture of what was approaching, and he could see they were rakshasas.
Dansh looked around to see where he was. “Underworld!?”
He looked at the force of hundreds of rakshasas and saw someone like a king in the center of the force—he was on an animal or something. Dansh tried to get a clear look but couldn’t. He let it go, not bothering himself as it wasn’t important. He just needed to have a clear look at the person riding.
“Is he the king of the Underworld?”
He stood where he was, waiting for them to arrive.
The force approached, and some rakshasas rushed to him and stood around holding their swords, allowing him no space to escape. It was as if they believed he was their enemy.
Dansh glanced at each of them, slowing his anger and trying to figure out how to kill them all. He had to show them who he was and what he could do before they could even comprehend his attack.
The rakshasas remained quiet, glaring at him. Then they stepped aside, allowing passage to the king-like figure.
Dansh, his expression holding a mixture of sorrow and fury—sorrow for not having Dali with him, and fury for finding himself trapped between rakshasas who hadn’t answered his questions yet—stared. He was right about where he had fallen; the man was Sekiada, the king of the Underworld. His appearance was spine-chilling: burned face, the right side of which had flesh rotting. His palm had no common fingers but was shaped in a triangle, shaped to a point like a knife. As he approached, it became clear that the creature he was riding was a lion.
Sekiada, who had been patrolling his kingdom, now stood in front of Dansh and scanned him up and down.
“Human!” said Sekiada with all the hate he could muster. It seemed Sekiada would cut his head off without providing him a chance to defend himself. But the next moment, as Sekiada’s eyes captured the dead body lying behind Dansh, his eyes narrowed, and his lips quivered as if to say something, but he couldn’t get the words out of his mouth as if they had stuck in his throat. On closer inspection, when he saw Dali, he just couldn’t believe his eyes. He breathed deeply to calm his feelings, closing his eyes and clenching his fist. When he released his hand, he breathed out calmly.
“Is she the strongest churel, Dali? The Dali who died five thousand years ago?”
Now luckily, Dansh had a chance, that golden chance to tell the king everything about him, about Dali, and his intention. It was his proposal, just as a boy seeks to marry a girl, a student seeks admission at their favorite school, an employee seeks an employer. However, there was a slight difference; if he failed, he would lose his life.
But Dansh was sharp. He was experienced in the black arts. He had done something every evil would have loved: he had resurrected Dali.
Dansh carefully appraised Sekiada, taking in his appearance: diamond-inscribed mojari on his feet, wrapped in a black dhoti, his six-pack abs on display, and a lion face crown on his head.
“If I’m not wrong, you’re the king of the Underworld, Sekiada.”
“I’m impressed,” he responded. “But how do you know?”
“I know every evil, no matter whether they are dead or alive. Whether they are eastern or western. Whether they are rakshasas, ghosts, or vampires. I know every dead and every immortal evil.”
“Impressed, once again. Now answer my previous question. Is she the strongest churel of the ancient era, the Dali?”
“Yes. She is Dali. I brought her back to life.”
“Unbelievable!”
“Dali was on top of my list. Every evil respected her, not only because she was powerful but also, because she had already spread her terror around the globe. Travelers tried to avoid certain villages so as to steer clear of her. And then, as time passed, travelers began avoiding the places where they found the existence of not only Dali but also her followers. She had become so powerful after drinking human blood that she had begun to transfer some of her powers to her devotees; consequently, many other churels, evil humans, and daayans also began hunting innocents under her influence.” Dansh stopped for a moment, waiting for Sekiada’s response, but none came, so he continued. “But then the time came when a cruel rishi in the middle of the desert city now known as Rajasthan killed Dali when she was trying to grow her powers. After her death, her devotees tried to take revenge on that rishi and others. But the rishis killed them all, and so, slowly, the terror of churels, daayans, and wicked humans ended.”
Sekiada kept staring at him, and it seemed as if he were prompting him to tell him more.
“I mastered the black magic. I learned all about resurrection so I could bring Dali back to life. Together we would end humanity with the rise of the evils. The evils who have always wished to rule the earth but couldn’t, whether that was because of a rishi’s holy curse or after Lord Vishnu’s interference to protect humans.” Dansh clenched his fist and grit his teeth. “This time, the evils will rule earth. I believe this is not the time when Lord Vishnu will return with a new avatar, and I believe there is no holy rishi left on this planet who can stop us with his curse.” Dansh paused. “I don’t worry about you because I know you’re immortal. You did Tapasya for thousands of years and impressed Lord Brahma, who showered a boon upon your wish—”
“Yes. He showered me with a boon of my choice ... Immortality,” said Sekiada, “The immortality he didn’t want to give me, and that which no God has given yet to anyone. But I used my smarts and took immortality from him. I wished that no one, whether it be man or boy, animal, bird, creature, monster, demon, rakshasa, or any other evil would be able to kill me. No God, nor Goddess or any type of weapon, whether it be made with copper, iron, gold, silver, can defeat me in all three worlds: Hell, Heaven, and earth.”
“You didn’t mention women!?”
“Lord Brahma asked me the same question. He pointed out that I asked that a Goddess couldn’t kill me, but I didn’t ask to be protected from women. But the truth is a Goddess could take different avatars to kill demons, but women ...” Sekiada frowned and spat on the ground. “Women are weak. Human ladies are good at taking care of their children and managing their chores. But above everything, they are only good for pleasing men and rakshasas like us.” Sekiada paused for a bit. “When I gave the same answer to Lord Brahma ages back, his face clearly portrayed disappointment. Yet, as I impressed him with my Tapasya, he had to grant me what I asked for, and so he did without asking me more questions, saying ‘Tathastu’.” At this, he let his booming laugh echo all over the Underworld, and Dansh grinned. He was pleased that the immortal rakshasa appeared happy with him and impressed by his intelligence. Sekiada could help him bring Dali once more back to life—not after years like last time, but in a matter of hours.
“I’m impressed,” said Sekiada after a moment. “I’m impressed, and I’d love to hear a reason behind your being here. Tell me, what it is that has brought you to the Underworld.”
Dansh told Sekiada everything. How he brought Dali back after performing the black magic. How he captured Rahul, Elisa, and the villagers, and finally how the cave seemed to explode and he ended up here.
He flared his nostrils in disappointment at his defeat. He paused for a moment in a bid to soothe his frustration.
“First of all, we’ll need to bring Dali back to life. Once she’s returned, we can bring destruction to the humans. We can first take revenge on the people who almost murdered her, and then we’ll attack the cities in this country, one after another. After that, we’ll move on to other country.”
“What will you need from me?”
“I’d like you to gather all the evils.”
“If it were that easy to call upon them, I’d have done it already and attacked the nation myself. I’d rule the world by now, and not only earth but Heaven as well.”
“I believe some evils would love to be on your side,” said Dansh, for he had an excellent knowledge of the demons and their history. “Many are waiting for her return,” he pointed at Dali’s dead body. “So that she can massacre the humans once again.”
“I’m truly impressed with your knowledge of the evils,” said Sekiada, smiling. “I accept your proposal. I will help you to wake her, and I shall gather all the evils to end humanity. After all, demons have been waiting for the day to exit this Hell and spread their terror all over the earth. They have just been waiting for great leaders. I’m sure when they will hear Dali and I are about to lead them to end humanity, they will join us for sure.”
Dansh was full of jubilation.
“Yet,” said Sekiada, and his smile vanished instantly.
Dansh stood there impatiently, waiting for Sekiada to speak.
“I can read your frustration at Dali’s death. But I’m afraid it may take longer than a few hours to bring her back to life. Maybe a few months, maybe more. I can try, but I just don’t know when she will return.”
Now Dansh wasn’t happy at all, but he had no other choice. He knew he needed Sekiada to bring Dali back, that Sekiada could do it much earlier than he could. All his enchanters died in the earthquake, and while Sekiada could have brought Unan, Teryo, and Krito back to life as well, Dansh didn’t want to waste his precious time on them. Dansh was frustrated that, even with Sekiada’s help, he would have to wait so long to bring about a catastrophic death of innocents. However, after a few weeks or months, she would regain her powers and she could make him immortal. For only Dali knew the spell to. Ironically, she had never used this spell on herself—it seemed that she had a large enough ego to believe that with her powers, she would never need it.
“Take the body to the chamber,” said Sekiada in their mother tongue, his voice loud, filled with a strict order.
Dansh wasn’t great at only witchcraft; he had learned all the ancient and modern languages of evils. He understood Sekiada.
About a hundred rakshasas bent to pick up Dali’s dead body.
Sekiada walked to his lion and set himself on it. Dansh stood beside him, staring while waiting for his new king to provide him a means of transport as well, even though they hadn’t talked about it. Sekiada perhaps understood Dansh’s intention from the way he was staring at him on his lion. Sekiada hesitated, but then he pulled out his sword from the sheath that hung at his waist and pointed it at the ground beside him. A sparkle at the sword’s edge, and the next moment a rotten, evil horse came into existence.
A wide smile lit up Dansh’s face as he scanned the horse.
“My gift for you. This is not an ordinary horse. It will attack humans upon your order. It will pull out their flesh with its sharp teeth.”
“I appreciate your accommodation,” said Dansh. “Especially this gift. Thank you!”
Dansh climbed up onto the horse through the stirrup, and as he began following Sekiada toward the palace, the rakshasas picked up Dali’s body and began marching after them.
