Tsuki had a strange dream where a beast, not unlike a large tiger, was looking at her. Although, calling the beast a tiger was diminutive: its muscles were more explosive and longer limbs differentiated it from other felines. While some call a lion the king of beasts, that creature Tsuki was looking at ought to be called their god.
Hundreds of weapons and arrows marred the creature’s bloody back which struck with one another as it swayed closer to the girl. She fell down on the ground that was covered by a thin layer of water. With the sky painted black and a strange tree with translucent leaves growing nearby, she understood she was in the strange world she usually talked with Yuu in.
The beast growled at the young girl before lunging forward; its jaw opened, ready to tear her to shreds. But before it could plunge its fangs into the girl’s weak body, it encountered a glassy reflective wall and got scared of its own appearance.
Hisssssssss
In Tsuki’s lap, a small cat with only one eye was suddenly hissing toward the large tiger. From where or when it appeared couldn’t be said as it felt like it had always been there, yet wasn’t in the slightest.
The tiger, which was as large as a house, wasn’t scared of the small cat blocking him but was scared of his own reflection. Was this what he had become, thought the warrior. Where were his golden armor, his sturdy bow, and his trusted sword? Here he was, the rakshasa who went too far and was consumed by his rage. Halambusha, the great warrior who died by the son of the man who unjustly murdered his brother.
The beast slowly remembered who he was, and regret befell him. He had his nemesis’ son in his palm; 2000 soldiers were following behind him and routed the enemy forces. He only needed to command them well: “Archer, paint the sky black! Divert their attention while the cavalry goes around their overextended flank!” So why was the only thing that left his mouth a maddened scream no better than a dying bull?
The Rakshasa looked more deeply at his reflection as if the truth hid in his colorful fur of blood and ink. The diplopia of his own self made him dizzy, but a crystal-clear word uttered by the weak girl rose the warrior from his slumber.
“Transmutation!” said Tsuki, holding the pendant of a blue crystal leaf she received after she was pressured into killing the young wolf by its mother over her right shoulder, the one ruined by the parasite.
The same way she fused the strange rod with her shoulder, causing what it is like now, she tried to fuse the thing that was sleeping inside the leaf with the parasite. The soul of the young animal she killed with her own hands…She could feel, even at this moment, the parasite nesting itself in her shoulder trying to spread and take control of her. She had to use something that could be under her control and maybe in this world where her body couldn’t die, maybe she could replace the parasite with the wolf and give it a new life.
“What dare you do, mortal?!” gnarled the beast. It considered breaking the reflective glass in front, but his warrior spirit stopped him from doing so. His reasoning fought its instinct as the rakshasa got up on two legs to display a more dignified form. The giant slid his claws along his chest to produce a downpour of blood which he reformed into a bow fit for his size.
While the beast and the warrior fought one another inside the rakshasa’s mind, they found one singular point they didn’t diverge on: this thing, hiding as a weak girl, was dangerous.
“SINOROUS! Fight for me!” screamed the girl who had managed to fuse the leaf with the parasite. Her arm in its entirety was ripped from her as it wiggled on the ground in a disturbing way.
TWANG
The legendary rakshasa had let loose an arrow that tore the air and atomized the disturbing arm on impact. But this did nothing to cancel the hound summoning. It, who lived in the angle of time, was already created and thus remained as such. The world around the two beings turned and twisted as the hound avoided the moment it was destroyed. It was such, existing eternally and anchored to a present it was desirous of. The bundle of rods Tsuki confronted not long ago was but a sad excuse for the real hound of Tindalos.
“Sinorous! Rend that monster’s tendons!” as imperfect as this hound was, it had the aspect of Tindalos imprinted to its soul – the soul of the young wolf Tsuki managed to revive using this macabre sacrifice. Thus, she commended the hound whose form was mostly formless. The form it had was only created by the brain of those looking at it which was trying to make sense of the information received. Like how a face can be made from simply three well-positioned dots, defining the creature as a hound was simply what it looked like to people.
This new hound dashed forward and clashed with the claws of the tiger who responded by letting a raging howl.
“Say,” said Tsuki who took this chance to turn herself into a bundle of petals that flew toward the rakshasa’s shoulder. She felt as if there was no limit to what she could do in this strange world as her expended strength would instantly be recovered and thus made use of it. “What was it that made you reach your hand to grasp, all those years back?”
Tsuki was like a small demon whispering sweet nothing into the giant ear. The two brothers told her who this rakshasa was, the things he fought for, and the things he put up with. The savage tiger tried to grab the girl but here came the hound, Sinorous, who bit with its strange maw the giant’s echelle heel. Even if the beast could heal this wound in an instant, the damage of this hound of Tindalos was already done: as it was, will always be until this wound wasn’t part of a present the hound desired.
“At whom were your piercing eyes looking when the sun disappeared?” again, the devil whispered to the beast inside the rakshasa’s heart.
The tiger roared and caused the water on the ground to be propped in the air like inverted rain. When his mighty cry ended, arrows in the thousands came raining down which pierced the rising liquid like carps braving the world.
Biting at her remaining wrist, Tsuki pulled the glaive and waved it in the air. Drunk on power, the girl forced petals to bloom from each of the arrows. She followed by jumping next to the lone tree in this downpour of rain mixed with colorful petals of all kinds. “You who stood alone with no future to look up to, what was echoing in your wounded heart?” Tsuki was only able to do everything by abusing the strange world she was in. If she was outside, like when she helped the two young rakshasas, she would have her strength drained in an instant.
The beast jumped at her by crouching and pushing with its only intact leg. The large claws, the same size as the girl, were diverted by a torrent of petals which caused the beast to land on its side. The hound clasped its teeth at the beast’s neck and ripped chunks of flesh before being swatted away.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“You who bloom in adversaries, pass your flaming torch to me! I’ll absolve you of your task; I shall protect them,” she said before striking her glaive to the ground. The metallic sound was like a call to arms as the falling petals bundled together, forming ranks of armed soldiers. They took their bow of irradiant flowers and shot colorful arrows toward the beast. “ALAMBUSHA!” screamed the girl.
The rakshasa looked on at this strange girl, the arrow raining down on him like divine punishment, and he realized it was exactly how he was killed during the war. His rage made him blind to everything. Back then, he went too far into the enemy line, forgetting his own soldiers who couldn’t follow him… In his mind, painful words that he dared say rose back: “I am Alambusha. I am Baka’s and Kirmira’s brother. I shall kill you to avenge them!”
He was blinded by rage…If only he had waited…If only he had created a diverting illusion…If only…
“You,” said the young girl after the rain of arrows. “I will fight your war, so divulge all that you know and teach me how to fight.” The thing Tsuki was after was power gained by her own hands. Be it Yuu, Fi, or Folkvang, they came to her and not the opposite. She would use everything, even the vilest of demons if it allowed her to reach out to Alice.
“Who are you?” asked the warrior.
“Tsuki. A little shepherd with big dreams.”
The girl was afflicted by unknown nostalgia as she felt herself getting closer to whom she was in the past before losing her memories. But in this present, where she was only strong in this weird world, she reached her left hand forward and waited for Alambusha to respond.
The warrior propped himself on a knee, covering his bleeding neck with one hand, he moved a claw toward the girl’s outreached hand. “Then, you better not disappoint me,” said Alambusha in a pained whisper. The weapons and arrows marking his back slowly dissolved into beautiful yellow flowers.
“I shall not.”
The girl took the claw of the warrior, and he vanished in an explosion of yellow petals. Mixed with the black and white flowers growing in the girl’s arm were now small yellow flowers – the same that bloomed from the warrior…
With nothing else to do, the girl forced herself to leave this strange world. She looked one last time at the lone tree that had lost many of its translucent leaves and whispered to the empty void above before waking up: “Alice, what do you think makes a good shepherd?”
*
The group which had just increased in size because of the two brothers and the pig stopped in front of a river. The water moved calmly from one side to the other as a path of protruding rock made it sing a peaceful tune.
They laid the sleeping girl by the side of the river to clean her wounds. They were deep, with some parts having bones showing. The brothers, with salves they procured before leaving their prison, did the best they could to remove as much of the intruding substance such as dirt, blood, bile, mucus, fur, and more covering the girl’s body. The chance of an infection was high because of the place they had just been in.
All things considered, Tsuki’s wounds were her own fault. She overestimated herself after displaying so much power while falling down the infernal hole. The thing she didn’t realize was that every time she entered a new zone such as the blazing hell or the sea of insects, her strength would be completely restored. As such, when she started displaying her power in the zone the two brothers were in, she quickly got tired and overwhelmed.
This zone, the two brothers explained what had happened while taking care of Tsuki with the help of Fi. Their brother who couldn’t die was constantly healed from a wound that could never heal. When they first saw him, he was absolutely normal albeit in a vegetative state. But he soon grew into an abomination and kept increasing in size until the ground the brothers had to walk on was made from the youngest’s flesh. The warrior part of this man created a new kind of flora that could help his sibling while the rakshasa part created beasts of all kinds that would hunt them to death.
Tsuki protected the two brothers while they dug to find the exit from this hell. It was by the beating heart of the monstrous rakshasa. When the door was cleared of the piled-up meat, Bakasura went back to rescue Tsuki. He didn’t know what happened, but four beasts had challenged the girl. While she managed to kill three of them, proven by their corpses, the last one was mauling her after she used all of her strength. Little Baka rescued her and pulled her next to the door…It wouldn’t open since the three brothers were still alive.
They took the heart of Halambusha to feed it to the girl. They became demons after eating human flesh and their only salvation was to be consumed in the same way. They thought that if the girl was to eat all three brothers’ hearts, causing them to die, that the door would open for her…They were ready to kill themselves to end their suffering.
But Fi managed to open it. That strange spirit not only managed to save Tsuki doing so but also rescued the two rakshasas from meeting their death.
Time went by with no one saying much. They took care of the girl whose wounds were visibly closing under Fi’s treatment. The two brothers were now playing in the river after Hoomaikai forced them to clean themselves. They hadn’t seen clear water in a millennium.
“Tell me, tell me,” said Vergeltung who pulled down his hat and took a notebook and a pen from his damaged trench coat. “You two twins, what are your names exactly?” The catective was now fully awake. He wanted to know more, to know everything, and uncover every little secret this place might have, and his hungry sight landed on the two brothers who were so alike he called them twins.
“I’m…I’m…” – “This one is Bakasura. My name is Kirmira. You, cat, you never said your name. Disrespectful.” The first brother with longer hair tried his best to say who he was, but he had become fearful of others after his death and stumbled on his words. Opposite to him, his sibling had developed a sort of scorn for humans.
Vergeltung, realizing he had messed up one of the rules of a good detective – having his prey not trust him – blurted out his name, breaking another rule by doing so – always remaining anonymous. “Me? I’m Vergeltung the third! The greatest catective in existence! If you have suspicions of any dark dealing, I am the cat for the job!”
“…uuu…” – “Bastard! Didn’t we already pay for our so-called ‘crimes’ that right out the gate, a detective is thrown at our feet? You made Baka cry! Don’t you have any shame?!”
“Hum, ha? No huh?”
“NO HUH?!?! So, you really don’t have any shame!” – “S-stop brother…You’re scaring me…He’s sister’s pet. We should hear what he has to say…I think…”
Kirmira was getting ready to jump on Vergeltung but was stopped by his brother. The catective not deterred in the slightest saw this as a chance and pushed on. “I want to know where we are more than who you are. We must find a way to get out more than unearthing your dirty secrets.”
“See Ki. Sister wouldn’t hang with bad people.” – “Alright alright. We are now in Vaitarna. Nothing too hard, just cross the river and you’re out. After that, I guess there will be another room called Taptakumbha *SLAP* Buuuhuu---” the last word of the rakshasa caused him to be slapped violently by his brother who was as red as a beet. Kirmira, who had a red imprint on his face, was completely knocked out by his brother.
“Hmmm…so, what is that Taptakumbha?” asked the cat, forgetting what curiosity does to his kind.
The teary-eyed rakshasa had a scary expression on his face as dark miasma spun around him. “F-f-forget it…” he said in a whisper.
The miasma which the cat couldn’t see engulfed him and he was made to forget anything related to this place. “So, after crossing this river, how do we leave?”
The tears and scary expression on the young boy’s face instantly disappeared and he responded with a strange smile that hid many things. “Then, we kill Paundraka, and this place collapses on itself after bringing everyone outside.” Bakasura felt someone looking at him and his head instantly turned to look at one of the snakes that had been listening since the beginning. His eyes and smile told everything without him needing to say it: “Forget about Taptakumbha. Or else…”
“She’s awake,” said Fi who had suddenly appeared close by. “Whatever you do with your brother is up to you. But don’t do that(slapping) to Tsuki.” The spirit was just ambiguous enough that the rakshasa misunderstood what she said.
He began overheating, with his face now tainted by an impressive redness as tears fell down his panicking eyes and caused his mind to shut down, and fall in the water unconscious next to his brother.
“…Vergeltung, make sure they are clean and don’t let them drown…” said Hoomaikai who felt as if a new burden appeared.