At Sisupal’s words, the entire group started to move. Some of the nondescript workers dragged off the vagabond, bound his hands and feet and then tied him to a tree. The man remained pretty much unresponsive throughout, occasionally humming some words from the earlier song. Rishi left the clearing, presumably to keep a better lookout. Sisupal stood quietly, taking deep breaths, centering himself, next to the altar which Nayok was bound to. As the last light of sunset started to die out, and the purple skies of early evening replaced it, Sisupal opened his eyes “The muhurat is now, let us begin.”

And with that the clearing fell still. Most of the workers stepped away from the clearing, with a few occupying specific positions in the ritual site. Malini took up a position a little distance away from Sisupal, who stood next to the altar. The focus of their attention was quite obvious – a rather ornate circle between the two, composed of what looked like gold stakes driven into the ground wrapped with red ceremonial thread. The two of them stood in circles of their won, connected with the large on by furrows etched into the forest floor. Sisupal looked at his sister again “This is it sis, I will see you on the other side. When next we speak, I will have touched the divine.”

“Maha Devta bless us this day, let it be so. Wait, I can’t find the ritual knife...”

Sisupal frowned, “This jest is in extremely poor taste Malini. Hand it over now.”

Malini pulled out an ornate dagger from behind her back and tossed it over. She smiled as she replied, “Lighten up, one would think you were going to my funeral instead of being about to ascend to become the most powerful being in all of Pruthvi.”

“Right you are, dear sister,” Sisupal took a deep breath and smiled as well “I think I am ready now.”

Malini opened a book and started to chant. The words somehow hurt the ears of the listeners; a few of the more curious workers standing at the periphery of the clearing fell down unconscious while the rest backed away. As the chant escalated its tempo, the clearing started to get much colder and something started to happen in the middle of the greater circle. There was a dark crack suspended in the air in the middle of the circle, and it was slowly, almost imperceptibly expanding. As the crack in space widened, the entire clearing started to get a lot colder. But this wasn’t just a decrease in the temperature of the air, something more sinister was happening. The crack was drawing away life itself from everything around it. Around the clearing the trees were withering, small creatures were dying and so were the remaining workers. Raw terror gripped Nayok as the chant rose to a crescendo and the crack started to widen. He could sense the attention of some vast creature, some predator beyond his comprehension looking at him and trying to decide if he was worth the effort to chew. As he struggled to free himself, Malini’s chant reached its final wailing conclusion. The clearing was silent as a graveyard, the only sounds audible were Malini’s heavy breathing and the muffled screams of Nayok.

At this point, Sisupal opened his eyes. He called out aloud “Malini, I see you are fine. Rishi, I really hope the protective amulet worked?”

A voice called back from the darkness “Though I would rather you keep your mind on the job; yes, thank you for your concern. It worked.”

Sisupal nodded “Right, onward then.” He looked down at Nayok again and drew his knife, “This is where we bid farewell to each other, my young friend. Though I know it will be small consolation to you now, everyone you know will lead a better life in the future because of your sacrifice. Go in peace.” Nayok was shuddering in fear and tried to draw his body away from the giant but he was fixed in place. Uncaring, unfeeling, the knife plunged downwards and pierced his chest. The strength of the giant man was more than enough to finish it quickly, with the dagger breaking through the ribs and into the heart in one plunge. Nayok felt a brief, hot pain amidst his terror, and then darkness quickly took him into its embrace as he closed his eyes finally.

Almost immediately, Nayok came awake again. The first thing he noticed was that he was free from his bonds. The second thing he noticed as he sat up was that he couldn’t see a thing. The darkness was absolute, he couldn’t even see his limbs or what he was sitting on. It seemed like a weirdly leathery yet hard surface, and he got up with a small jump to see if it had any give and to get a sense of up or down. As he was about to call out to see if anyone was around, the events of the last few hours came crashing down on his mind. He was dead and this was the afterlife. He was never going home again, never to see his Maa or Baba. A blind panic came upon him and he started to hyperventilate. He screamed into the emptiness in pain and frustration, and suddenly the emptiness spoke back in a voice like susurrating thunder.

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“Oi kid, pipe down. There is no call for carrying on like a maniac.”

Although the words were somewhat less than awe inspiring, the voice which seemed to shake the world made up for it. As the voice died down, a slight purple glow started to illuminate the darkness. Nayok seemed to be seated on some sort of giant hexagonal plate made of the weird leathery substance. The edge of the plate was where the glow was coming from and he was standing on a very, very wide road made of these plates fitted together seamlessly. The road was wide enough that he had initially assumed that this was the ground in this strange realm but then he noticed that in the far distance the road curved upwards. As he calmed down and his eyes tracked the road up, the sky spoke again.

“That’s better. Now, we do need to wait for a while before Rudra can open the door fully. So why don’t you tell me your name while we wait?”

Nayok looked up to see where the voice was coming from, and then just kept looking up, and up and up. Then he froze, staggered backwards, and fell.

It was a snake monster. But just calling it a snake monster would be like calling the ocean wet or fire hot, accurate perhaps and yet wholly inadequate. Nayok realized, dumbfounded, that the plate he was standing on was a scale. The glow was being emitted by the monster’s body and outlined the midnight black scales. The sheer size of the whole creature was entirely beyond his ability to comprehend. It seemed to make up the entire world around him as more of its body was illuminated by the eerie light with which it glowed. He looked up at the head again and realized that it wasn’t just one head. The entirety of the sky which he could see was made of thousands of snake heads, spread out like the hood of a cobra. Each head seemed capable of swallowing an elephant whole and as the monstrous creature lowered its heads towards Nayok, it looked like the sky was falling on his head.

Electric purple fangs which could probably bite through the city walls of Manipur were exposed as the monster spoke again. “Hey kid, I can understand the shock, but it is unwise not to respond when a god asks a question. Not all of us are as patient as me. What is your name?”

“Nayok, your holiness Kaliya sir.”

“Who the hell is Kaliya?”

“Isn’t that your name? That bad man who (sniff) stabbed me told me he was calling you. I don’t think you should go sir. I think he means to hurt you as well.”

The world started to shake with the laughter of the Snake God. Nayok was a little afraid at first that he had offended it, but then remembered that he was dead. There wasn’t much more that happen to him.

Soon enough the Snake god stopped laughing and focused again on the child. When he spoke this time, his voice had mellowed considerably from its earlier thunderous tones.

“I remember now, Rudra mentioned something about the invocation involving one of the more idiotic residents of your Swapnalok. No, little Nayok, I am nothing like that vicious little shit. I am an End, kin to the MahaDevta of your Swargalok. There is nothing any being of your world can do to affect me, though I do appreciate the sentiment of your warning.”

“Well, that’s good sir.” The titanic being seemed reasonably friendly and Nayok was beginning to get rather blasé about this whole experience, “So what is your name?”

Nayok's breath caught in his throat and his legs felt like they might collapse into water at any moment. He could feel his mind barely touch upon a concept, far beyond his ability to grasp in its entirety. It was dreadful as death itself and yet attractive as the most beautiful woman imaginable; It was cold as darkest night, and yet warm as a mother’s embrace. It felt as natural as the sun going down and yet he knew he would fight it with every fiber of his being. It had no mercy, no fear, no hate, no love. Nayok had only slightly more significance in its estimation than the average fly, and it could squash both with about the same effort. It was old, old beyond any mortal’s ability to comprehend. All that it cared for was the end of all things, and nothing that any other being could say or do would ever change that. Its intentions were almost a tangible force in and of themselves, vaster, more timeless, and deeper than any ocean. And what it intended was the perfect ending – complete and in due course of time.

As a forked tongue larger than the biggest trees in the forests slithered back after touching his forehead, a voice spoke in tones of warm honey, “What you have sensed is the closest your mind can come to comprehending my full name. However, for the purposes of conversation, you can call me Seshnag.”