[Fiction] The Final Citadel

Now

‘Are we not men?’ he asked loudly fallen on the blackened path. The skies were gone forever, now covered with black haunting darkness, ‘Don’t we deserve another chance?’

Some unknown time before
Slowly cautiously he walked in the darkness. For last 500 millenniums he was in the dark, this was nothing different, this was home. Home sweet home.

It was their evil plan, the cruel Gods who engineered the whole thing. Screwed and cunning Indra and his minions trapped him into the worm hole for eternality.  They cunningly distributed the nectar of life to the Gods. The poor humans never stood a chance, they were taught since childhood to obey whatever was fed to them, even if it was bad. The humans called it fate, the humans said they were not worthy. Of course, that’s why humans were made, unpaid slaves to do the dirty deeds of Gods.

But when the Gods did the same to the demons, they retaliated. ‘Why would nectar of life be given to Gods only? Why should demons accept the fate? No, we demons who with the help of Demon Guru Shukracharya had reversed death, a feat that even God could not achieve, ‘a wide smile came on his face, overcoming death, that’s how he survived the last 500 millenniums.

His sharp eyes sensed something, sharply he turned around. There was nothing. Obviously this was a plane that rested between the surface of earth and heaven, also dubbed as the 5th dimension, this plane knew no direction, no time, and no space. This was the directly passage between seconds, this was the place Krishna instructed Arjun, this was the plane where Shukracharya was killed. This plane will take him where he wants to be… not where when.

Again a hustle, a shadow crossed him in the distant. This plane knew no geometry, so the shadow could be very close by. Silently he removed his witch blade from its scabbard. The witch blade was stolen from death himself, by a thief in the distant seas. No breathing creature could survive its touch to any of the 5 senses. Whoever was lurking around, had invoked its death and he was doing to deliver it.

The blade glowed blue in the dark waiting for the blood. The witch blade had one condition, if it was removed from the scabbard, it cannot be put inside without blood on it, and doing so would result in the death of its own master for the sword demands blood.

Silently he waited in the dark, like a hunter on the prowl, waiting, listening…nothing. Whatever the shadow was, had gone. He had heard of creatures that used this plane to travel, like the cats. Every time a cat was left by the owner in some distant plane, it would hop on in the 5th dimension and reach home back before the owner.

6 minutes before now
As he stepped into the reality, he gasped at the sight of the massive black hole in front of him. The blade glowed in his hand and he clenched it hard. Nervous he stepped up,

‘It’s not worth it you know…’ Agatya voice boomed from behind.

A few months ago
The theft of witch blade was worrying news at the ashram. The students and the teachers panicked on hearing the news. Inside the ashram behind the secret wall on the throne made of pure mud sat Agatya, calm composite with his head hung low.

‘You are the insurance policy of heavens,’ his mentor silently said, ‘the last hope for humanity…’

‘If I snatch the witch blade, I have to kill its owner…’ Agatya inquired.

‘That’s the rule; you cannot wield it until you give it blood of its previous owner,’ his mentor spoke calm and quiet.

Agatya looked into the eyes of the mentor and closed his eyes.

2 Minutes 49 seconds before now
‘You think this is fair, Agatya?’ Aryasura asked, ‘All this while we struggled to keep the balance of the world in place. Are we not men? Don’t we have any say in it?’

‘Let it go Aryasura, it’s not worth it. The inevitable is here, the final hour of doom is on your doorstep. Do you want to spend the last minute of your life fighting?’

‘Then get out of my way, Agatya, LET. ME. KILL. GOD,’ Aryasura shouted.

‘He is not here; it’s only you and me now at the hour of doom….’

At the next second everything happened in a flash, a small mosquito was flying low, looking for a meaning of its existence, a blade flew past it making swishing noise. Aryasura marched towards Agatya to kill him in a blow; Agatya raised his shield to defend from the blow. A clang and a big spark were emitted.

‘Let there be light…Agatya… its fruitless trying to stop me. Witch blade will stop at nothing and you know that.’ Aryasura exclaimed.

‘And neither will I,’ Agatya, ‘And when I die, another Agatya will come to stop you and another and another. I am a thought that will travel eons to stop you. You have 2 more minutes; give your best shot…’

79 Seconds before now
‘It is over Aryasura, you cannot win, not now…’ Agatya was on his knees red from the blood gushing from his arms. Aryasura looked at his work in pride, he had killed the Agatya, and his name would go down as the person who killed Agatya.

‘I stand in front of you wielding the most powerful sword in the galaxy…’ Aryasura said, ‘I have sliced you into half and your life is ticking away. You think this is fair? One fine day God wakes up and decides to destroy the world?  You think Humanity will go down without a fight? No we will not, I stand here representing the 100 millions who have called this planet home. I will not stop until I stop God from destroying the world. He just gave a dusty and rough world; we build a better world than him. We created concrete roads, we created flight patterns, we created bridges better than him, humans are better than God…’

He walked towards the black hole. The ground shook as the reality was sucked into the void, things were pulled towards it. He had 50 secs to stop it, how could he do it?

The witch blade glowed in his hand, yes this was the solution. He murmured the final chant of the mantra; the mantra will bring down the entire force of asura in his blade. He will destroy the black hole in one slice…

Boom, the witch blade exploded in the mid air, destroying the reality with it. Aryasura collapsed.

Now
What happened? Aryasura shook his head as the reality adjusted in front of him. The witch blade had vanished from his hand and so did most of the reality. A small rock lay afloat in the ether giving the final proof of the world that existed before the blast.

‘Are we not men?’ he asked loudly fallen on the blackened path. The skies were gone forever, now covered with black haunting darkness, ‘Don’t we deserve another chance?’

‘Let there be light,’ Agatya spoke from the bloody lips, ‘You were right on one account, God could never defeat humans. He tried hard to build a thing that could destroy the world, but he couldn’t. He was too attached to his creations. But humans are different; we created things that can destroy us. We rage war against each other with some pseudo sense of righteousness. We even fight in the name of God. We dirty our own streets, our own planet just to protect the boundaries that we created ourselves.

You were right, God could never destroy what he created but humans can… and did, you destroyed the reality. Just as any other human weapon, you wielded the witch blade without thinking about its power and so it is, you destroyed the world.’

Aryasura looked at the bloodied warrior speechless, ‘But…’

‘This final bedrock of civilization is spared for you so you may repent of what you did.’ Agatya said, ‘The purpose of life is not to overcome death but to do things that make you prepare for death. The thought that you destroyed everything that you had to protect will be the last sane thought in your head until eternality.’

Agatya closed his eyes for the last time. So did everything else.

P.s. Loved the adventure of Agatya? My own Superhero, read his origin in this story.