Veins throbbed on Vihaan’s temple as he tightly clenched his fist.

It was him all along?! The one who drove his mother to kill herself! The reason why his mother became sick— no, not sick!

She was cursed.

Cursed by that disgusting old man.

The hateful person who made his life miserable and took his mother away, his everything.

For what purpose did he do all these things? What would he gain from it? Why his mother?! Why not other people?!

So many questions went through his head as he glared at the image hatefully.

Raktabija!

Without a word, Vihaan ran back towards the city. He will find the old man and have him answer all his questions before making him pay for what he had done.

“A pitiful boy,” Yama shook his head as he watched the kid leave in haste.

The boy clearly wasn’t in a state that was able to think rationally. He was filled with rage and with the way he is now, he would only be throwing his life away if he went to Raktabija.

As a god of death who had lived as long as he had, he had met many children who had unjustly lost their parents in some sort of incident. Some of those children tried to avenge their parents only for them to fail and follow after their parents in death. There were also some who managed to succeed but very few of them managed to find true happiness in their life in the end.

He looked at Sarius and asked. “You’re not going after him?”

Sarius gazed at the god of death critically, unnerving the god a bit. “Oh, I will. But before that,” He then made a smile that didn’t seem like a smile. “I feel that you’re hiding something regarding that asura. Care to tell me what it is?”

Yama merely scoffed. Who the hell does he think he is?

“God from another pantheon, this is our, Hindu Pantheon’s affair. Why should I tell you? You are stepping out of your boundaries. Know your place!”

Sarius frowned as he slowly nodded. “I suppose you’re right. I indeed do not have the right to question you Hindu gods on your matters so I apologize for that,” He calmly admitted his mistake but right after speaking those words his eyes suddenly went cold. “However, I don’t like that tone of yours one bit, Yama.”

“What a coincidence! I, too, dislike that assertive tone of yours, outsider. Also, don’t casually call me by my name!” Yama snarkily replied.

Royal blue eyes met with red as the two warily stared at each other with hostility. Both were trying to gauge the other in mind as they looked for any opening they could possibly exploit.

The two dogs at the side who were silently watching the gods started shivering from the intimidating pressure caused by the two.

“Are they going to fight?”

“It would seem so...”

“I hope not.”

The stalemate between the two continued for a while which was broken when Yama relaxed his facial expression and lightly let out a laugh.

“Heh,”

Unexpectedly, Sarius also laughed.

“Haha,”

“Hehehe,”

“Hahahaha,”

“Hehehehehehehe,”

“Hahahahahhahaha,”

Gradually, their laugh had gotten louder and louder as though they were in a competition.

“HeheheheheHEHEHEHE!”

“HahahahahahahaHAHAHAHA!”

“HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

At this point, they had finally burst out into full-blown laughter without a care in the world, scaring the living daylights out of Yama’s dogs.

“They are crazy! I’m telling you there’s something wrong with their head!”

“Those two are lunatics!”

FWOOSH!

Sarius met Yama’s fist with the palm of his hand which was only a few centimeters away from hitting his face. Though he managed to stop the god, the power behind that fist decimated the surrounding behind him.

The two four-eyed dogs whimpered and decisively ran away lest they got caught in the crossfire between the two demented gods.

Sarius’ eyebrows twitched as he looked at Yama. “Is this what you meant by ‘let’s not fight after all’?”

Yama’s eyebrows were similarly twitching while blocking Sarius’ kick with his arm. “You were the one who attacked first! I was just trying to defend myself!”

Just as he said those words, he inwardly thought to himself. ‘What the fuck is with this guy? My arm almost went numb!’

“Nonsense. It’s clearly you who attacked first.”

“Stop lying! It was you!”

Sarius didn’t bother to retort anymore as he slowly took a deep breath while his grip simultaneously tightened around Yama’s hand, clamping it very hard.

The god of death felt powerful energy forming inside Sarius’ mouth and sweated. Whatever that is, it doesn’t mean well for him since he felt that energy had enough power to destroy this clone body of his and what’s more is that it is still getting stronger and stronger with each passing second.

He immediately tried to pull his hand back to escape from his grasp only to find his actions in vain.

‘Shit! I can’t get my hand out!’

He had no choice but to change his approach. Using Sarius’ unbreakable grip on his hand as a support, he swung his body with all his strength and launched a kick right at Sarius’ chin.

At the same time, Sarius opened his mouth but before he could fully open it, the god of death’s heel hit him square on the chin, making him painfully face the sky.

The currently dark and starless night brightened as a massive torrent of flame was expelled from Sarius’ mouth, scorching the sky in a literal sea of fire for a few seconds. The ground around the two was also affected and melted from the intense heat generated by the flame.

‘That was close!’ Yama inwardly exclaimed.

Had he not directed that attack towards the sky, he would have been toast!

Taking advantage of the situation, he swiftly pulled his hands back the moment Sarius’ grip loosened and made a distance between the two of them.

He then felt a burning sensation in his hand which he quickly checked, only to see it’s badly charred state. Seeing this, his face went grim.

“Yama…”

Said god looked at Sarius who was smiling kindly at him. However, for some reason, he was feeling a bit afraid of that smile.

“I underestimated you since you are merely a clone of the original. That was a mistake on my part. For that, I apologize and also offer my gratitude for the lesson I have learned in that short exchange. I will no longer underestimate you so…”

A small orb of fire which was only twice the size of a fist formed in the air behind Sarius, followed by another one, and then another one. Before Yama knew it, there were already dozens of those orbs, looking like extremely miniature versions of the sun, floating behind the god. Even from where he stood, he can already feel the heat coming from those orbs.

Sarius raised his right hand and spoke with kind intention. “I hope you survive this.”

The moment Sarius brought his hand down, the dozens of orbs behind him instantly descended upon the god of death.

‘Looks like I lost.’

A deafening explosion was the last thing the original Yama heard when the memories of his clone body returned to him.

…

A while later, the two dogs of Yama returned to the scene only to be stunned silly at the sight that greeted them.

What was left of the area where the two gods fought was a deep burning crater filled with a river of lava that stretched across the hole. It was a scary yet mesmerizing sight that made them feel awe for whoever it was that made this.

They then shook all the unnecessary thoughts in their head as they looked for their king.

They were bound to be disappointed. Both Yama and Sarius were nowhere in sight.

“Where’s King Yama?”

“I.. don’t know.”

Just as the two were about to get worried, they suddenly heard a voice speak in their mind.

‘Take the woman’s soul and return.’

“That’s…”

“It’s King Yama.”

They sighed in relief after hearing his voice. That means their king is fine.

The dogs immediately heeded their king’s command. They turned towards the woman’s grave and were surprised to see it unharmed amidst all the chaos. It was the only place left intact in the area.

They dutifully took the woman’s soul and quickly returned to the underworld. With their departure, the moon and stars are finally visible in the sky as it shone upon the world once again.

On their way back, however, they were wondering why their king didn’t take the woman’s soul and left first instead.

…

Vihaan had been rushing nonstop towards the city after he found out about the old man’s involvement in his mother’s curse. He just couldn’t understand why he had done that to his mother. What did she ever do to him? What had she done to deserve being cursed?

Those thoughts were abruptly blown off his mind when a blinding flash of light obstructed his vision without any warning. Before he could even recover his sight, an ear-splitting explosion resounded in all directions which he felt almost ruptured his eardrums from the intensity of the sound. The following shock wave of the said explosion came soon after and violently pushed him towards the ground, frustrating him at the suffering he experienced one after another.

“What in the world…?!”

The boy had a headache. He was heavily disoriented at the earlier event. He felt like an elephant just slammed him at the back full force before knocking him down. He took his time getting up from the ground and when his vision returned, he was greeted by the sight of a familiar figure sitting on a rock ahead of him.

“This is as far as you go,” Sarius said with a tone of finality.

“Noble sir?” Vihaan was initially angry for what happened literally a few seconds ago but that anger turned into surprise when he saw Sarius and eventually turned into a look of determination when he remembered a certain asura as he gritted his teeth. “I… I have to. Please don’t stop me, noble sir.”

Sarius didn’t budge in the slightest as he shook his head. “There’s a difference between courage and stupidity. You, going towards the asura is no different from throwing your life away. If so...” A cold glint made its way to his eyes. “I will end you here and now instead of giving him the pleasure of taking your life and dying a painful death.”

Vihaan’s eyes widened in alarm. He examined the god to see whether he was kidding or not yet he couldn’t find any hint of deceit no matter how hard he looked.

‘He’s serious,’ Vihaan thought sullenly.

He no longer doubted the god’s words. He will certainly act upon it when pressed.

“Then what am I supposed to do?! Should I just let him be?! Let him get away with the fact that he indirectly caused my mother’s death?! Let him roam free?!” The boy lashed out, his rage getting the better of him. Normally, he wouldn’t dare speak like this to anyone who can easily take his life but his emotions were too deep in turmoil to care.

“I will help you.”

What?

With a mysterious smile on his face, Sarius spoke something that will completely change the boy’s life. “I will help you gain the strength to go against Raktabija.”