Something Immortal

72: The End of the Serpent

The morning heat baked the hills in gentle apricot light, slicing through a barren territory, and under the shade of the sun, two figures gazed at the blazing sunshine, lying on their backs, their arms pillowing their heads.

"If I get the power to reset the world, I will redo it over and over so I can get rid of the bad apples..." the young man spoke to his companion and pointed, "Look Kali...there is one bad apple. If we don't get rid of them, it will poison the whole tree."

Kali turned his head briefly to the side to see a person with chiseled features and ivory skin. To others, they would call him handsome, but to him, he was more than that---a beauty with a laugh that reminded him of his childhood days growing up.

This was Som.

Those innocent days were gone but they used to think that they were like other people in this world. They belonged to different races but they bonded as if their souls were meant to find each other in time. Kali loved him.

Kali loved him more than his life...

"No one can rewind time, Som..." he used to tell the other this, "...and even if there was a power like that, why would you rewind it several times when you can just stop them from being born."

Som's cheeks were as red as the apples above them and Kali fought the urge to reach out and pinched them. "Maybe because it's not them I wanted to get rid of but their rotten side. I want to embrace all kinds of people, but I also want them to learn by experience and turn their mistakes around, giving them a chance in life once more. Redemption."

Kali would laugh at that notion because they didn't know back then, that their thoughts echoed their true selves and who they really were.

Gods.

"You read too many books."

"But books take you to beautiful places," Som convinced, not at all offended by his discouragement. "It lets you imagine a story so enchanting that leaves you thinking, what if I can be part of this story, of this world, how would I decide the ending?"

Kali lightly raised his body with his elbows supporting half of his body weight and glanced down at the figure lying beside him. Those dark, isosceles slits that others often perceived as cruel and cold would only soften at the sight of this person. He smiled, "I don't care how you want the story to end, I just want us to be together no matter what version you decide to turn it into."

✧༺♥༻∞

Awestruck.

They all gazed at his radiance, fire burning his whole body. His beauty was electrifying and he glowed from within. Yet, each strand of the fiery flames breathes life into the mortal realm. His blazing orbs regarded each one of them and they could only lower their heads, for every time he peered at them through his lens, they could see the things that they did which set this world into a void, welcoming the entities of the netherworld.

"Som..." Sri found his voice yet he was not certain if this was a name he should be called.

But Som accepted it.

Just like in his youth when he was summoned into this world in the hopes that he would destroy the existence of Naga. He embraced the name and made it his; even when in truth, he bears no name.

Som was the name given by that young boy who was sacrificed to be eaten by him so he could have a physical body and be born in this world as a mortal.

The Phoenix God had given them powers yet they underestimated their creator and misjudged their destroyer. These gods may have come in different sources but they came in pairs and their goals were the same.