Amruta stepped back, her eyes fixed on Prakash. She sensed a growing malice within him, a darkness far removed from the man she once knew.
"Prakash, what is this? Why are you—?"
Before Amruta could finish, Prakash's command cut through the air: "Hear me out! Present me that shard!" Fear curled within her like a living thing.
Her instincts screamed at her to flee, but her legs betrayed her, weakening with every breath. "No. I will never give you this, you…" She panted heavily. "All you ever wanted was that gem, not me, right? You devil! Who are you?"
Her words barely escaped before a colossal serpent's tail, wider than a room, coiled swiftly around her neck, strangling the life from her. She gasped, tears streaming, panic overtaking her as breath fled her lungs. Her face paled; her legs thrashed in desperation.
Prakash approached slowly, his voice eerily calm. "I warned you… I begged you, darling, but you never listened. When the Reaper asks who caused your death, tell him there's a devil loose down here."
In an instant, the serpent's scales sharpened like blades, tightening mercilessly. Amruta's head was torn from her body, not a messy tearing, but a brutal, precise severing. Blood splattered, but avoided Prakash as if by some dark will.
Her body convulsed, unwilling to accept the sudden death. Her head twitched like a fish electrified in water. From her thumb emerged her pale, nearly translucent soul, fragile and fading. It tried to escape, seeking asylum in the afterlife, but Prakash was faster.
With bare hands, he seized the fleeing soul and cruelly tore it in half; splitting it along the jawline in a grotesque, bloodlessseverance that annihilated her very essence. Amruta's soul could no longer scream or plead; it was crumpled and shredded like fragile paper, reduced to void.
Prakash left the house as the disintegrating soul dissolved into nothingness. The spirit woman witnessed this horror, frozen in terror. Her eyes wide with disbelief, she hid herself in fear.
Prakash walked out, dressed in a black coat and hat. From afar, he stopped and slowly turned toward the spirit woman. His face is no longer human, it was something she could barely comprehend.
Not gore or ugliness, but a complexity beyond any dimension she, a twelfth-dimensional spiritual entity[1], could fathom. It was a visage of a higher being, beyond justice, envy, pride, or beauty, the Platonic ideals she once knew only faintly.
Prakash was no longer just a man; he was something else.
With a snap of his fingers, a dark cloud burst forth, roaring thunder before settling silently. Then the entity vanished into thin air.
Listening intently, Theodore's curiosity sharpened. He locked eyes with the spirit woman and asked calmly, "But what about those attacks, beyonddimensions beyond length, energy, and time? I couldn't find their source anywhere but from you. How do you explain that?"
Her gaze dropped, and she tightened her hands in her leggings. "Must be some sort of energy manipulation… I—I have no idea. But trust me, I'm not that type."
"To be honest," she confessed, "I was trapped here. When I learned you evaded those attacks, I was happy… I wanted to ask you for help. To free me."
Moved by her trembling plea, Theodore was silent for a moment. Then he stood, took a deep breath, and met her eyes.
"What is your name?"Her eyes gleamed with fragile hope. "Driti," she whispered in submission.
"Theodore," he introduced himself shortly.
"Since you're the only one I know who has seen that entity, although you don't truly understand it, you're still an ally. We should make a pact," Theodore said firmly. "You'll help me find and eradicate that thing. I don't yet know what it's after, but I'm sure we need to get that artifact first."
Driti nodded in understanding, her voice steady. "Yes, I will help you."
Theodore snapped his fingers, spinning his palm. A staff of dark matter emerged, shrouded in a blistering blue aura. He wielded it with practiced extravagance.
As Theodore walked away, he realized Driti was still standing there, rooted to the spot.
He turned back, "Are you coming or not, Driti?"At that moment, the chains of the afterlife binding her shattered and disappeared, she was free.
Her face brightened with newfound radiance."This woman—" Theodore began, but stopped, stunned.
Driti glowed like an angel. The dark shadows beneath her eyes vanished, and her hair lifted softly in the air like leaves yearning for sunlight. Her eyes now shimmered with a divine energy.
Driti, once a corrupted soul, was no longer corrupted.Suddenly, Theodore looked away, shaking off an unexpected tension.
'Why was I looking at her like that? Come on, Theodore. She's just a beautiful girl, no, a ghost. No, she's a spirit now, nothing more. Focus, you bastard! How in the flying fuck I was distracted? Not even I fall for Annie... Stay! Fucking! focused!' he scolded himself quietly.
Calming his thoughts, he met her sleepy gaze."Ahem! Ahem! Let's go."
"I'm not blind, don't flashbang me with your angelic makeover, woman." Theodore taunted.
Driti stepped beside him, and together they walked out of the house.
Though free, she glanced back at her former home, burdened by an unspoken familiarity she could not escape. But leaving the past behind, she moved forward with Theodore by her side.
Theodore took his phone and dialed Reji. He answered the call. "Eh? You completed that quest?" Reji asked.
"No…." Theodore replied calmly.
"You lazy ass, why did you—" Reji was about to lecture Theodore, but Theodore cut him off.
"We've got a big fish in the net, something I can't talk about on the phone. I'm coming to you!" Theodore said and hung up.
Reji, who was cooking, looked confused. "Big fish?" he murmured. "What jackpot did he hit today?"
Theodore looked at Driti, who was walking beside him.
"We're first going to my house, where I stay, and then we'll go to the organization head. I know her. She can help us. She will help us. I will inform her. Got it?" Theodore explained.
"Got it!" Driti responded in assurance.
"That explains it!" Theodore said.She walked near him, silence looming between them. Meanwhile, Theodore was calm and collected, silently observing everything around him.
She walked near him, silence looming between them. Meanwhile, Theodore was calm and collected, silently observing everything around him.
Driti recalled the events that had just occurred before they started walking to his house.
'He's strong; he avoided that attack, which transcended the concept of length, energy, space, and time entirely, without limiting itself to any plane of dimension… Only if I could…' Driti thought. She lowered herself.
"Driti…" Theodore said.
Driti looked at him.
"Yes…?" she asked. "Well, I'm hungry. Want to eat something?" he asked.
"That eggplant curry I had couldn't last in my stomach. Even that was torn to nothing!" Theodore touched his stomach in hunger.
"Well, your friend is cooking, and I think we should go there quickly," she spoke.
"Maybe another ass dish," Theodore said, deadpan.
Driti looked into Theodore's eyes keenly for a few seconds.
"What now—"
Theodore found himself with Driti outside Reji's room.
"Oh, tsk. I totally forgot. Someone like you, who can operate in a completely higher dimension, doesn't lack any source!" Theodore said with a confident smirk.The transition from mid-road of Palarivattom to Reji's apartment, 70 kilometers away, involved no expenditure of energy; the shifting of quantum particles did not even take place. It was rather like emerging from one existence into another.
[1] Usually regular Spirits are capable of interacting from twelfth dimension and higher finite, but some extensively capable malevolent or reverend spirits are capable of affecting infinite layers of dimensions that can be scaled from spatial, aspatial, abstract and Euclidean, etc.