Chapter 40: 38 : Corrupted Paundraka

Paundraka…The great steed of an ancient being who ruled over the dead and appointed them their due justice. He was respected and loved while still able to hide a façade of rage and disgust for those above. Still, Paundraka was this man’s perfect steed. The beast was foremost a simple water buffalo at birth but became deified under its master’s care.

Things were fine; things were good. They had many followers and many allies. But time changed when an asteroid came crashing in…People began disappearing at night when no one was looking until almost nothing was left. The houses and temples with rich history were consumed by bonny trees appearing when no one was looking.

The steed hid with its master deep underground, in the vast judicial temple they had created. Never before did they regret hosting the rude mortals aboveground who died and came to this abode. Yama, the buffalo’s master, couldn’t simply give his judgment to those poor people. If they were good people in their life, they would be reborn aboveground…only to disappear without a sound. Wasn’t this a worse punishment than the 28 hells he had created to punish those who did wrong to others?

This judge couldn’t find an answer to this issue and whittled the court for as long as possible. The deads waiting for their judgment grew weak until they couldn’t wait anymore: they would commit as many sins as they could to avoid their souls dissipating into nothingness.

The temple that was once venerated became defaced by those waiting for their penance until Yama was forced to send them to Naraka. It only allowed those dead souls to live for a little longer; once their punishments were over, they were reborn and disappeared from the world…

Paundraka still remembered the gloved hand of the lady of the house, tasking it with delivering a letter to Yama, her husband. It was the last time she was seen. Yama followed suit not long after, never to be seen again.

The only ones left in this temple were the caretaker, Paundraka, and those like the three brothers stuck in eternal punishment. The simple-minded beast started to wonder if its master was punishing it with his disappearance and went above ground. Maybe he needed help…after all, Yama had already died once and was barely able to remain conscious.

But all that Paundraka found was desolate corruption. As many trees grew around him and flowers bloomed vividly, they all felt empty and lacking any truth to them. The bush berries, it used to salivate to, felt disgusting to look at.

The water buffalo moved around in this strange forest lacking any truth until it came upon one of its abhorrent cavalrymen. The animal, as dumb as it was, still had a good memory and recognized him: the one who once killed Yama and left him a shell of his previous self, Shiva. But, as this god was called a cavalryman, his mount wasn’t the bull he used to ride in the past. Nay, that poor bull’s head hung below the neck of something formless…

One thing led to another, and this was how the beast that Tsuki and her group were hunting was wounded. It escaped back into the temple it used to love; now the walls were either broken or soiled. The beautiful carpets were burned while their ashes were covered in all possible bodily fluid which created disgusting oozes now moving around.

Paundraka slouched on the bed of its missing master. This furniture was the only thing still intact as the buffalo protected it while Yama was missing. But now, it all felt so meaningless. A group of invaders was crossing the river dividing the temple with Naraka. They would enter through the broken golden doors and put their dirty foot over the marble floor now broken in part. After would be the stairs which suffered greatly from the passage of time, as they will be walked on, they will surely break to present a rotting structure.

The many paintings and chambers that were all ruined by desperate people will give the intruders the wrong impression of this once wonderful temple. The corridors that used to welcome laughing children and adults crying tears of joy were now just a scene of pure depravity.

Paundraka…no…what remained of this beast corrupted by the lord of sleep, refused to allow this place it called home to be insulted anymore by simple mortals. Once they dare cross the golden gates…it would gore and trample them to death.

It lifted its head and let out a scream filled with indignation and nostalgia that made the ground tremble far and wide.

*

 

“GHAAAA!!! DISGUSTING!!!”

The rise of the wounded girl was followed by her scream of disgust toward the water used to clean her. The fleshy wounds were all replaced by soft pink skin – visually striking compared to Tsuki’s otherwise sickly white skin. The poor girl was about to throw up after smelling herself.

She didn’t see the clear water that the other did but something more disgusting.

“Brother…do you think sister…” – “That girl came to our room after all,” whispered the two brothers to one another.

The calm river was also a sort of punishment made to stop some kind of people from crossing it. On the other side was the temple Paundraka was in and Tsuki wasn’t welcomed inside. Most of the punishments she received weren’t deserved and she only technically fit their strange criteria, such as being a shepherd being one of them… If the lord of Naraka was present to oversee everything, the girl wouldn’t have had to suffer as much.

In total, Tsuki was forced to suffer nine types of punishments, the crossing of the river being the last. Comparatively, Vergeltung only had one for abusing alcohol while Fi and Hoomaikai had none. The snakes didn’t receive a punishment since the one controlling them was far away. As for Fi, she hadn’t committed any sins that fit the criteria.

“Hey. Sister?” – “Did you ever work in politics?”

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“Huh?! No! Bastard!” Tsuki who interpreted the situation as her being bullied for a misunderstanding was visibly angry and was thinking of retaliating until an icy cold downpour of clean water came down from above her. “GYAA!”

She was surprised and instantly looked back toward the only one related to cold with tears in her eyes. “?” Fi responded by cocking her head to the side. “Clean. Now?”

“T-Too cold!”

“Really?”

“Nn!”

“…”

“OY!”

“?”

“T-Thank you… for healing me…”

Tsuki, looking at her naked body, since what she was wearing before was a dress of petals holding together with her power which had vanished when she lost consciousness, understood that Fi was the one to heal her. As for the other, it would have been strange if it was them. She couldn’t imagine Vergeltung healing her with his little paws. Even if she wasn’t wearing anything, there wasn’t any illicit imagery able to be created from it. She was too thin, had many scars, and both her shoulder and thigh were disgusting to look at.

Strangely enough, her necklace of a blue leaf was now silver. Both her shoulders had some changes: yellow flowers no were blooming on the right while the tendrils of flesh on the left looked more like fur. Halambusha and Sinorious on both sides.

*

 

Tsuki spent some time explaining what happened to the group while leaving the part about Halambusha out. She also remade herself a dress made from petals and walked toward Vergeltung whom she kneeled in front of. She then said with a solemn voice, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t recover their bodies.” The two cats she tied to her glaive were now gone. One of them was turned to cinders while the other one was lost.

Vergeltung took some time to understand what the girl was referring to. He started laughing suddenly, “Better like that! Ha! It disgusted me anyway. They’re my family. NOT your food!” The cat went silent after this and went back towards the river which he promptly started crossing. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Fi,” said Tsuki to the floating spirit which responded by lowering herself and allowing Tsuki to ride the alligator plush above the river.

The snakes, upon coming in contact with the water, were able to transmit themselves to the other side since they were made from lightning. The two remaining were the brothers. Bakasura had never swum before and needed the help of his sibling to cross.

At one point, a large wave appeared out of nowhere and almost drowned the two boys, but Vergeltung was able to find them easily; their skin was a white similar to the flesh of maggots.

It didn’t take long for the group to cross the river and come upon a large temple in ruin. Bloody veins covered the ground like roots of trees reclaiming a building while a warm wind moved from within like the painful breath of something dying. The beast they were hunting had made its nest inside, in the deepest room that was lacking a master.

“Go,” said Tsuki who entered first through the doors covered in bloody flesh. Some rare limbs popped out from the strange doors as if people had been crushed against them.

She felt a chill down her spine when stepping on the broken marble floor and looked back toward the path they took to reach the temple, only to see nothing. She could swear she felt a presence looking at them, but there was nothing…

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