When Aish heard her lines, he realized who they belonged to. Someone who was not supposed to appear this early in the story. Someone whose interest in him could change all his plans and the story.
The goddess of death and destruction, of creation and compassion. The one whose love had brought peace to the universe and in whose anger even the cosmos crumbled.
The peak of gods from Hindu mythology was the one who was known as primordial, eternal, benevolent, and malevolent. The one who thrives in chaos and watches over everything
The embodiment of creation and destruction in one entity. The one who defined mother nature in its purest formโKali.
_
*** After the emergence when all worlds merged into Arcadia, conflicts started, not only between monsters and different races but between different gods of different worlds too.
No one who had been praised as a superior being in their world wanted to be lesser than anyone else in Arcadia, and so began the War of Gods.
No one knows the details, but it was only after the worlds will be interfered and forbade them from fighting against each other and destroying the world that the war was stopped.
But even the world's will could not control all those raging gods, so the concept of blessing and choosing avatars came. Now instead of fighting between themselves and resulting in the destruction of everything, fights between their followers and champions started.
This is why one should always be aware of everything before being an avatar, as then other gods and their chosen ones would be coming after you. With the world system in place, everyone on Arcadia was bound by this rule.
With this, everyone got what they wantedโthe gods could still fight indirectly for their superiority, the world's will had gotten peace and made the world's system, and the people got the powers to fight monsters.
_
In the original book, Goddess Kali was supposed to stand against Aish and help in his downfall.
It started with her little rivalry against Nyx, who was known as the real ruler of darkness in Greek mythology.
Both goddesses had similar powers and origins. But before their battle to see which one of them was truly superior could end and they could decide a winner, the war stopped.
So, when Goddess Kali learned about Nyx choosing an avatar, she too decided to find one. Fate, who was always ready to push Aish further on his evil path, made a twisted joke, and Kali ended up choosing Amelia as her avatar.
At the beginning, it was just friendly competition or a healthy rivalry between the two greater beings. But with time, Aish's descent into villainy caused a greater rift in their newfound friendship.
And at the end, when Aish finally decided to take up arms against even the gods, Kali had finally given up on trying to save him.
While Nyx saw no problem in supporting Aish, for Kali, the lines he crossed were considered evil. And as the goddess, known for being righteous and punisher of evil, she decided to stop him for good.
_
'And you can guess anyone's ending when someone as overpowered as her becomes your enemy.'
'But why is she here?'
'She wasn't supposed to learn about me until I became Nyx's avatar.'
Aish's thoughts started racing in his brain as all the plotlines of Goddess Kali came into her brain. He could not figure out what it was that caused her to focus on him so early.
He was especially careful not to change anything that was related to God. This was the reason he only killed Noah and not the protagonist himself. Leon always had one God watching over him.
He also did not interfere in the mines where the ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ - '๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐ฑ'๐ ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐น' was supposed to start. As he did not want to take a risk of unwanted attention.
'What the hell changed?'
The uncertainty of not knowing was eating him up as he continued thinking about his every decision since the moment he arrived in this world. But he still could not figure it out.
_
It was then that Aish heard her voice again: "Are you thinking who I am?"
As soon as her gentle voice came, all the chaos in the surroundings calmed down like it was never there. The scene that looked like a blood-rained warzone changed into a peaceful snowy mountain.
He could see a silhouette of a woman walking towards him from the top. No, she was not walking; he was getting pulled towards her.
It was then he realized that even as the environment changed so much around him, he could not feel his body.
'An illusion maybe,' Aish thought as he was still slowly floating towards the mountain peak.
_
Despite his obvious worries, a part of him was also stuck with awe and wonder as he thought of seeing goddess Kali.
'I never believed in gods, even when I was on earth. The only time I prayed to them would be when my parents or Ria forced me.'
'After her death, the only time I went to temples would be when I needed to complain and vent out my frustrations.'
'I blamed God and my luck, but everyone does that, right.' Aish thought as he remembered his time on Earth.
_
But even if he was termed an atheist, the thought of seeing someone whom he had only looked at posters or statues in temples, the goddess whom billions of people prayed to daily, filled him with some unknown emotions.
'She was here, in front of him.'
'Well, not here per se, as the world system separates the plane of existence, but still...
'How many of her devotees would kill to get a chance to see her, to hear her voice.'
'But fuck, WHY is she here?' Aish thought again as he pushed all those distracting thoughts away. He was feeling so many emotions and so many questions that his brain could not even sort them all out.
'Wait, does she know about me?'
'Is she the same from my Earth?'
'Is that why she is here?
Aish was lost in her thoughts as he heard her voice again, this time sounding much closer and calmer: "Your thoughts are running quite fast, boy."
Aish looked ahead and he could see her. A silhouette of her, sitting atop her lion in her gentle form. She radiated a sense of calm and serenity that belied her fierce reputation. Just one look at her was enough to make Aish forget all about his worries and let go of them.
The figure was imposing and majestic, showing an aura of power and grace.
The snowy fog made it difficult to see her clearly, but he could make out a blurry image. Her eyes were closed, as if lost in meditation. Her long black hair flowed down her back like a river of darkness. Her red clothing was adorned with intricate patterns and golden symbols that seemed to shine in the snow. It looked as if she had plucked the stars and used them for decorations.
The lion she sat on seemed to reflect her strength. It was unlike any lion he had ever seen in any pictures or in TV's, with thick mane and golden furs, eyes that were gentle yet focused as if it could look through someone's soul, with its powerful muscles and sharp claws that ripped the place apart when it touched the ground. Aish could not help but feel a sense of respect as he looked at the goddess and her mount together.
Despite Goddess Kali's gentle appearance as Goddess Gauri, Aish could sense the immense power emanating from her. Aish's mind was filled with wonder as he stared at Kali's silhouette, unable to take his eyes off her.
For a moment, he felt as though time had stopped, and all that existed was him and the goddess before him. He could feel himself being in the presence of something truly divine, something that transcended his understanding of the world to a new level.
_
Since Aish had never believed in gods since his childhood, his father had forced him to read all the mythological books he could get to enlighten him.
Though it never really changed his opinions, it only solidified his atheist beliefs. In Aish's eyes, either God only did what anyone else in those situations would have done, or in other scenarios they were just winners and got praised for their victory.
Plus, the fact they were all stories, which changed their meanings and portrayals for every new generation. So, no one even knew if they were true.
_
But since he still read all those stories, he knew enough about the goddess in front of him to respect her, for she was a force of nature, and angering her would result in his instant death. So, without thinking anything else, he fell to his knees and kept his head down.
"This lowly mortal greets the Eternal Goddess. Oh Trikaldarshi Devi (All-seeing goddess), my life has found its meaning seeing your arrival. This follower has been enlightened. Your presence has brought _."
As Aish looked at her, his mind stopped working with all this development, so he started blabbering whatever words of praise came to his mind. He could feel it was embarrassing, but he could not stop himself, but his prayers stopped when the surroundings changed again.
Everything was back to being a warzone. He looked around, but her figure disappeared from the mountain. Next second, she appeared in front of him as he heard a voice.
"Stop with the lies, kid."
"I hate it when my children lie to me."
In that moment, Aish got the biggest scare of both his lives; he saw her gentle form of Gauri changing into her other avatar of Kali, the one where her smooth skin started turning into a deep shade of dark blue, the one where her silver pearl necklace turned into a garland made of skulls around her neck. Her gentle face and motherly aura were replaced with a fearsome and intimidating presence. Her hair, which was silently flowing in the wind till now, was covered in blood and whipped around her like a raging storm. Her eyes were glowing in an intense red light that made Aish feel as though he was looking directly into the very heart of the sun.
Aish's eyes were wide open in shock and fear as he wondered if he had done anything wrong. He could feel the ground shake beneath his feet, or it was his body that was shaking.
He saw four hands growing out of her shoulders, and each of them was holding a different weapon, while one of them held a severed head of the hell Asura (demon).
When Aish saw a hand in which she held a machete coming towards him, he screamed on top of his lungs, the loudest he could, and lost consciousness.