In a hut made of straw and wood, an old woman wearing a long-sleeved brown cotton cloth lay on a bamboo mat. All over the woman's body parts that were not covered by the cloth, scattered scars that were about to rot. In such a condition, she could only remain silent while staring at the straw ceiling and slowly moving her mouth as if she was trying to speak, but unfortunately no sound came out of her. Tears welled in her cataract-clouded eyes, tracing paths through the cracked, festering scars on her hollow cheeks. "Oh, Lord Agni... Why are you giving me this ordeal? I'd rather you take my life than let me live half-dead like this..." the woman thought to herself.
From outside of the hut, there was a young man with shabby brown cotton clothes who was observing the woman's condition through the gaps in the straw wall. The young man was none other than Arjun Nakshatra Wijaya, who was the one and only member of the woman's family, her son. "If only mother had trusted my gut not to believe too much in that damn Agni, who claimed to be the incarnation of the God of Fire..." he thought as he clenched his fists tightly and bit his lower lip furiously, trying to hold back his anger and sadness at the same time as he observed his mother's condition worsening day by day.
With mixed feelings, Arjun decided to run into Agni's hermitage barefoot. The path to Agni's hermitage wound through jagged cliffs shrouded in mist, the air heavy with the scent of damp earth and burnt incense. The red gate loomed ahead, its iron surface etched with glowing runes that pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat. Arjun stepped on the sharp gravel and rocks on the uphill path leading to Agni's hermitage like he was stepping on cotton, even though fresh blood slowly dripped from the soles of his feet. The furious expression on his face, full of anger and a thirst for revenge, shows that his determination to get revenge on Agni is so great that it erases the pain from mere sharp gravel and rocks. However, before he could reach the first gate to Agni's hermitage, there was a big black humanoid creature, named Genderuwo, who blocked his path.
"Human… You may not pass the gate with that ill intent of yours towards Lord Agni," Genderuwo said calmly as he lifted a giant mace made of steel and placed it on his shoulder. "You may turn back and never come back here again, as I am still being nice."
For a moment, his steps faltered. His heart thundered against his ribs as he was about to take a step forward. Was he truly ready to risk it all? This path could lead to his death, but then his mother's hollow eyes surfaced in his mind, banishing every trace of fear. Without the slightest fear in his eyes, Arjun ignored Genderuwo's words and tried to step forward without giving the slightest response.
KABOOM!
Genderuwo slammed his mace into the ground, full of sharp gravel and rocks, blocking Arjun's path to step forward and injuring his body with the blow of sharp gravel and rocks. "Human…! This is my last warning before I crush that fragile body of yours into pieces!" Genderuwo exclaimed as he lifted his mace and placed it on his shoulder once more.
"Genderuwo, you WERE the feared guardian of this mountainous forest before that shity Lord Agni of yours came here," Arjun said as he took one moringa leaf from behind his clothes. "Where's your dignity? Is there nothing left? You, the great Genderuwo, reduced to a servant? What a joke. Your master must've stolen your pride along with your strength," he continued.
"MORINGA LEAF?! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!" Genderuwo asked in exclamation with fear in his red eyes as he unconsciously took a step back. The moringa leaf in front of his eyes is sacred, full of positive energy, which can sear his essence of negative energy like fire through dry wood. For centuries, his kin had been hunted and exorcised by its touch.
"Let's just say that I stole this from a random shaman's house a long time ago to repel your kin from approaching my house," Arjun answered calmly as he threw the leaf towards Genderuwo.
"GAAAAH!," Genderuwo screamed in pain as his body started to become transparent due to the collision of the negative energy that formed his body with the positive energy from the moringa leaf. "YOU DAMNED HUMAN! AT LEAST I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME!"
Genderuwo's crimson eyes glowed like embers, his blackened lips curling into a snarl. The mace in his hand groaned under its own weight as he raised it, and the atmosphere around him grew heavy. Genderuwo, with his full strength, swung his mace towards Arjun at the speed of sound. However, he lost his grip on the mace just before he managed to hit Arjun with it. The mace fell off his hand and slammed the ground, one inch to the left of Arjun, making several pieces of sharp gravel and stones fly towards Arjun and injuring him more.
Genderuwo hurriedly tried to grab the mace again, but his hands that had become transparent could only go over it without being able to touch it in the slightest. Frustrated, Genderuwo opened his mouth towards Arjun wide as if he was trying to scream. He clenched his fist and rampaged towards Arjun, which only ended up going over him without leaving any scratch at all.
Ignoring the fading presence of Genderuwo, Arjun marched forward to the first gate towards Agni's hermitage. As he arrived there, he could see two fully equipped guards guarding the big red gate made of iron. Knowing that his chance of winning against them is extremely low with his current state, an idea to disguise himself as one of Agni's slaves struck his mind. He picked up a sharp rock on the ground and scratched it on his left cheek, creating an inverted triangle symbol with an eye in the middle, which was the symbol given to the slaves of Agni. "This much should do," he thought to himself as he started to slowly move towards the gate while crawling.
"Hey! You! Stop right there!" the guard on the left exclaimed as he pointed his spear towards Arjun while slowly marching forward. "Who are you?" the guard asked as he kicked Arjun in the head.
"PLEASE! SPARE ME, O GREAT WARRIOR! I'm one of the slaves that should've been delivered to serve Lord Agni several months ago. I was separated from my group because I slipped and fell off the mountain. To atone for my sin, I crawled back here like a dog, with the hope that Lord Agni will spare me and take me in as his slave," Arjun explained as he shed tears while making up a disgusting story based on the rumour he heard as his cover. "PLEASE! O GREAT WARRIOR! take me to Lord Agni. I will pledge my existence and become his most loyal slave."
Hearing Arjun's words, the right guardian felt touched and approached him. "Sugeng, please guard this gate alone while I deliver this righteous slave to Lord Agni," the right guardian said as he lifted Arjun's body and carried him in the front like baggage.
Sugeng frowned, his grip tightening on his spear. "This one reeks of trouble, Parman."
But the right guard laughed heartily. "You're too paranoid, brother. Look at him. Just another sniveling worm begging for scraps."
With a heavy heart, Sugeng agreed to Parman with a nod. He moved towards the gate and opened it.
"I didn't believe that such bullshit could work against them. It seems that it's true they lost a part of their brain when they became Agni's worshipper," Arjun thought as he slowly closed his eyes, pretending to faint.
Afterwards, the path to Agni's hermitage was as smooth as butter, stairs made of polished stone. Parman, who carried Arjun, managed to pass the twenty-five gates towards Agni's hermitage in just half a day. They arrived at the top of the mountain, which is where Agni's hermitage was located, as the sun was about to set. "Righteous slave, wake up. I can only take you this far," Parman said as he placed Arjun's body on the ground made of jade. "You have to crawl in this straight path to reach the centre of the hermitage where Lord Agni is doing his teaching at this time around," he added while pointing at the long, straight path made of jade.
"THANK—"
Parman shut Arjun's mouth with his hand. "Please don't let out any voice in this hour. The sacred teaching of Lord Agni is about to take place. I shall return to my gate to guard this place."
"Thank you, o great warrior," Arjun said faintly as he watched Parman slowly descending from the top of the mountain.
As Parman no longer in Arjun's sight, he stood up on his feet, looking at the surrounding extravagant place. The jade floor beneath his feet glowed faintly, casting ghostly shadows on the walls. The oppressive silence was broken only by the occasional rustle of unseen movement, as if the hermitage itself was alive, watching him. "Building this place alone would cost him a mountain of gold coins, which some of them must be my mother's," Arjun thought to himself as he walked towards the vines that are on the outer walls of the hermitage. He climbed the vines with ease until he was finally on top of the outer wall of the hermitage. He tried to map the hermitage while walking back and forth, but the design of the placement of the long jade path to one large building in the middle and small buildings on dirt around the hermitage made him not have to think for long. "These small ones must be Agni's worshippers, while that big one should be his. There is no sign of any guards patrolling the grounds of this hermitage. Why were they so stupid as to leave this place unguarded from the inside?"
After mapping out the route to where Agni was, Arjun climbed down the vines on the wall. He entered the hermitage area and walked towards one of the buildings that had its torches out. The entire part of the building was made of wood, so he knocked on the wall of the building five times in order to check whether there was someone in the building or not.
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
After waiting for a while, Arjun got no response from inside the building. He assumed that the building was empty and attempted to open the window of the building, which was an easy task for him. As he managed to open the window, he quickly entered the building and looked at the surrounding darkness of the room, looking for a way to get spare clothes that he could use to disguise himself as one of the residents of the hermitage. At the corner of the room, he saw a wardrobe made of wood. As Arjun was about to approach the wardrobe, a soft and trembling voice pierced the silence of the room. "Father?" The door creaked open, the faint light spilling onto Arjun's frozen figure. He spun around, his heart hammering. A small shadow stood in the doorway, its face obscured in darkness.