A girl in a simple white dress rushed by the small village houses. The fellow townsfolk looked on in pity. For this was a girl whose mother recently died in a sura attack.
The girl was right in front of her mother's house when two hands grabbed her from behind and held her back.
"Ahjumma., will you please let go. My mother...I need to see her."
"Stop Asha. You can't do anything now."
"Please let go. I just need to see her please!"
The woman just held on to her tighter. "Just cry, Asha. Don't hold it in. It will only hurt more, trust me..."
"You don't understand! Let go. Why are you doing this?! You hate me too right. That's why...that's why you won't even let me see her. You're terrible! You stupid woman let me go!"
The frustration, pain and anger reached peak level and Asha screamed insults that made the townsfolk watching shake their heads in disapproval.
One woman spoke up, "Why are you trying to comfort that child. Look at her...she was always so rude. Yelling at Yona when she's being so kind..."
Her husband beside her tried to discretely quiet her. "She lost her mother...please."
"She was always like this. Now that her mother's dead she doesn't even try-"
"Shut up, Kira. No one wants to listen to your useless talk," Yona sharply said. Kira looked like she would say something but Yona's glare cut her off.
Softly she spoke to Asha so that just she could hear. "Go ahead Asha. If you can't cry then scream, shout, do whatever you want just don't hold it in. Crying may not bring her back but holding in the pain would be something your mother would really hate."
Although Asha still felt angry and thought the woman might only be comforting her to seem kind in front of the villagers. For some reason, tears filled her eyes.
"You must miss her so much. To hear her voice one last time. To even just see her smile...I know...it must hurt so much..."
That's when Asha Rahiro in earnest broke down. Her sudden wails shocked the people around to silence.
"That's it. That's right. I know sweety. Its gonna be okay. Its gonna be okay." The woman breathed soft, comforting nothings in her ears and held on until Asha calmed down.
"Let's go now. Let's see her." Asha and Yona walked inside. She gently closed the door, then turned to Asha still holding her hand. She knelt beside her and in the softest voice she could muster said, "Asha, dear, listen. Your mother's body was really damaged in the attack. I'm sorry. We only found her head. I'm really sorry."
She finally let go of Asha and Asha ran to her bed side and lifted the covers.
"Wait Asha!"
A severed head was placed at the top with no body beneath.
"Mother...mother..." Asha stood their just watching in shock. She gently picked up the head, cradling it.
"Ah Nuna!" A small boy's voice made Asha raise her head.
"Who are you? How did you get in?" She demanded.
"All the doors were locked." Yona said in a suspicious voice as she moved to stand by Asha.
"Its really important. I need to tell her something alone."
"If someone suspicious comes and makes a strange request, for sure, there must be a catch or something."
"I know its not a good time but I really need to talk to her about something. Please." The boy asked apologetically.
"Please wait outside. I'll talk to him" Asha said suddenly, startling Yona. Yona told Asha to call for her if she needs her and reluctantly went to wait outside.
"Well? What is it?"
"You need to come a little closer." Asha moved a little forward. "That's not enough. You'll get hit. You need to come closer."
"Hey kid! Who are you? Why are you in my house? You better start answering soon-"
A loud deafening sound interrupted her. Shattered glass embedded into the skin of her right leg and arm.
"Ah!" Asha shouted and fell to the floor.
"See, I warned you. I could heal you immediately but I won't for half a day since you didn't listen to me."
"What? What just happened?"
"I'll see you soon."
Asha stumbled up and limped outside. There was nothing left of her village. She found Yona squashed beneath a rock. Her intestines spilled out like yolk from a cracked egg. She immediately turned away before she threw up.
Asha initially had decided to live a simple, good life from now on. Following her mother's desire, to live in the present. But anger filled her. She wanted revenge. Against the sura who did this. Who took her mother, her village, everything. She wanted to be a scholar but now they took that goal from her too. Because she now realised how helpless anyone except a magician is. So easily she could have been squashed like Yona.
She sat by a fire, burning her mother's head since she can't bury her. She pondered about fiendish magic as an alternative...and the strange boy she had seen. He seemed to know about the attack. She recalled Yona's words. The boy purposely saved her. Why? Why did he save only her? He could've saved Yona too. Yona whose body was so brutally destroyed. She recalled the way Yona held her.
She must learn fiendish magic. There was a high chance she had affinity for it...
"If you're trying to burn the head, its not enough. I saw it beforehand so I brought more firewood."
It was the boy from before! But she had walked half a day in an arbitrary direction. No way he could've found her. Maybe she was so lonely she started to hallucinate. She had been starting to wonder if she was the only human left. Wondering if she'll find her academy destroyed too. There had been no one around for so long. But its just a hallucination so she'll just ignore the hallucination until it goes away. She turned her head away.
"You're not hallucinating. There are still some people left on this planet but if they don't leave they'll die soon."
Is he reading my mind? Of course not. My mind is making him up. She slowly got up and started to walk away.
"Fine...I guess I'll show you." Where there was a small boy stood a young man in his early twenties. The clothes were casual and he was barefoot. It was definitely an older version of the boy.
"You never saw me like this right? So there's no way you could hallucinate this." Asha stood still as a barren rock. Shock reverberating through her.
"You're really something. After losing your village you already picked yourself up. Even making plans to learn fiendish magic. Although its useless. Now...you piece together the bits of information that you have...until you reach a conclusion as to who I am."
"Primordial god...Vishnu."
"That's right! You really are intelligent. Your thinking speed rivals that of high level gods."
"Like I said before fiendish magic will not work. How about I help you? You're the most likely to lose this war. So to even it out I'm helping you."
"Wait...you knew what would happen right? Why didn't you save everyone?"
"Why would I?"
"What?"
"You think this is happening to only this planet? Do you know how many universes I've seen get destroyed. Why should I treat this one different? I only saved you since you were the only one worth saving."
"Let me tell you why fiendish magic would be useless..."
"So you see you'd just die with nothing accomplished."
"You want power right?"
"Yes, to get revenge against the sura that destroyed my town."
"For your town? Really? But your anger isn't for your ruined town its for the future you lost. Don't you mean you want revenge because the comfortable privileged life you wanted has now been taken from your reach?"
"So what?! This is something everyone would hate."
"I'm not saying its wrong to think like that and many do but not usually humans. Well, let me ask you what would you give for the power to take revenge?"
"Everything."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course."
"Then let me show you something."
He came closer and placed his hand on her head. Asha started screaming and choking in pain. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"That was the moment when the only person to understand the primordial gods died. I let you experience it particularly vividly. You shouldn't so easily say you'd give up everything."
"What should I have said? I have nothing!"
"Since I'm the god of time I can take something from you that you don't have now. But will in the future."
"...there was a catch after all."
Vishnu tilted his head in confusion.
"Since you can hear my thoughts I may as well say everything. I might have agreed to a deal with you. I almost did. But everything seems too good to be true. I don't think you're merely helping me to make things fair. I thought gods always tried their best to protect humans. I might have followed anything you told me to do before. But I've realised, you don't care much about humans at all. If you did you would have saved not only this planet but every planet. You're helping me to use me for something. If I'm not useful anymore you'll toss me aside. I can't trust you at all. If you'll kill eventually, you may as well kill me now. My head isn't so clouded that I would think I can use the opportunity you give me and then outsmart you at the end, to both receive power and keep it when you don't need me anymore."
Vishnu started laughing, a sweet melodic laugh that for some reason seemed to Asha had an unstable edge. "You aren't the first person to not trust me but you are the first person to have those reasons."
"Will you kill me now?"
"Of course not. Its unfortunate if you can't trust me. But I didn't expect you to immediately make a decision. I'll see you later. If you change your mind you can call for me. Just say 'Idha etu Vishnu'. Normally this shortens a person's lifespan but I've changed the conditions. Now let me tell you how to leave this planet since its not habitable anymore..."
Asha walked away with knowledge of how to board the transport ship to Willarv. Vishnu watched as she faded into the distance. If you did you would have saved not only this planet but every planet. His hands clenched into fists. She's as insufferable as ever.
I'm sorry mother. I almost blindly followed someone and broke my promise to you. She remembered how he insisted Yona leave. Asha felt herself shiver all though she could've sworn all this walking must have made her really hot. She was sure he isn't as fair as he pretended. He's just a liar.
He killed Yona as it would be difficult to persuade her to listen to him if Yona who was suspicious from the start was present. She never particularly cared for Yona Ahjumma before but she was so grateful now. She was the only reason her head had been so clear. Most of the weight of her mother's death had been lifted. Also Yona's death was proof of Vishnu's true nature.
She really was still too inexperienced regardless of her knowledge and intelligence. How blindly she used to trust gods. She would not make this mistake again. The knowledge of insight is useful too. She would be careful with her thoughts now.
Sneakpeak:
She slapped him. She couldn't stop herself. Even as her hand moved she didn't know why she was doing something like this. But she couldn't even stop there.
"How could you do that?! Why are you so cruel? Can't you think from their perspective?"
Suddenly she was crumpled against the far wall. Her entire body ached. She couldn't see. She was sure her head was bleeding and some ribs were shattered.
"Ah! I'm so sorry! My hand slipped. You should think from my perspective. If an ant bit you, you'd flick it away almost on reflex right?"
"...I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault."
"You're right. I should think from your perspective."
"I'm glad we agree," Vishnu said with his familiar sincere smile that Asha had learned to hate.