Back to the Beginning

Ashi and her sisters formed a circular diagram and they held each other's hands. Aku and the Priestess watched their daughters' doing, hoping they will help them break free from Oblitus' prison. The demon said, "I do pray they succeed."

The Priestess responded, "I do pray too."

Aku turned to the masked woman and seemed to be nervous. He tried to talk to her for months now. "So... you raised your daughters and train them to kill the Samurai...for me."

"Yes." She said with a bitter voice. "But they failed."

"But still... you raised them good." Aku commented. "You are a great mother."

The Priestess noticed something unusual about her lord. "Is there something you want to say, my lord?"

Her soft voice gave him chills, Aku tried to change the subject. "Anyway, we should hurry before Oblitus noticed our doings."

However, they were interrupted by a familiar voice. "Stop what you are doing, Aku!"

Ashi recognized the voice. She got a glimpse of the person. It's a king with a golden crown, long grey hair and beard and wields the magical sword that was used to kill Aku. Ashi couldn't recognise him until she saw his eyes directly. "Jack?"

However, it was not the Jack she knew. It was the Jack who became an old legendary king and defeated Aku in their final battle. The old king Jack responded to the young girl. "I heard you are the daughter of Aku. I'll give you and your sisters a chance to stand down and leave this cult of Aku."

Ashi answered. "I'm not with Aku anymore! I just want to get out of here."

Old king Jack raised his sword and challenged the seven sisters. "And you will preach about Aku's existence and power? No. I will not allow it."

The Priestess asked her lord. "Who is this man, my lord?"

Aku revealed his past deed. "Well, he came from the 'future' where he ultimately defeated me in the future as an old war king. When I was close to being defeated or killed, I sent a piece of myself back to the past. I have an information about Jack's prophecy. And so I sent it to my past self."

"And what did you do?"

"I killed the Guardian and all Time Portals. Because of that, the prophecy was cancelled." Then Aku commented. "But when I messed up the timeline, I turned the Samurai into an immortal. He didn't turn into an old man. It's a big side effect of messing with prophecies."

"Now, that explains everything."

The six daughters attacked the old king with all they got.

Old man Jack handled them very well. Fifty years of fighting bandits, robots and armies made him strong and formidable. But he didn't killed them. He just knocked them out one by one unlike the other samurai that Ashi knew.

As the leader of the group, Ashi told her sisters to stop. "Stand down! There's no need to fight!"

The old king stopped but then Avi punched his face. Jack glared and punched her back giving her a broken nose.

"Alright! Stop!" Ashi yelled. "Avi! Stand down!"

Everybody calmed down.

Ashi explained to the old king. "Please, let us be. We are planning to escape here."

"Escape? Why?" The old king's tone changed like he doesn't seem to be aware of being imprisoned. "This place is paradise. No more corruption. No more darkness. No more demons." He then paused and set his eyes on Aku. "Until he showed up. I have no idea why you're still alive. I killed you."

Aku corrected him. "You defeated me. That's what you did, oh old samurai boy."

"That's enough, Aku!" Ashi scolded her father. "If you want to get out of here, then shut up!"

The demon silenced himself, made a zipper-mouth gesture.

But before Ashi could explain the old king, the dark entity Oblitus returned to check on them. "I feel something strange... suspicious. Are you guys planning to escape?"

Aku expanded himself to hide his daughters' doing behind his shadows. "No. We are just discussing some... family matters." The demon tried to use his wise words to divert the entity's suspicions. "You know... just father and daughters discussing about their failures. You wouldn't understand because you don't have kids."

"Sure." Oblitus agreed. "I have no plans having kids."

While the demon distracted dark entity, Ashi pulled the old king away from sight and the daughters started to open a time portal on the diagram. Seven girls released their power creating a large time portal by their screams. It caused a rupture in Time.

Oblitus felt a sting. "What is this feeling?"

Aku tried his best. "Stomachache?"

Knowing it was not stomachache and Aku being obviously lying, the dark entity pushed the demon aside. "What are you hiding?" He saw the seven daughters created a time portal. "NO!"

Quickly, Aku punched the entity's large eye from its dark halo and yelled to his daughters. "Go! I'll hold him off!"

They successfully opened a time portal and escaped the alternate future. "It's open! Go!" Ashi said. Her sisters jumped through the portal along with their mother. Later, the old king Jack decided to follow them. He was curious about the sisters. The last who went in was Ashi. The time portal began to close, Aku manage to threw a part of him through the portal and escaped Oblitus.

The night was cold and the mortal warrior took some rest inside a small cave and made camp. He began to wonder how long will it take to collect all the stones. He even wondered what if the entity will not give Ashi back or there was no Ashi. What if everything is a lie? The samurai could not sleep. He's overthinking things. He tried to rest his mind and think about it tomorrow.

Sleeping for 10 minutes, the samurai woke up hearing the entity talking to him. He picked up his sword and talked to it. "What is it?"

"We need to go." Oblitus said. He sounded like he was in a hurry.

"Why?"

"You want your Ashi back?"

The samurai felt something's off. He answered. "Yes."

"Then we must hurry!"

"Where are we going?"

Oblitus peeked through the river of time and saw the noble knight wielding three stones about to kill the last Egyptian God: Ra. He knew that god has connections with the samurai. With in luck, he can use this. "Do you know a god name Ra?"

The mortal warrior recalled that name. "Yes. I remember him. He gave my father the Magic Katana."

"Okay. Well, he's dead."

The Samurai was shocked by the news. "How is this possible?"

"I told you. Gods are getting killed one by one. The threat is getting worse and worse."

Anger filled his heart, the Samurai asked the entity. "Show me his face."

Oblitus opened a clear image of the threat. It is the knight wielding three gems. One on his sword, the other is on his chest plate and the last one is attached on his left arm. The knight was finishing off the last of the Hindu pantheon. He decapitated Shiva's throat despite the god's plea for mercy. "Be wary, samurai." The entity warned. "He has the amulet, the heart and the eye. He's more powerful than the gods in existence including the demon Aku."

The Japanese warrior has experienced extremely dangerous creatures and warriors. He's not afraid to face the knight himself. "I don't care. Take me to him." He slide his sword back to the sheath and prepared the gauntlet.

The dark entity liked the rage pumping inside the mortal's heart. "Good."

Meanwhile, in the past, Ashi and the others with her arrived on a small town of feudal Japan. The old king Jack arrived last along with a small portion of Aku. The townspeople were frightened by their sudden arrival and appearance.

Avi commented, "They don't like us."

Ashi retorted. "Obviously. We looked like assassins."

"You are all assassins." The Priestess said.

The old king Jack asked Ashi. "Where are we now?"

The daughter of Aku made a guess. "We are in Japan. The same place. Different time."

"Okay." The Priestess asked. "Which time is this?"

Ashi remembered that special day. "My wedding day. Before I disappeared..."

Her sisters were disgusted to hear it. "You are marrying the man who killed us and our father?" Ami hated to know their leader Ashi gave her body and soul to their murderer.

The portion of Aku doesn't care what Ashi did but he wanted to know why they were there. "Why did you transport us back to this time? Why not far back?"

"I wanted to go back where I left off. I want to be with Jack."

Then the rage inside the sisters' hearts sparked after knowing they were outside the entity's prison. Aki whispered to her sisters and they all agreed to one thing. The Priestess heard her daughters and what they will do. Ashi can feel Jack's presence. He's far away but it felt close to her. "I'm coming home, Jack."

Unfortunately, there will be no reunion. "Thank you for getting us out, sister." Ami said. "But this is for betraying us." All six sisters let out their power to Ashi creating time portals around her. Ashi could not do anything as she was caught by the vacuum of multiple portals and tore her apart. She screamed in agony as every molecule in her body was ripped apart. Old king Jack was shocked by their treachery. "NO!" The old man attacked the six sisters however he was overwhelmed by their infernal might.

The High Priestess witnessed the slaughter. Her eyes were fascinated by her daughters.

The sisters watched the old samurai's burning corpse. "He's not our concern now." Aki said. "We have a samurai to kill." They set their eyes to the past Samurai. The sisters dashed towards the palace of the Samurai to finish the job.

The portion of Aku was glad to see his daughters still have their purpose. "I'm proud of you all." Then he was picked up by the High Priestess. "Certainly. They are what they were trained for."

=X=