That evening, Pradip had taken the cows out to graze. It was not a dense forest; rather, the woods were fairly open. The cows were eating grass all around while Pradip sat beneath a tree, playing a flute.
The flute had belonged to his great-grandfather's time. According to the family, it was made entirely of silver. Perhaps it was expensive, but Pradip kept it as a memory of the past. He never wanted to sell it. At least one thing made of silver should remain with him, he thought. Gold was something he would probably never be able to afford. So he kept the flute and often played it while grazing cattle like an old shepherd.
At first, he could barely play it, but over time he got used to it. Slowly, he learned on his own how to make proper melodies. Of course, he had not learned everything by himself. There was an old man in the village whom he called Grandpa. His real name was Pancha, Panchalal. Long ago, he had apparently played the flute in wedding bands. He was the one who taught Pradip.
As he continued playing, Pradip suddenly felt sleepy again.
He stood up.
"This won't do. Let the cows graze in the open field. I'll go wander a bit deeper into the forest. I think I came this way last night too, but in the darkness I couldn't see properly," Pradip muttered to himself.
Then he walked toward the denser part of the jungle.
He did not have to walk very far.
After moving ahead for some distance, Pradip noticed a ruined temple. The temple was made of a strange white stone—not gold, yet it glittered like gold under the light. Just by looking at it, he could tell that many things had once been looted from the place.
But he had never heard anyone speak about such a temple before.
Then he remembered—when he had first arrived in the village, everyone used to warn him not to wander deep into the forest.
"Oh no… I completely forgot about that," he muttered.
But then he shrugged.
"Well, since I'm already here, I might as well take a look inside."
With that, Pradip entered the temple.
Inside stood a stone altar.
On top of the altar rested a massive skull.
And upon the skull sat something red… bright red…
"A crown? Yeah… it's definitely a crown."
Pradip slowly walked toward the skeleton.
With every step he took, it felt as if a cold current was flowing through his entire body.
"What a terrifying place…"
Why did every tree around the temple seem to tremble so violently? Pradip could not understand what was happening.
Should he leave?
But that crown…
That crown felt as though it was calling him.
Without realizing it, Pradip moved closer and closer toward it.
As he neared the crown, he suddenly felt as though the empty eye sockets of the skull flashed with light for a moment.
"Ah!"
Terrified, he stumbled a step backward.
"What was that? Did the eyes just glow? Am I imagining things?"
Then another thought entered his mind.
"No… this thing shouldn't exist. It's dangerous. I should destroy it. Yes… yes, I should break it right now."
It was as though something else had climbed into Pradip's mind. He began behaving like a madman.
Picking up a large stone lying nearby, he smashed it down onto the skull with all his strength.
With a single strike, the skull shattered.
And along with it, the crimson crown broke apart as well.
At that exact moment, darkness swallowed everything around Pradip.
It felt as though the entire world had disappeared.
Askra's pov:
When Ajakra woke up that morning, he felt the same heaviness and exhaustion in his body as every other day. But today, a sudden realization struck him.
"This can't go on like this. I need to keep myself busy with something."
All day long, those thoughts kept circling in his head, and every night the same dreams returned. Somehow, Ajakra easily found a connection between the two. His conscious and subconscious mind kept dwelling on these events throughout the day, and because of that, his subconscious recreated them again in his dreams at night.
Thinking of this scientific explanation, Ajakra decided that today he would keep himself so occupied that he would have no time left to think about anything else.
At first, he thought he might do some cooking and a little farming. But then he remembered that his grandfather's room had not been cleaned in a very long time.
Actually, saying "a long time" was wrong.
Ever since he had arrived there, he had not cleaned a single room in the house except for the kitchen and his own bedroom.
So today, he decided he would clean every room one by one.
Taking a broom in hand, he first entered his grandfather's room.
By the time he finished cleaning several rooms, it was already quite late in the day. Eventually, he entered the storage room.
The moment he stepped inside, a horrible stench hit his nose.
Trying to find the source of the smell, Ajakra searched around and soon discovered it. In one corner of the storage room, a dead rat had rotted away.
After much effort and disgust, he finally threw the rat outside.
As he resumed cleaning the storage room, he suddenly felt that the floor beneath his feet sounded hollow. It was as though there was some hidden space underneath the wooden boards.
And there truly was.
When he pried the wooden planks open, a small box emerged from beneath the floor.
He carried the box outside and opened it.
What he saw inside left him completely stunned.
It was some kind of old pendant.
The pendant looked like a circular chakra, formed from countless tiny tridents joined together.
Without thinking much, he placed the pendant around his neck.
For some reason he himself could not explain, he instinctively touched the pendant against his forehead.
As he did, one of the tiny trident edges slightly cut his finger.
The moment his blood dripped onto the pendant and it touched his forehead, the entire world around him changed.
Until now, he had believed he was alone in the room.
But suddenly, he could see them.
Countless figures.
People… no, perhaps not people. Spirits? Ghosts?
He could not even understand whether he should scream or run.
At that exact moment, he felt the pendant slipping from his hand.
The instant it fell against his chest, everything returned to normal.
"What… what did I just see? Was that real? Or was it some kind of hallucination? Am I slowly going insane?"
Ajakra could not understand anything anymore.
Then suddenly, another thought entered his mind.
He would try touching the pendant to his forehead one more time.
The moment he did—
The room changed again.
Ajakra quickly turned around to look behind him.
And what he saw there shook his very soul.
Standing before him was a horrifying female figure.
She was strangely beautiful… yet she had no face.
In place of her face was a vast, endless hollow.
And from that abyss flowed blood and countless strange fluids… pale white liquid mixed among them.
The sight alone was enough to make his stomach twist in terror.
In sheer horror, Ajakra dropped the pendant from his hand once again.