Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 184

Maitri

His father wrung his leather belt halfway around his hand, lashing him with the buckle end of it.

Smack!

Smack!

The metal dug into his skin like the teeth of a snake, each bite leaving welts that bleed.

The beatings were never that painful, once you learned to think about the happy things, the pain ebbed away. It was the words coming out of him that hurt him the most. The curses, the name-calling, the disappointments. Poison that seeped into the heart.

“You should’ve never been born!!”

“You took her away! You! Ungrateful! Bastard!!”

“Please…please stop…” Martell whimpered. His heart grew weaker.

All the while, his dark twin looked on with an eager look upon his face. Eagerly waiting for the moment his heart broke.

In his weakest moment, Martell cried out. “Mistress! Masters! Someone! Please, make this stop!!”

“It’s useless. No one can hear you here. No one can help you!” the shadow said.

But then, the shadow caught a whiff of a scent. His nose wrinkled in confusion. “W-what is this smell? A flower,” he was right in his surprise, as this was his domain. Everything here was under his control.

His eyes followed the source of the scent. And then he saw a young man, wreathed in gold, walking towards them. Every step he took, left the mirage of a Lotus flower; which grew from a bud to a flower within moments. Neither him or Martell could not see fully of his face, for it was obscured by a brilliant light. The only thing visible on him was a toothy smile.

The young man gestured with his right hand, and Martell’s father disappeared as if he had never existed.

“W-who are you?” Martell asked, trembling. “Are you here to take me away?”

“Well, that would be great, wouldn’t it?” the young man replied. His voice was forgettable and indistinct, like the voice heard at the edge of hearing. “Unfortunately, I can’t do anything for you. For I am nothing. I am empty.”

“What? What are you?!” the dark shadow roared. The existence of the youth before him was something beyond his imagination. “How can you exist in my domain?!”

“Is this it for you, then?” the young man asked, ignoring the shadow’s demand. “You are giving up? To let go of your past, let go of your present, let go of your future?”

“I…I’m tired. What difference does it make? My existence is one long suffering!”

“Answer me!!”

“Don’t be rude, nameless one. I am talking!” the young man scolded the shadow. The shadow shrunk back. More from confusion than fear. Moments later, he regained his countenance and assumed the form of a terrifying creature. All sharp tendrils and thorns as he tried to scare the mysterious youth.

“All creatures suffer and struggling is hard. It is true, yes,” the young man continued as he stood before Martell, drawing the shadow’s aggression towards him. “And it is far easier for you to choose to forget all sufferings, and fall into the cold embrace of darkness. But…that’s not what you really want, is it?” the young man asked.

“Weakened, beaten down, and your body controlled by an abomination. And yet you still keep to your lies?”

“Do not ignore me!”

Like a petulant child, the curse’s incarnation lashed out at them. The young man did not flinch when one of the shadow’s tendrils pierced his shoulder and taken a chunk of meat out of him. “For once in your life, why not be honest and speak out what you really want?”

“I…” Hearing his words, a wish that Martell had kept inside his heart ever since that fateful day burst forth from his lips like a waterfall. “I…I wished that someone would have extended a hand before everything went to shit. I wished that I didn’t have to be cursed by a Demon. I wished! I…wished…that someone had helped me!”

“And that’s where you made a mistake,” The young man stated, his words warm as a mother’s mercy. “You have always had people helping you. Your guilt, your disgust towards yourself prevented you from seeing it. Remember. Remember who had offered their hands to you.”

Flashes of memories came into Martell’s vision. In them he saw the faces of Connie, Autumn Rain Cicada, and Vagabond Lotus Monk.

Another shadowy tendril sunk itself into the golden youth’s abdomen, and still, he did not move back. “Because of this curse, you lack the ability to feel. But that’s not why you don’t understand compassion or kindness. You don’t understand kindness because you fear it. You fear the possibility of someone being kind to you, because you feel unworthy of it.”

“But you know what? People are complex. Lumping up compassion and kindness into one thing is a shallow thing to do,” the young man explained as he suffered attacks from the shadow that caused cracks to appear on his body. “A mother’s scolding when you hurt others. A teacher’s admonishment when you make mistakes. These too are kindness. And listen…do you hear that?”

At the edge of his hearing, Martell heard his name, interspersed with curses.

“Martell! You cheeky little bastard! Can you hear us?! Come back!! Don’t let the curse take you!! You’re stronger than this!!”

“Ungku Nadi! This is not where you fall! Do not give up!!”

He looked up and saw a large hand made of light trying to reach him, but failing due to the curse’s power.

“Rhoddes and…Nick?!”

A tendril had pulled the leg off the young man, who continued to talk even as he was forced to kneel.

“That guy’s harsh words and bluntness, that too, is kindness. Would a man risk his life trying to save you if he really hated you? Would the man choose to follow you here if he really doesn’t care about you?”

“Is it...fine for me...to recieve kindness?” The kindness of the people that was shown to him were often just tools to make him theirs. It is hollow, and it is dirty. And yet, still, he too realized that he had experienced kindness, without seeking anything in return. He was just too blind from his own despair to see it. Now that he began to understand what it was that he was missing, hope began to flicker in his eyes.

“I am not the one to answer that,” the young man said again. “But know this. Salvation is not the privilege of the few. You can be saved, only if you let yourself accept salvation. You can be kind, only if you let yourself accept kindness. So now, let me ask you again,” the young man turned his face to him with a smile full of transcendent peace. He then pointed at the large hand beyond the cursed domain. A crack appeared above them, right where the youth’s finger was pointing.

“Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UUUUPPP!!” No matter how the curse’s incarnation tried to stop him, for some reason all his attacks could only be directed at the young man who stubbornly refused to shut his mouth.

“Will you resign yourself to the curse inside you? Or will you reach out to the hand that was offered to you?”

“Take my hand, Ungku Nadi!” he heard Rhoddes’s voice calling out to him.

“Come on! Just return to us already!!” Nick’s impatient voice grated in his ears, but for some reason it brought warmth in his soul.

Wordlessly, his heart had made up his decision before his mind had made it. Martell reached out to Rhoddes’s large hand.

The shadow tried to grab on to Martell, but the moment he managed to reach him, he was already gone; the boy’s spirit was freed from its confines.

The shadow cried out angrily. Without his prey, he could only direct his aggression towards the thief who stole Martell from him.

“NO! NO! Curse you!! Who are you to cheat from me my prize?!”

“As I have said, I am no one. But, if you ask me how I can exist…why, I exist because you exist,” the young man answered with a small laugh at the curse’s expense. “I am a reaction of your action, so to speak.”

“AAAGHHH!!!” The shadow surged upwards, forming a fearsome wave of darkness and came at him, fully intending to swallow the golden youth.

Beyond the tsunami of shadow, the young man could scarcely make out five silvery thread that had begun to scatter into oblivion.

“That’s all I can do, old men. For now, it is not yet time for me to appear.”

“He will fall! I will make him fall!!”

In response to the shadow’s rage, the young man simply smiled and clasped his hands together in a gesture of non-resistance. Then, as he was being swallowed up whole by the darkness, he said these words.

“May all beings be at peace.”

“Martell! Can you hear us?!” Nick bellowed into Martell’s ear. “Are you sure this is working, Rhoddes?”

“It should’ve worked. Otherwise I couldn’t have returned to my body safely,” the Nankhudi answered.

“Alright, alright,” Martell groaned as he weakly slapped Nick’s hand away from his furry ears. “You guys…can stop screaming in my ears now…”

“You’re okay!” Nick shook his shoulders with a laugh. “Thank Junnaveil!”

“Ow stop shaking me, everything hurts. Mainly my jaw,” Martell then looked down and saw his swollen left arm. “Ah. And this arm too.”

Now that Martell regained possession of his own body, the damage that his small body had incurred while being controlled came onto him in waves. Nick and Rhoddes slowly got up and helped Martell to steady himself.

“Are you…really, okay?” Rhoddes asked. His breathing ragged from the effort he had exerted.

“Argh! Dammit,” Martell said as he winced from the pain of his left arm. “Nick, hand me some Rejuvenation Pills.”

“You’re okay now, boy? Then come and help me! I can’t hold on much longer!” Sabrac shouted as he felt the rattling of the cage becoming stronger.

After receiving the Pills Nick handed to him, Martell immediately put all of them in his mouth.

“I’m calm. I’m collected. Just as I have always been,” he crunched on the Pills and swallowed them in one gulp. “But today, I feel like I getting angry!”

Martell took out three swords from within his Item Ring. These three swords were taken from the bandits and warriors he had subdued and were the best he had currently. “Telekinesis: Control!”

He leaped onto one of the swords he called and stood on the empty platform.

“The first temptation is Delusion!” He shouted. The first sword moved to a position near Akira, causing him to flinch back.

“The second temptation is Attachment!” The second one moved to the back of Sabrac, who was still wary of him.

“The third temptation is Aversion!” The last one floated around his back.

“This is the Buddha Repelling Three Temptations Formation! Fragment of Calamity or not, you’re going to pay for what you did to me!”

Then, with both hands, he performed the Dharmacakra Mudra, ignoring the pain with sheer will. At once, a golden light linked the three swords together and a large rune written in Dharmic language appeared on the floor, covering all the platforms with the power of Dharma.

“Haha! Such Divinity! Has he been enlightened?” Sabrac laughed as he felt the power of Divinity surging in him. “Then, let’s do this! Fragment of Calamity! Today, we will make you submit!!”

Sensing the danger, the Fragment of Calamity used the last spurt of its power to try to once again to find the gap that it used before, but instead, it found a brilliant light that repelled its influence.

“You want to control me again?” Martell smirked angrily. “I’ve been given a chance, by Mistress Connie and my Masters! And I will not squander it. What does it matter if I’m filthy? As long as there are those who would reach out to me even if I’m mired in muck, I will never lose hope! Not again!! So, now. Experience my gratitude with your whole body!!”

Martell exerted all his Energy into the formation, causing the swords and the rune to glow brighter. Though Martell did not notice it from his righteous indignation, the power of the formation that he was performing was greater in power than the one Connie performed when fighting Bet-Zebek. For his understanding of kindness, or Maitri, was deeper.

With the last of its power spent, The Fragment of Calamity could no longer resist the purification and the cage shrank around it. With each clank and clatter it became smaller and smaller until it was no bigger than a fist. At which point a seal that had been carved into the cage automatically turned bright gold, turning and clicking and swivelling, locking the Fragment securely within.

“A bit more! Just a bit more!” Sabrac shouted. “This is the most critical moment. Keep your focus!!”

After the final seal was securely locked in place, the cage fell to the ground unceremoniously; its surface still sizzling with the great amount of Mana that had been channelled into it.

“Finally…,” Sabrac’s arms fell, relief and tiredness apparent in his sunken eyes. He looked around and saw the brittle bodies of the Monks that had sacrificed themselves to their mission crumbled into nothing. He clasped his hands together in prayer.

“Your duties are done, my brothers. May the Enlightened One’s light guide you.”

He watched as the young Beastfolk fell back from his seating position with his only healthy hand gesturing rudely at the Fragment. “Haha…see that? See that you bastard? I did it…!”

After which he collapsed out of exhaustion.

That day, Martell had started to walk in a path of understanding of his own, separate to that taught by his Mistress and Master. Whether it would ultimately end in his suffering or enlightenment, it was something for his future self to decide.