deep-black-dreaming

Casper had returned to the usual spot the last day of her visit, she told Shane she had lost the ring, and while he was disappointed he said he’d get her another. It was awkward, she knew where it was, and away she was going to get it. It was surprising to see the tree was gone, and for a moment she felt a pang of fear.

Not so much for the world around her, but for him.

“A-aku?” She asked softly, making her way over to the scorched ground. Carefully kneeling down, she reached down digging for the ring. “Aku are you there?” She asked again, finally finding the ring she picked it up. Looking up, she glanced around the area trying to figure out what happened.

“Aku!” She called, louder now.

The ring was caked in mud and no matter how much Casper might try to wipe it clean, the jewelry would remain tarnished a deep, burnt black. Whatever had happened here had caused permanent changes to the ring. 

Casper’s shout was met with silence. There was no psychic response from the connection she’d shared with Aku and no sense of his foreboding presence. Rather, the ground around her emanated a sense of purity as if it had been recently cleansed of evil. 

In the distance, the Emperor’s palace stood serenely among the mountains. Surely, had Aku escaped, the palace would lay in flaming ruins by now. It had been his first choice of target, after all. Instead, there was only a bright sky above and an atmosphere of peace over the land, devoid of evil. 

It was as if Aku had simply been… erased. 

@deep-black-dreaming

The day had come. The sun and moon were about to align in a total eclipse and in the path of totality was Aku’s prison. As the minutes passed by, he could feel his power strengthening. The sky grew darker as the moon began to cross the sun. This was it. His chance to escape was nigh. 

The moon continued on its slow path toward the center and when the sun became a ring of fire, Aku pushed against the walls of the prison with all his might. The tops of the tree branches trembled as they stretched toward the sky. Treacherous roots snapped apart and pulled themselves into the earth. Thick bark began to crack and split. But as Aku came close to freedom, he realized he was not alone.

Three glowing lights appeared in the sky above, one white, one gold, one blue. From these glowing patches of light emerged the gods Odin, Ra and Vishnu. They had found him. And after all these eons, they’d returned to finish the job. Aku was terrified but more than that, he was incensed that they would arrive at this moment as if they’d seen it coming. So enraged was he that the tree’s naked branches were suddenly enshrouded in a complete foliage of flames. 

Impassive, the gods drew their divine weapons and began their ambush. The long-range attacks split the tree asunder, exposing the darkness within and burning it away as it attempted to take form. There was no time to run or fight back and nowhere to hide. The dark entity had no chance under the barrage of energy blasts and arrows.

When it was over, there was nothing left behind but a smoking crater in the earth. As the moon pulled away from the sun, the gods retreated silently back to their glowing patches of sky and were gone. The tree was no more and neither was Aku. There was only smoke rising from a scorched earth.