Dev’s soul enters a magical portal, traversing another dimension. His ears heard a strange sound. The young man’s neck got goosebumps, feeling the negative energy surrounding him. A thick fog filled the eyes. Dev can only see a bunch of strange trees that seem to have spirits. He dropped his gaze to his shaking shoes. An oddity is seen. The vibrations did not originate from the effects of his restless heart, but from the loose soil on which he stood.
Moving, the ground overgrown with weeds revealed cracks throughout the vision. Groaning, Dev feels like he’s being roasted on a stove.
“Argh!” Dev’s eyes bulged, the young man could hear his bones sounding like a musical instrument.
A laugh echoed over and over again, making Dev’s eardrums spit out a red liquid. Who is the owner of that voice?
“Fuck!” His mouth cursed, soon his body will be completely swallowed by the earth. Closing his eyelids, he tried to muster all his strength. All muscles tensed, Dev slightly slumped on the ground intact. An explosion rang out, he saw the moving ground that nearly engulfed him had fused back together.
“Impossible!” The young man still couldn’t believe what had happened. Could it be that what saved him earlier was a miracle?
Walking aimlessly, Dev’s eyes swept across objects dominated by dark colors. Parting the fog with his hand, the young man saw another mist that turned out to be from a clear river in front of him. Dev frowns, he just saw there is a boiling river in the world. He crossed a fragile wooden bridge, the only access linking the two separate areas. Wrong focus can trigger cracks that can cause his body to ripen in an instant.
“Traitor!”
“Enjoy my power!”
“Stop it!”
“Ahahaha ….”
“Ahihi ….”
The voice of an adult woman sounded, accompanied by the typical laughter of a child. Heavy and resounding, the voices were shrouded in a powerful mystical aura. Dev rubs the earlobe, blood comes out back from there. He didn’t care. Those sharp eyes focused on the scene ahead. The wooden houses there stood proud. There was no one, but it looked like it had some unknown unusual activity. Without, fearlessly, Dev watches as human skulls scatter. The pungent smell of incense mixed with rottenness paralyzes the senses instantly. Until past the end of the village, Dev’s eyes fell on a woman who was under a tree house. Feeling both pity and curiosity, he approached the woman in the blood gown, who was standing still silently.
“What’s happened to you?” Dev asks, right in front of her.
“Go or you will die!” Dev didn’t flinch at the sight of the blood on her forehead, which then dripped down his shoes.
It wasn’t long before the head of the woman who had been bowed down finally lifted. Nick Erhan’s son was surprised to see the eyeballs of the woman in front of him were bright red. The bloodstains on her face couldn’t cover her beauty. The expression on her face conveyed a lot of resentment, and anger. Dev suddenly feels pain in his throat. He didn’t even notice that long-toed hands had strangled his neck.
He was unable to dodge from the grip, which he judged to be very lethal. A woman who looks weak turns out to have a strength that the human brain cannot measure. Dev’s whole muscles tensed up. In fact, his skin was starting to turn blue. Dev’s eyes start to turn red.
“Who are you?” Dev coughs as the lady stops torturing him.
“There is no man who descended the cursed blood alive, except ….” The woman said very quietly, then repeated the same question with a sad face. Dev cast his gaze on the woman, then said one sentence that managed to make the atmosphere lively with the screech of crows and the roar of thunder accompanied by a windstorm.
“Dev Sasaka!” Slumped, the mysterious woman crouched as if she had lost a bone. Staring at Dev with a look that is difficult to interpret. The woman’s tears suddenly fell, then she quickly wiped the red puddle that was still wet on her face. A condition that makes Dev even more trapped in confusion.
“Get out of here, or you will die!” Immediately, black smoke drifted around them. The heat energy that emerged scorched the trees. The whistling wind carried the reddish-orange substance traveling rapidly as if it had a self-replicating technique. A small, pale-faced child emerged from behind a plume of smoke, then stabbed Dev with her deer eye.
“GO!” The lady again shouts at Dev. Like the stubborn Nick Erhan, the young man simply didn’t listen to the warnings directed at him.
Dev spun around, trying to digest what was going on without realizing a touch snarled against his body in an instant. The black-scaled reptile explores every sculpture on its body while sticking out its tongue. The hiss that came out worked like a subduing spell. Taming Dev’s savage side as a human. Blisters appear on the exposed areas of Dev’s skin. The animal as big as an adult male’s hand, which has linked its body perfectly, managed to develop its batik head right in front of Dev’s face.
“OH, FUCK!” The youth’s hiss was no less terrifying, but it didn’t contain the same power as that damn beast had. Unfortunately, again, the little girl who was standing under the shade of black smoke there just watched while laughing. Treated him like a clown dancing in the streets.
“WATCH OUT!” The woman covered in blood screamed, and ran as fast as the wind, holding the head of the snake that was about to plant fangs on Dev’s head.
Minutes later, Dev gains freedom. However, he had to see that the woman who somehow saved him had an unfavorable result. Looking the other way, Dev finds the little girl in white robes showing anger without growling. Who is she who acts as if she is the controller?
“Go, Dev!” The snake attacked mercilessly. Dev approaches, intending to prove that he is not a loser man. However, suddenly the dragon tattooed woman hit Dev’s chest. The pain radiates, throwing Dev all the way down a very dark alley.
***
In a room filled with medical devices, Dev’s soul returns to his bedridden body, ending a spiritual journey that feels fast, and dangerous. His eyelids opened wide, he gasped at the sight of his mummy-like body. The dog standing by the door barked, then came out. Dev pulls out the IV needle and tries to remove the bandage covering his face, then decides to head to the sink in the bathroom to check his bleeding ears. Before he could open the door, a knock of a flat shoes stopped his steps.
“Thank God, you’re finally awake!” Dev turns to see who is speaking.
“Who are you?” Instead of answering, the woman in the short-sleeved sleeping kimono looked on in amazement, then said to her dog, “Chiro, I did it!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m Joana, I’m the doctor who treats you.” Hearing the woman’s explanation, Dev recalls what happened to him before he was in the room. At the time of the explosion, he tried to get out of the building with his body burned. Nothing helps. He purposely distanced himself from people until he finally met a dog when he was already lying down, and almost lost consciousness.
“You’re the dog that helped me!” Barking, the Spitz rubbed its head against Dev’s feet.
“Thank you!” said Dev.
“Have you seen your face? Oh, my gosh! Why is your ear bleeding? A few hours ago I saw you were fine.”
“No, it’s okay! Is my face really very bad now?” A streak of anger flared, considering the burns he had suffered quite badly.
At least, he measured it by taste. How will he face the days that are always boring? The young man even grew up like trash that had failed to be recycled, and the physical damage that existed would only add to his suffering. Joana took a deep breath before finally saying, “You’re fine, I did the surgery. And you don’t have to worry about the surgical scars showing. I did it perfectly. Look!” Joana handed Dev a mirror, and instantly the atmosphere became tense. Dev froze after the mirror fell from his grip.