Eternal Promise: Fragments Of Us

SIDAPA

“FOUND it!” I exclaimed when I finally had the core in my grip.

I clasped it within my palm and carefully pulled it out. The screaming grew louder as the core was forcefully removed from its proper place. I knew the consequences, the risks, but none of them mattered to me now. If I was a sinner from the very beginning, then I would continue being one for my Libulan.

The instant the core exited the trunk, the thousand year old tree began to deteriorate. All the lifelines I had carved on its magnificent surface flashed a blinding light, causing me to shut my eyes. My machete that was still stuck to the trunk melted and became a black substance. The tree absorbed that substance. The tree itself started to rot away. The dead branches fell off first, and the live ones were forced to detach from the wood.

The ground made a rumbling sound, as if it was aching to open up and send everything from the above straight to hell. It was a horrifying sight to see. Then suddenly, the portal to Magwayen’s realm appeared. And before me, Magwayen herself showed up.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“What do you think you’re doing, Sidapa?” Magwayen asked in a stern voice. She didn’t look hostile towards me, but she wasn’t also on my side.

“Magwayen…” I uttered in a tired tone. Since the tree was already dead, its core began to absorb my powers to keep itself alive.

Magwayen turned her attention to Libulan’s body that was sitting next to the tree. Her eyes widened when she realized what I had done. “You… Don’t tell me that you killed your tree just to bring this Deity back to life?” she asked, horrified.

“What if I did? Are you here to stop me?” I asked her a question, too.

“I was notified that two powerful Gods committed a taboo. I didn’t think that would be you and Libulan,” Magwayen explained.

“Damn the Heavens and damn all of them who hurt Libulan. I will make them pay for what they did, Magwayen,” I growled, hatred was reflected in my eyes.

Magwayen took her salakab out which alerted me. If she decided to fight me head on and take Libulan’s soul by force, I wouldn’t be able to fight back. “I have no right to judge the two of you, Sidapa,” she began. “However, it is my duty to collect the souls of those who are destined to wander the endless void,” she reminded me. “You know that very well, Sidapa. You have successfully sent countless souls to me for the past millennia. Why hesitate now?”

“You won’t understand, and you will never understand, Magwayen,” I said. “Only Libulan and I who share these feelings are the only ones who know the joy and pain of what we went through. I don’t regret fighting for him. And I don’t mind sacrificing my own life to spare his.”

“I can see where you’re coming from. That, I respect. But as I’ve said, I am the Goddess of the Underworld, and I am here to collect your souls,” Magwayen stated.

Libulan’s soul was still floating around his lifeless body. I had little strength left to stop her from taking it with ease. The core was still sucking every last drop of my divine powers.

The Goddess walked to Libulan’s location and opened her salakab, ready to trap my beloved’s soul in there. My instincts were telling me to viciously attack Magwayen and kill her if she fought back, but my body no longer responded to my heart’s desire. It was only then that I realized that I already began to die physically. So before I eventually lose my consciousness, I needed to resort to that!

“I, Sidapa, God of Death…” Magwayen halted in her tracks when she heard me start talking about something ominous.

“Sidapa, what are you doing?” she tried to confront me, but a blinding light coming from the tree’s core and my own soul had successfully fused together. She was pushed back by its overwhelming presence.

“My soul and Libulan’s soul will be reincarnated many times over until we meet again!” I began, and Magwayen gasped when she grasped what I was about to do. “As the God of Death, I am going to guard Libulan’s soul from anyone who tries to take him away from me.” Then my beloved’s body lit up and that light came out and hovered towards me. It slowly entered my body. “My beloved, forgive me but I am going to put you into a deep slumber along with your original memory just so I can protect you from here onwards. This core,” I uttered and stared at Magwayen who was petrified. “This is where I will seal Libulan’s memory. You must be wondering why I’m telling you this, Goddess. This is proof that Sidapa isn’t just some pitiful creature with no worth. Libulan was the one who gave meaning to my existence and I don’t mind sacrificing other people’s lives if that’s the only way that I can keep him to myself, forever.”

With that said, Libulan’s physical body disintegrated and was blown away by the wind. My soul separated from my body, leaving nothing but an empty shell of a hideous creature. But this creature once fell in love and that love would be his fuel to keep surviving through the odds of time.

Until we found the bodies that would let us meet and be together again in the near future, I would make sure to protect what was mine.

Magwayen silently watched as my soul attached itself in the tree’s core. The once pure white core became pitch black when my tainted soul combined with it. The skies went dark and the ground shook. Next was the roaring of the thunder and angry flashes of light from the lightning. The Gods and Goddesses felt the enormous power that was spreading all over the place. But, it was always a strict rule for them to never meddle with their mortal affiliations no matter what. And this was the reason why I chose to do this in this very place-the Mount of Madja-as. This would serve as our graveyard and the place where I would hide the sealed memory of Libulan. He would never remember this place, ever.

Moments later, everything that surrounded Mount Madja-as had died. The core that had become a crystal ball of darkness implanted itself to where the tree used to stand, bringing along my Libulan’s precious memories.

All Magwayen did was close her salakab as she took a deep breath. She traveled her eyes and saw nothing but a dead land. The mountain that used to be a home for varieties of plants, animals, and humans was now a barren land that could be mistaken as hell that rose from the underground. She was horrified but it already happened. And when she turned her gaze at me, her jaw dropped.

My body had fused with my tree and brought it back to life. She could hardly recognize me but she felt my presence from within. My unusual transformation wasn’t the one that made her shiver down to the very bone. It was the undeniable truth that the core of my soul had split into two and created opposite versions of me: The one that had moved on and would get reincarnated along with Libulan became the symbol of life. The other one that stayed beside the tree to guard its new core became a black entity that became the epitome of death and this entity got most of my powers, making it a threat to anyone who came in contact with it.

“What have you done?” she muttered in mixed horror and sympathy, before leaving the place.

The wind harshly blew away some dust in the area where the three of us had just been a while ago, a clear and cold reminder that the once lush forest no longer showed signs of life.

“We’ll be together in no time, my Libulan.”

I held on to these feelings throughout the coming years until the day that I would be reunited with Libulan once again. It became the very fuel of my soul.

[to be continued]