“My name is Prahlada.”

The words seemed to make the world fade away, making Amara blink. For a second, she thought she had become blind only to notice that the world finally faded into light. The golden city came into her view, filled with strange looking children and fierce guards watching over them. A small black skinned girl, with wild black hair and red lips meditated in the sun.

The other children tried to pull her away but she just kicked them, flashing her sharp teeth at them.

“Who is that?” Amara muttered, not thinking Prahlada would come up beside her.

“Her name is Kalika, the daughter of the Asura king Mayasura, and later by mortals came to be called Kali.”

“What is she doing?”

“Purifying her karma. You see, the Asura and Deva’s are the same. Both born from Brahma, the Anterion of Balance, to be mirrored after his image.”

“Anterion?”

“The true gods of all the realms. The divine beings that govern all higher powers, such as time, fate, death and magic. Brahma was the Anterion of Balance, wanting even the gods to be in perfect balance he created a being that was two sides of one coin. One side was the benevolent deva while the other side was the malevolent Asura. Would a deva fall to anger, bloodlust or depravity then he would turn into an Asura and if a Asura would purify himself then-“

“He would become a Deva.”

Prahlada nodded, “Though it is hard. Every one of them was born with a dominant trait, being born an Asura or Deva but having the potential to become the other, but since it rarely happens, the one race became two and they warred against eachother.”

“So Kalika wanted to become a devi?”

“Yes, she was the reincarnation of Shiva’s wife, Sati, and wanted to join him but that would never be allowed until she turned into a deva.”

The landscape changed, showing Kalika slowly turning to a beautiful woman, dressed in a colorful sari, a dot in her forhead and golden jewerly covering her arms and legs. She had now become Parvati. The devi stood before a blue skinned man, handsome and fierce, smiling at her as she handed him a pomgrenade. They both bit down, never taking their eyes of eachother.

The scene faded away, showing a bed where Parvati where screaming out her pain. Her stomache ripe with child as she was about to give birth.

“But her Asura blood was still there. Singing strong, and it was given to her child as well,” Prahlada said. The midwifes gasped, as they looked at the child. Amara carefully walked over, watching the little bundle.

She let out a gasp when joy and familiarity rushed over her, at the sight of the chubby little child with obsidian skin, four eyes waving in the air and wild black hair. The little bundle open his eyes, but they where pitch black with no whites in sight.

“I’m sorry, the boy is blind,” the midwife said, handing over the bundle who was almost immediately dropped by Parvati who refused to touch the child. Staring at the bundle like it was a monstrocity.

Amara felt pain go through her, and she was just about to reach out for the screaming child when another set of arms seem to go through her. Shiva reached for the child, lifting it up into the air. “What should we name our child?”

“That monster deserves no name,” Parvati said, Shiva turning to her with pain in his eyes.

“Is he not our son? He should be loved.”

“He is an Asura!”

“So were you.”

Parvati stared at him, her mouth gaping as she held her breath. The scene faded away, showing Shiva giving the son to a green, four armed creature with a boar head. Prahlada walked over, looking at the scene.

“Parvati refused to accept the boy and neither did the other devas so Shiva decided to give him to the current king of the Asuras, Hiranyaksha, asking him to love the child as his own.”

Amara could feel the pain of abandoning his child, to only being able to hope that the child would have a better future. “Why give it away to Hiranyaksha who was a horrible creature?”

“Horribly how?”

“Didn’t he kidnap mother earth, Bhudevi? He was killed by Vishnu for it. Shouldn’t you know this?”

“I know of the truth. Hiranyaksha and Bhudevi was married. He didn’t kidnap her. They fell in love. Hiranyaksha became the father of Bhudevi’s first child Naraka, who had become a Asura king beyond the city of Tripura. But a devi and an Asura wasn’t allowed to marry, since it caused unbalance in the world. So Vishnu attacked them when they went down into the palace under the sea, killed Hiranyaksha, and forced Bhudevi to become his concubine.”

Amara stared at Prahlada, “And you liked this Vishnu?”

“He saved me from my father, who was cruel,” Prahlada said, watching as the scene turned to a golden palace room, filled with plants and Asura’s cheering as, now a grown, Andhaka was crowned. He was handsome is a strange way, Amara could see his father in him despite having his mother’s colors. He was smaller than other Asura’s who where more monstrious, but there was something fierce in the face of the young king, and a sadness in his eyes. In his forehead he had now a third eyes, staring at the audience with precision.

The crowd parted as Prahlada stepped forward, a glowing presence so foreign among the Asura’s. Bowing to the new king, the young Prahlada smiled at his cousin who didn’t give him the same warmth. Andhaka almost looked bored.

“What does the worshipper of the murderer of my father have to say to the new king?” Andhaka said, his eyes not leaving the boy.

“I come to advice you, cousin. The guide you to the right path.”

The current Prahlada sighed beside Amara. “I was so young. So full of just cause. It never occurred to me that there was nothing to save and that there are no right path. Just different ones. My path was not the path of my cousin, but I just didn’t want to see it back then.”

“What happened?”

The scene changed, Andhaka conquered the lands. The land burning, but as the old system died, a new one grew in its place. Mortals went from a serene farming society to a buzzling civilization under the rule of Andhaka. Different races lived in peace and the people was worshipping the Asura’s as their gods.

Then the scene changed again, showing Andhaka arguing with Prahlada with the latter seemingly pleading with him. Then the scene changed again, showing Prahlada sneaking into a mountain finding Parvati. A smile covered Andhaka’s face as he introduced himself, reaching for his mother only to have his mother hit his hand away and slapping his face. The smile turned to shock, then anger as he grabbed her and pulled her out of the room.

“That is how the end began. Others saw it coming. Andhaka’s brother Naraka among other’s who fled the war. Seeking refuge with his mother who pleaded with Vishnu. Vishnu did not like the child but decided to give him land where Naraka built the city of Pragjyotish.”

“And you?”

“I knew it would come, but I wanted to stay with my cousin. Trying to save him from himself, telling him to let Parvati go.”

“Did he?”

Prahlada closed his eyes, “Yes.”

“So the why-“

“Because Parvati is also Kalika. When he let her go, she was furious. So enraged, that she saught what shouldn’t be saught.”

“What was that?”

“A way to kill a god.”

Amara opened her mouth but no sound came out. Only air, as a frown shaped itself on her face. “Isn’t gods immortal. They are only reincarnated if they are killed.”

“That is true in the mortal realm but this-“ Prahlada waved around her, “is not the mortal realm. It is the Higher plane where the gods resides. Here our bodies are indestructible. If we go into the mortal realm, we must relinquish our powers. Turning us mortal and can be killed. It is a risk we must take.”

“Who made up that law?”

“And archon who didn’t like all the trouble the gods caused in the mortal realm. We devas and Asuras was able to bypass that law by taking a human body. When the mortal body is killed, we are just drawn into the realm of the gods to wait to be reincarnated again.”

“So, Andhaka was immortal in Tripura and would just return to Tripura if his mortal body would be killed in the mortal realm?”

“Yes,” Prahlada confirmed. “Parvati wanted to destroy his very being, ensuring that he would never be reincarnated again.”

“Could she do so?”

“With some help.”

The scene changed, turning to Parvati standing in a dark room. From the shadows a strange creature moved about. Amara had first assumed it was an Asura, as the creature had four arms, a snake head, bat wings and bull legs, but even among the Asura’s he looked foreign. Too monstrious.

“I don’t deal with Asuras,” Parvati said coldly, no fear crossed her face. The creature laughed, fading into the dark only to step in front of her a second later. Looking like a man. His hair black hair was braided in a tribal faction, his dark skin soft, but the areas around the eyes was dark, almost black along with his lips and nails. The eyes were just slits, while his lips where full and currently grinning, showing fangs.

“Is this better, your grace?” the man said, bowing mockingly. He then turned around, and suddenly Shiva stood in front of him. “Or do you prefer this shape?”

“Your abomintation!”

The man chuckled, turning again and becoming the dark skinned man once more. “I am no Asura nor am I a god. I am above such creatures. Such vermin.”

Parvati snorted, “I don’t fear the-“

The words were cut of as the man grabbed onto her throat, squeasing and lifting her up. Her feet kicked the air, while his laughter burned Amara’s ears. Black vains grew along his arm, seemingly growing like vines from his to Parvati’s throat. She gasped as the veins spread along her body, turning her skin black and growing an extra set of arms.

“No,” Parvati, now taking the shape of Kalika, gasped.

“Do you fear me now?” the man asked, dropping her to the floor. Kalika tried to hide her body but were unable to do so. She had taken the shape of an Asura.

“What are you?” she asked.

“Asking who I am had been the more polite question,” the man said, looking down at Kalika. “I am Zarazen, the archon of taint and the creator of the dark arts, and I-”

The man kneeled, to ensure that he could look Kalika in the eyes, “have come to grant you your wish.”