Eternal Promise: Fragments Of Us

SIDAPA

“LIBULAN!” I called out to him. It pricked my heart when I saw the bruises all over his body.

“My beloved, Sidapa!” Libulan cried out to me as he held onto the jail bars.

“He won’t tell us the reason why you two committed the crime. His mouth was shut the whole time and quietly accepted all the beatings,” Kaptan revealed. It made me feel sick to the stomach. “He is quite serious about you. Given his weak state, he even sacrificed his own powers just to spare your life.”

I growled in mixed anger and pain because my beloved Libulan suffered and I was not there. “My Libulan, why?!” I yelled at him with my tears overflowing.

[Ah, this is the very first time that I shed tears,] I thought to myself. [I thought crying can ease the pain but why? Why does it hurt so much, Libulan?!] I asked inside my mind as I looked at my beloved who was also tormented when he saw my current state.

“Please, Kaptan! Don’t hurt, Sidapa!” Libulan begged the God Kaptan and the man turned his head at him. “He has nothing to do with any of this! I was the one who seduced him!” he lied.

“What are you saying, Libulan?!” I reacted violently. But Libulan just gave me one brief smile that was filled with loneliness before he blurted some crazy words.

“I got bored,” Libulan scoffed, and suddenly his attitude drastically changed. “I wanted to try something new in the mortal realm and I saw you by accident,” he said. “I was just toying with you, my Sidapa. You looked so innocent and quite the dumb one,” he laughed like some kind of villain then he looked down at me with such disgust on his face. “I mean… look at you. Who would like someone as ugly as you?”

Everyone who heard him was dumbfounded. But I knew deep inside that everything he said were lies and it pained me that he had to take all the blame and turn himself into the heartless devil just to spare my life from being punished by Kaptan, as well.

[You are such a terrible liar, my dear Libulan. Your voice and lips were trembling when you tried your hardest to insult me. Even when you called me ugly, your eyes said otherwise. You can lie to all of them but not to me,] I deeply thought as I fixated my gazes at him. He was crying and clearly regretted saying all of those things to me.

“But forgive me, my Libulan. I can’t hate you,” I uttered with a smile before my black smoke engulfed my whole body.

“Looks like you’re about to show us who you really are,” Kaptan uttered with a grin before shouting out my name. “Sidapa, the God of Death!”

I scoffed. “I’m fed up,” I said in a low voice, then slowly I reverted to my true form-that hideous side of me that I’ve always hated but Libulan didn’t get scared of. “I am going to take Libulan away from this wretched prison and kill all of you!” I threatened with my voice that now seemed to be speaking right from the underworld.

Everyone except Kaptan ran off. I didn’t want to involve anyone more than this so when I confirmed that not a single outsider was here, I unleashed my deep bellow of anguish. It sent piles of rock debris flying all over the place. I kept screaming to release all my anger, but I made sure that Libulan wouldn’t get caught in anything that was lashed out directly to Kaptan.

“Sidapa! Please, stop this!” I heard Libulan beg, but I pretended not to hear him.

The proud God didn’t even flinch after seeing my true form. His expression was extremely boring, and he looked rather disappointed than overwhelmed.

“Look how low you have fallen, Sidapa,” Kaptan said with degradation. “Is this really what you want? Are you that desperate to throw those thousands of years of hard work just for one man? One man?” He tried to disarray my thoughts and feelings by targeting my role as the God of Death. But no matter what he said, I would not allow him to take Libulan’s life!

I never feared death, nor wished for life. My earliest memory as a God was waking up one day underneath that tree that became my only attachment in that mortal world. When I first received a few souls on that same day, I instinctively knew what to do despite not really knowing anything that was going on around me. It was the same instinct that all living things had and imprinted in their memories the moment they were born. Subconsciously, I didn’t realize that I worked hard and immersed myself in giving life and taking one at the same time. It was a very ironic job one could have.

But it gave me a purpose. But I also grew tired of it.

The darkness slowly ate me away. It began to corrupt my sanity. Whenever I had that feeling, I immediately detached myself from everything except for that tree. I survived a thousand years of solitude without wanting anything or needing anyone. It was supposed to be like that, until Libulan came to my life.

Upon his arrival, I developed the urge of wanting to protect everything about him. No matter how small or simple it was, Libulan brought nothing but happiness to me. He filled my dark world with light. And slowly, he became my new world. The attachment I had with him was the same as the tree, but stronger. It drove me far from what I used to believe in. He led me astray but he made me see my reality.

He saved me from my own prison of tenebrosity.

“And I won’t let Libulan slip from my hands! If killing you is the only way to retrieve what’s mine, then be it!” I declared while I stared at Kaptan, my eyes filled with determination and resolve.

Kaptan sighed in dismay. “I see. I am deeply appalled by your foolish actions, Sidapa. You were one of the few who took their roles perfectly without any mistakes,” he said and gave Libulan a quick glance of mortification. “And you crumbled just like that because of some mere weakling.” He was clearly disgusted with Libulan at that point.

Kaptan raised his right arm into the air and the clouds gradually accumulated until they got so dark, ready to drown the earth with heavy rains. The thunder roared and lightning lit up the night skies. Beneath us, mortals would have assumed by now that the Gods were upset and were about to end the world in a matter of hours. As Kaptan kept releasing his tremendous power that had brought hundreds of Gods before us to their end, I didn’t feel afraid. It was overwhelming, but my reason for turning my back against him was to fulfill my own ego and that was to save the man I fell in love with!

“Sidapa! Don’t fight him! Please, save yourself! I will be fine, I promise!” Libulan pleaded to me but I had no plan of backing down. He tried to bang his hands to the bars but he wasn’t strong enough, not to mention that he already lost his divine powers.

“My Libulan, I will get you out of here!” I shouted to him before I unleashed my greatest power yet.

True to my name, I had this one ability where everything I touched would wither away. It was a power I never wanted to use ever again after I witnessed it for the first time. It was a part of me that I never wanted to acknowledge because it also frightened me. But now… I’ve never felt this excited to use it.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“What a waste,” said Kaptan before attacking me head on.

He went straight for one of my horns at the front. With the use of his bare hands, he forcefully pulled it until the base cracked and he successfully broke it. I screamed and recoiled in agony as he casually threw the broken horn aside. I didn’t even have the chance to touch any part of his body so they would rot away.