The God of Cataka

1

When their father came home with a mysterious urn to the Liu family residence, Liu Shen Zhu tried not to look scared. He knew his older sister, Liu Xie Ma, would make fun of him if he knew how he really felt.

"It looks like a sealed cremation ash jar. It must be a curious spirit from the dark ages" said Xie Ma in a dramatic style. "You scared, Brother?" taunted.

Just because he was thirteen years old while his sister was only ten years old, plus the face of his sister who was like a woman, according to Xie Ma, his sister was a kind of cowardly cat. He always surprised Shen Zhu and tried to scare him.

That's Xie Ma's job. Teasing and flattering Shen Zhu was timid.

Or vandals!

Their father was a treasure hunter and a mysterious heirloom expert. His job is to search and collect heirloom items from the most mysterious places. Doesn't include collecting cremation ash jars, actually.

This was the first time their father had brought home a mysterious urn that at first glance did look like a urn of cremated ashes. It was shaped like a pumpkin and had already cracked here and there. The entire passage of the urn was filled with ancient writing, perhaps the seal— spellat least that was what Shen Zhu believed.

Their father kept the urn in the basement and reminded them not to get close to it.

But after their father left, Shen Zhu and Xie Ma remained standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at the basement.

"I know something about the sealed urn of cremated ash," Xie Ma said as he squinted his eyes. "Their spirits can go out and roam in search of prey."

"I can't believe it!" sergeant Shen Zhu.

"Wait until your soul is taken away, you will believe it" Xie Ma insisted. "The "cremation mother sealed inside the urn usually contained a curious spirit dissatisfied with her death. If the seal is broken, the spirits inside will come out to steal the souls of people. Aren't you scared?"

"No," Shen Zhu denied.

"Then why don't you go down and check it out?" challenge Xie Ma.

"Didn't you hear what Dad said? Don't go near that thing!" refute Shen Zhu.

"Father forbid us to come close because she knows you're a troublemaker" argued Xie Ma.

"I'm not a troublemaker!" sergeant Shen Zhu.

"Then try to go down there and touch that urn, just once," challenged Xie Ma once again. "I'll bet you'll drop things for being too nervous."

"Good!" Shen Zhu felt challenged. "I'm down" he said. And before those words were finished, he was already sorry.

Below it turned pitch-black, to the point that the air smelled dark, like the smell of mud.

The jar was placed inside a treasure chest in the middle of the room along with other items of discovery. Other items have been dusty because it is too long stored in the crate, the lid of the crate is always open from time to time. Only the jar still looked slippery, so shiny that it glowed in the dark.

Shen Zhu descended the stairs slowly. Step by step near it.

The only thing that the boy could hear was his heartbeat beating fast.

The air around him felt cold and damp.

Shen Zhu rubbed his two cold palms against each other, trying to arouse his courage.

You can do it, he told himself. There's nothing to be afraid of.

Touching that shiny urn— accidentally dropped it. The jar was rolled inside the box. Not until it breaks, but the lid comes off.

For a moment Shen Zhu's heart stopped beating. Now that Father is really going to kill me, his mind is horrified. Then turn around and run up without looking back.

A deep darkness suddenly ambushed the room.

The door to the basement was closed. Xie Ma has closed it.

Shen Zhu is trapped!

Shen Zhu couldn't stand it anymore, so he started shouting. But his voice was stuck in his throat. The air mixed with dust was sucked into his mouth and swallowed, making him choke and cough. His chest felt tight to the point of making him weak.

He fell to his knees at the door, flailing with his fist. His head began to drift while his consciousness sank. The darkness felt like eternity. It was like a stop in time that left him stuck in a puzzling illusion.

Shen Zhu was not sure how long the darkness had taken him, but when the light came, he found himself face down in the open among the rubble and ruins.

And the only light that shines on it comes from the skyline. Morning sunlight.

There's nothing there!

There is no wall.

There is no door.

There is no dark basement.

There is no home.

There was only an open field with rubble and ruins.

Where is this? Shen Zhu wondered in his heart.

The whole place around him is spoiled.

Bodies are lying here and there.

Shen Zhu suffocated stifledly, subconsciously holding his breath.

His mother and father were not far from his place. It's lifeless.

"Dad! Mama!" Shen Zhu yelled and rushed towards them, then fell to his knees and cried out.

A moment later, the sound of thumping and thumping noisily of the army shoes, gushed towards Shen Zhu, followed by the sound of someone shouting. "There are some who are still alive!"

Then more and more voices were pounding the shoes of the approaching soldiers.

"Devil! The devil!" Suddenly a girl screamed in fear. The voice came from behind the ruins behind Shen Zhu.

Shen Zhu gasped, he recognized the voice. He immediately turned and faced backwards. "Sister!" pekik surprised.

A group of knights knew already swarmed them.

Xie Ma thrashed as a knight tried to approach him.

"It's okay," persuaded the knight in a soft voice. "You're safe now."

Shen Zhu rushed towards her brother, but her brother screamed again as he soared away from her. "Devil!" his screams are hysterical. "Devil!"

One of the knights pulled Shen Zhu away from her brother when the other knights forcibly carried Xie Ma's body to evacuate.

"Come," take the other knights. "Follow us."

Shen Zhu followed them obediently while his soul was still shaken and helpless. His teary eyes stared at the nilar of all the people he knew sprawled lifelessly among the ruins of their respective homes.

Part of him wanted to stay to take care of his parents' funeral. But the other part of him wants to run away or hide and forget everything.

That sight was too terrifying for a ten-year-old boy. The tragedy was not borne by his soul. Makes it feel like it's not in reality. Making Shen Zhu just flinch with a dazed expression.

The knights took them to the Demon Hunt Knight Alliance Headquarters and exposed them to their elders and chiefs.

A number of officials and owners of the martial arts college who joined under the auspices of the alliance were called to discuss the issue.

The knights guided Shen Zhu and his elder sister to the center of the room in front of the chairwoman's throne staircase.

"Only those are still alive," one of the knights reported while kneeling in front of the stairs.

The other knights joined their knees.

Shen Zhu finally got on his knees, trying to hug Xie Ma, but again the girl screamed and thrashed around without anyone being able to calm her down.

The head of the alliance finally summoned the medicine experts and ordered that Xie Ma be brought in for treatment.

"Sister!" Shen Zhu tried to snatch her brother out of everyone's hands.

"Calm down!" a knight hugged Shen Zhu from behind and held him back. "We just want to take care of her. We promise you'll be together again after this. The chairman wanted to talk to you first," he whispered in a stern persuasion that made Shen Zhu instantly speechless.