🕯️ Escape to the Human World
After a long journey, Ki Jaka and the soldiers who had followed him finally reached a settlement at the foot of the mountain.
They chose to hide there temporarily, far beyond the reach of Queen Amarpati and Saracana's influence.
They no longer wished to be part of a kingdom that had abandoned the teachings of its former rulers.
For Ki Jaka, leaving the kingdom was no easy decision.
He had devoted most of his life to protecting Srinjani. He knew every corner of its territory, understood the history of its kings, and possessed a profound loyalty to the land of his birth.
But loyalty did not mean allowing evil to remain in power.
If he stayed, he and his soldiers might very well become the next victims.
So they chose to leave.
Those who managed to escape carried wounds that were difficult to heal. They felt guilty for abandoning the people still trapped under Amarpati's rule. They also grieved for the kingdom that had once been peaceful but was now slowly losing its identity.
They knew something terrible awaited Srinjani.
And they lacked the power to stop it.
As time passed, some of them began leaving their former lives behind and blending into the communities at the foot of the mountain. They learned the religious teachings that later spread into the region and lived out their new lives until their deaths.
Yet the story of their escape never truly disappeared.
Tales of a hidden kingdom, a pact with a gigantic serpent, and the people who abandoned Srinjani continued to pass from one generation to the next.
According to legend, these events became one of the origins of the belief in two different dimensions within Mount Srinjani.
Two opposing forces.
Positive energy and negative energy.
Goodness and evil.
And two guardians believed to still rule over the mountain to this day.
One protects the balance.
The other seeks to lead humans into darkness.
But the story was not over.
For those who remained trapped inside the kingdom, the true nightmare was only just beginning.
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đź‘‘ The Price of Immortality
After Ki Jaka and his soldiers fled, Queen Amarpati's power spiraled further out of control.
No one dared openly challenge her commands anymore. Those who attempted to voice their objections were swiftly silenced by the palace guards.
Meanwhile, the rituals continued.
Every week, the inhabitants were forced to gather and offer tributes to Saracana. They repeated the incantations spoken by the queen without realizing that each ritual strengthened their bond with the serpent kingdom.
Amarpati believed she was moving closer to immortality.
She felt that she was approaching the eternal life Saracana had promised her.
Yet the kingdom's condition continued to deteriorate.
The people's farms suffered losses. Agricultural yields declined, while wages were no longer distributed fairly. Food supplies began to dwindle, and famine gradually spread throughout the region.
The people who had once lived in comfort now struggled simply to obtain enough food to survive.
But their suffering never concerned the queen.
As long as the rituals continued and Saracana granted her power, Amarpati believed there was nothing to worry about.
Until one day, her body began to change.
At first, she experienced nothing more than unusual fatigue.
Then she began losing her strength after completing the rituals. Her face grew paler, her steps weakened, and her body frequently trembled for no apparent reason.
The palace physicians were summoned to examine her.
Yet none of them could determine the cause of her illness.
Day after day passed.
The queen's condition continued to worsen.
One night, when another wave of pain struck her, Amarpati summoned Saracana through a special ritual in her private chamber.
With her weakened body, she knelt before the offerings.
"O Saracana…" she whispered.
"I have done everything you commanded. I have given you offerings. I have made the entire population bow before you."
She struggled to raise her head.
"Then why is my body growing weaker?"
The room suddenly turned cold.
The candle flames flickered.
From a corner of the chamber came the sound of scales scraping against the floor as something slowly approached.
Saracana emerged from the shadows.
Its enormous head rose as its yellow eyes stared at the queen, who lay weakly on the floor.
"Answer me!" Amarpati cried with the little strength she had left. "Didn't you promise me eternal life?"
Saracana did not answer immediately.
The creature simply stared at her, seemingly enjoying the suffering of a human who had once believed herself powerful enough to control the forces of darkness.
Then its deep voice echoed inside Amarpati's mind.
"You desired power. You desired eternal life. And you gave me what I demanded in return."
Amarpati fell silent.
"No…" she whispered.
"I never promised that your body would live forever."
Amarpati's eyes widened.
For the first time, she realized that she had never truly understood the pact she had entered into.
She had believed Saracana was an ally who would help her conquer the world.
But from the very beginning, the creature had merely been using her ambition for its own purposes.
"No! You promised me immortality!"
Amarpati tried to crawl away.
But her body was too weak to move.
Saracana drew closer.
"You should have understood one thing, Amarpati. No human can possess everything without losing something in return."
The queen began to weep.
She wanted to scream for help, but her voice was barely audible.
No soldiers came.
No physician could save her.
And no one could free her from the unholy pact she had chosen to make.
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The night of the full moon finally arrived.
Moonlight illuminated the summit of Mount Srinjani, filtering through gaps in the trees and falling across the silent palace courtyard.
As she had on previous nights, Amarpati forced herself to perform the ritual once more.
She believed that as long as she continued worshipping Saracana, the chance of obtaining immortality remained within reach.
But her body could no longer endure it.
In the middle of the incantation, her voice suddenly faltered.
Her hands went limp.
Her body collapsed before the offerings.
Queen Amarpati finally drew her last breath in the very ritual she had believed would grant her eternal life.
Snakes began emerging from behind the trees and from cracks between the rocks. They surrounded the queen's body, slithered toward the offerings, and coiled around her lifeless form.
They were no ordinary snakes.
They were descendants and followers of Saracana, creatures that had guarded the region for centuries.
No tears accompanied Amarpati's death.
No subjects came to pay their final respects.
The queen died in silence, surrounded by the creatures she had once regarded as her path to immortality.
Yet death was not the end of her suffering.
Her soul and body had been bound to Saracana through the pact she had forged herself. Even after her life departed from her body, she was never truly free of the creature's influence.
The throne she had defended through ambition and blood ultimately left her with nothing.
She lost her kingdom.
She lost her life.
And she lost the freedom she had wanted so desperately from the very beginning.
Queen Amarpati obtained the power she desired, but she never truly belonged to herself.
From that moment onward, the Kandis Srinjani Kingdom sank ever deeper into darkness.
And the tale of the bloodstained throne became one of the darkest legends ever passed down about Mount Srinjani.