If before the interconnection of sea was only a testament of economic progress of the country, then the display against the pirates was what smaller island countries lacked the most – defence. This idea compensated for their lack of man power in their military and navy. Nations from all over the world came in to hire engineers from Bhasmachal to execute the same design in their own country. Julius too magnanimously never turned down use of technology and power against appropriate price, his popularity was soaring through the skies, cause the results he achieved in annihilating the pirate force was unprecedented.

A few years passed by…

Construction of allotment houses for poor was progressing faster than scheduled and soon it would be the date for inauguration of the allotments. Julius was excited about the projects all over the country, so he himself decided to attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the allotments. Brutus as the finance minister was overseeing the finances for local labour from Bhasmachal’s side so Julius gave him over all authority over things going around the project and because of their relationship, Julius seldom interfered about things Brutus handled, cause of the relation between them and also cause Brutus was a largely competent person.

Commissioning of the capital’s poor allotment was in a week, when local missing person’s request started getting linked to the allotment houses. Rumours started going around that the people who had gone missing were all headed to that place or were coming from there. When the local law enforcement agent the Vigiles Urbani and his 16 x cohorts went in to investigate the matter, none of them returned except for one person. When he came out his left leg was the size of bones no till his thighs. A huge chunk of his left chest too exhibited similar appearance and his shoulders and neck from the left looked like they had been peeled off. It was horrific to watch. Crowd slowly gathered around the man limping out of barricade and were stunned. Some prepared themselves to attack him…

“Is that an Aghori??? Attack him before he charges at us” shouted one as he prepared to attack the person coming out

“Ahhh… no….!!!” screamed a girl grossed out by the deformity

When people were set to attack him, one of the cohorts maintaining the barricade realized something and shouted “Pompus!!! Is that you?”

As if response to the name the Aghori like human looked towards the cohort and extended his hand in his direction saying feebly “Help…”

The barricade cohort immediately jumped into the barricade and ran towards his comrade to support him. As if on cue Pompus started puking blood the moment he is supported and the other cohort started shouting “Call the doctor!!! He is a person from the team which entered the allotment area. Call the doctor!!!”

He was rushed to the doctor’s and immediately the doctors started attending to him. His muscles were as if going through necrosis, the doctors immediately amputed his left leg and remove his left lung. He was put on a manual respirator wherein the person was used to pump the air into his body via a bag made out of deer skin. His kidneys had failed not being able to purify all the poison in his blood from the necrotic leg and torso, he was almost in his death bed. He was 16 years in age with no family only a suitor who was crying inconsolably near his bed. She was pretty in all respects and looked to be around the same age as the soon to be deceased as well.

The door slammed open and a handsome man with naked torso walked in, not adorned in any jewellery, on the first look at his attire nobody would think him to be a king, but what he lacked in additional attire he more than fulfilled in his features and the way he handled himself.

He immediately bent from his waist and apologised to the crying girl saying “I am sorry, you had to go through all this. Please let me make this right, for which I need the help of your friend once again”

The girl was taken aback initially but later realised what the king was saying and just said one thing in reply “Pompus described to me the one responsible for this incident” not executing any of the curtsies she should when in presence of the king she continued “Butcher the bastard!!!” she said looking straight in to Julius’s eyes. Julius was surprised by the response and simply nodded and knowing time was of essence started questioning the bed-ridden patient.

Pompus when he saw the king and his prime minister enter his room was surprised by this, but he could not make any reactions in his condition, he looked to Julius and exclaimed “My… liege…” taking deep breaths between each word.

“Your words today are more precious any my friend so speak in measured words. Lose the courtesy and tell what species was the thing you saw” said Julius with urgency in his voice

“not… know…” said Pompus

“Hm… how strong was it?”

“Don’t… know… by the… time… I reached… there…” Julius nodded indicating his acknowledgement and Pompus stopped speaking.

“I think it would be better if you describe it to us Pompus”

With deep breaths between each word Pompus said “I did… not… get… a… good… look… at it… inside… the darkness…, but it… was… huge and… whatever… it touched… turned to sand…, all the flesh… of all Vigiles… he touched… shrunk and… decayed… till nothing… was left of them…”

His breathing became heavier, it was then Julius realized, he wouldn’t get anything more from the man when he stood up and touched his shoulders “My friend, thank you for your services for the great country of Bhasmachal, your country will never forget your sacrifice and forever be in your debt. You have paid the greatest price for this nation, at this point I can only pray for your soul and… avenge you for what that bastard did”

Saying so he turned around to leave but realised the cohort wanted to say something “It was an… honour…”

Julius said without turning around “Your nation thanks you”

With clenched fists Julius started walking down the corridor Marcus alongside him. His entourage of personal guard alongside him.

“You seen anything like what he said” asked Julius

“Nope never seen, but it seems more like a curse than a living being”

“How the fuck did a curse enter the construction?? Where the fuck is Brutus, I haven’t seen him for weeks??” he asked turning to the guards around him

Nobody had any answers and Julius became a little sceptical but then simply used went to the court with his entourage.

“Brutus where are you? Come out right this instant, I need you to inform me about your investigation into this matter!!!” the furious king shouted.

Seeing no response from the anywhere Julius tensed up bit, a person came to him to inform him that Brutus had not entered his personal chambers for a few weeks now, most assumed he was on some state assignment. “Look for what assignment he was and revert to me as soon as you get the information”

Julius calmed down and put Brutus away from his mind for now and started talking to Marcus “What do you think could have caused that curse?”

“I am not sure; it was the only thing not under our direct supervision. Brutus lid off all things at his level, never letting even me get involved past the last five months.”

Julius again getting a bit more sceptical “Did that idiot get involved in something sinister this time around?”

Marcus was like a brother to Julius more dear than Brutus, who though biologically related harboured deep jealousy for him. Over the past decades the gap between him and Julius kept on increasing, Julius too realised this, since patricide was never an option for him, so he left Brutus under Marcus. Marcus too used a hands off approach with him but still did not let him run too far off, he kept him in strict budget with finances and had a feedback system to ensure the money of the country wasn’t siphoned off in corruption too. But since this wasn’t national project and the fact that this was a charity thing Marcus did not suspect anything.

Marcus then said “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, these are still speculations. Did you have a follow up to another of your visions?”

Visions… they were an extension of the Karmic power of Julius which was ‘Foresight’. Julius by adding a little power to his Karmic power could look 10 seconds into the future, enabling him to know in advance and go at it endlessly. Julius unless attacked by an AOE attack outside his escaping range was practically invincible. But as he went from ‘Docent’ to ‘Adept’ level of Karmic power, he unlocked another strange phenomenon which was visions. He would on regular intervals, which he could not control, get visions most of them were about self-preservation, from assassination from stray attack during major wars, but some were when the kingdom was in trouble like when pirates were about to attack; this was how Julius was able to respond to the pirate attack threat so quickly and reach a week before expected time. Only two people in the whole kingdom knew of this secret and was also one of the most important reasons Julius had been so successful as a king.

Almost 5 months ago Julius had a vision, it seemed to be a vision far into the future of a desolate country… no the correct thing to say would be the fact that a once densely populated country with practically no one standing around. There were no trees, no crops, no grass or weed, no lichen, no algae. Following this the animals had gone extinct, though there was water there no greenery. He saw an exodus of people from the island country. He saw families of people who should’ve been well off crying and whimpering, young one dying and old people lying on the streets waiting for the inevitable, only a bit early. At first he did not understand what this was, but then the vision focused on a young female sitting on a throne legs crossed, dressed in all white, answering question of each minister of his court. He recognised each and every one of them and most of he recognised the one leading all of them his best friend one he loved more than his blood brother, Marcus!!! This country was Bhasmachal, he was having a vision of his own country, but how could this happen, “Where am I in all this? Am I dead?? Did my reign lead my country into ruin??? No that can’t be, this is really weird, this cannot happen!!!”. Julius was overwhelmed by the discovery and wanted to escape, the first time he wanted to escape a difficult situation, it was all he could do… want to escape the vision of beloved kingdom turning to dust. When the vision ended he went straight to Marcus’s chambers, the prime minister too was shocked on hearing about the vision.

Things starting to fall into place for Julius, this cursed being is the one who will bring doom to his country. The visions were not absolute, they were more like the consequence if things were left unchecked, so it was not all over, but something was different about this one, it seemed like one of those ‘candle lights up the most before the extinguishing sort of thing’.

Julius realized there was very less he could do right now so he went to bed and let Marcus to figure out situation and an appropriate response. Just Julius turned around to leave the chambers, time stopped… the door keeper who had just pushed the gates of the chambers open froze in place, Marcus had dropped a kerchief which stopped midway to the floor and the view in front of Julius’s eye distorted then slowly went dark. He was seeing a fight happen below him between himself and grotesque monster, as it proceeded, Julius’s heart was sinking. He was transported to familiar dystopian future of his country and then he saw something which tore his heart to shreds.

When Julius came to, things started to move a normal pace again, the gate was opened by the gate keeper and Marcus bent down to pick up his kerchief. Only Julius seems to have almost fallen before he controlled himself, like how one would almost trip over a stone in a park. Marcus noticed this and indicated the gate keeper to once again close the gate nodded secretively to Julius to which he nodded back. They went inside a secret chamber inside the room and sat down.

“I have come to a decision of how I am going to move forward…”

“How so?”

“I have decided to have a go at the cursed being with a thousand of the soldiers from the royal army”

“What?? That’s like the dumbest idea I have ever heard, why the fuck would the monarch of the country…”

“Listen to me Marcus, I saw the monster and I believe I am the only one able to who would be able to face him, numbers in front of him are useless, sending in more people is like throwing a stone at river and expecting it to stop”

“Then what do you expect to do to him??”

“I don’t know Marcus” he had a small smile on his face after saying this, for now all I can say is that my friend “All I saw in vision was that there will be a saviour for our country, he will be the one to save us from this curse, his blood will be what will fertilise the lands and sweat will irrigate the and from it our land will be re-born once again”