The underground waters churned and boiled like a pot of sour curry gone wild. When the Serpent Demon Lord saw his fish-and-clam minions break free from the spell, fury rippled through him until every one of his metallic black scales stood on end. He whipped his massive serpent tail against the current, sending a shockwave of compressed water surging toward the young kid like a colossal log hurled at full speed. But Diamond Axe Kid moved through the swirling currents with nine nimble steps, light and quick as a sparrow riding the wind, spinning and weaving through the whirlpools in a way that left everyone watching with their jaws on the floor.
"Whoa! That tail of yours is seriously the size of a tree trunk, mister!" the kid hollered, hopping up to perch cheekily right on the tip of the Demon Lord's tail. "But doesn't thrashing around that hard wear you out? Come on — playing tag with me is way more fun than this!"
"Why you little—! Do you think I'm some kind of playmate?!"
The Serpent Demon Lord let out a roar that shook the riverbed like a splitting mountain. He threw open his jaws and blasted a beam of deep violet light, thick with venom and the bitter reek of envy, aimed straight at the divine kid — meant to dissolve him into nothing. Diamond Axe Kid didn't hesitate for a single heartbeat. He squared his shoulders, tugged his trusty red wrapped trousers into place, and gripped the sacred Diamond Axe with both hands, raising it to meet the blast head-on. The vine-scroll carvings along the axe blade erupted in blazing light —
the Diamond Axe's righteous radiance
— and in a flash, the dark poison wave bounced straight back at the one who'd fired it!
BOOM!
"AAARGH!" The Serpent Demon Lord took the full reflected force of the Diamond Axe and went skidding across the sandy riverbed, black scales flying loose in every direction. The golden tray he'd been clutching spun out of his grip and drifted through the water. Diamond Axe Kid shot forward like an arrow and snatched it right out of the current, then turned to look at the wealthy merchant still locked in the bamboo cage — face drained white as a sheet, muttering prayers with the glazed, desperate look of a man who'd completely forgotten he used to be a crooked rich guy up on dry land.
"Hey there, mister..." the kid said, strolling over to the cage with the golden tray tucked under one arm. "All this gold you said you were going to use to cast a sacred serpent statue and ward off bad luck — it's actually money you swindled out of hardworking villagers, isn't it?"
The merchant bowed his head and let the tears fall, shame cracking him open from the inside. Staring death in the face had a way of smashing through every excuse a person had ever built up. "I... I was wrong, young divine one. I was just so greedy. I was jealous of the merchants from other towns who were richer than me, so I made a deal with that black serpent demon — we cooked up the whole story about the river going haywire just to squeeze money out of the villagers. I know what I did was wrong. Please — please help me!"
"See, that's the thing..." the kid said, voice warm but carrying the weight of someone who'd seen this story before. "Why does it always have to get so complicated? You went after grasshoppers riding an elephant — made other people miserable with your schemes — and in the end, karma came right back around and landed you in a cage at the bottom of a river. Funny how that works." He tilted his head. "But now that you've owned up to it and spoken the truth out loud, the light of good karma will do the rest."
He wasn't just talking. The kid gave the Diamond Axe one easy flick, and a soft white light shattered the dark enchantment cage into pieces, setting the merchant free.
But at that very moment, the gravely wounded Serpent Demon Lord dug deep for one last burst of power and let out a roar that shook all Three Realms.
"I will NEVER admit defeat to you! Even if I'm destroyed, the plans of the great 'Lord Kala of Ignorance' will never be stopped! The Hundred-Faced Yaksha is about to awaken — and it will tear the mortal world apart!"
The words had barely left his mouth when golden cracks split across his body, spreading like fractures in old stone. The power he'd wielded and the evil he'd done came surging back on him, tearing apart his own spirit from within. His black-scaled form crumbled slowly, dissolving into grains of sand that sank and vanished into the deep riverbed — exactly as the law of karma demanded. The dark violet murk beneath the water faded away. The river returned to clear, still calm, smooth as a mirror once more.
Diamond Axe Kid flashed a grin at the merchant, who was now hugging the golden tray to his chest, ready to carry it back and return every last coin to the villagers. "Off you go, mister. Head back to shore and keep your word. Stay honest from here on out." He paused, eyes already looking somewhere far ahead. "As for me... sounds like I've got a 'Hundred-Faced Yaksha' situation to go deal with!"
*Lesson of the chapter: Envy and greed for hollow power can drive both humans and demons to spin webs of deception — but only for so long. An honest confession and a genuine change of heart are the only light that can unlock the cage karma builds around a guilty soul. Those who refuse to let go of their sins will sink beneath the weight of their own making.*
Diamond Axe Kid walked on...