Sakya Kumara awoke to the blazing sunlight pouring through gaps in the forest canopy, shining directly into his eyes and leaving his vision dazzled.
Sakya Kumara was currently sitting with his back against one of the forest's massive trees. His eyes still hadn't adjusted to the brightness caused by the scorching sunlight.
His vision remained blurred from the intense light filtering into the forest through the gaps between the leaves.
“Where am I? Why am I not inside that farmer's house anymore?” Sakya wondered, bewildered by his current situation in an untamed forest whose location he didn't know.
His body still felt weak, and pain spread across his entire back. His legs and arms could barely move, as if this human body were already dead. Sakya regretted entering this seemingly dead human body in the first place.
While he had been asleep, he had regained a small portion of his memories. He wasn't human! He wasn't from the Mortal World, either.
“This human body is incredibly weak... I have to find a way to return to my original body as soon as possible,” Sakya said softly, trying to encourage himself while his life hung by a thread.
After surveying his surroundings, Sakya couldn't believe he was now in a forest.
He didn't know who had thrown him into this forest. At first, he had hoped Kirani's father could heal his internal injuries, but that hope vanished when he found himself alone in the forest, extremely weak, with no one aware of his whereabouts except the person who had dumped him there.
The human body Sakya Kumara was inhabiting was indeed extremely weak. At first, Sakya hadn't even known whether the body's owner was still alive. But one thing was certain: the face Kirani had shown him in the mirror while he was in the mysterious farmer's house wasn't his real face.
Sakya had even felt guilty, thinking the body he was inhabiting might still belong to a living human. Fortunately, after sensing it again, he discovered that the body had no life force at all. It was certainly dead, and it had begun to give off an unpleasant odor.
Sakya Kumara didn't know why he had ended up inside this dead human body. What he did know was that all his abilities seemed to have vanished completely while he was in this corpse.
“Why did I have to inhabit a human body to reach the Mortal World? In the past, plenty of demons crossed into this world without having to possess human bodies. What happened to me that I ended up trapped inside this dead human body?” Question after question crowded Sakya Kumara's mind, but he had no answers of his own.
None of Sakya's powers should have disappeared, even if he had crossed through a dimensional rift. Yet he had ended up stranded in the middle of a rice field, inside a weak, dead human body. His own powers had vanished without a trace as a result of being trapped in this corpse.
“I have to find a demon in the Mortal World who can get me out of this dead body, but where am I supposed to look? I can't even walk!” Sakya Kumara grumbled.
His strength was gone, and it seemed his fate had already been decided. Sakya Kumara, the demon prince of the Kumara Kingdom in the Demon World, would die a miserable death and remain trapped forever inside this dead human body.
“There’s nothing else I can do... If I’d known things would turn out like this, I should’ve done some research before forcing my way through the dimensional rift! But it’s too late now... This isn’t the time to wallow in regret,” the man thought.
Unfortunately, Sakya Kumara lost consciousness again and sat motionless against the tree, his head slowly drooping.
“Sakya! Sakya! Wake up, Sakya! Don’t die!”
The hysterical cries of a girl whose voice sounded familiar to him reached his ears faintly.
“I need you to help me find my father!” the girl shouted again.
Could he have heard wrong? He knew that voice very well—the voice of the girl who had helped him when he first became stranded in the Mortal World.
“Come on, Sakya... Wake up! I... Kirani will make you recover! Help me find my missing father!” Kirani shouted at him.
“I can’t move, Kirani! How am I supposed to help you find your father?” Sakya said weakly.
“You said back at the house that your current appearance wasn’t your real one! Who are you really, Sakya? You have to be honest with me if you want me to help you!” Kirani said.
Sakya thought there was no harm in telling Kirani his true identity—assuming the girl believed what he said.
“I’m from the Demon World! It used to be just like this Mortal World! The Dragons destroyed it simply because they wanted to eliminate the Universe Demon, my ancestor!” Sakya Kumara explained, his words filled with fury and anger.
“What do you mean?” Kirani asked curiously. She didn't understand Sakya's meaning, but she still tried to comprehend it.
“Now my world is barren and desolate! It’s hot everywhere, and not a single tree remains! It’s now better known as the Hell Dimension,” Sakya replied.
“Huh? Then what did you use to come to my world?” Kirani asked curiously.
“There’s a sort of dimensional gate that can connect the Demon World and the Mortal World! I should have retained my original form, and my powers shouldn't have disappeared when I arrived in the Mortal World, but what happened was the exact opposite! Something went wrong when I crossed over, but I don’t know what mistake I made,” Sakya Kumara replied.
“I want to ask you to help me find a Demon Physician named Adheswara who crossed into the Mortal World several years ago! He can help me restore my original body!” he continued after successfully recalling a name.
“Where am I supposed to look for this Demon Physician?” Kirani asked.
“I don’t know, Kirani! The last time I could still hear sounds from across dimensions, I heard that this Demon Physician was in Singkarak City,” Sakya replied weakly.
“All right! I won’t hide anything from you anymore, either! I can make you walk temporarily with this human body! My mother often made me hide this ability so irresponsible people wouldn't find out about it!” Kirani said.
Sakya cursed inwardly. “If Kirani had the ability to make me get back on my feet, why didn’t she do it earlier?”
Kirani then pressed her palm against Sakya’s chest. A light from her palm entered Sakya’s body.
“This energy light will give you three days to find the Demon Physician! I need seven days before I can release this energy light again! If you don’t find the Demon Physician within three days, your body will become powerless again for the next four days, until I can replenish the energy light!” Kirani explained.
Sakya felt an extraordinary heat as Kirani’s energy light entered his body and temporarily revived the dead human body. His body felt as if it were burning and about to explode, because the energy light filled every blood vessel in the corpse so it could move.
“Arrgh!”