The Story of The Srinjani Kingdom (2)

After Queen Armapati agreed to return to the kingdom and occupy the royal seat replacing the deceased King Tarumanagara.

All things and rules that had been running were completely changed by the Queen.

Starting from agricultural income, distribution of wages to the community, war strategies against enemies, and so on.

Queen Amarpati did not like it, if Srinjani's life was peaceful and the community was prosperous, she wanted all the residents of Srinjani to obey her rules.

"Now that Srinjani has fallen into my hands, I want the kingdom to hold a special ritual ceremony every week to honor me as I worship Saracana Naraya"

Said Queen Amarpati to her aide, Darmawangsa.

"Yes, Queen, I will immediately announce your request to all residents of Srinjani, then, what do they need to prepare and do during the ritual ceremony?" asked Darmawangsa.

Because the ritual is held once a week and only occurs on certain nights, it must be prepared the day before the ritual takes place.

"One goat, chicken blood, 3 eggs, 7 types of flowers, and water from the spring at the top of Srinjani"

"They must gather under the peak of Srinjani, sit in a circle and follow the mantra that I will do later there"

Queen Amarpati explains the conditions that must be met during the ritual.

Saracana Naraya is a large snake that is believed to be able to bring wealth, eternal life and become the most feared leader if we ally here.

The Saracana Snake has lived since Mount Srinjani appeared, no one can stretch it even by any means.

This snake has a green, black, and gray motif with rough scales and a crown on its head.

Residents know it as Sarcana Ally of the Devil.

Queen Amarpati met the Saracana Snake when she was 10 years old, playing in the river, and did not expect that a large snake would approach her and invite her to talk.

Seeing the unusual things that other humans have, Saracana finally became Queen Amarpati, a human who could ally near her and rule Srinjani.

The Saracana snake kingdom existed long before the existence of the Srinjani kingdom.

They were in league with the devil in destroying humans and making them slaves and sucking their souls so that their kingdom's life would always be eternal.

So it is not surprising that since decades ago many climbers have disappeared.

Because they have been robbed of inspiration and made slaves by Saracana and Amarpati and promised a glorious and prosperous life.

But all that was just their trick to be able to suck the souls of the victims.

The day of the ritual has arrived, Queen Amarpati, Darmawangsa, Ki Jaka and all the adjutants, troops and residents gathered around the offerings that had been prepared to be presented to Saracana.

This means they are willing to become slaves to the Saracana Snake and are willing to follow his wishes so that their lives will be better according to his promise.

The ritual took place. Ki Jaka, who at that time knew that something was wrong with Queen Amarpati, was then woken up from his seat and invited his troops to immediately return to the kingdom and stop following the ritual.

"I saw Queen Amarpati will sacrifice us to the big snake"

Ki Jaka, who has the sixth sense, can see there is a Saracana snake there, surrounding the offerings and coiling around Queen Amarpati's body.

His troops did not understand what Ki Jaka meant because they did not see anything during the ritual.

"Queen Amarpati has allied with an evil snake in Srinjani!"

"That's why she thirsts for power and has the heart to kill her brother to seize the kingdom to obey and worship the Saracana Snake"

"It is true what King Atmanagara said about there being something wrong with Queen Amarpati's behavior"

"It turns out that it has been answered now, that his father's bad suspicions about his daughter were not wrong"

Said Ki Jaka to his troops.

After the incident, Ki Jaka and his troops fled and escaped from the Kandir Srinjani Kingdom.

He took refuge under the mountain in one of the residents' settlements and planned to leave there in the near future.

That's why there are two other dimensions on this forbidden mountain.

Not many people fled and left the traditions carried out by Saracana and Queen Amarpati.

They felt guilty and sad because the kingdom was increasingly destroyed and did not comply with the teachings of its previous Kings, namely King Atmanagara and King Tarumanagara.

During the leadership of Queen Amarpati, there were many losses of people's plantations, the economy was getting worse and many people were starving because their income had not been managed well by the Queen.

Not long after, the Queen fell seriously ill due to being too tired from performing the prolonged ritual, her hope of eternal life turned out to be wrong.

It was just a trick of the Saracana Snake on her.

She died while performing the ritual on a full moon night, her body was surrounded by snakes, which were none other than the descendants and subordinates of the Saracana Snake.

Until the end of her life, Queen Amarpati could not be separated from the Saracana Snake because her soul and body were bound to the Snake.

Unlike Ki Jaka and the troops who accompanied him, they lived as ordinary citizens, and they began to learn about the new religion that entered the city and studied and entered the religion until the end of their lives.

That is why in Srinjani there are two energies, negative and positive. And there are two guards, good and evil.

After Alya began to slowly calm down, Rico finally tried to take Alya to continue the climb and join her other friends.

Even though he had been told that Alya did not need to continue the climb, Rico was worried that she would return to base camp in a weak physical condition like this.

"Let's try to get to Post 3 first so we can go down again tomorrow, we are all tired and need to rest"

Rico said to Laras and Hasan.

In the cold night, the sound of animals in the forest seemed to accompany them as they continued their climb.

Their bodies were starting to get tired, the dark track and the rocks made them even more when climbing.

"Hasan, have you been here before?" Laras said who was beside him.

"I once joined Keenan with campus students but even then the climb was done early in the morning when the air was still fresh so we reached the peak in the afternoon and returned the next day and it wasn't as scary as now"

"Maybe at that time, we climbed together so the atmosphere while climbing was exciting and not tense"

"Feelings and we were all carried away by happiness"

"Are you tired? Want a drink?"

Hasan handed him mineral water that he took from his bag.

Hasan was awkward when Laras tried to talk to him because Hasan did have feelings for him.

At that moment Rico also liked Laras.

Hasan's feelings are all over the place and he tries to act normal among them.