Chapter 1

Part 1

Ken Angrok kicked a loose rock across the dirt path as he trudged along, leaving Jiput village behind him. The hot mid-day sun beat down on his shaved head. He could still hear the angry shouts and condemnations ringing in his ears from the elders. 

"Blasphemer!"

"You've disrupted the harmony with your vile acts!" 

Ken smirked. He made no apologies for the debaucherous life he led. Drinking, gambling, bedding any willing woman he could find - he had no intention of following the puritanical codes that smothered Jiput. If the villagers wanted to live in fear of offending the old superstitions and spirits, that was their business. 

But they had taken things too far by attempting to lash him and forcibly remove the "evil" influences he represented. That's when Ken decided it was time to move on from this miserable backwater hamlet.

As the path bent through the dense jungle foliage, Jiput's thatched huts disappeared from view. A mixture of sadness and relief washed over him. This was the only home he had ever known, having been raised by his widowed mother after his father died when Ken was just a babe. But staying would only lead to more confrontation and punishment from the village elders. And his mother, bless her soul, would inevitably face recrimination as well for failing to rein in her unruly son.

Best to put all that behind him and seek opportunity elsewhere, Ken decided. He had heard whispers from merchants about the thriving village of Bulalak to the east. Perhaps he could start anew there, indulge in all his vices without the watchful glares of uptight villagers.

As Ken passed beneath the gnarled breadfruit trees marking the boundaries of Jiput's lands, he risked one final glance over his shoulder. The mango and banana trees clustered around the village grew smaller in the distance. A faint woodsmoke haze hung over the huts.

"Good riddance," Ken muttered, turning his gaze forward to whatever adventures awaited on the road ahead.

Part 2

The jungle path finally opened up into a wide clearing where Bulalak lay nestled along the banks of the Gandaru River. Ken Angrok took in the lively scene before him - rows of thatched longhouses, energetic children chasing chickens, women pounding rice in large wooden mortars. The pungent aroma of wood smoke mingled with the sweet fragrance of frangipani trees dotting the village.

As Ken approached, he noticed an edifice under construction on the outskirts that looked grander than the typical raised bamboo homes. A sturdy gate frame formed the entranceway, with stout wooden beams lashed together for the future dormitory beyond. A group of men furiously worked, hacking at timber with adzes and drilling holes with rifle-rod drills.

Ken wandered over, intrigued as a richly-dressed older man in sandalwood and silk sarong watched over the construction with an air of importance.

"You there!" Ken called out. "What grand palace is being built here?"

The man turned, eyeing Ken with disdain as he took in the newcomer's ragged and sweat-stained clothes. "This is to be a dormitory and sanctuary for traveling priests and scholars on their spiritual journeys," he replied haughtily. "I am Mpu Tapawangkeng, high priest and holy man of Bulalak."

"Is that so?" Ken replied with an irreverent grin. "I'm Ken Angrok. Perhaps you've heard of me - I'm the 'man who breaks the bonds of decency' from the village of Jiput."

The dour clergyman's expression soured further. "We've no need for such blasphemous reputations here. I suggest you keep your foul habits private if you wish to take residence."

Just then, a strange, rumbling creak echoed from the gate's threshold, like some unseen force was exhaling. Mpu Tapawangkeng's eyes went wide with shock and he immediately turned his palms skyward, mumbling rapidsfire holy verses under his breath.

"What's this?" Ken scoffed. "Don't tell me you put faith in old superstitions and forest spirits?"

But the high priest seemed to pay him no heed, continuing his arcane rites and incantations in growing urgency and fear.

At last, Mpu paused and lowered his gaze shamefully. "The spirit of the gate demands sacrifice before it will allow this blessed dormitory to be completed. A red male goat as offering to appease it."

Ken roared with laughter. "Let me guess - you wish to remain pure and have no part in the bloodletting? How convenient for a holy man!"

Mpu Tapawangkeng's face flushed red with anger and embarrassment. Before he could protest, Ken continued with a wicked smile:

"Well, High Priest, what if I offer myself as the sacrifice? That should appease your precious spirit and let you sleep well at night with your hands unbloodied."

Mpu's eyes narrowed in bafflement. "You...wish to offer your own life?"

Ken shrugged nonchalantly. "Why not? It's said those who give themselves as sacrifice are reborn into the heavens, returning to the deathless realm of the gods. A decent trade, I'd say, to escape this pitiful mortal existence and be welcomed into the forever paradise of Lord Vishnu."

The high priest stroked his whiskered chin, deep in thought as he studied the strange, irreverent wayfarer. Could this be an opportunity sent by the gods themselves?

"Your offer is...unorthodox," Mpu said at last. "But if it is your wish to give your life for a greater celestial purpose, I shall not object. But are you prepared to sacrifice yourself here and now?"

Ken flashed his signature grin, both arrogant and confident.

"I'm ready whenever your spirit desires," he replied with a dismissive wave. "Just give the word."

Part 3

The full moon hung ripe and heavy in the inky night sky as torchlight flickered across the ceremonial clearing. Ken Angrok felt a strange calm as he knelt before the high priest Mpu Tapawangkeng. This was it - the moment he had brazenly offered himself up for.

Around them, the village elders and priests of Bulalak had gathered, chanting ritualistic verses and waving bamboo stems of smoldering incense. The air was thick with the scents of sandalwood, clove, and frangipani. Exotic and entrancing, yet there was an underlying musk of sweat and intensity.

Mpu Tapawangkeng held aloft an antique kris dagger, its razor-sharp steel blade etched with twisting mythical naga serpents. He murmured the proper sacred mantras as the torchlight glinted off the curved lambbec blade.

Ken caught the priest's eye and gave a slight nod. He was ready to meet his peculiar fate - to sacrifice himself so that his spirit might shed this mundane earthly existence. A smirked played across his lips as he thought of the confounded expressions on the elders' wrinkled faces when he had volunteered for this bloody rite.

With surprising swiftness, Mpu brought the kris down in a brutal arc. Ken felt a searing pain across his throat, then warm viscous liquid began pooling beneath him. The village around him slowly dimmed and dissolved into shadowy figures twisting in and out of reality.

But the pain was fleeting as his spirit, now untethered, felt itself rapidly rising upward, up past the red clouds streaking the night sky, up beyond the sparkling constellations of the celestial hunters and princesses. Higher and higher Ken's spirit ascended, until all conscious thought fell away into an ocean of brilliant white light.

At last, before his flickering vision, Ken saw the breathtaking emerald realm of Vishnu's heaven materialize - jewel-encrusted lush gardens, palatial temples carved of jade, and celestial devis swaying sensually in diaphanous silk veils. In a swirling vortex, he was pulled toward the gleaming inner sanctums, where Vishnu's avatar awaited with a beatific smile.

"Welcome, discarded aspect of the divine," Vishnu's resonant voice echoed all around Ken. "You have completed your human sojourn and are joyfully rejoined with the supreme soul. What benediction may I grant you before your reincarnation into the next bodily vessel?"

Ken felt his essence humbly bow before the supreme being. "I ask only that I may take rebirth to the east of Gunung Kawi, so that I might walk in the realm of noble kings."

Vishnu's smile broadened as he gave a slight nod of assent. "So it shall be."

A blinding azure light consumed Ken's spirit, and his vision went dazzlingly blank...

In the village of Bulalak, the elders and holy men continued their arcane rituals late into the moonless night over Ken Angrok's lifeless corpse. As the first rays of dawn began to crest over the hills, Mpu Tapawangkeng emerged from the consecration hut, head bowed solemnly.

"The sacrifice has been completed according to the most sacred rites," he announced in a weary voice. "Ken Angrok has transcended the mortal realm to be reborn in the heavens, on a new incarnation path towards enlightenment."

A hush fell over the gathered villagers before one called out querulously, "But where, great Mpu? Where shall this restless soul take rebirth?"

Tapawangkeng slowly raised his head, his eyes glinting with unspoken knowledge.

"To the east of Gunung Kawi," he replied. "Where kings and dynasties are born anew..."