Page "Lord of Light" Paragraph 17

# Brahma is dead.

He has been murdered by persons or gods unknown.

Vishnu, Shiva, and Ganesha gather to quickly arrange a replacement.

They decide that the only viable candidate is Kali.

However, for her to be reincarnated as Brahma ( a man ), her short marriage to Yama must end.

Yama is appalled at how coldly she accepts this.

Next, Shiva is found murdered.

Yama throws himself into investigating the deaths.

His friend, Kubera, approaches the demigod Murugan and accuses him of the murders, finally addressing him as Sam.

It appears that Sam has become part-demon, and can survive without a body.

He displaced Murugan's spirit as Murugan was about to occupy a new body for the wedding feast.

Kubera uncovered the deception by examining the brainwave records from the transfer.

Instead of turning Sam in, Kubera offers to help him escape.

Sam refuses, determined to kill as many gods as he can.

Since Kubera's friend, Yama, is the obvious next target, Kubera tricks Sam, who has forgotten what a great warrior the fat old man was, and in a bout of Irish Stand-Down ( in which two men take turns hitting each other until one cannot continue ), knocks him out and prepares to flee on the giant bird Garuda.

They recruit Ratri to stop Yama from interfering, and take her along.

They flee to the city of Keenset, which is undergoing a technological revival, and is marked for destruction by the gods.

Eventually, Yama, feeling betrayed by Kali and the other gods, joins them.

With Yama's weaponry, and various allies, including the zombie army of Nirriti the Black, they fight a titanic battle of gods, men, and monsters, killing thousands of men, demigods, and eventually some gods as well.

They go down in defeat, but not before dealing a crushing blow to the hierarchy of heaven.

Yama apparently commits suicide, but some suspect that he has invented a remote reincarnation device.

Ratri is exiled from heaven and condemned to wander the world in a series of homely bodies.

Kubera had hidden himself in a vault, held in suspended animation.

Sam, having proved himself unkillable, is instead projected into the ring of ions around the planet, known as the Bridge of the Gods.

However, the gods win only a pyrrhic victory.