“How do you feel?” asked Svetavastra his disciple. He had woken up Aryaman a few minutes earlier from the deep meditation the latter was in.

“I feel calm gurudeva,” said Aryaman standing up and he looked at his hands with wonder. “And I feel a powerful energy surging in me. I feel ready.”

“That’s good,” said Svetavastra with a smile. “Now, summon your sword using the heavenly tongue.”

Aryaman dutifully closed his eyes and joined his hands together and uttered the heavenly tongue. Cosmic power seemed to flow through him visibly as he spoke in the heavenly tongue.

“My sword, I summon you to me,” Aryaman said in the language of the gods.

Instantly, daityahan asi, his sword that lay by the tree, hummed with cosmic power and rushed towards Aryaman. Once in his grip, it transformed into a glorious celestial sword, with a golden hilt and golden energy emanating from it.

“Wow,” said Aryaman as he opened his eyes to the sight of his magnificent sword.

“Your cosmic energy is unstable as you are not trained to use it,” said Svetavastra. “The cultivation you did for the past few days will help you temporarily to stabilise it. However, you need to keep meditating on a daily basis should you wish to use your cosmic powers properly. Otherwise, you will be physically drained and incapacitated to use your powers.”

“Because I’m a mortal?” asked Aryaman curious as he tried to understand the logic.

“Yes,” said Svetavastra. “You are limited by the strength and stamina of your physical body. The cosmic power that you feel now is not that easy to contain in a mortal shell. It will become latent once you lose the capacity to hold it.”

“Ohh!” said Aryaman looking at the golden sword in his hand. “So, the more I meditate, the more I can hold the cosmic power in me and channel it through the sword?”

“That’s right,” said Svetavastra.

“So now I can fight the undead?” asked Aryaman with a grin.

“You can,” said Svetavastra. “You have to be careful to avoid being too near the undead though.”

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“Why?” asked Aryaman curious.

“The undead are carriers of the dark energy,” said Svetavastra. “While dark energy is mostly effective with the dead, living beings can be corrupted too.”

“Corrupted how?” said Aryaman.

Svetavastra was silent for a moment.

“Have you ever had any untoward or unkind thoughts about anybody?” asked Svetavastra.

Aryaman felt exposed for no reason. He always had the pressure to live up to the expectations of being the perfect prince. The perfect prince was never untoward and never unkind.

“I did, gurudeva,” said Aryaman silently not particularly happy at being made to acknowledge it.

“Have you acted on them?” asked Svetavastra.

“Hmm,” said Aryaman thinking about it. “No…not really.”

“Why?” said Svetavastra.

“Because it’s not a good thing?” said Aryaman.

“Yes, you have an innate moral compass that keeps you on the right path,” said Svetavastra.

“That’s right,” said Aryaman.

“Dark energy corrupts your soul and removes that moral compass,” said Svetavastra. “It feeds you with a thirst for death and destruction. And as it gains a foothold in you, it begins to control you more and more and you act as you are led by the darkness.”

Aryaman raised his brows, trying to imagine a scenario where he went on a rampage of destruction, killing anybody and everybody on his path. He shuddered at the mere thought.

“How do I protect myself against it, gurudeva?” Aryaman asked earnestly.

“Keep a safe distance from the undead and any rogue pretas,” said Svetavastra. “Learn how to channel your cosmic powers through your sword, it can create cosmic waves and lasers. You can use them for long-range attacks. In case you are face to face with them, be quick and precisely stab them to let the sword penetrate through them in one go and you should be good.”

“What if I am surrounded by a hordes of undead?” asked Aryaman.

“Then, get out of that situation,” said Svetavastra. “You can use your sword to fly by riding on it. If ever, there are way too many of them for you to handle on your own, just escape. There’s no shame in it.”

“Hmm,” said Aryaman. “What about the rogue pretas? Is it similar to the undead?”

“You can fend them off for a while with the cosmic sword,” said Svetavastra. “But they do not possess a physical form, so you cannot really vanquish them.”

“How do we deal with them then?” said Aryaman. “I remember you using a special artifact for it, gurudeva, at the Northern Mines.”

“Yes, the pretabanda,” said Svetavastra. “I trap the rogue pretas in it using my spiritual energy. So, if and when we encounter rogue pretas, you can herd them towards me and I will take care of the rest.”

“Sounds like a plan, gurudeva,” said Aryaman nodding his head.

“Why don’t you practice using the preta simulation orb I had given you and we can gauge how a real encounter may pan out,” suggested Svetavastra.

The prince summoned the preta simulation orb from within him and it made a shimmering translucent barrier around him. Aryaman asked it to simulate the environment of the Northern Mines where Svetavastra had earlier took care of the undead using the daityahan asi. The undead from the Northern Mines started marching towards the prince in the simulation, he tightened his grip on the sword and braced himself for the attack.