Arash closed his eyes and focused on the strength runes in his body; the delicate web-like runes breathed to life. They felt like an extension of his body, but he couldn't help but frown as he noticed that the threadlike extensions of the runes were absorbing small amounts of red liquid from his body. "What is this?" Arash frowned as he focused on a single rune. The delicate hair-like extension of the strength rune. Dread washed over him as he noticed his muscles shriveling as the strength rune sucked out small amounts of red liquid.

"What is happening -- They were supposed to --" The strength rune suddenly released a single drop of yellow liquid, that melted into the shriveled muscles; the fibers in his body vibrated to life and slowly gained mass. Arash's body brimmed with strength for a moment, but before he could relish the marvelous effects of the yellow drop, the runes once again started to drain strength from his muscles. The cycle of weakness and strength repeated thousands of time with a single moment. He glanced at the giant pickax placed by the wall.

He clenched his fists and felt himself brimming with a strong desire to test his strength. "Let's see what you guys can do?" Arash glanced at the pulsing strength runes in his body as he felt the coarse grip of the giant pickax. He couldn't help but remember the weight of this beast, but the pulsing strength runes boosted his courage as he pulled on the mountain-like pickax. His muscles screamed in pain as the pickax was slowly lifted off the ground.

"Argh!" Arash grunted as he lifted the pickax higher and higher. "Up! Up! Up..." His face flushed under the weight of the pickax as all the muscles groaned in his body. His legs trembled as he raised the pickax over his head.

Sweat trickled down his forehead as he stood alone in the middle of the empty room, lifting a giant pickax which neither his uncle nor his cousins could lift. But instead of joy or a sense of accomplishment, he found himself frowning. "This is it..." Arash dropped the pickax and it slammed to the ground with a deafening explosion; the hard floor shattered to pieces under the terrifying weight of the monstrosity.

The startled roars of his uncle and his cousins could be heard from the other room, and soon a line of groggy bare-chested brutes appeared in front of him. His uncle and cousins mutely stared at the shattered floor and then towards drenched Arash. They looked back at the floor and then they frowned at their giant cousin. Reality dawned upon them as their languid yawns turned to gasps of shock; their eyes bulged out in shock as they understood what had just happened.

"What did I tell you? Never let down the pickax" Amna scolded Arash, but there was no harshness in her tone. If one looked closely, he could even see a sense of pride glittering in her eyes. "Pick it up and place it on the wall."

"He can lift grandpa's pickax?" Moaz was the first among the men to speak. Everyone wanted to ask the question, but they were shell-shocked by the shattered floor and the possibility of Arash... No one among the boys was willing to accept it.

"Like hell he can." Tamresh was the first one to speak as he walked over to Arash. "You dropped it didn't you!" Tamresh scoffed at Arash, but he hesitantly looked at the shattered floor. He knew full well that dropping the pickax would at most crack the floor; but judging by how badly the floor was broken, the pickax must have been dropped from a height of at least two feet, which meant Arash had lifted grandpa's pickax.

"Dropped?" Khalid asked with a frown. "Don't spout nonsense. I have seen you drop it countless times, the floor never broke."

"Yo--" Tamresh glared at his brothers, but one look from Amna made him shiver. No one was allowed to disrespect grandpa's pickax.

"Good! Good!" Amna scoffed in anger. Tamresh cursed Khalid in his heart as he could almost feel the thrashing he was about to receive.

"Moth--" Tamresh said weakly.

"I will deal with you later." Amna raised her hand and Tamresh shook as if he was struck by lightning. Amna turned towards Arash. "Don't make me repeat myself. Put this pickax back."

'Why are you so angry? It's just wood and metal.' Arash couldn't help but sight as he grudgingly as he picked pickax to knee-high.

"Pick it above your head." Amna barked at Arash.

Arash groaned as he struggled to lift the pickax. Everyone silently stared as Arash slowly lifted the pickax. Amna and Adam were secretly hoping for Arash to be able to lift the pickax. Tamresh prayed to the Blessed for Arash to fail. Khalid stood impartially, while Baled and Moaz were too much shocked by the sight of their cousin, lifting the pickax that no other thought crossed their mind.

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Soon prayers were answered while hopes of others crushed. Arash arms and legs trembled as he raised the pickax above his head. He helplessly looked at Amna who nodded towards the wall. Arash grunted as he took one step after another, barely able to hold his balance as he finally crossed the distance of 8 feet and slowly lowered the pickax and placed it against the wall.

"What did I tell you? Blood of the greats coarse through my body." Adam roared with a booming laughter as bragged about the strength of his ancestors. "Come here!" Adam was so happy that he bear-hugged his nephew. Amna couldn't help smile as she saw her husband hugging Arash. It looked like as if a child was hugging his father.

Arash allowed himself a smile, but soon it curdled as he noticed wherever his skin touched with his uncle's skin, thin yellow tentacles of strength rune's wormed out of his skin and latched themselves on his uncle's limbs, slowly draining strength from his body. 'They can steal strength from another person?' Arash marveled at the thought.

Adam felt a wave of weakness wash over him as he dropped on his back. Soon everyone lunged towards him with face's riddled with worry.

"What happened?" Amna said she nervously held onto the hand of her husband.

"Nothing..." Adam said dazedly as he tried to fight back the weakness in him. His face dawned a smile, but deep inside he was in shock. He distinctively remembered as his strength left his body. He clenched his fist; trying to force back some feeling in into his numb hands. His heart fell as he struggled to clench his hand. Suddenly the

the family was upon him, the boys jested while Amna rebuked her husband for making a fool out of himself.

"Get up you old fool!" Amna ordered, her voice trembled as she studied the expression on her husbands face.

Arash shook his head in dismay, he could feel the distrust brewing in the heart of his new family; Feel the furtive glances at him, the frown on their face and hear the voices of their hearts. He called out to Najwah, seeking a quick exit out of this mess.

"It's not so simple..." Najwah said as he observed the frantic family.

"What do you mean? Just remove this memory and replace it with something that doesn't cast doubt on me and make sense to them. Can't you do that?" Arash said

with a slight frown.

Najwah stared at Arash with his yellow slitted eyes, something ominous shone in the deep-set eyes of the snake. "I can -- but it will have consequences." Najwah paused for a while as if weighing his words. "I have devoured millions and millions of human emotions and tasted countless different memories. Over all these years, I have come to understand human spirit -- It's stronger than you can imagine but at the same time it's the most fragile thing in the world." Najwah zapped over to Adam. "Take this uncle of yours for example. If I take away the memory of what he had eaten yesterday or the day before he wouldn't even flinch; but if I take away something he truly cares he will break. Strength is important to him, you have taken that from him. Even if I remove the incident from his memory, he

would find himself confused, frustrated..."

Arash silently listened, his brow furrowed as he ran his right hand through his coarse black hairs. He opened his mouth, thought better of it and swallowed back his words. "I can't tell him the truth -- he will hate me for it." Arash finally said. "There has to be a way."

"There always is. Two in this case. One leads to you being hated and the other leads to the destruction of your uncle."

Arash lips pursed into a thin line as he stared at the blank expression on his uncle's face. "He will hate me either way."

"Wounds of the flesh are much easier to heal then the scars of the soul." Najwah slithered back to Arash -- waiting for an answer.

"Wounds of the flesh--" Arash stared at thread-like strength rune, felt the surge in strength as his muscles were nourished by the strength that he stole from his uncle. His eyes widened as he found the answer he was looking for...