A tremor rolled over the Vimana as a shockwave originating from Garuda and Vritra meeting in battle crashed into it. The divine energies created craters and cracks on the ground, just by having two God class beings near it.

"Why do you still crawl the Lokas like a worm, Vritra? You failed your creator. You never could realise his dreams. Why are you still here, taking innocent lives of your fellow Asuras instead?" Garuda stated facts in front of Vritra.

"Right after I take care of you and these puny Manavas, I'll be coming right into Bhuvar Loka to assist Rahu. Don't worry, I maybe have failed last time, but with this new opportunity, I'll make sure to destroy the King of Gods." Vritra fought back with words while swiping his tail aggressively at Garuda.

Garuda was fast, weaving through the air and dodging every attack with very minute movements as if he was imitating Shiva's Dance of Destruction.

I finally could get a closer look at him. He had a red crown and a crimson beak over a white eagle like head, muscular white feathered arms and legs ending in talons. Golden wings came out from his shoulder blades, that were flapping continuously and gracefully, maintaining his altitude with precise stability.

Vritra's nostrils flared up with purple smoke, as he opened his mouth aiming at Garuda.

"Deploy Kavach!!!" The middle aged guy shouted as other uncles and aunties already manning the Vimana started touching instruments, and whispering near them.

"They are chanting the hymns within themselves and transferring the energies to the machines. The vibrating sound energies are acting like a command that can only be activated by specific people." the uncle described.

"Can you tell your name please? I've been mentioning you just as a middle aged guy in my monologues..." I asked with a smile.

He chuckled, "It's Naveen, nice to meet you. And you are?"

"Dhruva. And this is Anik. Rakshak Anik." I pointed at the guy standing beside me getting chuckles from both Dweep and Saiyan.

I finished introducing my other two teammates and fell to my knees suddenly as the whole ship rocked and undulated, after deflecting the purple laser like energy Vritra shot out of its mouth.

The moment Vritra's breath slammed against our shield, a holy bell rang out, filling my senses with an intense eargasm. It imitated a sound you hear when an expert blacksmith hammers a Talwar into shape.

Purple and golden lights filled the screens mounted on the walls of this floor. Shockwaves from the clashes of Garuda's fists and Vritra's tail kept hitting against our shield, slowly sending cracks across its surface.

"How much longer till the dimensional jump procedure is ready?" Naveen asked one of his co workers.

"Seven and a half minutes more. We need to keep hitting the Maya barrier precisely at the same position for that long to open the Gate." his co-worker notified.

"Aditya, let Garuda know how long he needs to distract Vritra." Naveen followed up with the one who helped summon the divine being.

Aditya nodded lightly, his forehead breaking into beads of sweat.

"What is this process? He seems to be in pain? What do you have to sacrifice to bring such an entity to fight for you?" I asked Naveen, since he was patiently answering my questions. He twirled his thick moustache once and kept staring at the screens.

"It's Prana. Your vessel determines how much you can have, and is the most important thing when dealing with the divine. The Gods help you, only when you have given up something from your side, whether it is your time, efforts or life force..." Naveen said, "Why do you keep asking these questions? Brings up bad memories. I have a feeling you that you recently got exposed to the truth. Most people don't ask about the dark aspects of this world."

"Back at Sutala, we saw humans...just like us. Roaming around and living their lives. Is that their true form? Or were they just illusions?" I asked seriously, but with a whisper.

Naveen stared at me for a while. "Things are complicated. Take what you can. Only for yourself. Don't just follow what others tell you to. I've been doing that all my life, lost a lot of things... I can't even go back to Alik because I'm afraid to face my regrets. Ughh, forget about it." he ran his palm through his face, rubbing his eyes.

"So you're now staying in Satya Marta?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. I've only been running away all this time... Ugh, why they hell am I saying this to a little child, after all this time?" Naveen was seriously whispering.

"Thanks for coming to rescue us, Naveen uncle. You aren't pathetic at all. I'll be visiting you if I ever come out of Ashrama... I hope you won't mind." I said with a smile.

"Hah, who taught you to talk like that? You seem quite versed in conversations with the elderly. So creepy." he laughed, covering his face.

"Yeah, my grandma had quite a lot of friends. I often heard them talking and encouraging each other. This was just an extension of that." I explained my passive skill: Talking to the elderly, to Naveen who was now smiling, with his eyes a little red.

"Cheeky little guy. You'll be formidable later on, better to stay in contact for later I guess? What's your roll number?" he said poking into the air. Whoa! The alumni still have connection to Kalpa Yaal. Nice!!

"V8538" I answered.

"Woah. Vasistha Gurukul? That one is strict with studies. It must have been hard to enter no?" he said.

"Vasistha?" I mumbled, sweat beads forming on my back in embarrassment.

Wasn't it Vishwamitra?? I told Somi in our first exchange that I was from Vishwamitra Gurukul, while being nervous and holding back my urge!!!

I have been focusing only on the Gurukul part all this time!! How stupid can I be? What did she think that time? That I didn't even know Vishwamitra was not one of the Saptarishis... I was confused between the two names!!

"Why are your ears this red?" Naveen inspected me, "Check, I've sent you a request."

His username was Naveen only. Well, some people like to put out their names directly, who am I to judge? I was this close to changing my username to Generator a while ago.

"Thanks for the connection. I'll mooch off you in the future." I gave a bright smile to the uncle.

"We'll see." he simply said with a smirk.

The kundalini from our seniors were already flickering. Was it too much with only 8 points for the seventh standards? It should be 32 for Saiyan's cousin right? Oh, it can also be 64, depending on whether he had already awakened the chakra for tenth standard.

"4 minutes 43 seconds more. I wanted to make an announcement at 5 but got distracted looking at the fight." one co worker announced.

Wasn't I getting a little too relaxed within this vessel? What if something happened?

Please!! There have been enough mishaps already! Let us just go home now.

Garuda had gotten hold of Vritra's tail by now and was pulling him away from the Vimana. Vritra realized what was happening and stopped struggling against Garuda, but instead focused on us.

"Another layer of shield please." Naveen ordered nonchalantly.

"On it."

The Vimana rocked again, as the screens filled up with purple light for a second and then dissipated. The shield was basically breaking down his breath into smaller rays and bending it away from the craft. In the rear view screen, I saw the smaller rays annihilating the scenery behind us. The grass and trees all dried up and died, as if their vitality was absorbed away from their existence.

"Aaahhhhh!!!!" A loud voice emanated from Garuda as he lifted Vritra up by the tail and slammed him down on the other side, using Vritra's body like a whip. Violet liquid spewed out of Vritra's maw, which started disintegrating the already ruined ground.

Vritra in turn twisted and coiled his body, using it like a spring and throwing Garuda up into the air with a jerk. The clouds lit up in a golden hue one after another as Garuda kept travelling upwards, still unable to regain control.

Ignoring Garuda, Vritra looked right at our Vimana as it started coiling up.

"It is going to use its hyper sonic tail attack. Use more shields!!! That attack sent the Mahal we were in flying across Sutala!" I warned Naveen.

"We already have all our shields deployed. We can't do anything if all of them can't hold on." He explained the situation.

Deep down I knew this tail attack will change the game away from our favour.

"Atleast apply some extra Kavachas! You guys should already have all your chakras awakened." I pleaded.

"Our Kundalini is already keeping this vessel afloat, and charging the jump procedure. The barriers are derived from our Kundalini too. I don't think we have anything more to actually spend on." Naveen said with a blank smile, "See at the end, we are always at their mercy..."

They were powering this whole vehicle? From the beginning? From flying to attacking to defending??

A yellow lightning flashed and blasted Vritra's head, sending yellow and purple liquids all around. Garuda had sailed down like a Falcon and had kicked Vritra right on its snout, pinning his head to the ground with his sharp talons. The rear body of Vritra kept twisting and turning like wounded worm that invoked emotions of disgust within me. It was so terrifying, disgusting and creepy....all at the same time.

I wondered if they were still talking or not, since I was not hearing any dialogues from their side. Garuda flashed his arms ending in claws, right above his head and brought it down, scratching and ripping out Vritra's left eye.

Vritra's body twisted more and more, coiling and straightening, turning and trying to get hold of something that would free him of this predicament.

"Sarpa Dansh!!!" Vritra hissed, opening his mouth forcibly and pierced his two venom fangs right into the ground.

Garuda tried to hold his posture as a huge earthquake ravaged the area. The trees in the jungle below started uprooting and fell down as the earth cracked and erupted, revealing sharp ended protrusions that sprung out of the land, destroying everything around us.

Aditya started coughing out blood as the Vimana rocked with a blast, and the wall behind us shattered as an earth fang pierced right through our floor, pinning the Vimana in place.

A hissing laughter erupted in our surroundings, as Vritra's voice assaulted us through the gaps in the broken Vimana walls.

As the dust from the earth fang settled, what I saw in the screens that were still working was Garuda, pierced right through his stomach by an earth fang, held up into the air with his arms and wings flailing about.

"Nothing surprises me anymore." I mumbled as I stood up followed by others.

Everyone was quiet. Their states fixed at the half hanging and tilted, but still working screen. Golden blood dripped down the surface of the earth fang as Garuda slowly stopped struggling.

Vritra's snout was half gone too, I realised. He had summoned one fang right below the front part of his head that Garuda was pinning down, sacrificing his fangs in the process but taking down Garuda as result.

Aditya again sat up, squinting his eyes as he started bleeding from different parts of his face.

"He's still holding on. Give me a little more Kundalini to keep his incarnation intact." Aditya's voice was laced with pain.

"We are almost out of internal energy." One of the seven on the circle's circumference stated.

"How much time is left? What's the condition of the shield? How did it go right through the Vimana like this??" Naveen asked for explanations and information.

"One and a half minutes left."

"The barriers have been destroyed. All of them. If Vritra attacks once more, we'll be dead."

"How much more Kundalini do your require?" I asked Aditya.

"Lots... in the hundred..."

Holy...

"State all your Prana stats by adding them up one by one. Fast, no time for Q and A!!" I don't know where I got the courage from, but I've been thinking about this for a while.

"I want you guys to be really careful and answer me whenever I ask something okay?"

"Kundalini Tethering..." I whispered attaching numerous Tethers to the people inside the navigational floor except my team mates. They looked at each other for a millisecond and started counting from Saiyan's cousin.

"13"

"28"

"45"

They continued

"Skill share.."

"118" The people inside the circle finished their count.

"157" Naveen counted next. What a whopping amount!!!!

"184!" Naveen's co-workers continued.

"Skill: Prana to Kundalini conversion."

I shouted out, "As soon as your Prana reaches 3 let me know with a shout. I'll try my best not to kill you, before Vritra actually does.

I concentrated, hoping Vritra takes a little more time to get up after losing his snout. Taking a calculated glance at the screen, I was horrified. Vritra had already recovered, and was now crawling weakly towards us.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Kundalini flared up around the people surrounding me.

Their Prana was being converted to Kundalini as the seven provided it to Aditya and the alumni started chanting Kavacha spells to protect the Vimana. Two of them who were heavily built, started attacking the earth fang with maces and hammers trying to grind it down to dust.

The screen still showed Garuda whose now white wings were slowly gaining back their golden lustre.

Keeping up the Tethers, I had already sacrificed three points of Prana among the ten I had gained eating fruits.

"I'm down!!" Ananya shouted first , being the youngest in the group. Her vessel must still be small.

The Vimana rocked as Vritra's tail smacked against the alumni's barriers. The first two layers cracked but the third one still held on. Six people were powering the barriers already...

Don't get distracted!!! With a mental gesture, I cut off my Tether to Ananya.

"Good, everybody keep it up like this." I encouraged them.

"How much Prana do you guys have?" I looked at my teammates.

"7 only." Anik said.

"11 here." Saiyan said, disappointed.

" 14 hehe..." Dweep said with a smile.

"No wonder." I commented inspecting him from top to bottom.

"That was not cool at all. How much do you have?" Dweep asked instead.

"Nope, not telling..." I smirked. "I'm gonna try something out, so tell me if your Prana gets dangerously depleted, okay?"

They nodded obediently.

The Vimana again trembled, as the countdown stayed stuck at 1 minute and 34 seconds. With no one providing Kundalini anymore, the Maya breaking apparatus couldn't continue working. Get up, Lord Garuda...please...

Tethers joined us together as I shared Prana to Kundalini conversion with my teammates.

Panna would have been so much helpful in this condition. With the disparity of even a few seconds, when dealing with Prana, the consequences can be disastrous. So it was not possible for her to help me with the latency in communication between us.

Garuda was finally freeing himself from the spike. He broke the part that had travelled right through him with his talons and struggled himself out of the rest that was still inside his body.

"I'm out!"

"I'm out"

I'm out... sorry..."

I cut off the Tethers as soon as I could. Four of them were still left.

"Garuda is still alive and kicking." One of the retired batteries mentioned. The earth fang broke down from the incessant hammering and crumbled like a castle of sand across our floor, then slowly trickling down to the ones below.

"One thruster is still working." One of the Vimana pilots kept doing his job while keeping up the barrier.

Before Vritra could slash his tail again, Garuda came and caught it between his ribs and arms, the hole in his stomach further widening.

"Do you think that a mere incarnation can fight head on with the original body of a deity?" Vritra hissed, "Your summoning techniques are still so old school. Do you again want to trick Shukracharya into giving away the secrets of summoning like you did with Sanjeevani?"

"When will you look towards the future? You won't get anywhere always looking back at the past!" Garuda defended.

"The ones who exploit are always the quickest to forget. What about the exploited? Do you think we can forget everything and move on just like that?" Vritra shouted out in anger as his throat caught fire. With his snout missing we could see the purple breath coming up right through his oesophagus.

Garuda flew down and punched Vritra's head from the side, trying to divert the breath's aim, but Vritra held on, like a statue, aiming right at us.

I looked at the countdown which had again started as soon as Garuda got into the fight.

28 seconds.

27..

26..

We won't make it. I was thinking of sending out Kundalini that was converted from my teammates' Prana to the ones sitting inside the circle through a Tether, but couldn't concentrate because of the fight outside. With the Kundalini getting weaker in volume, Garuda's punch was not as effective as before.

If only I could use the Kavacha skill that the alumni were using...

Garuda was not powerful anymore because of us. We only had a little Prana left for everybody.

What should we do?

17 seconds.

16 seconds.

Vritra's breath was almost at its snout now, ready to fire. Garuda was striking his right eye, but the Naga was totally locked on.

"Transfer what you all have to me. I'll create a Kavach around Garuda who's nearest and ask him to tank the breath." Naveen suggested, "Aditya, relay."

Let's just try what I was thinking before.

The Tethers on my friends and the other alumni meant for 'prana conversion skill transfer' livened up.

Use up five Prana to create a circle like the Garuda one, with a triangle in between, putting Saiyan, Dweep and Anik at its corners. A total of 32 minus 3 Prana.

Garuda, without the shield had flown in between the breath and our Vimana, tanking it directly with his body.

Too late!

"Keep going! Don't look there!! Add her and him too" Naveen pointed.

I used up my final two Prana to create a five headed star within the circle as people shifted their position putting Naveen in the middle.

Was my agility and dexterity helping in creating the Kundalini tethers faster? They were now joining the five people as part of the circumference as well as the star.

Naveen's eyes lit up. "It's working! Swarna Kavacha!!"

A golden sphere appeared around the gradually dimming incarnation of Garuda covering him and deflecting the breath away from his body. The little strands of energy that went around the Kavacha, missed our Vimana by a couple of meters.

Six.

Five.

Four.

We saw both Garuda and Vritra collapsing using up all their energy in the battle, through the screen.

Aditya instantly opened his eyes and started breathing frantically like an Asthma patient as his team members started tending to him.

Garuda's incarnation, started dissipating away into golden dust.

One.

Thank God, the star structure was meant for Kundalini centralisation only. If I had to draw the special Aksharas like the Garuda circle, we would be dead by now.

Zero.

The Maya barrier meant to isolate the Lokas, separated like a huge third eye in the sky, giving flashbacks to the moment we were teleported from the Ashrama. The space itself was bending around us, as everybody started moving in slo mo.

"Nooott...Ssoooo...Faaasst...!" Vritra's voice arrived as if someone was playing with our playback speed, slowing it down to the limits.

"Naagaa Viii Saan Gaaa" Vritra's voice filled us with terror even when the Vimana started going upwards, into the dimensional crack. The moving Vimana gave us a fake sense of hope, but looking at Vritra, I knew we wouldn't make it.

Thousands of huge purple snakes appeared around Vritra as he kept lying down on the ground, using his life force to cast an ultimate spell.

The snakes slithered through the air targeting us, their pressure forcing us to the ground.

"Looordd Viiisshnuuu....help usss...." One of the alumni prayed out loud as a dark red dimensional crack appeared between the purple snakes and our slowly moving Vimana, throwing out a young man with torn clothes who seemed to be moving at his own pace despite the space constricting the time here.

"Haaaa..." his sigh rang out, broken and shattered, as if he went through a tragedy just a few moments ago. He was clutching something in his arms tightly.

"So I was sent to one of the Ekavachanas... Will it really make a difference?" his voice rolled over us like waves, giving goosebumps. What is this feeling? Who is this? All his words vibrated like holy hymns.

Everybody was watching the mysterious being that had just appeared on the screen like it was a ray of hope.

The purple snakes were almost touching the Vimana now. It was too late. Whoever Lord Vishnu sent as a rescuer, arrived in vain.

"Vajra Kavacha!" the young man swung his arms outward horizontally, his palms open and facing the sky.

Our Vimana shook as if someone was throwing huge blunt rocks at us from a distance. I braced myself for another flying Mahal trip before realising that we were fine.

Looking at one of the screens, I witnessed thousands of huge purple snakes, now struggling to free themselves from inside huge diamond shaped transparent cages. In an instant, all the purple snakes were isolated using individual cages for each of them. He did this with no effort at all, something that Garuda too might have struggled with. As our Vimana escaped into the dimensional crack, I saw the young man landing over Vritra's head, pulling something out from the Asura's forehead.

"You won't be needing this anymore." His last words kept ringing inside my mind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Within minutes, we found ourselves over the seventh standard section of the Ashrama.

Everyone inside were silent, unable to comprehend what happened in the last few seconds before we jumped into the portal.

How many times were we this close to losing our lives? How many times did we turn the tide back in our favour? How many times did it feel helpless?

The Vimana was already tilting to one side, a part of it destroyed by the earth fang from Vritra. Only one out of three thrusters were working now, and pieces kept falling down from different floors of the Vimana with the slightest movements.

It felt like riding a thirty year old public transport bus that hadn't seen a mechanic for years.

As the Vimana slowly landed, Anik went to fetch the baby from the healing station. It was still okay right? Hopefully that floor had special protection in it.

We went to the lowest floor, where I was treated by Apsara and Ananya, and stood on the platform, as a panel opened in the back leading to a stairs that went outside.

"Again, who designed this? Most things are impressive, but the little details are so hilariously bad that I can't help complaining." I mumbled.

"I'm surprised to see you still have the energy to talk." Apsara patted my head and followed me outside.

"I'm tired, will message you later. Make sure to reply." she said lazily and waved her hands to a few other girls who accompanied her towards the female dorms.

The blueprint of the the two sections were similar. How were they able to create something like this in Satya Marta? Maya it is... I deduced randomly.

"V8538 right?" The handsome guy asked poking into the air. "That was impressive stuff. I'm also from Vasistha, so you won't miss me at the assembly I'm sure. Accept my request okay?"

I gave a dry smile as he walked away.

"What should we do with this? We can't go on any more missions in the meantime right?" A female alumni asked Naveen. "I'll take a vacation to Kalapani then. Let me know when the Vimana is again as good as new."

"What about this baby?" Anik asked the female alumni. "Can someone among you take care of it? While we are not in Satya Marta?"

"Little boy. I haven't even married someone. You think I can feed this baby with the meagre amount of Kuber our team earns?"

"Go and give this baby to Ashwatthama. Kamadhenu will provide high quality milk for it." another alumni suggested.

"Should we just go and have some ancient sages? Hearing about milk is making me thirsty!" Another guy from the Alumni group suggested.

"Ancient sages?" Dweep asked, curious as he is. I was also wondering, what it meant. Must be some kind of a word play there.

"It's adult stuff kid. You'll learn later." Naveen patted my head next. "My suspicions were correct. Let's see who mooches off from whom in the future. I'll stay in touch. You can also ask for special tips from me, so don't be shy." The eight alumni showed us out, and got back into the Vimana. It again revved like a decade old generator and slowly lifted off towards some kind of a maintenance hangar probably. That Vimana will always have a special place in my heart. What a tenacious machine.

Among twelve students, only ten were left now. There were two more seventh standard students who left after saying goodbyes.

We four, Ananya, Saiyan's cousin and two others stood around awkwardly. Without Apsara and the handsome boy, it was difficult to talk with totally unknown strangers. But still, we went through all these together. Someday, we'll meet each other and maybe talk a little more remembering this incident.

"That was... memorable, I guess." Saiyan's cousin smiled wryly. Why does he keep acting like this? He is older than us by a lot. Shouldn't be be more confident? Saiyan was also not saying anything in front of his elder brother. Both of them are such a pain and so bad at communication. On second thoughts, Saiyan's father was quite friendly... but what happened with him? He had told me about his school life a bit actually, but I got the impression that he overcame it.

Well, no use thinking about it now.

"Should I help you all return to your sections?" One handsome saffron clad monk arrived behind us.

"It was nice working with everyone. Would have been awesome if we got some more field experience." Ananya kept true to her antics.

"If we got any more experience than that, we would have been left buried in that field itself." I said, remembering the decimated landscape that we left behind, back in Sutala.

"Good bye everyone!! Thanks again."

"Good bye."

"Talk to you later!!"

We returned back to our own section after saying our goodbyes, with the napping baby in our arms.

I opened Kalpa's friend list window to accept invites from the handsome boy and Saiyan's cousin.

"Who was that guy? Who came to save us at the last moment?" Anik asked when he saw that none of us were trying to bring up the topic.

"He saved us. That's all. How can we know who he is without interacting with him? He's way stronger than any being we have come across to be honest. Even Vritra, I know he was exhausted, but still... I don't think he would be a match for that guy." Dweep expressed his thoughts.

"There's no use talking about him. I think you guys have a lot to say to me instead, so I'll be hearing them all." Saiyan said changing the topic.

We were teleported at the central Banyan, and started walking back towards our dorm when people recognised and started pointing at us.

"We are tired. Can we do this later?" Anik suddenly snapped, making sure not to wake up the sleeping baby. "Just let the head sage know that we are still alive and have arrived. They probably already have data on how many lives we have left."

Returning to our rooms, we fell on our yoga mats and dozed off instantly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was after lunch when we had disappeared from Satya Marta. We spent two nights back at Sutala and it was still the same day at the Ashrama.

Apsara and Ananya might have been at the rescue attempts for several hours, while we were struggling to live for two days back there. I wondered what the case was, for the students who went to the upper Lokas. I remembered seeing a lot of yellow lines in the sheet. They must have all been teleported to the dimensions of Swarga Loka.

I remembered from stories how Asuras would meditate for fifty thousand years to get the blessings of Brahma.

If I somehow reach the lowest level of Netherworld, can I train for thousands of years while making sure only a few days passed here?

Again, at the top of all the Lokas, where Brahma resides, it is said that time runs so slow, that in every blink of the Creator, the world goes through all the four Yugas, gets destroyed and is even created anew.

We went for dinner when the bells woke us up, and were asked by Baagh to sit with him for briefing.

We also have to go to the dairy after dinner to get milk for the Asura baby. It was napping for now, because of the sleeping spell that was put on it at the healing station, but who knew when it would start crying again.

We gave Mr Baagh a watered down version of the events that happened there, ate special omelette dishes that were made specially for the wardens, and explained the Vimana events omitting the young man at the end. Somehow we all knew that talking about it was forbidden, for our own sake. If an entity like that knew we were spreading rumors about him, he won't take much time to destroy this whole Ashrama.

I found myself guilty of trying to find Somi among the crowd while leaving the dining hall.

She wasn't there, but her bodyguard was.

"You okay?" She asked us suddenly, coming out from behind a pillar looking at Saiyan who was rinsing his mouth beside me.

Crazy timing.

Saiyan patiently completed his cleaning and made her wait until he was satisfied.

Girl, this guy needs someone straight forward. Even though he himself isn't. You gotta change your technique.

"My friends lost lives because of me. You think I'll be fine?" he said, his voice vibrating in a low pitch.

"You guys were lucky enough to be teleported to Sutala, a friendly Loka of the Devatas and still managed to lose lives?" she mentioned nonchalantly.

Ah shit. Here we go...

"Yes we were indeed lucky. Haahh.... You came to annoy me like this because your teammates are shunning you right? Please, just leave me alone okay? Whatever you're trying, it isn't working in your favour. You come here, saying things you don't even mean and you expect me to understand you? What do you think I am??" Saiyan's voice slowly got louder. "Stop playing around!! I'm not as strong as you okay? I can't do a single thing without their help."

"Whoa boy, calm down. Let's leave..." I grabbed him, trying to take him away. "You're frustrated with yourself, these words...they are meant for you... I understand, so don't make things worse."

"You just came here to make yourself feel better, seeing how people in the same shoes as you are suffering more than you, right? Sorry to disappoint you! I've got far more reliable friends than you can ever have. Grow up! Stop comparing little things like these all the time. We were lucky? Did you even ask what we went through??" he was totally going off...

Bro you just compared your own friends with hers.

These words...it was meant for both of them. They'll need to sit down and talk privately after all these hurtful words were thrown from his side.

"I...I was just worried about you..." Ariya was already in the verge of tears.

Bruh, if she's worried couldn't she have framed things better? Did I also appear this irrational in my matters with Somi? A cringe wave washed over me... Never again will I repeat that.

"Worried? You seriously have a communication problem. From everything you said before, which sentence meant you were just worried??" Saiyan said.

"Broo!" I whispered loud in his ears. "You're going too far now. There will be no coming back after this. Let's leave for today." I turned to Ariya and said "This guy has been bullied by us a lot today, so he's not in the correct state of mind. Can you please come tomorrow, get rid of that mask and talk with each other honestly?"

"Why are you butting in between us? You got no say in this. Especially after what you did to my friend." she cracked back at me.

My fake smile melted right in front of her. I don't know what my next expression was, but the look of horror on her face forced me to stop and put up my poker face.

"I won't stop you. Put her where she belongs." I said and patted Saiyan's shoulder turning away from her.

"What is wrong with you two..." she sneered witnessing the change in our expressions.

"As if I care." Saiyan murmured, his voice cold. "I heard about your competition with Sneha. You can forget about it. Start looking for someone else because I will never choose you. You're farthest from who I want to be with. You're nothing like her ..."

I suppressed a snort hearing that. It was sad yet satisfactory. Sad because circumstances made things difficult for Saiyan. Satisfactory knowing this pretentious girl will never be able to compete with the person he has in his heart.

She would stay awake at night for years to come wondering who this 'her' was.

Signs till now might point her to Somi, which will be a spectacle to witness to be honest.

I realised what I was thinking about and suppressed my smile. Shit, am I losing myself to negative urges? Did I think like that before? Or did something changed in me recently?

I suddenly heard retching from behind and saw Anik vomiting in the wash basin, with Dweep patting his back.

"What happened? Anik!" I inspected him closely casting recovery instantly.

"The flashbacks man. I thought I was fine... the food just reminded me of that shit... fuck..." he mumbled, his breath stinking with the smell of bile.

I saw Dweep's eyes without focus.

"Dweep. Didn't you sleep?" I asked gently.

"No... I." he sighed, unable to find words to describe what he was feeling.

"Let's go bring some milk for our little daughter, what do you say?" I said and put my arm around their shoulders.

"Draupadi had five husbands and here we are with a child, who now has four extra fathers." Anik commented making things weird.

"I can't believe it still hasn't been a single day back at the Gurukul. We have to return back after two hours, since it's 8.30 pm now. Let's make sure our daughter is taken care of before we leave for almost two weeks." Dweep suggested as we made way towards the dairy.