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I found myself standing over an obsidian lake reflecting a sky full of spiral galaxies on its surface. Like bright, stagnant fireworks in a moonless night.

Small ripples of sparkling stardust originated from my legs, distorting the calm images drawn across my immediate surroundings, confusing my senses. You would expect the soft and yielding surface of a water body but instead, feel the stubbornness of a marble floor.

A massive kadamba tree with golden spherical hairy fruits and blue luminous leaves segregated into several clusters at its different levels stood like a majestic being, giving off a totally different vibe than Kalpa Vrikshya when I had met her during the Synchronisation Ritual.

I kept marveling at its beauty, while moving towards it in a trance.

Never before had I felt so overwhelmed because of something I saw.

"This must be your first time here." A woman's gentle voice soothed my soul.

The distance from the tree was mind-boggling. Whenever I felt like I had reached my destination, it suddenly felt further away.

"Do not approach me now. The sights of broken souls stumbling around my roots will be traumatic for you..." This time, a male voice consoled me, but with a stern tone, "Many who witnessed it never remained the same. Since we are going to spend quite a long time together, it's better you approach us after losing two more lives."

His words were oddly frightening. What did he even mean by that? Long time?

I knew I had died. But something felt different.

From accounts of my friends who had already met the Tree of Reincarnation, I learned that they had felt a force pulling them toward the tree while they were in this realm. It was a horrifying experience, in their opinion.

But my movements seemed to maintain a constant distance from it.

"So I just need to wait until Ashwatthama or a sage resurrects me back at the Ashrama?" I asked the Tree.

A torrent of thoughts crashed against the calming barrier of my mind world. One I always keep up to be able to make logical and consistent decisions in my day-to-day life. The wall was eerily like the one I had erected using my Seshya Prana—the last thing I remember before blacking out.

How will I make a journey from the Ashrama to Somnath all alone?

I lost one of my lives so early... And things will only get tougher from now on. I know I followed my heart while sacrificing myself, but was it a sound decision to make?

My desires have been relatively simple till now. I wanted to live a long life. To see and experience a load of things. My life was just getting started. Aging at Alik's rate, I would have so much time to live in Satya... And I wanted to make the most of it.

But it will only work if I had lives. I'll become a hollow, empty shell if I ever become a Forgotten. Since childhood, being a part of the True World has been the only thing I've ever dreamt of.

But now... I wanted to see people happy, related or unrelated; I didn't care. That feeling when I could see the gratitude overflowing from their faces... Their eyes filled with worry. The appreciation and admiration they felt for me had moved my heart with a sense of satisfaction, unlike anything before.

Is this how people feel when they get high and act stupid? Are they looking for some sensation they felt long ago, unable to find it, and doing everything in their means to get a glimpse of it again?

I wanted to feel that again—that sense of fulfillment, of satisfaction that warmed my heart. The world I believed to be unending and vast, suddenly became smaller yet comfortable and familiar. I felt even the smallest things could fill me up with joy. Instead of otherworldly sceneries, there were people inside this small world. Warm and beautiful people.

"No." The Tree's voice interrupted my thoughts, "A couple of Gods are working together to bring you back to life, into the body you recently occupied. Ananta surely is as kind-hearted and loyal as ever. You must have made him proud."

My solid body started shimmering, breaking apart into tiny globulins of light.

"I hope we won't meet for a long time." The male voice used harsh words, but in this setting, it came out to be really wholesome.

"So this is how you smile." The woman's voice tickled my ears, making me realize I had been beaming subconsciously.

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"I'm glad to have chosen you as my Blessed." Ananta's familiar voice rattled my brain.

I was in a paralyzed state. It was as if my nerves were working perfectly, but my lazy muscles were rebelling against their orders.

Sensing my discomfort, he started whispering, "After Mata Sita got kidnapped by Ravana, I blamed myself for being unable to protect her. In the later years of my life as Lakshman, I came up with a barrier that could not only protect, but also enable offensive measures under dire circumstances."

He became quiet for a few seconds, realizing I was regaining control over my physical vessel.

"Don't be so restless." He sighed, "Everyone is safe. Relax."

"Ahh. Okkay..." I mentally presented after relaxing, "You can continue then... Dire circumstances...?"

I heard a light chuckle from the other end, "You broke your narrow ideals and stepped forth into a wider world. I'm sure you'll encounter more moral dilemmas in the future, but I'll be by your side. Keep surpassing my expectations." He completed his speech.

"Honestly, I don't think I came up with something worthy of such praise." I mentally scratched my head, "I was only afraid of... Trying out things and failing at crucial times. When did I give up trying to solve things by myself? When did I start copying others, thinking only their methods were correct? I'm feeling quite different right now, thankfully."

"Yes. You've grown." Ananta's voice was cheerful, "It's a shame you lost a life, but you've become much stronger as a result. Your qualities often remind me of the life I led as my master's brother."

I opened my eyes as soon as our connection went dead.

"It shouldn't have been this easy." Explosions rang in my sensitive ears, and an unknown male voice was mixed within it.

It was dark at first, but I slowly regained my vision, staring at the half-broken ceiling of the chief's house I was supposed to protect. Orange light from the burning sky was trickling down, increasing visibility in a slow yet gradual process.

Groans, cries, and desperate shouts followed the sound of a vacuum cleaner, that seemed to change positions, giving a full surround-sound effect. Like those 8D music you can find on YouTube.

I raised myself, sitting up and staring at the people around me. The villagers were safe.

The aunty who was feeding me gave me a tight hug, whispering words of gratitude.

"What about the Yeti?" I asked, checking my status. My level now stood at 44, having killed numerous Lakeh and Yeti with my twin barrier compression technique. It had increased by twelve, making me the tenth rank holder of our batch.

The highest was currently at 55—one of the Seven.

A sudden movement on the leaderboard grabbed my attention. Someone moved from the seventh to sixth position.

Dhruva.

I stood up hastily and jogged, only to halt abruptly at the door.

It was hell outside. Writhing and dismembered bodies underneath the orange fiery sky were scattered densely throughout the field within the stadium I had created. Streams of green blood flowed along the indentations on the ground. My wall had collapsed in multiple places, but instead of rushing monsters, it had mounds of slaughtered monsters.

They were in pieces, butchered by something that cut them down into horizontal strips with clean edges and flat faces. Like chicken salami.

The vacuuming sound coming from behind the house made its way to my left, revealing its source.

Modeled after the images depicting the celestial weapon of The Preserver, The Sudarshan Chakra, a massive rotating doughnut-shaped disc flew into my periphery, sharp teeth on its perimeter spiraling so fast they seemed to move in an opposite direction like the afterimages of spokes on the wheels of a speeding car.

On closer inspection, It was not a single disc. But a series of them stacked on top of one another, all moving in alternative opposite directions.

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Waves after waves of monsters were cut to pieces. The Lakeh fell without resistance, and the Yeti slowed it down by only a bit. With multiple grinders attacking their rigid bodies, they stood no chance. Even a small cut would give freeway to the disc, allowing it to pass through their bodies undeterred, tearing them apart in the process.

In the middle of all this destruction, he stood like a cracked pillar, with raised trembling arms and legs slightly bent at his knees—yet like a stone that had struggled to hold its shape through eons of corrosion.

"My blessing's duration had ended long ago." The Yogi-God who resurrected me came and stood by my side while playing with his navel-length beard. "Getting a taste of it once, he must have already devised a way to use the enormous latent energy inside his Aksharas."

"Isn't your blessing too overpowered?" I asked, skeptical about the Yogi's favoritism.

"Might be. But it also depends on how others use it. I'm quite satisfied with his answer. There's still room for improvement, though." He said with a gentle smile, "I sense a strange power hidden deep inside him, something that allows him to manipulate Kundalini this easily."

"Spoken like a typical mentor. I doubt he knows about it either. The fact that he can do it so easily only makes it harder for him to understand how difficult it is for us even to mimic a fraction of his capabilities. He thinks we are not trying hard enough." I said regretfully while watching Dhruva's hand movements, "But I won't complain. His harsh words forced me to change my mindset. I'm grateful for that."

"It's great that you took it positively, but it's better not to get swept up by others' expectations. Take your time thinking things through. What you feel is slow might be faster in the eyes of others and vice versa." His consoling words didn't affect me much.

I've heard enough of those already to last a lifetime.

Dhruva gave a sideways glance and stared at me with wide eyes. He was going to say something but stopped himself.

"Your body must have refreshed its Prana count, right?" He asked after a while.

As direct as always. Not a single instance of 'good to see you alive again' or 'the wall you made was awesome'. Maybe I was expecting too much from him. Giving out little praises here and there shouldn't hurt someone.

"Yes. Should I pull in all the stragglers in front of your shredder?" I suggested, choosing the easiest way to end all this.

"Glad to have found someone with the same combat wavelength." He gave a bright smile.

The Yogi witnessed our exchange with an amused expression.

"Are you recovering your Kundalini right now?" I asked him whether he was going to join us or not.

"I don't have a concept of leveling up like you two. It's best you take this opportunity and get stronger, quickly." He responded calmly, "I have a feeling things are going to change in this next Satya century. After resurrecting you, I have an inkling that you'll probably be playing an important role in that. Meeting you both must have been fate working its magic."

"There must be a dog on the outskirts of the village. Make sure to leave it alone." Dhruva's warning arrived from the front.

"Okay?" I concentrated, dabbling over his request for a split second and using up my Prana to create the first circle enclosing Dhruva and the house we were in. The second circle was constructed along the outer perimeter of the village. Its massive scale instantly consumed 6 points of my Prana.

Leave the dog out, so four-legged organisms? Let's also add a tail to the conditions. Inorganic materials out. Allow Kundalini to move freely. Dhruva's disc needs to enter and exit my barrier at will. What else? My wall of dead monsters. What should I classify it as? Let's command the outer circle to align with the wall. I don't need to add complexity and use up precious Prana unnecessarily. All these took away another 4 points, leaving 13 out of 25 for dimension manipulation. For some reason, after my resurrection, my max Prana capacity had increased by 6 points.

"I'm done. Get ready!" I alerted Dhruva and started the process of converging the outer circle and my wall.

13. 10. 8. 6. 4. My Prana dropped rapidly. I needed the last three points to maintain the barrier.

An enormous resistance fought against my contraction process as I pulled in all the monsters still hanging out around the outer reaches of the village. From giant Yeti to small Lakeh. Nothing was spared. All of them converged towards the village plaza, forced to climb up the step terraces or get down from above since my cylindrical barrier stretched from the base of the mountain to its unyielding upper zones.

But, before the golden circle could touch the flesh wall, my Prana threshold of 4 had already been reached.

Having nowhere else to go, hordes of Lakeh poured in through the collapsed sections of the wall, ducking under or trying to jump over the killing machine that kept patrolling along the edge of our safety zone. Dozens of them made it through, in the little time the disc took to complete one full revolution, lashing out at Dhruva as soon as they got closer.

I realized that Dhruva's spiraling weapon was losing mass, using up itself to power its functions.

Their claws rebounded against a green barrier, which manifested for a few seconds before going invisible again, giving Dhruva enough time to pick up his red sandstone javelin and stab through his enemies' hearts.

A chill erupted goosebumps along my arm, activating the fight or flight switch of my body.

As soon as I perceived a slight distortion in the space to my left, I side-stepped and pivoted my body around my left ankle to kick an invisible Lakeh away.

Being a Surakshak and putting most of my stats into strength and stamina resulted in me outputting enough force to launch the frail Lakeh into the air. I could feel its ribs cracking underneath its dry and pale skin.

Wait.

Did leveling up increase my basic capabilities automatically? I haven't yet allocated the points I received after gaining all that experience. This might be a plausible theory—another mystery to brainstorm later.

Dhruva used his javelin as a support to keep standing up. His knees were buckling like a newborn calf.

Raising his left arm, he pointed at the disc, willing it to enter through a gap in the wall created by the Yeti while trying to invade the stadium.

More cries, bone-crunching, and squelching sounds erupted from the other side of the flesh wall, as the doughnut continued its destruction over there as well. It was now retracing its circular movement but with a larger radius.

Two bubbles of silver swallowed me in, as soon as the rest of the monsters scrambled inside, trying to save themselves from imminent death... It was a sign from Dhruva, who wanted me to start vanquishing my enemies and get stronger.

I followed suit, brought out my shield, one-handed war axe, and charged through the field, slashing continuously at both thin air and approaching enemies.

I made my way through the crowd, butchering through mostly Lakeh. Finding all the Yeti converging around Dhruva's green dome, I changed directions towards him instead.

A stream of monsters separated and attacked the protected house, only to be stopped by the Yogi's barrier. Finding it impossible, they again rushed towards me and Dhruva, after I met up with him, sliding under a Yeti's legs and entering his dome.

"Thanks to Bhairava, we can easily farm experience from these mobs." Dhruva was elated even though his body was on the brink of exhaustion. He was continuously stabbing at the enemies, trying their best to breach Bhairava's barrier, but only a single time.

For some reason, whenever he brought out his javelin, it seemed shorter than when it went inside, as if leaving behind a part of it.

"Congrats on reaching level 50." I needed to shout amongst the clamor while hacking at the shin bones of the massive Yeti.

"Congrats on reaching eighth rank!" He shouted back.

"It's seventh now." I corrected excitedly while jumping and slashing across the Yeti's face, who knelt from having their legs cut off like tree trunks from my axe. Unlike before, I required three to four hits to achieve my goal.

Soon, all the Yeti stabbed once by Dhruva started dropping down like sacks of cement with a blank look in their eyes.

"Aditi and Jevin are going to be so mad!!" Dhruva laughed mischievously.

"Exactly!" I chuckled as if the events before all this weren't traumatic for me. But right now, I was only looking forward. With loads of questions for him about Bhairava and his skills, but we had time to talk about it later.

Our pilgrimage had just started.

"Can't you wipe them all up with those spikes you manifest out of nowhere?" I asked after five minutes of strenuous exercise.

"I'm keeping them for later. We have to go help Vivikta and the others after this. Bhairava said that their main force doesn't even exude a single bit of presence. I notified the others, but the chances of things going wrong are high." He explained.

"What the? This was their secondary force? How many monsters do they have in their ranks?" I shivered, "There were more than a thousand here!"

"Their primary force's numbers are around two hundred. But much more vicious than the one we are fighting right now." He sighed with a slight bit of nervousness. "They haven't been responding for a while."

"I think we shouldn't waste any more time here. Your complexion keeps getting worse by the second." Was it okay to say that? I wondered.

"I know. But I won't get another chance like this again. Those of the Seven are getting further away with each passing day."

"I wouldn't have believed if you had said those words just a week ago." I chuckled while chopping off yet another Yeti's legs, "Our shoulders were hurting from carrying you for the first two weeks."

"I paid for that in full with my potions. They don't come cheap, okay? Also, we Vaidyas are supposed to stay at the back and get a few hits in here and there until awakening more chakras." He acted offended, obviously from his tone.

The slaughter went on for ten more minutes. Dhruva kept bringing out javelins one after another, stabbing his enemies once, leaving them to their fate, and moving on to the next one.

I kept adding stats to my strength and stamina as soon as I leveled up to dispatch the monsters faster.

Meanwhile, Bhairava joined in with his trident to take down the ones crowding around our safe house, hastening the process. Each swipe of his weapon blasted apart the bodies of Lakeh and Yeti from the sheer kinetic energy of his attacks. He was getting uneasy with each passing minute. Both he and Dhruva were looking steps ahead into the future. They might have shared some information amongst themselves to have a clearer idea about the incidents surrounding this village.

The aftermath was a hellish landscape with a greenish fog floating over mountains of dismembered corpses, held together by the cold temperature of the mountains.

The village outside the stadium was still burning, while the dog Dhruva and Bhairava brought, took care of the final ones. Dhruva's disc had also dissipated a few minutes back, using up all its energy.

"Hmm... What if I add a battery that will feed manipulation energy, instead of using up the energy responsible for maintaining its structure...?" He kept mumbling while inspecting a bloody Yeti fur, stretching it in different ways, "I only need to change the battery to use the whole thing again later! What kind of an idiot am I? Why didn't I think of it before?? What a waste!"

He got annoyed at himself all of a sudden.

"We have to move." Bhairava called us, making a whistling motion, putting fingers inside his mouth. "Dhruva and Pratyusha, get everything you need for a long drawn-out fight."

Five minutes later, we were speeding through the mountains for the next round of battles awaiting us.

A primary force of yeti. All devoid of any presence. Bhairava's barrier will last atleast two days. We have to come back before that in case there's another group of monsters hiding, waiting to ambush the village.

Dhruva, with tired and sleepy eyes, kept updating me with information regarding our enemies and the situation surrounding The Thousand Petal Lotus. His theory certainly made sense.

I shared some food packed by the villagers with him on the rocky journey. The way he kept flinching whenever the jumbo doggie accelerated was a sight to behold.

"I need to rest my brain for a bit. Can you make sure I don't fall off?" He turned sideways, looking back at me, asking for a favor. Being the person sitting last, it was undoubtedly my job to take care of the people infront of me.

"Say you want to take a nap." I smiled at his choice of words.

'Don't get embarrassed now.' I warned myself and wrapped my arms around his waist, holding him in place. I pushed my legs further into the dog's sides to anchor myself properly.

"Umm..." Dhruva's shy voice appeared from the front. "You just need to hold on to this Kundalini rope I'm going to tie my waist with."

"Couldn't you add this part along with your earlier sentence?" I felt like an idiot.

"I don't mind if we go with your idea, though." He was now teasing me, "But in that case, I doubt I'll be able to nap properly."

"Forget it." I sighed, "Give me the other end of your rope. In case you fall off, I'm not going to pull you up. You'll keep dangling until we reach our destination!"

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