"Jevin!! This is not the time to lie around relaxing. Get on your feet." Aditi changed the direction her shield was facing. She slid a few feet back with her heels, leaving tracks on the ground from an invisible force, "The ones Dhruva warned about have arrived already!!"
We couldn't see shit around us.
I was standing at one moment and then ragdolling at another. Losing bearing of my surroundings and watching tiny flickering fireflies in my vision wasn't a great experience.
"Get up." I mumbled to myself, "This isn't Alik! Trick your nerves, like you always do!"
Slapping my thighs and repeating my visualization technique, I somehow managed to get up, only to feel an impact on my ribs from the side.
The world started rolling again, alternating between views of the ceiling and the floor of the cave system, filled with stalactites and stalagmites.
I crashed into several of them, taking a few down with me, the air inside my lungs getting knocked out brutally. I gasped for breath and almost choked, feeling a hot liquid stuck in my airway.
An intense bloodlust was directed at me, forcing me to roll away towards my right, only to find the ground erupting from a mysterious force where I previously was.
The sights around me were gut-wrenching. We were vandalizing the natural beauty of this world... So many people wouldn't be able to see them again for a long time.
Those outgrowths must have taken thousands of years to develop into what they were till today.
Clearing my mind off useless thoughts, I charged towards the abandoned weapon Vivikta had lent me.
Disturbances in the air near me registered through my heightened senses. I ducked, yet still got hit by an impact in my right thigh. I followed a projectile motion through the air and crashed into the cave wall near Vivikta.
"This is beyond us." I heard Vivikta murmuring, "These are even more powerful than the ones who came to kidnap the children."
Disembodied footsteps rushed towards me, but I held my ground, swinging a punch at the invisible being. It traveled through the air undeterred, unable to hit its target.
In response to my actions, an enormous instantaneous force caved my stomach in, burying me back into the cave wall I had crashed into before.
I scrambled away, coughing out blood towards one of the villager uncles who had accompanied us, only to watch him getting lifted up in the air and being brought down onto the floor, right over a stalagmite.
He stopped spasming after reaching the base of the outgrowth, with a natural bloodied earth spike sticking out of his stomach.
A bloody vomit erupted from my stomach, burning my throat from the bitter bile accompanying it.
'Calm down.' I mentally prepared myself, 'You're going to see worse things from now on.'
The guy with twin sickles was still alive, continuously cutting at air and sometimes spurting out blood from his invisible enemies, smearing the floor with it.
"Jevin, catch!" Aditi called out my name, chucking the war axe I was going for in my direction.
I somehow knew an attack was coming and jumped towards the incoming weapon, successfully dodging it, evident from the gust of air that rushed past my ankles.
I caught the weapon's handle and used my heel to swing the war axe in the direction I came from. It grazed past something rough, as if chipping off a part of flesh. The weapon slowed down for a millisecond, encountering resistance, and then got freed, making a green-silver arc through the air.
"We are all over the place!! Aditi, Jevin... What the hell are you two doing? Why did you break the formation?" A panicked cry came from our mentor, Vivikta.
"But the uncles..." Aditi tried to reason while slowly getting pushed back by a series of impacts on her long rectangular shield.
"They knew what they came here for. You're a Surakshak!! You are supposed to always hold the line infront of everyone else!" Vivikta swung her Warhammer, releasing it like she did while fighting with the vine monster.
It hit one of the invisible Yeti and fell to the ground with a resounding thud.
A groan appeared from deeper into the tunnel, followed by a battle cry.
It echoed back and forth through the cave walls, collapsing a few stalactites from above.
As if a drum increasing the rhythm of its beats gradually, footsteps thundered towards Vivikta, lifting her up and slamming into the ceiling.
"Shit!" Aditi sweared out loud.
Vivikta was then dragged along the upper wall, forcing us to jump aside as we tried to dodge both the incoming invisible Yeti and the falling debris of the ceiling.
Judging Vivikta's location, I threw my war axe at the invisible ape monster, hoping to catch it off-guard from behind.
My weapon rotated through the air and ricocheted off into the cave wall, changing directions abruptly.
The air flickered for a split second, revealing a massive ape back covered with blood-red fur.
A dam collapsed, supposedly holding off the existential essence of the Being, pressing us into the ground on our knees.
The sickle man was launched off the ground and sent tumbling away from our location as if kicked by one of the enemies, disappearing into the darkness.
We watched with trembling legs—a show of true horror, as one after another, all the Yeti inside the cave disengaged their camouflages, revealing their giant blood-curling forms.
"Guys..." Vivikta, still in the hands of the blood-red Yeti, whimpered, "We can't win against this."
On both sides of the tunnel were dozens and dozens of Yeti, all having patched fur like tigers—with white backgrounds and red stripes.
"Alpen lollipops!" Aditi gasped, drowning in nostalgia. She pursed her lips, realizing it was not a good time to blurt out those words.
"Exotic and Horrifying." I muttered, and we both shook our heads, getting rid of our intrusive thoughts.
The blood-red yeti turned towards us and held up Vivikta like a trophy by her waist.
"We need young sacrifices. Not a vessel about to expire." The Red Yeti's eyes shone with greed.
Oh no. Vivikta is going to be angry hearing that.
He slammed Vivikta on the ground, bouncing her off it and kicking her away in the direction we came from, where Sickle Man had also disappeared.
"I'll get you back for that insult!!" Vivikta's weakened voice didn't seem threatening at all, as she cartwheeled involuntarily through the air towards an unknown destination.
The Yeti in that area parted, making way for her exit, leaving me, Aditi and two more uncles sandwiched between the two groups of monsters.
"And we thought there were seven monsters." Aditi sighed, putting up a brave smile as all the Yeti started converging on us.
"Seven triplets, to be fair. But we need to make sure these two go back safe." I said, examining the determined expressions of the uncles.
The blood red variant and two triplets of Yeti were blocking the direction Vivikta disappeared, while five triplets blocked the entry that led into the deeper areas of the cave system.
"Isn't the Boss supposed to wait until we deal with all his subordinates?" Aditi was frustrated, resigning to her fate, "Everytime I'm in a team with him, horrible things keep happening..."
The next few seconds were a flurry of red, white, and steel. Without the war axe, I fended off the attacks from the yeti for a while with my bare arms, only to get pinned to the ground, my arms and legs crushed to pieces under their feet.
Aditi was in a much worse situation than I was, her hands torn off from her body, leaving bleeding stumps on her shoulders.
She kept groaning but didn't break down crying out loud under the torture she was enduring.
Unlike me.
My throat was burning. My eardrums stretched to their limits, couldn't process my own sound anymore. The fear of losing something again broke my mind. I didn't want to lose it too, in this world.
My body spasmed, wanting to vomit out my entails, but nothing came out. What remained was the pain from my ribs contracting and expanding in a broken rhythm.
Without Vivikta holding the front, we were as fragile as a house of cards.
As my cry died down to whimpers, I felt the pressure on my knees getting weaker. One of the yeti lifted me off the ground and slammed my waist on his shoulders, breaking my back.
I lost all sensation in my lower body—summoning a trauma that had been ailing me since my childhood. It assaulted me like a cannon, blowing apart my mental barriers and bringing out tears from my eyes. They trickled down my forehead, streaming across my scalp.
"Take care of the old ones and bring these young ones to her." The red Yeti ordered his subordinates, his sound registering as a mess of thousands of noises strung together, "I don't know how the timing of their invasion matched up with our ritual, but it worked out well for us."
"Should we send some of us to check what's happening in that village? We need two more sacrifices to make it one hundred and eight." One of the subordinate Yeti asked as if they were having a meeting right in front of us.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"If it gets too late, sacrifice a couple of our own. The ritual needs to be completed at any cost." Hearing the blood yeti's suggestions brought out frowned expressions on the faces of the subordinate yeti.
"She'll be angry if we present two of them at once. You already know how she demanded we bring only one young vessel a year from that village." The Yeti carrying me right now started arguing with the blood Yeti. Their voices were still muddled. It took me quite an effort to understand what they were saying.
"I have talked with her about Narada's warnings. She's onboard with it. Don't worry." The blood-red Yeti ended the conversation and started walking towards the tunnel where Vivikta had been kicked off to.
After their meeting ended, the two yeti carrying me and Aditi walked away from our battlefield while the rest stayed behind to end the lives of Vivikta and Sickle uncle.
The rest of the villagers were now immobile bodies strewn across the floor in weird positions.
How useless have I been throughout this whole pilgrimage...
I lost a little kid to the Lakeh, was unable to protect the uncles, Vivikta or Aditi.
The Yeti played around with me, and now, I'm being sacrificed for a ritual or something. Was my father right all along? Synchronizing with Kalpa did cure me technically, but inside, I was still a weak human, no matter how much I trained my body.
A brain fog kept disrupting my thoughts, bringing over sleep to my eyes.
If I die, it's better to resurrect back at the Ashrama and stay put. Like I did in Alik, running away from my problems as always.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"You're not fit for this world, Jevin. Go live with your uncle in Alik. He's the only one who can understand and sympathize with you."
This was the last thing my birth father had told me before casting me away from the family.
But later, I realized it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
My uncle was blind—a cripple just like me, but in a different way.
Specially-abled, with special needs, differently-abled... No matter what name was given to us, how we were treated in general didn't change.
People don't realize that feeling pity for others can be a privilege. That means you're doing well enough in your life to cultivate an emotion like that.
And people don't like to be on its receiving end. It means you're lacking something pretty standard for others to have.
My years with him were peaceful and filled with love and care. It's wild how adept he had become in navigating the world surrounding him.
At some point in our lives, he had started referring to me as his own son, but it made him all the more depressed, often apologizing to me for not being able to provide me with a decent life.
The meager donations that came from the family were not at all enough for both of us.
But for some reason, I was content with it.
While in Satya, having all my material needs taken care of, I realized how fickle the human mind is. Despite having things others desperately want, people will always find happiness in finally receiving what they never had, no matter how small, throughout their entire lives.
Once you achieve that, you'll lose interest and again start looking for something else to satiate yourself with.
What I at that time needed was someone who appreciated my existence. Someone who believed in me despite the failure I was, as designated by my 'so-called-blood family'.
"You gave me what I needed the most. And I'll forever be grateful for it." I had seen tears in his trembling, unfocused eyes from the first time when I was only ten years old. "The people who abandoned us already have all those things you're talking about, and if those things happened to provide an environment where pathetic humans like them thrived, then I have no need for them."
"I think you said it right, but it took some time for me to comprehend that." He had tearfully smiled, pulling me into a hug.
"I will always, day and night, wish to the Gods for a life where you can achieve all you want. So that you can live with pride and honor as a true Kshatriya should. Unlike what your predecessors have become."
That was when I, for the first time, experienced what a heartfelt prayer could achieve, especially when it is done for the sake of others.
To have someone who can pray for me like that made me feel truly blessed.
That night, the bleak future I had was overturned by the advent of a God in my uncle's dreams.
My uncle, cast aside after losing his eyes due to using his Gift of Prophecy for the sake of his family beyond its limits, saw a vision for the first time in years.
"You're destined for greatness. But you won't be able to achieve it alone. You'll see betrayals time and again, but only two will stick with you through it all." His voice was not his anymore, but a raspier version, "Now I know why everything happened as they did!! Even your curse was placed for a reason. But we are treading dangerous waters here. Find them both and never let them go."
I was a bit afraid watching him spew predictions and warnings like a prophet in a trance.
"Who are they? How do they look? Where are they?" I had asked, genuinely interested.
I was not excited to hear about my destiny. I had long given up on it. But the prediction that I'll have two more people who'll stick with me till the end filled me up with excitement and anticipation.
"Ashrama." That was the last thing he muttered that night before going into a coma for the next few months.
Forcing another vision after all these years was too much for his frail vessel, already broken beyond repair.
My curse, my circumstance, my present and future, everything was predetermined? How am I supposed to assimilate this information?
Who planned this? Why me?
Anger seeped through my nerves, clearing my mind. I realized I had been dreaming of the past. The pain in my arms and the helplessness I had felt while being carried away by the yeti returned to my paralyzed body like a tsunami crashing over my whole being.
I somehow held on without crying out loud.
Opening my eyes, I found myself hanging in chains above a red lake filled entirely with Manava blood and crimson lotuses.
Sharp earth spikes—stalagmites, rose from underneath, piercing through its blood-red surface. A thin strip of land made up of gravel encircled the lake before meeting the mountain wall, making up the inner surface of the cavity.
The cave wall was like an ant hill. Hundreds of holes that led into tunnels deeper into the mountain dotted it like a honeycomb. Outgrowths broken away to serve as climbing platforms were strategically placed for better access into those entryways.
Being paralyzed from below my waist, I couldn't feel the pain from my legs that had been chopped off.
On my opposite side, Aditi, currently unconscious, was hanging from chains wrapped around her waist and a stalactite on its two ends, one among a lot of other skeletons and half-rotten bodies wearing oddly familiar robes, her stumps for limbs releasing a trickling line of blood that emptied into the lake below.
I was in a similar situation.
Carefully, not making the slightest noise with my chains, I inspected our surroundings again, focusing on what was above us.
We were currently in a dome-shaped cavity within the mountain, with a constantly dancing blue light and water trickling down from the center of its ceiling.
Some of the water followed the curved surface of the upper walls, ran down the conical outgrowths to form the miraculous earth structures above, and met the spikes below.
Those spikes must have existed long before this lake was formed.
A disturbance on the surface of the lake caught my attention. Giant bubbles formed as if someone had exhaled a lot of air all at once underneath the surface.
The clotted surface broke like a thin film, revealing a massive red humanoid body bathed in blood, gradually standing up from its meditative posture. It seemed even bigger than the blood yeti that had defeated Vivikta in battle.
With a strange gesture with its hands, the blood retreated from its body, gathering over its head, leaving not a single drop behind.
The blood sphere dropped into the pond with a plop, sending ripples that died down after gently lapping against the closest edge of the thin strip of land.
After the blood was removed, what remained was a snow-white Yeti with an enlarged belly, devoid of a single impurity. Its fur was well groomed even after coming out of a bloody bath. It grabbed a crooked staff etched with red crystals from the land before turning around and gazing at us.
"We needed four more years... Everything would have been fine. Why did he have to listen to Narada and accelerate the process?" The voice that came out from the Yeti was a female's.
This must be their Mother.
She kept mumbling words I couldn't understand anymore.
Soon after, the blood-red Yeti arrived with several lollipop-coloured henchmen in tow. They were carrying the broken bodies of both Vivikta and the sickle uncle.
Many of the subordinates also seemed injured.
"Let them watch the children they were supposed to protect die helplessly. This is how you truly break them..." The blood yeti commented like a teacher giving a lecture on hunting basics.
"This was not necessary at all!" The female snow Yeti complained after discovering the hostages. "What are our children going to learn? If we continue doing this, Narada's warning will come true because of Karma!"
"They will learn the mentality to hunt properly—the very skill needed for us to survive. After the ritual is completed, as Narada instructed, no one will be able to touch us. What about the final two sacrifices?" The blood Yeti asked, looking at her.
"I'm not going to sacrifice our own children. We will complete the ritual with only a hundred and six sacrifices. Have you never thought twice about why Narada is helping us? Why he's so intent on us following all the rules and timings?" The snow yeti seemed furious, finding her husband acting without reason.
"He's a son of The Creator. He's supposed to help species that are worthy of propagating. This time, we were given the opportunity to evolve into a stronger life form. Adapt or get eliminated. That has always been the rule of this world. It is foolish not to take this chance. It is my duty to protect our family. No matter what it takes!"
Everything now made sense.
Both Narada and Jamadagni were working together. One was manipulating the Yeti, and the other—us. Both initiated a chain of events that led all of us here, for the sake of reviving the Saraswati river.
But we were too weak for all this. The two sides were severely unbalanced.
Interrupting my thoughts, two Yeti burst into the cavern.
"Our brethren in the village have been wiped out. The ones who did it have already invaded our nest from our main entrance... We can't hold them off any longer... They have a God with them." One of the two panicking Yeti summarised the whole thing.
"Bhairava!" The blood yeti roared, "Even after running away like a coward, you dare to return?? Start the ritual. All of you, protect the entrance and bring two newborns from the nursery. I'll deal with the intruders myself."
Bhairava. A God. So, this was the balancing factor.
I smiled through my pain. If only the Yeti knew about all the stories Manavas had regarding Narada. He has always been a catalyst for the downfall of Asuras and other Beings who grew overconfident in their powers.
It was indeed a fair test. You overcome and evolve, taking a new place within the food chain. Or you get annihilated since you're destroying the natural balance.
As the snow Yeti started chanting without waiting for the newborns to arrive, waves began forming on the surface of the blood pond, the lotuses on it undulating wildly from the ripples.
The waves gradually gained speed and height, swirling around like an underwater whirlpool, slowly revealing the bottom of the lake within its eye.
Enormous power gushed out of the eye of the whirlpool, revealing a golden orb at the bottom.
Shakti rushed into my body, bumping up my points, sending my sacral chakra into overdrive, and pumping filtered water-based Kundalini into my distribution channels.
This... So that's why Bhairava came here. Narada must have directed them to steal a Peeth to bring in Bhairava, a powerful third party, as their opponents.
My nascent Kundalini got absorbed by my Self-Restoration skill, which I had been training right after receiving it from Kalpa.
The blood inside the lake must have been absorbing all of the energy from the Peeth till now. As soon as the Peeth was freed, all the Shakti Rekhas were now converging right underneath me, filling my body with enormous power.
My legs started regenerating, but my sensation of them didn't return.
"It's okay. I've been living like this all my life. There's a reason why I trained my arms and developed the water jet skill with so much effort." I stopped wasting Kundalini to regenerate my legs, leaving them to my shins.
Undulating my upper body, I might be able to control the direction of my legs. I'll know only after I try.
My eyes suddenly met with Aditi's.
As the whirlpool underneath us strengthened, I opened my status and saw lots of messages from both Dhruva and Pratyusha. They had been trying to communicate with us desperately.
That's not important right now. I sent a message to Aditi containing my plan, who also opened her status and stared at it intently.
The blue windows infront of us got the attention of all the Yeti inside the cavern.
"We need blood from a vessel that's still alive. Don't kill them." The snow yeti ordered the guards, prompting them to throw weapons and stones at us.
"Aditi! Do it, now!" I signaled, pulling my body up using the chains wrapped around my hands. I swung my body, dodging the weapons and tanking the stones, waiting for Aditi to erect a barrier around her and underneath me.
That was when the blood yeti crashed into the lake, breaking through the entrance while missing an arm. Evident from the rest of his shoulder, it seemed as if someone had twisted and torn his arm off his main body.
"Get them!!" The blood yeti shouted, struggling to stand upright against the raging whirlpool.
It grabbed the attention of the ones trying to pummel us to death by throwing stones.
A series of shouts broke out among the subordinate Yeti as they prepared for war. The commotion summoned more of them from the holes in the cavern walls, who joined into the cacophony of battle cries and chest beats.
A few of them started pulling the blood yeti out of the lake, only to get swept away by the waves.
"Your end is near! Thieves!! Even if you go invisible, I'll find you from every corner of the world and annihilate your malevolent race. Stealing the sacred Peeth was the last straw. It will be the reason for your downfall." An unfamiliar voice boomed inside the tunnel. The threatening voice kept getting louder by the second as if approaching this location rapidly.
The Yeti started spreading out, climbing the walls, taking strategic positions, and going invisible, rippling the air around them. With bated breath, they waited for the invaders to arrive.
The final showdown had started.