The house starting shaking heavily as if an extreme earthquake hit it. Titan stumbled as he ran with Heena in his arms inside the house to find his wife.

“TITAN!”, she screamed from inside.

Titan panicked, “WHERE ARE YOU? SHILPI!”, he shouted.

“HELP! TITAN, INSIDE THE KITCHEN, SOMETHING IS HERE.”, She replied loudly.

Titan swiftly ran towards the kitchen. As soon as he reached the kitchen, his nerves froze. A large humanoid figure with red eyes and mouth wreaking of blood was standing inside. It had big nails and its hair looked like black snakes ready to bite someone. Covering him was a dark aura. Its body resembled a lizard without a tail, and its face was shaped like an alligator. He looked terrifying to the naked eye, but what was more frightening was a sense of drowsiness Titan felt as he laid eyes on him. It was like something sucked all the energy out of his body. Behind him, a window in the kitchen was broken, which explained how he got in.

Suddenly words came out it’s mouth slowly, it was a deep voice and listening to it felt like multiple people spoke at the same time. It wasn’t loud, but scary. It was almost impossible to understand what he said. The only words that Titan could comprehend were, “Take… Back… Light”. He didn’t understand what he was speaking and to top it all the house won’t stop shaking, so he focused on standing. Shilpi, who was on the ground in fear, got up quickly and took Heena from Titan’s hand as he lost his balance. “Quick! Let’s run, we don’t have time for this thing. The house is going to come crashing any moment.”, Shilpi told Titan as she ran outside with the baby. Titan could barely hold himself, he wondered how shilpi could even stand up with such an overwhelming pressure, much rather run. But he kept the doubts in later and ran with all the might he could muster. They both reached out of the house and as soon as they went out, but to their surprise everything was normal outside, only the house was the one shaking.

As they turned to move away and run from it, suddenly the creature appeared in front of them and that too very close. He tried to snatch Heena away from Shilpi’s hands, but Shilpi held her tightly. Titan couldn’t stand watching it, so he gathered all his might and punched in its face. But it had no effect over him. He didn’t even flinch. Titan closed his eyes and once again mustered all his strength in his fist and punched it as hard as he could. A sudden light came out of the creature's body as soon as he made contact, he flew back and hit the wall. He felt unconscious. Shilpi went hysteric as she saw her husband crashing in the wall, and that was when her hold on Heena loosened up. The creature snatched the baby from her hands and moved away from her, it shot some kind of light from its hands aiming at Shilpi.

Shilpi’s clothes burnt away, and her skin was crisp. She cried out in pain, but nobody could hear anything, as the houses in the village were distant from each other. Shilpi’s body stung with agonizing pain all over, but she still stood over and dragged herself to get her daughter back from the beast.

On the other hand, the beast tried to open some kind of portal with its hands. As soon as the portal opened, the beast stepped one of his foot inside, suddenly its body refused to move. A hand landed on its shoulder. It turned around to see an old man with a silver white cape standing behind. His face wasn’t visible due to the hood covering it. “I don’t think the child belongs to you, filthy creature.”, a loud crackly voice, came from under the hood. He took the child off the creature as he stood paralysed with fear. The old man then took the child and handed it over to her mother. Tears started running down her eyes as she caught hold of her child safe and secure in her hands. Suddenly, Shilpi’s body started radiating light, her wounds started to heal themselves. The white light covered her body like a cloak. “What is happening to me?”, she looked at the old man in confusion.

“Don’t worry, it’s just your spiritual energy that has activated a self-defence and healing mechanism, it’s the first step towards the realization of your powers.”

“What powers?”

“Well, I guess your parents never told you about it; some human beings possess a power to manipulate their spiritual energy and use it for various purposes. Like, your father can do telepathy, your mother can keep her body ageless, I can influence and see someone else’s spiritual energy pool. In the similar way, you are capable of healing and defence.”

“Who are you, and do you know so much? And what is that thing and I don’t understand, why was it trying to take my child away from me.”, Shilpi was puzzled. “And one more, why the hell is she even able to run when I can barely hold myself straight in front of it.”, the jealous voice of Titan came from behind as he walked towards them. Titan’s head was covered in blood, but the way he walked seemed like he didn’t even feel the slightest bit of pain. He swiped the blood from his eyes with one finger and snapped his neck.

“Oh! I see you are awake, and looks like you too are capable of something. Then I shall answer all of your questions one by one. First thing, I am called the superior one, and I am the supreme commander of the Army of Gods, an army made up of individuals like you guys. Your father once commanded the army alongside me as my deputy. That is how I know about your parents. Next, Why is this thing after your daughter, I presume It's because your daughter is emitting a humongous amount of spiritual energy right now and that thing which we call a Mana beast likes that preys on it. Although they shouldn’t be lurking around since they were annihilated in the Great War.”

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“But it spoke and created that giant crack in the air, this is not how a Mana Beast should act like. It is intelligent, but in the History book it was described as more of a brainless creature who acted on mere instincts.”, Shilpi interrupted as she finished healing herself and starting doing the same for Titan.

“Yeah! He spoke something like, ‘Take back light’. Also, why don’t you answer my damn question, why is my wife more cool and awesome than I am.”, Titan spoke with a childish anger as he feared that Shilpi would take his mantle of a cool dad away from him.

“If you say so, then this one surely is a problematic one. But no worries, it won’t hurt you any more…”, the supreme one coughed up blood out of his mouth.

As soon as he lost his concentration, the beast was let loose from his bind. It turned around and gathered energy into his mouth and shot a large ball of light towards the group. It was so big that it could be easily seen from a mile away. The creature’s body disintegrated as he blasted away the ball. As soon as the ball of light made contact with the four of them, it detonated like a bomb and sent out a large gust of thunder and wind, and uprooted the nearby trees with a loud roar.

A few minutes passed as a small ray of light emerged from the cloud of dust at the place where all the people were standing. As soon as the clouds disappeared in the air, the scene became clear. A big shield of light defended cast by Titan protected the four of them. Titan was glowing, a dark yellow coloured aura enveloping him. All of his clothes on his upper body were torn away and cuts on his body were bleeding so much that they almost covered the runes that appeared on his entire body. As the cloud cleared up, the shield got smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Immediately after that, Titan collapsed on the ground.

“TITAN!”, Shilpi screamed. She rushed over to him in order to heal him, but somehow she couldn’t do it any more. “Why now! WHY is not working, tell me supreme one?”, she looked at him in frustration. “There is a limit to how much you can use your spiritual energy. I was already surprised that you could use it so well when you had just awoken it. But even you cannot use more spiritual energy than you have. Your energy pool had depleted.”, the supreme one spoke as he wiped blood off his head, “And after what appears to be a curse rune has appeared on your husband’s body, I don’t think even the best of healers can save him.”

“Why not! You have to something. You told us you were the commander of some God’s army, then why can’t you save him. I beg you, PLEASE! Do something for him. I can’t live without him.”, Shilpi begged the supreme one as she held his feet and cried.

“There is nothing I can do miss, the cursed runes are beyond our knowledge. Your husband is only the second one on whose body they have appeared. The last time they appeared, the victim died on the spot. I believe he is still breathing, so instead of crying, you might as well say some parting words.”

“How can you say something so lightly and cruelly, if he dies I shall die with him. I can’t live without him in this world.”, Shilpi spoke loudly.

“Take my words to the heart, young miss. Things not always go as we want. Sometimes people die, and we have to keep living so that we can honour their memories and legacy. This amazing man is leaving a legacy behind which is in your hands. If you can’t live for yourself, live for her. In this dark world, she is going to be your light towards salvation.”

Shilpi gathered her emotions as she heard the words of the old man. She turned Titan’s body around and faced it towards the sky. His eyes were open, and he was trying to say something, but it was as if his whole body was paralysed, and he could not turn his neck to see Shilpi. Shilpi’s couldn’t hold back her tears and brought her ears closer to his mouth to know what he was saying.

“Don’t cry, my love, this wasn’t what I promised to your mother.”, he whispered in her ears. “But you also promised to grow old with me what about that, how can you leave me alone?!”, Shilpi replied in a quivering voice. “Guess I broke two promises tonight.”, he smiled, “Promise me, love, you will never cry in front of our daughter. Live happily with her and give her all the happiness she deser… ves…”, Titan’s neck suddenly tilted to the side and his voice fainted away. Titan was dead.

Shilpi broke down but didn’t cry. “You are so selfish, you went away alone and even took away the right to sob from me. How can you be so cruel, damn it!”, she spoke with a hoarse throat.

“I shall take my leave since I need serious medical attention right now.”, he spoke with pain and put his hand on Heena’s forehead. A shining light appeared from his palm and disappeared in a few seconds as he was done with. “Now they won’t be able to sense her spiritual energy. I have locked it with a spell. One more thing!”, he spoke in a loud voice as to grab her attention, “I would request you to not consider moving to your parent’s place as it is not safe for you there. And also the seal I put on her spiritual energy, it will unlock the moment your daughter gets married, so take care of that as well.”

As he finished speaking, he disappeared in thin air.

Titan was dead, but she promised her husband to not cry. She cannot go to her parent’s place. It was as if a large mountain just landed on Shilpi, and she wasn’t even allowed to make noise. “A lady protects his husband's honour at all costs.”, her mother’s words rung in her ears.

So Shilpi gathered herself and did what was necessary. Even if she was humiliated by the society, served injustice from everywhere, she didn’t cry or complain. She worked hard, laboured around and did whatever she could and couldn’t do. She preserved Titan’s honour just like her mother told her too.