Sheetal watched Ash. He wasn’t being his usual self. He was trying. He was still joking and teasing her but his annoying smile was forced and she could see straight through it. She looked at his face for a second and then just decided to deal with the issue bluntly.
“Ash, you okay?”
“Yeah, I am awesome.”
The usual smugness behind his words wasn’t there and Sheetal’s face grew concerned. She kept looking at him silently sitting next to her looking away at the distance.
“Ash, what is it? Why are you silently brooding? Talk to me.”
Ash looked at her silently and did not answer.
“Well?” Sheetal pushed.
Ash gave her a flat look.
“Come on, you can say what’s bothering you. It’s not going to hurt.”
For a second Ash remained silent and then he exhaled “You weren’t supposed to see that. Why did you see that?”
“See what? You getting tortured?” Sheetal asked in a soft voice.
“Yes. I am awesome. Back there, that was a moment that I wasn’t.” Ash replied in a soft growl.
Sheetal rolled her eyes “Let me break this down for you buddy. You are not awesome.”
“Of course I am.” Ash responded instantly “You just don’t see it yet. You will. Soon. But you didn’t have to see me like that.”
Sheetal blinked “You think I had a choice? It was whatever that guy did.”
Sheetal pointed to the pile of Ash with four shards.
Ash turned his head from her to the remains of the nishachar and growled “I wish, I could kill him again. I should have done him slowly. Made it last and made it painful.”
Sheetal raised her hand “Okay, now you are going psycho on me. Stop doing that.”
“I am not a psycho. I am a sociopath. There is a difference you know.”
“Really? Like what.”
“Yeah, I don’t need to kill people to feel great about myself. I already feel great.”
“Do you?”
“Yes!” Ash took in a breath and muttered “Maybe not this exact moment but I am getting there.”
“Okay while you do that do you want to tell me how you are still alive?”
Ash blinked and shrugged “The same way you are. You did the glowing thing too, remember?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Oh right, you were unconscious then.”
“What?”
“It happened when your chair chinese chair electrocuted you.”
“Oh.” Sheetal bit her lip and then gave Ash a look “And it was German, and you know that.”
“Hey, calm down. I am just teasing.” Ash smiled at her but she saw the vulnerability behind his smile.
Sheetal exhaled and watched Ash massage his right hand.
“What’s wrong with your hand?”
“Nothing. That guy was tough. I hit him with everything I had and the shock ran through my tonfa and into my hand. It’s going to be okay in a bit.”
Sheetal didn’t know what to do so she decided to turn the conversation into a different direction “So, what are we going to do about my shard?”
“Oh thank god.” Ash sighed dramatically “For a moment there I thought you wanted to talk about your rug down there.”
Sheetal stopped and looked at Ash. That was the first genuine grin he had shown her in the last five minutes. She decided to play along.
“Oh tell me why would we talk about that?”
“Because the situation down there is untenable?”
Sheetal didn’t have to put on an act. Her eyebrows rose all by themselves and she blurted out “Untenable? How dare you?”
Ash grinned grew wider and he fake bafflement “What? Oh. You think I was… No. No. wasn’t talking about your you know?”
She glared at him “Really?”
“Yeah, I was talking about your legs. Your legs. Seriously girl, you need to do something about your legs.”
“Ash hole!” Sheetal growled
“Virgin.” Ash shot back.
“I am not a virgin.”
“Really with that stuff there.”
“Ah ha… You were talking about…”
A grunt stopped there back and forth. They both turned to look at the three sharder trying to crawl away on crushed limbs.
“OMG, She! What did you do to him?”
“Uh… I used the ambient environmental forces pressing down on a five metre area and doubled them with a dipole effect. And then kept multiplying the effect again and again.”
“What?” Ash looked at her as if she had spoken in tongues.
Sheetal sighed “I pushed them down with my magical powers. A lot.”
“Oh. Okay, but why did you have to be so brutal about it?”
“Brutal? You just caved in a man’s head.”
“Yes. And, why can’t you just kill people like me? Why does it always have to be, burning them alive, and crushing their bones until they protrude out of their skin?.”
“And why can’t you just stay on your feet once in a fight?”
“Hey, the first time was on purpose. I had the woman in a triangle choke. This time… I slipped. It happens sometimes. No biggie.”
“You slipped?”
“Yup.”
“You got punched.”
“No. I am too good to get punched. I slipped and he…sort of grazed me.”
In a pained voice the nishachar muttered “You are both mad. You have killed the constable. This means war.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Shut up.” Sheetal snapped at the crushed man.
“Interesting.” Ash walked to She and picked her up “Let’s talk to the crushed tomato.”
“Talk? No, I don’t want to talk to this cannibal freak. He and his friend tried to mess with our heads.”
“And you turned him into a boiled tomato. Who is now spewing all over the pace. I think he learned his lesson.” Ash acknowledged and then asked the blue man “Didn’t you, tomato?”
“Fine.” She slumped in Ash’s hands “I don’t care. Let me down and give me your stick. I will finish him off.” Sheetal said tiredly.
“Really?” Ashoka looked at Sheetal with worry in his eyes.
“Yes, Ash. I am tired. And these things are not human. They want to eat us. We should just put them all down.” Sheetal snarled at the end.
“Okay, where is She? And what have you done with her?”
Sheetal looked at Ash for a moment and then in a soft voice muttered “I don’t like what they did to you.”
Ash frowned “That wasn’t this guy or his friend. That was a Cambodian I killed long back.”
“Yes, but they made you relive that. If anyone does that…”
Ash lowered Sheetal to the ground and said “Then I will deal with it.”
“That’s the point Ash.” Sheetal grabbed Ash’s hands in hers “You don’t have to. I will be there right beside you.”
Ash looked at Sheetal and nodded “Thanks. And you will turn everything into crushed tomatoes. Got it.”
“Not funny Ash, I mean it.”
Ash turned to look at the crushed man “You hear that tomato? She, here, wants to crush you some more.”
The man didn’t respond.
Ash lowered himself and scooted next to the man’s head “Hey bro. How’s it going man? Having a good day?”
The nishachar snarled and tried to bite Ash.
Ash didn’t even move. He just moved his hand out of the way and flicked the man on his head.
Ash smiled “Great. So you are listening. Here’s the deal. You can tell me where you keep your water, food, shards and other awesome things. And I will kill you fast or I can let She over here, do that crushing thing again.”
The nishachar raised his hand out of the sand and gave Ash a pained smile “Your woman can’t do anything anymore. She chipped her shard.”
“Good! Then I get to teach her how to use my tonfa. Or…”
Ash looked down at the man deviously.
The man looked at him with pain riddled eyes “Or?”
“You can tell us things like if we are in trouble with whatever law enforcement you have here. How do we fix her shard? Then you can tell us about the shards. Food. Shelter. Water. And where to get them.”
“Also. Call me his woman one more time and I will punch you in the grapes.” Sheetal added from the side.
Both the men looked at her for a moment.
“What?”
Ash shook his head “That’s just mean She. The man is already down.”
Sheetal ignored Ash and snarled “I am not his woman. He doesn’t even like women.” Sheetal pointed at Ash
“Not true. Love women. Just not the crazy ones with heavy chests.”
Sheetal shot Ash a look and then asked “Why are we talking to this blue weirdo?”
“Because I am thirsty, She. Running around fast like that makes me thirsty.” Ash pointed to the pile of shards from the constable and added “He is my source of water. I want my water.”
She grumbled “I am thirsty too.”
“And that is why you are cranky.” Ash added and then turned to the downed nishachar.
“I am not cranky.”
Ash looked at her and smiled.
Sheetal reiterated her words “I am not cranky. I just don’t want to feel pity for this freak. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Noted.” Ash nodded and turned back to the crushed Nishachar “So, how does suffocating to death under a pile of sand sound, blue guy?”
The nishachar gave him a baleful look.
“Alright. Take the shards from the peacock, She. I will bury the tomato’s feet so he doesn’t get away. There is a sand storm that’s coming this way. That will finish the job”
“Sandstorm?” Sheetal asked.
“Sandstorm?” The nishachar croaked.
“Yes. Can’t you see it? It’s the dark thing with purple lightning over there.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“Purple lightning?” The nishachar looked worried.
That caught Ash’s attention but he didn’t show it.
Ash casually turned back to the man and nodded “Yes.”
“Kill me! Just kill me and I will tell you anything. Just kill me.” The nishachar tried to flop around and move. And then groaned in pain.
“No.” Ash denied.
“Fine.” She picked up Ash’s tonfa and scooted towards the blue man.
“Wait.” Ash looked at She with an annoyed look and clarified “Let me talk to the guy.”
Sheetal stopped and watched Ash. The look he was giving the nishachar was one she hadn’t seen on his face. It wasn’t dispassionate. It was like he was looking at a bug he wanted to crush under his feet just to see how much a mess it would make. She had seen this look, but never in person. It was the look he wore in the video when he killed a man with a whisky glass.
And slowly Sheetal realised that this wasn’t the usual quipping, smiling, funny impudent Ash. This was the man they sent out there to solve the mess his mother and the government wanted solved. The way he looked right now made a shiver run down her spine.
In a flat voice Ash asked the nishachar “Okay, why should I let you die?”
The nishachar looked around with panic in eyes “Purple lightning means the continuum. You have no idea what they will do to me if they catch me.”
“Why?”
“They are things. Mortals who used to be flesh and are now covered in metal. They will tear me apart while keeping me alive. Drain my blood and put metal things in me. I have seen it before. They tortured one of my men for weeks before he lost his mind.”
“Fine. Tell me the safest place to get the best shards?” Ash asked in the flat voice he was using.
The nishachar opened his mouth and thought about the answer. He looked Ash in the eyes “The best place to get shards is in the free city vault. It is three kilometres from the city in the south.”
A notification popped in his vision and he hit the damn orb thing to shut the display off again without even reading it.
Ash gave the Nishachar a flat look. His voice dropped an octave. Ash gave the man a cold look “You just lied to me. Do you think I will just walk into a trap?”
The nishachar let out a rattling breath “What do you want?”
Ash’s voice turned frosty as he looked down at the nishachar. He turned into a predator looking at a prey.
“Now give me the real answer.”
“Ten kilometres to the west. There is a trial. It is an easy one. You just have to fly over a few obstacle. The girl can do that and you will have shards and water.”
Ash's face turned steely “Not good enough, tomato. This is your final chance. Otherwise I will pick you up and drag you to your enemy myself.”
The tomato licked his lips with a bloody tongue “The best shards here are in the old liminal laboratory. I don’t know what is in there but the Rakshasa Empire had us secure it. We are… Were its guards.”
A notification popped into Ash and She’s vision. This time Ash didn’t rush to close it.
Liminal laboratory
Direction - 23 Kilometres West.
“So, it’s empty now?” Sheetal, who had been listening quietly asked.
The nishachar laughed “What? You think we are that stupid. It has over thirty guards with thousands of enthralled and hundreds of vetaals.”
Ash smiled “Okay, thank you. Now how do we fix her shard?”
“Potentiality. You need potentiality to make a shard whole. Kill me, and when the potentiality enters you don’t let it enter your soul. Move it to the shard. That will fix the shard.”
Ash looked at the man and then leaned back. He looked at Sheetal and she blinked.
He had gone from a cold dispassionate killer to the smiling buffoon in an instant. The transformation was so sudden that Sheetal had completely missed it.
“So, can you do that?”
“I don’t know.”
The blue man on the ground croaked “There is skill. It’s called soul shard maintenance. The texts for that are really hard to get. But you are warders. The system is open for you. You can buy it with your Crecks if you have some.”
Ash nodded at Sheetal and she looked at her windows. One of the windows had a search bar on it. She started entering the text. Even before she reached the end three text with associated prices appeared in the search results.
Soul. Shard. Maintenance.
Price - 25 Crecks
Soul. Shard. Mechanics.
Price - 55 Crecks
Soul. Shard. Engineering.
Price - 145 Crecks
Sheetal blinked and the boxes returned to normal “Ash there are three entries in here. The cheapest one is twenty five crecks. I only have twenty crecks.”
Ash reached out and touched Sheetal’s hand.
Ting.
You have received 20 Crecks from Warder Ash
Sheetal looked from the notification to Ash. She opened her mouth but Ash just held up a hand.
“Don’t. We are in this together. Also, I am not very good with money. I really don’t know what to do with it. You are the genius amongst us. You figure it out. If I need something. I will just ask for it, okay?”
Sheetal smiled and nodded. She looked at the first option under the search bar and bought the skill, Soul. Shard. Maintenance.
Sheetal froze in spot. As shock went through her mind and then travelled all the way into the empty space where her constellation was supposed to be.. Slowly the knowledge of what her shards were. What her soul was unfurled in her mind.
She wasn’t just skin, muscle, and bone. There was more to her. Something that couldn’t be comprehended. Something that was there and yet not there. That is where these shards went. They went into her soul and became a part of it. The more she used them, the more her soul incorporated them. Until they broke down and melded into her, just the way her wind shard had started breaking down. But unlike her wind shard her polar forces shard was different. It wasn’t so mailable.
And with s start, she realised where she had gone wrong with the shard. It was like a diamond. Hard yet brittle. The polar forces shard was never supposed to be used like the way she was using it. It was supposed to be used in conjunction with other shards. She had to make it whole and then add more shards to support the shard. Only then she could use its full effect.
Sheetal opened her eyes and looked at Ash looking at her with concern in his grey eyes “What?”
Ash frowned “I just saw something happen inside you. A white light went from your brain to that place and then shot back into your mind. It looked like it was going to hurt but your expression didn’t change.”
Sheetal looked at Ash. He could see inside her? For a moment she felt naked and then realised that he had seen her naked. This felt a little more intrusive than that.
“Can you not do that?”
“What?”
“Look inside me?”
“How am I supposed to not do that?”
Sheetal frowned “Well, I don’t know. And yes it worked.”
“Okay then. See, talking to the tomato was totally worth it. Now we can kill him.”
Sheetal reached for Ash’s tonfa and he smacked her hand away “Unhand my tonfa. Its mine. You have a knife.”
“Huh?”
“From the guy whose face you burnt off earlier. He dropped a knife remember?”
“Oh.” Sheetal reached down to her belt and took out the knife and hesitated.
The nishachar nodded and continued in a rush “I am a gravitron specialist. I recognised what you did there. You increased the polarity under us. If I had been quicker, I could have countered you. My shards will serve you well.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Sheetal asked
“So that you can make it quick?”
Sheetal gulped and looked at the knife in her hand.
“You also have a screwdriver if you want to use that.” Ash added.
Sheetal just glared at him.
“Fine, use the knife then.” Ash folded his hands and backed off.
“You were a worthy foe warder. Hunters in this world of preys. Do not hesitate.” The nishachar urged
“Shut up.” Sheetal screeched at the nishachar and then looked at her partner “Ash, where do I stab him?”
Ash crooked an eyebrow and then pointed at a spot on the back of the man’s neck “Stab him here. It will be quick and fast.”
She grabbed the knife in both of her trembling hands and closed her eyes. With a jerk she brought the knife down. And then again, and again.
The nishachar screamed.
Ash flung his hands in the air “Oh for crying out loud. How can you miss three out of three times?”
Sheetal opened her eyes and saw the nishachar convulsing “He didn’t die?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you stabbed with your eyes closed.”
“I…Uh…”
Ash pointed with his tonfa “There.”
Sheetal brought her knife down and stabbed the man through his neck. Bluish blood spurted out of the nishachar’s neck and splattered them both.
Ash rolled his eyes “Well at least you got his carotid artery.”
The blue man choked twice and then finally stilled.
You have killed a nishachar.
Potentiality absorbed.
Sheetal quickly closed her eyes and grabbed a hold of the potentiality and moved it towards her Polar Forces shard. A system notification rang out in her head almost breaking her concentration.
Do you want to use acquired potentiality to repair your shard?
Yes/No.
Sheetal mentally screamed yes and watched as the potentiality rushed into the shard. The chip in the shard began closing and then another notification took the place of the first one.
Do you wish to use access potentiality to upgrade your shard?
Yes/No.
Sheetal hit yes again and watched as her shard began to grow. He shard began to glow bright and the energy it gave off increased.
Shard Type - Polar Forces.
Class 1 - 1%...2%...3%
Ash watched Sheetal as her shard hungrily drunk in the potentiality that had seeped into her skin. Then the shard repaired itself and grew in the empty space. A light from it blasted outwards seeping into her physical form changing her imperceptibly.
A notification popped into his vision.
Weapon upgrade in progress.
Please don’t move your weapon.
Ash pushed the notification aside and looked at his first tonfa.
Weapon - Right Tonfa
Type - Soul Eater
Bonded to Warder Ash.
Will upgrade to Class 2 after consuming - 100 Souls.
Current souls consumed - 1
Sheetal opened her eyes and looked at Ash holding his tonfa over the pile of grey dust the blue man had turned into. For a moment she heard a phantom scream from the weapon and then there was silence.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.” Ash said too quickly, and Sheetal looked at him.
“Okay fine.” Ash shrugged and added “I just wanted to see what kind of shards this guy had and if they were any good for me.”
Sheetal squinted at Ash and then looked at the three shards in question.
Shard Type
Gravity - Class 1
Matter - Class 1
Metal - Class 1
Sheetal lifted herself into the air and hovered over Ash “Oh no. You already took most of the shards from the scorpion trial. I get these ones.”
Ash sighed “Okay, that’s fair.”
Before Ash could do anything, Sheetal scooped up the shards and gave him a challenging look.
“Fine, but I am taking the shards from the other guy. I want whatever made the peacock so tough.”
Sheetal looked at the shards in the distance and stated “Not before I have a look.”
Shard Type
Mental - Class 1
Channel - Class 1
Density - Class 1
Strength - Class 1
“Hey.” Ash protested.
Sheetal folded her hands over her chest “How many shards do you have? Four?”
“Five.” Ash corrected and then added “Seven if you count my tonfas.”
“I have two Ash.”
“But now you have five.”
Sheetal gave Ash a flat look and began floating towards the shards.
Ash got up to follow Sheetal and continued whining “And mine are all speed.”
When Sheetal scooped up a shard Ash added “Think how bad you will feel when I fall at that speed. I might break something.”
Sheetal rolled her eyes and scooped up one more shard
“She… Come on… Be nice.”