Ari looked at the boy wonder talking to one of the metal armoured people just outside the gate of the temple. The man looked at the gate and took two steps back, shook his head. The man pointed back where he had come from and walked away leaving Abesh who looked defeated.
“What was that? The fourth one?” Singh who had stationed himself next to the doors of the temple asked.
“Fifth.” Ari replied curtly
“Why don’t they want to help us?” Singh asked.
Ari shook his head “It’s not that. It’s something else. They all leave saying that they will send their General to assist us. It’s like none of them want to step in here.”
“So, what do we do? Wait for them?”
Ari shook his head again and sighed “No, we can’t afford to wait any longer. How is your arm?”
Singh flexed his fingers on his broken arm with a complicated look “It’s healed. Not all the way through but, you know when I broke my fingers in Lucknow in that training exercise with the army?”
Ari smiled “When you decided to punch a tank?”
Singh scoffed “I was punching a tank. I was trying to punch the army boy inside it. That fool almost ran the damn thing over our men.”
Ari chuckled “It was funny.”
Singh sighed “Well anyway, that old injury is healed. And so is this new one. Not completely but I would say that my arm is at eighty percent.”
Singh held out his hand and curled his fingers into a fist “See?”
Ari bit his lips “That is good but…”
Singh cut Ari off with “For once in your life can you not look at a gift like it owes you ammo, my friend?”
Ari chuckled and then straightened as Abesh returned to him with slumped shoulders.
“So, what did that metal skinned weirdo say, captain?” Singh asked Abesh in a stern voice.
Abesh gave Singh a look and then replied “The same thing sirs. We will have to wait for General Athena and the ones she assigns will be cleared to help us in clearing the temple quarters.”
Ari nodded and then motioned with his head to ask “And that man…?”
“He was not cleared. He just came here to tell us that Mbungwa’s injuries are being treated by their medics.” Abesh replied.
Ari exhaled “Okay Abesh. Go tell the doctor that we are moving to the quarters. We’ll do this without the…”
“Robots?” Singh asked.
Abesh nodded “They are not robots sir. They are cyborgs.”
Singh squinted at Abesh “Boy, you just received clear orders. Do not correct your commanding officers and go do as you were told.”
Abesh frowned but snapped to attention, shot a hasty salute, and shuffled off with a disgruntled look on his face.
After Abesh had turned a corner Ari looked at his old friend “Singh, go easy on the boy. He is wound up too tight.”
“Really? I thought he was improving.” Singh muttered and pushed himself off the door he was leaning on and continued “You know you coddle him.”
Ari shook his head “No, I don’t.”
“You do. You shouldn’t have gotten himself transferred from the commandos when he got that disease but you did. Then you got him into this mission. And you will give him the miracle cure, when you find it.” Singh said while walking beside Ari.
Ari looked at Singh “And you wouldn’t?”
“Of course I would. I have put a lot of work into that boy. I made him what he is today and I will make him better. But that doesn't mean that I am going to ride him like a mule while I do that.”
Ari shook his head “You have a strange way of showing affection.”
Singh smiled as they turned the corner and then switched to his stern facade.
Ari looked from him to the rest of his people milling around next to a door that led out to the temple quarters. He looked into their eyes. Even the doctor Joshi’s fire speckled irises and began.
“Gents, we have a problem. The enemy has a foothold in our base. We need to eradicate this infestation and make this temple our base of operations. We will do this right now so do what you need to because in ten minutes we are walking into that side building with fireballs, knives, and fists.” Ari held up his metal covered hands at the last word.
There were no cheers, but he saw resolve in his people’s eyes. Except for the doctors. The man had a smug smile on his face and was raring to go. Ari took a step back and walked to the corner. He needed to do some housekeeping before he began the assault. He opened his hud and went into a crafting section.
Springed Gauntlets
Durability 97/100
Ari looked at the gauntlet and then swiped them aside.
Craft new items?
Yes / No?
Ari hit yes and pictured what he wanted. Images of vambraces, couter, spaulders, and pauldrons floated up into his mind’s eyes. Ari sighed. He was getting seriously annoyed with this strange computer system defaulting to mediaeval technology. He needed something better. Something more modern. Maybe something futuristic.
That last thought gave Ari a pause. The people outside, the continuum, they had armour that was futuristic. He wanted something like that. Should he go ask for that or could this system…
Armour Found.
ASHA - 11
Schematic - Unavailable.
Recalculating.
ASHA - 08
Schematic - Available
Analysing
Materials Needed
Steel - 110 Kg
Titanium - 57 Kg
Copper - 20 Kg
Gold - 2 Kg
Silver - 4 Kg
Plastic - 10 Kg
Sapphire - 5 kg
Power Shard - 2
Neuro Shard - 1 / 2
Continuum Armour Basics Knowledge Pack - 1
Continuum Armour Advanced Knowledge Pack - 1
Continuum Armour Expert Knowledge Pack - 1
Potentiality and Electronics Knowledge Pack - 1
Shard Metal Smelting and Smithing Knowledge Pack - 1
Modular Armour Creation Knowledge Pack - 1 (Optional)
Ari took in a sharp breath as the list of things needed to create one of those armour flew up at the side of his vision. That was a lot. There was no way he could get all that to create an armour like that. After a moment Ari dismissed the thought of the continuum armour. Instead he looked at his hands.
His metal glove like gauntlets were a better fit for him right now. He needed something like that on his feet and maybe his forearms.
Recalculating.
Materials Needed
Iron - 1.5 Kg (Feet)
Iron - 3 Kg (Forearms)
That was better. He didn’t need anything fancy. He just needed something to bludgeon these unnatural zombie things down and protect himself while he battled them. With a nod he accepted the choice and shut off the crafting mode.
He looked around and saw his people waiting for him. He once again looked everyone in their eyes and with his footsteps clacking on the floor marched out of the door. The rest of the team fell in behind him and a minute later they found themselves standing in front of a large door that creaked ominously.
Ari was about to place his hands on the door to push it in when Doctor Joshi stepped in front of him.
“Allow me, commander.”
Ari took a step back while looking at the doctor.
The man didn’t move towards the door. Instead he just looked at the closed metal barrier.
“Doctor?” Ari asked.
“A moment Ari. There are more of them than I expected.” The doctor responded.
“More of what?”
Joshi grunted, his fire speckled eyes dimmed for a second and in a stressed voice he replied “What do you think? Those damn creatures.”
Ari gave the man a confused look and then noticed the heat from the door. A sound suddenly rang his ear drums painfully and the door flew open inwards.
Whump!
Ari blinked his eyes rapidly. The air inside was dry, hot, and smelled of burning hair and flesh. Ari wrinkled his nose and looked in. Beyond the smoke there were the enthralled. Around ten of them, on fire and were mindlessly flailing around. As a gust of wind momentarily cleared the smoke, it revealed more milling behind them. Ari raised his head and took in a sharp breath as his eyes landed on the first floor. There were more. All slowly turning to look at Ari and his party. He raised his head higher and exhaled. The third floor was full of them too.
Joshi who was standing beside him raised his right hand and slowly clenched his fingers. The fire in the room dimmed and began to pitter out. The smoke from the fire momentarily increased then the wind from the door began clearing it away.
Ari watched as the enthralled on fire fell revealing fresh pale dead eyes and yawning mouths. They wordlessly shuffled towards them and came to a stop. They must have had an instinctively understanding of fire because they stooped at the line of fire created by the burning enthralled.
Ari looked at the horde of zombies ready to bear down on him and his people. Instead of feeling intimidated Ari felt excited. He cracked his neck and smiled. This was good. He needed their blood. It had the iron he required to build his armour and he wanted all the blood these creatures contained.
It was a grim task but he was up to it. The stronger he could make his limbs, the stronger he got. The stronger he got the more he could save his men. And the more of his people he could keep alive, the stronger they would get in here.
Ari was momentarily distracted by his men making displeased noises and hissing behind him. He didn’t turn around but tuned in the conversation and heard Abesh’s sarcastic words.
“This is great. Just great.”
“Konkani. Shut up.” Singh spat out loudly.
This time Abesh didn’t back down and responded in a high pitched voice.
“Shut up? Shut up!? There are hundreds of them. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”
“Captain!” Singh said in a warning tone.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Abesh didn’t stop “Instead of game planning this with a tank upfront, and damage dealers working as off tanks supported by mages you dropped us into a meat grinder. I told you, we should take them out section by section. Now we have a freaking train. Don’t you get it? We all know our powers and now. We can do this the way it is supposed to be done.”
Singh shuffled back and smacked Abesh on the head “Shut up boy and grow a pair.”
Ari tuned them out. Singh would take care of them. He needed to take on the enemy in front of him, His locked on to the dull eyes enthralled. He wanted to, no he needed to cut loose to see what he could really do. Before the argument could continue Ari shot into the enemy and landed a hook on a half burnt face.
Ari shuffled a step back and jabbed. Then with an abrupt side step he dodged a shambling swipe from one of the enthralled and hammered a punch on its head. The woman’s head crunched in and he pulled the enthralled closer, bathing himself in the coagulating blood.
“Go for the body commander. People bleed more from gut wounds.” Singh advised from somewhere behind him.
Ari ducked and launched a punch at and oncoming enthralled mid section. His spikes tore into the thing and his footwork and the momentum ripped flesh off the thing.
“That’s stupid, Singh. You are unnecessarily putting the commander in danger. Let us support him. We’ll go for headshots. Zombies without heads cannot fight back and they can bleed out on the floor.” Abesh disagreed.
Ari rolled his eyes and doubled up an enthralled in front of himself and two reaching for him.
“That is Major Singh boy.” Singh growled.
Ari tuned the people behind him out. Singh knew the reason he was doing this even if they hadn’t talked about it. He needed to let loose and figure out his capabilities. He needed to understand how to fight this creatures and he needed to prove that this things were beatable without fireballs. Ari reached out and grabbed one of the enthralled’s head.
The blood around his metal fingers dried and flakes from them seeped into his gauntlets. The hud on the side of his vision updated.
Springed Gauntlets
Durability 99/100
Ari smiled. Soon, after his gauntlets were fully repaired he could start working on covering his wrists and forearms. And then his legs.
Ari flexed his gauntlet. He shoved the doubled over zombie onto the other ones shambling towards them. And then lost himself in the throng of battle. Jabs turned into straight punches. Straight punches turned into crosses. Crosses turned into uppercuts. Uppercuts turned into combinations. Then his footwork smoothened out and he got into a rhythm.
Springed Gauntlets
Durability 100/100
Create Springed Vambrace?
Yes / No?
Ari hit yes and a counter popped into his vision.
Iron Needed - 0 of 3kg
Just when Ari was about to push into a new gear and start working on his vambraces, shouting voices from behind him made him lose his concentration.
“Stop you both! Stop!” Nameer shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Boy I will gut you like a goat.” Singh snarled.
“Reach for that knife and I will melt your face off Singh.” Abesh growled back.
“I am your senior officer. You will address me with the rank I have earned, Captain.”
“Yeah? I don’t see your rank anywhere anymore.” Abesh retorted.
Ari glanced back. Singh and Abesh were face to face and had almost come to blows. They were bickering like two old village women and no matter what he said, what he did, they weren’t stopping. He gritted his teeth and let some of his anger flow through him.
He lunged at the three disgusting creatures heading towards him and reached them before they could react. The closest one tried to bite him. Ari snarled and shut its mouth with an uppercut.
He moved faster. Punch, hook, claw, tear, shuffle and uppercut. His actions flowed into each other he released some more of the suppressed annoyance bleed through. Before he knew it he sped up even more.
Ari moves flowed into each other and the enthralled kept popping up out of nowhere. He did not relent. He never relented. He just readjusted his stance and grew claw like tips on his hands.
Swipe, slash, cut, backhand, and a kick. All flew at the enthralled within seconds as he let out his rage in a wild shout.
Springed Vambraces
0.01 / 3Kg
He dug deeper into the horde. Punch, elbow strike, shoulder bash and body shot. His strikes pushed the enemy into each other causing a disarray in the lines of the enthralled.
“Commander, stop. Come back!”
Ari ignored Singh and continued.
Lunge. Crush. Kick. Grab. And Throw.
“Commander, stop! You are in too deep.” Abesh’s words barely reached him as he continued his assault.
Ari growled and landed a haymaker on a charging enthralled. The things face crushed inwards and Ari with blood in his eyes took a step forward.
Nameer, somewhere from behind him yelled “Commander, you need to come back to deal with the situation here.”
Ari snarled. Situation? Situation!? Why? Why was his team always holding him back? Why did he always have to babysit them? Why were they stopping him from becoming stronger? Strong enough to do anything he wanted. And he wanted…
Ari stopped. What did he want? What was he raging against? Why was he so angry?
His slight hesitation was enough time for an enthralled to grab him. He punched it in the head to free himself but another one grabbed his leg. And then another one piled on to his back. Ari spun and before it could bite him. He hammered and elbowed it.
“Dang, he is trouble.” Nameer shouted over the shambling of zombies.
Singh hissed “Didn’t I tell you boys not to disturb him. I could have handled this.”
“Hold on Commander. We are coming.” Abesh’s voice reached Ari over the silent snarls.
Ari whirled with his spikes out. They ripped into the enemy and he took a moment to looked around at the creatures staggering. He glanced at the counter.
Springed Vambraces
0.03 / 3Kg
This was taking too long. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Also the enemy was everywhere. And there was something happening with his team. He needed to get back and sort whatever this new situation was urgently.
And yet, something inside him revelled in the gore and urged him on. He pushed that part down and tried to regain the initiative with precise strikes. But, no matter what he did, the enthralled kept marching forwards. He shoved two of the enthralled backwards and then felt a pair of hand latch onto him. Ari elbowed backwards and tried to free himself. The enthralled just took the blow and leaned in to bite him. Ari gritted his teeth and kicked out to keep the ones in the front to make some space. Then he felt the feted breath of the enthralled latching onto him, on his neck.
Then suddenly something changed. A streak of blue light burnt into his irises. He turned around and saw an enthralled fall into its brethren. The other enthralled just looked on dumbly and slowly turned to look around.
More light followed the first one and took out the enthralled surrounding him. Ari was suddenly free. He looked around for the source of the targeted lights. He did not see anyone for a few long minutes. Ari did his best to keep an eye on the enemy and kept fighting those who shambled toward him while looking out for the source of the beams of light.
Soon he saw a bunch of sparkling embers float into an enthralled’s open mouth and drop him. That was followed by a jet of fire that flash fried a group of the enemy which was followed by a hiss of water that put the fire out. From the large cloud a steam a dagger flashed out chopping off a head in front of him. Singh skidded to a stop next to him. He was followed by Abesh and Nameer. Then Joshi casually walked through the throng of enemies and looked at Ari with a raised eyebrow.
Ari’s eyes caught Doctor Joshi raising a finger. A small fireball impacted a charging enthralled and blew its brains out. Ari took in a breath and although Ari was not convinced about the man’s motivations, at that moment Ari was thankful for Doctor Joshi’s powers.
Then the commander caught Doctor Joshi’s frown. His eyes followed the priest's eyes which were trained towards the door they had come through. Ari followed his gaze and did not see anything but the horde of enemies. Some were staggering under the assault of his men. Some were picking themselves up from under the feet of others. And yet more and more were dropping from the floors above joining the throng.
And then, a light impacted into a cluster of enemies and cut them apart.
Ari looked closer and saw something distort the spot as it moved.
“Singh!” Ari shouted over the crackling lightning and pointed “What was that thing?”
Singh took his eyes off the enemy he was battling and Abesh seamlessly took his spot. Ari for a second wondered how his officers could hate each other and yet work so well with each other. Only if they could just settle their differences, he would have two excellent soldiers that could decimate the enemy.
Singh replied “It’s the…”
An amplified female voice cut Singh’s explanation off “Sections, you have your targets. Charge and hold. Make sure you do not hurt the friendlies. Release in three… two… Fire!”
Beams of blue lights scythed through the enthralled cutting them into two and three. Ari blinked rapidly to clear his eyes only to see more beams clearing out the horde.
After the continuous beams, more lights flew into enthralled in ones of twos. Shots that took down the enemy before they could blink. In seconds the large horde of enemies was gone. All that was left was ash and sand leaving Ari and his team huddled together in the centre looking at imposing armoured soldiers.
One of the figures scanned the surroundings and in the same amplified voice from earlier, ordered “Section one, you have floor one. Section two, you have two. Section three, you have floor three. Clear out the enemies. Section four, launch the drones and start the cleanup. We need some fresh air here.”
Ari watched as the continuum soldiers shot into motion. Thirty of them ran past him and his party to the stairs. The rest of them threw squarish objects upwards. Ari looked at the strange devices and saw them hum to life. They flexed and transformed into rotor blades that sucked up the smoke and ash from the fight.
Ari looked back down and saw that everything had stopped. The sound, the movement, and even the noise from the raging sandstorm outside stopped in an instant.
The only thing Ari saw was smoke from the dead enemy and the only thing he heard was the shallow breaths of his team.
“Commander, I don’t like this.” Singh muttered gruffly.
“You don’t like anything, Singh.” Abesh muttered back.
Ari growled “Can you both stop? We don’t know what cut off all the sound and why these continuum people just rescued us. And yet, you both are acting like little day one recruits.”
He did not turn to look at the two NSG commandos but felt his words had an effect.
The imposing figure with the amplified voice was looking at them. Ari tried to gauge her expression beyond the dark helmet with the glass visor and then realised that she was not looking at him but Joshi.
She took a step forward and suddenly six people with the futuristic continuum armour were standing in front of them with their rifles pointed at him and his people.
Ari raised his hands and got ready to fight.
“I would do that, if I were you.” The female voice responded from the door dragging a tied up dark skinned man.
“Mbungwa? Is that you?” Ari asked.
Mbungwa nodded and tried to talk over the gag in his mouth.
“Don’t worry about the zulu. If he is from your world, he doesn’t have anything to worry about. We just need to make sure that he hasn’t captured any souls.” The woman gently pushed Mbungwa back to two of her soldiers.
“Ah… It’s the continuum general.” Doctor Joshi said as if he was just remembering something he had forgotten.
Ari looked at the man who was growing stranger and stranger.
“Welcome. I am sure sooner or later. The Yaksha will recognise your contributions.” The Doctor finished in his hollow echoing voice.
The female figure snorted and her helmet split. A hiss of cold air spewed out. Then the vertical seams appeared on the face of the helm. The tops of those soundlessly split open like clams and whirled on an unseen axis. They floated back and down to create thick applelates on her shoulders, revealing a South Indian face of a woman in her mid forties.
The woman gave a pained smile “Will he? I didn’t think he would be so kind after what happened.”
Joshi nodded “Yes, he is annoyed with the continuum but he knows you tried.”
Ari’s sped up thoughts focussed on the armour, the large dark South Indian ladies greying hair, and her weaponless arms. Could he jump her and hold her hostage to free his men. Could he then bargain for Mbungwa’s life?
Ari took a small step and saw all gun's tilt towards him. The glow from them stopped him in his tracks.
Doctor Joshi held out his arms “I warn you continuum. You think you are cursed now. If you continue my lord yaksha will not be pleased.”
Athena 8 raised her hand, and the rifles stopped glowing “It’s okay priest. We are not here to cause any harm. We were given a quest by him to save you, and we did. But we don’t expect any recognition of efforts from him or you. We just came in to verify some information.”
Ari took in a sharp breath, to calm his racing thoughts and asked “What information?”
“Do you know Ash and Sheetal?” The woman asked.
Ari stiffened and asked “Who are you and why do you want to know?”
“I am Athena 8. General of all Continuum forces and the leader of the Continuum’s Perseverance faction.” The middle-aged woman replied and continued “And we want to know about Ash and Sheetal because we have made contact with them.”
Doctor Joshi growled “What have you done to them?”
The armoured soldiers all around them lowered their weapons together and clanked them to their backs.
Athena 8 exhaled and pointedly ignored the doctor. She turned to Ari “You must be Colonel Arivarsaan and by your reaction I see you know the two I am talking about.” Athena 8 turned towards an armoured figure to her left “Pretty, please interview them.”
The figure next to Athena 8 stepped forward and her helmet split open. A friendly young smile greeted Ari “Hello again, commander. I am Pretty. First, tell me, Sheetal and Ash, are those two insane?”
Doctor Joshi snorted and the others behind Ari chuckled.
Ari barely kept his emotion from his face “No. Doctor Sheetal Serai is actually a genius and a successful entrepreneur. Ashoka, on the hand… Well, his dossier says he is a sociopath. But he is important to our mission.”
Pretty nodded at Ari “I see. We have scanned them. We know about Ash’s ADHD, narcism, and sociopathy. We also know about Sheetal’s OCD and aggression. And unlike you, we think those characteristics are advantageous here.”
Ari frowned “How do you know that about them?
Pretty smiled “We scanned their brains when we were interacting with them. Now, tell me, do those two hate each other?”
“No.” This time Doctor Joshi spoke up “I have known Ashoka since he was five. Ashoka doesn’t hate. He says it’s a waste of effort. Sheetal, she gets annoyed by his antics, but she also enjoys them. Honestly, it might seem like they hate each other at first glance when they are squabbling like cats and dogs, but they enjoy each other’s company.”
Joshi smiled while reminiscing “No matter how much they fight, every morning they get together and drink coffee together. Sheetal might say she only does it because she paid for the machine, but she likes Ashoka. And Ashoka, well he doesn’t have many people he can trust and call friends.”
Pretty chuckled and her eyes glinted with humour “Interesting. Also explains E65’s confusion. Just one final question and this is the most important one, gentlemen. How much do you think they would change if they had power?”
Ari and his people looked at each with a confused expression.
“Power? What kind of power? The kind we are developing?” Ari asked with trepidation.
“No. More.” Pretty asked pointedly.
Ari looked at the doctor “Well, Doctor Joshi, you know them the best.”
Doctor Joshi was silent for a moment and then asked “What are you planning to do?”
Pretty didn’t elaborate. She just looked at Athena 8.
Athena quietly stared at the doctor.
Doctor Joshi sighed “Please don’t tell me you are thinking of doing what the yaksha is whispering in my ears.”
“We wouldn’t know what the yaksha is whispering to you priest. He doesn’t speak to us anymore, remember?” Athena 8 responded.
“That is because you killed a world. And then when he gave you a chance and converted one of you to his priest, you and yours left him to die” Doctor Joshi stepped in front of Ari and pointed at Athena “And now you are planning to upturn the natural order of things.”
“No!” Athena got in the doctor’s face and then visibly restrained herself by taking a step back. “We miscalculated. Now, we are following her orders. We are using her light to guide us out of this cursed place.”
Joshi let out a strange growl from the back of his throat “If you people wanted to get out, all you needed to do was follow Lord Agni’s orders.”
Athena's face remained calm as she responded “We tried that. And yes, we failed. But now we have another opportunity. An opportunity we will not let go of. This time we will persevere.”
The continuum soldier behind Athena muttered “We will persevere.”
For a moment Athena’s expression changed from calm to a scowl and then she was calm again.
Joshi got a complicated look on his face and then sighed “They are special now, Athena.”
“I know.”
“You might want to tie yourself to them, but they are our warders.” Joshi said in a stern voice.
“Yes, but do you think, this one…” Athena pointed her head towards Ari “With that unbalanced neuro shard can keep them safe? He is more likely to kill them with his own metal hands.”
Ari felt everyone’s gaze turn to him. Before he could inquire, Pretty stepped next to the Athena 8.
“General. The assault commander is ordering me to get you on the line.”
Athena shot Pretty an annoyed look and muttered “If she wants to talk to me, tell her that she can call me herself.”
Pretty licked her lips and gave her General a look “Your comms are damaged General. They took a hit in the battle earlier.”
Athena blinked and touched a spot over her eyebrow. It sparked. She wordlessly cursed, and then gave the doctor a look.
“They are warders now. We will follow the great mother’s orders and guide them to where they need to go.”
The doctor chuckled sarcastically “Yes, but is that what your people want? You know what they want. They want to treat them like weapons. To unleash them on your enemies until you have destroyed everything like you did to your world.”
Athena shook in fury and clenched her fists. Pretty quickly stepped in between her and the priest.
“General, not here. He is protected here.”
Athena blew out a breath slowly calming herself. She visibly restrained herself and snarled “You should watch your words priest. Not every one of us is like that.”
With that she spun on her heels and clanked out the temple on her metallic shoes.
Ari looked from her to the doctor and saw the man fuming.
“Doctor, why are you so angry?”
The doctor exhaled “You wouldn’t understand, commander.”
Pretty turned back to the doctor “You didn’t answer me, Priest Joshi.”
The doctor mumbled to himself “How much will they change if they had power?”
The doctor grimaced and visibly deflated.
“What does he say, priest?” Pretty asked with a gentle smile.
Doctor Joshi looked at Pretty for a moment and then answered “Those two won’t change the way most would. They do not perceive at power the same way others do. What motivates them is not power as you perceive it. And yes, if you are successful, they will guide you out from the trails but…”
“But?”
Doctor Joshi smiled “Have they made an unreasonable demand yet?”
Pretty shook her head.
“If you plan to do what the yaksha tells me you are going to do, you will be stuck with them.”
“So, the chances of atavism are minor?”
“Atavism, so they are warders.” Doctor Joshi sighed.
“We suspect. We haven’t confirmed it yet. Before we could really check they went into a trial. Anyway, two Arbiters are on their way, and we will know soon.”
Joshi closed his eyes “What you are doing is dangerous.”
“We know. But it has to be done. She has ordered it.”
Doctor Joshi looked in the distance. Ari followed his gaze and realised that he was looking in the direction where the large statue of Lord Agni was situated.
Finally, Joshi growled “They are our warders!”
Pretty brushed the words off and responded “And yet we can’t trust their safety to you until you fix the commander, here”
Ari clenched his jaw “What do you mean fix me?”
Doctor Joshi sighed “They will help you, but they will want more than what you can give them. They are problem solvers. They get bored if they have nothing to do. And that’s when both Sheetal and Ashoka, no I should call him Ash now. That is when they both are the most dangerous. And that is why they stick with each other. When they are not solving problems, they are creating problems for each other.”
Ari was getting annoyed and a wisp of anger tainted his voice “Do not ignore me doctor. Tell me what does she mean by fixing me?”
Pretty turned to Ari and gave him a beaming smile “Commander. Why do you have three symbiotic shards?”
Ari, whose temper hadn’t stopped from the fight before, was suddenly gob smacked by the prettiest smile he had seen in years. His brain stuttered and then he asked “Wha… What do you mean?”
“You are supposed to have one shard. And even if you got shards from the nishachar filth, they would be speed, air and similar low shard. Not a neuro shard. Why do you have it?” Pretty smiled at Ari.
“I…” Ari suddenly felt self conscious and straightened his messy shirt “I bought it. From the shop.”
“Really? From whom?”
“A shopkeeper named Whizwo.”
Ari saw Pretty close his eyes and grimace “Ash and sand!”
Pretty raised her hand to her mouth and spoke into it “General, one of them got scammed. I don’t think the knowledge about the warders is a secret anymore.”
Ari noticed a pearlescent communication stone embedded into the armour.
Athena 8’s muffled voice vibrated out of stone “Understood. Tell Taran 45. I will inform the others I will continue the assault here until Jay 7 gets here.”
Pretty’s eyes widened “The mentor? He is awake?”
“Yes, Pretty and you will stay here to keep an eye on the mentor.”
“Yes… ma’am.” Pretty replied hesitantly.
Pretty nodded at Ari and his team “We will be leaving now. If I were you, I would stay inside the temple. The sandstorm will continue for three more hours. The poles we have placed will protect you from the winds and the dust. But outside the zone, you will not be safe. Also, commander, here is a friendly advice, avoid giving into your emotions. The neuro shard amplifies them.”
“What?” Ari asked.
Pretty sighed “Ari. Can I call you Ari?”
“Yes.”
“You just told me how you got your shards. Would you have relayed this information to a stranger with a pretty smile, commander?” Pretty asked.
Ari opened his mouth to protest and Pretty continued.
“Earlier you ran into a warzone ill equipped to do anything. And still you picked a fight with one enemy after anothers. A few moments ago, you were battling hundreds of enemies alone with just your fists. Does that sound like the actions of a reasonable man with a military background?”
Ari closed his mouth and looked at Joshi.
Joshi sighed “I will fix you commander.”
Pretty snorted “Yeah he can do that, as long as you don’t take any divine blessed shards from the priest. They belong to the yaksha Agni. And if you consume them you will too.”
Joshi gave Pretty a flat look.
Pretty shrugged “Hey, I like his grey beard. I don’t want him to go religious.”
Ari blinked and looked at Pretty flush. She quickly covered her face with her helmet and shuffled out.
Joshi looked from the girl walking out of the building to Ari with an open mouth. He mouthed “Oh.”
Ari turned to the doctor “Okay, Doctor Joshi. What the hell is going on?”
Doctor Joshi ground his teeth “I think commander, your task of bringing back Ashoka Stalin and Sheetal Serai has become harder than you could ever imagine.”
“Why?”
“Because those stupid cyborgs want to turn them into something else.”