A sentient creature had been created!
It was a distorting experience as Prakash gazed at the creature in close-up but for some reason, its appearance wasn't getting registered in his mind. Moreover, a faint sense of headache made him unable to focus his attention on the creature.
For some reason, he knew that the creature was actually looking at him but except the surrounding landscape, everything else pertaining to the creature seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mystery.
The formless force that had enveloped his body began to drag him away from the creature as if it came to realise that the human was incapable of recognising anything beyond this point.
The huge body form of the creature began to shrink in size as the body of Prakash was pulled towards the skies all the way until he was once again back at the place he had appeared first, gazing at the celestial body of planet Earth.
Prakash tried to curb his throbbing head and remember the details he had seen but failed to do so even after thinking for a long time. The image, appearance, birth, etc. all details pertaining to the creature, he could no longer recollect any of them.
It was then he noticed his body dissolving into purple smoke starting from his feet up. Strangely, Prakash felt neither fear nor curiosity as he saw his body dissolving. It was more like he could readily accept anything that occurred in this strange place, irrespective of its strangeness; it was a novel feeling that stemmed from the core of his self. Even the fact that he could not remember anything after arriving at the volcanic region didn't seem to unnerve his senses.
Only his head remained now, the rest of his body had long dissolved into purple smoke and had vanished from this space. As his head too began to dissolve, Prakash felt a gaze focus on him with hope and affection. Tilting his head to the source of the gaze, the only object that came into his view was the planet Earth itself.
A strange feeling welled up from within him; it was that the very planet Earth itself that was staring at him. He didn't know how, but that was the feeling he got. Moreover, he also knew of one other fact; this wasn't the first time he had come here and this will also not be his last. His head had completely dissolved by now.
Opening his eyes, Prakash found himself staring at the ceiling of the Lego structure. Propping his body up, Prakash took one careful step at a time when he discovered out a joyful fact.
His control over his body had mysteriously improved, so he no longer had to fear him stumbling on the floor or dropping objects.
"That dream, or was it even a dream? Was it the cause for my increased body control? Has Vikram also experienced something similar?" Prakash let his thoughts run wild as he walked out of the Lego structure and gazed at the crowd of people that were hurriedly busying themselves as they performed row checks, healing the injured warriors and also making sure everyone got enough exposure to the sunlight.
"Everyone, stand under the sunlight. Whether you had participated in the fight or not doesn't matter, get under the sunlight," A warrior ran through the crowd and repeatedly yelled the same line over and over that prompted the surrounding people to walk towards sections of the base that had sufficient exposure to sunlight.
Prakash gazed at the flow of activity and also saw the pale yellowish-orange light that had filled their surroundings. There were many areas in their base where dim patches of sunlight incident locations appeared. Based on the change in the position of the Sun, the sunlight that entered the shopping mall through the gaps in the painted-glass roof varied accordingly.
It was evening now; the sun was on its journey to show its face to the other side of the planet. In the short time-frame before the sun sets, all the people in the base scrambled to bask in the gentle sunlight.
"Mother, it hurts. I don't want to stand here any longer," A child cried as he covered his body that was burning as a trace of black smoke rose out of his body. His mother hugged his burning self and tried all possible ways to distract the boy from the burning pain.
The mother consoled the crying boy without any concern for her own shivering body. The magnitude of pain she was enduring with a smile was unimaginable as a thick stream of black smoke, ten times the volume that rose out of the boy gushed out of her body like a torrent.
Watching this scene, the desire of Prakash to reunite with his family intensified to even greater heights. Just the fact that he was ignorant of their well being constantly ate away at his sanity.
He wanted to rush towards them this very instant, but he knew all too well of one fact. He was weak, weak enough that any single creature could kill him with a slap. After all, there was a limit to how much Ugly Shaggy could cover him.
Moreover, it consumed his Karma to convert a creature into his puppet, a drastic amount at that. The moment he rushed out without a plan, he would die the moment his Karma ran out, which wasn't much, to begin with.
Purple smoke gushed out of his body and transformed into the 'Record' and displayed his current abilities. It was a considerable improvement of basic stats as compared to the morning of the day when he woke up atop the mount in the middle of the murky waters.
Dog-201 (11.48%) Gharial-60 (1.21%) Pigeon-981 (5.40%) Crow-7 (0.00%) Fish 3-1 (0.00%) Fish 7-1 (0.00%)….> His reserve of Karma was significantly lower than what he had before but his stats had increased after gaining one-percent of the stats of a Gharial. Until now, he had gained one-percent stats of four creatures in total: the Ant, the Dog, the Pigeon, and the Gharial that made his Agility and Toughness stats jump over 200. Though the number 200 looked impressive, its actual use left much to be desired. The most such stats could be used was to harass a couple of insects like the dragonfly. The attainment level of his Minor Art became a cause for concern as the initial '2.30%' before the raid had decreased to '1.92%' after the raid. The attacks of the zombies had injured his mini Victoris which led to a direct decrease in his attainment level of the Minor Art. "So many restrictions, so little strength," Prakash sighed as he dissolved his 'Record' and walked into the crowd that had gathered before him. Pushing his way through the crowd to the front, Prakash came face-to-face with Vikram who had just finished his speech. They had lost too many people in this raid and he had to do something to keep their morale from plummeting any lower. "You're here brother," The eyes of Vikram lit up in joy upon seeing the healthy condition of Prakash. At least one of his family members was safe. Motioning for Prakash to follow after him, Vikram led the way out of the crowd, towards the Lego structure. The duo then walked through all the hallways that were eerily quiet, a stark contrast to how they were when Prakash had first seen them. They reached a small room situated at the very end of the Lego structure and entered it. There were already some people who were sitting within it. Excluding Vikram and Prakash, there were a total of 10 people who sat around the table. There was a distinct presence of fear and insecurity in their eyes as they sat on the chairs as if they were sitting atop a block of ice. After the duo had seated themselves in their respective seats, the other 10 people audibly gulped in response to each motion of the hand of Vikram. They were hoping their leader to give them the assurance to regain a sense of security. "What is our death toll?" At his inquiry, Vidya stood up with a bowed head and hesitated to speak. It seemed as if she had swallowed something heavy that made it difficult for her to speak out. She tried to talk but her voice failed to leak out. Under the stares of everyone in the room, Vidya finally gave in and took multiple deep breaths to control her emotions to a manageable level. Her limbs still shivered at the words that lingered at the tip of her mouth. Finally, she mustered enough courage to speak out. "107 people died. Most of them were from the expeditionary army," Vidya replied. The pupils of Prakash shrunk in shock at the high death toll. It was such a huge number of deaths as compared to their small population. They had lost almost five percent of their members in this battle; moreover, since most of the deaths were from the expeditionary army which was comprised of the people with the highest battle strength in their base, it meant one thing; their future was bleak. Prakash hurriedly materialised Ugly Shaggy and sensed through their connection. All he managed to perceive were the existence of 57 mini Shaggy, a sharp contrast to their initial 100. What was more confusing was the fact that he could sense the presence of 80 mini Shaggy when he had his eyes injured which meant that 23 mini Shaggy had died after that? But, all the zombies had already been killed by then which meant that there were no other foes that could actually injure them. As if she had read his mind, Vidya replied, "We are also investigating into this but at the end of the battle, some of the Skill manifestations suddenly dropped dead with no rhyme or reason. Following them, their possessors also dissolved into purple smoke," "Based on the data we collected from the others, we hypothesised that the cause of death of the Skill manifestations was related to the zombies because the damage inflicted by them directly decreased our attainment levels. My own mini Victoris was affected. It regressed from a Minor Art back to a Skill," Vidya had a downcast look. Her eyes darted to the information displayed in her 'Record' and began to cry. Had it decreased anymore, then she too would have followed the steps of her fellow warriors and dissolved into purple smoke. None of the other survivors had fared any better than her.