A crow sped through the air, going beyond its biological limits, racing towards a certain cinema hall in the shopping mall.
The two humans on its back gazed at the rapidly changing scenery with an expression of confusion and shock. They were abruptly woken up from their dreams without any specified reason by their Karmic Art manifestations.
Without any information, they just decided to go along with them for now and find out the reason themselves.
"Isn't this the way towards the cinema hall?" Prakash turned pale upon realising their destination. He wasn't ready to face the birds yet. It hadn't been long since he slept, the Karma he had accumulated in such a short duration wasn't much either.
"Seems like it," Vikram opted an alert behaviour, intending to transform and flee at a moment's notice.
"T-This smell!" The duo blocked their noses when they were assailed by an intense stench of iron and other biological reagents. Craning their necks forward and transforming their eyes, the duo were shocked at the sight presented before them.
It was a royal mess; semi-intact bodies, beaks, claws, feathers, organs, blood, and yellowish puss lay scattered across the floor that covered the entire floor plan of the cinema halls. Drops of blood that were a heterogeneous mix between red and black dripped down from the edges of the floor and painted a gruesome sight.
The crow abruptly glided towards a certain cinema theatre that was labelled 'Screen-1' and entered through the hole in its door, losing a couple of feathers in the process. The duo desperately clutched onto its feathers for life and tried their best to not fall off.
"Look there," Prakash pointed towards a certain location at one corner of the theatre room where a faint purple colour illuminated the surrounding darkness. His dog eyes proved to be incredibly helpful in such situations.
Victoris rushed towards the place Prakash pointed to in a hurry. The crow too accelerated further, going beyond the speeds it could reasonably control.
"We are going to crash!"
"Transform, quick!"
A wasp and a baby pigeon abruptly materialised on the crow's back and took off to the air just in time to witness the crow crashing into a chair and getting its wings broken. It had also twisted its neck in the high-speed collision; it wasn't far away from death.
Ugly Shaggy emerged out of its head and rushed towards the spot where a faint purple light illuminated a couple of chairs.
A baby pigeon and a wasp followed after their Karmic Art manifestation and landed atop the cushion of a seat and dissolved their transformations.
They hadn't even inspected their surroundings when they were assaulted by an intense sense of sadness. Tears uncontrollably poured out of their eyes as the feeling of sadness further intensified from deep within them.
The duo rushed towards the edge of the seat and gazed below at the figure of Ugly Shaggy and Victoris that were kneeling in front of two purple figures and mourning. Smoke gushed out of their eyes in a show of tears as the two Karmic art manifestations slumped in defeat before the two purple figures.
The purple figures were two human babies that were crying uncontrollably as they each held the hand of a lady who was dissipating into purple smoke.
As the lady dissolved into purple smoke, the bodies of the two babies too were beginning to slowly dissipate.
"Is that another possessor of a Karmic Art?" Prakash wiped away the tears that continued to leak out of his eyes and looked at the situation happening before him. The situation had progressed beyond his knowledge, as he hadn't seen Ugly Shaggy displaying such vivid emotions before.
A thin thread made out of purple smoke connected the belly button of the two purple babies to the heart of the dying woman, looking like it might snap at any moment.
The body of the lady had completely dissolved by now; in response to her death, the bodies of the two purple babies also began to decompose.
The purple smoke that had appeared when the body of the woman had dissolved converged together in the air as faint memory fragments revolved within them. The purple smoke quickly condensed into a purple cloud and became substantial while four stumps grew out from it.
Two stumps transformed into a scissor while the other two merged into a pair of tongs. The scissors swiftly severed the thin umbilical cord of purple smoke that connected the two babies to it while the pair of tongs held the severed sections and presented it to the two Karmic Art manifestations.
The two purple babies resisted upon getting their connections severed, but the purple cloud swiftly attached the two severed umbilical cords to Ugly Shaggy and Victoris respectively.
Purple smoke gushed out of his body like a dam that had its gates shattered and rushed towards the purple baby that got attached to the body of Ugly Shaggy.
The baby initially resisted, but under the careful action of Ugly Shaggy and the purple cloud, a connection soon formed between him and the purple baby.
Prakash gazed with incredulity upon gaining a skill without even having to exert much effort into acquiring it when he was assaulted by a surge of memories.
The memories consisted of the woman's struggles for the past two days, how her husband sacrificed his life to buy her an opportunity to live and her resolve at the time of her death. These memories resonated with his very being and settled at the depths of his mind.
He too had experienced a similar if not a more dangerous course of events. Prakash joined his hands together in prayer towards the woman who had struggled to survive until the last moments of her life, and even after death. He had the highest form of respect for such a person.
"Hick..hick..sniff"
Prakash traced the source of the sound and found Vikram sobbing uncontrollably as he gazed at the tiny purple baby that sat on the head of Victoris. He too had experienced the surge of memories. Vikram rubbed the cheeks of the baby as if for a moment he had become the mother that had given birth to the baby.
It was at this time Prakash noticed his own tears and the fact that he had embraced a purple baby in his hands in the most protective embrace. He hadn't even realised his actions. Moreover, a feeling of motherly instinct enveloped his body and urged him to protect the baby no matter the cost.
"Is this what you had hoped for, Shristi?" Prakash muttered under his breath as he gazed at the purple cloud that hovered beside him.
As if it could understand him, the purple cloud brushed the bodies of the two purple babies one last time as the remaining image fragments floating within it were completely expended. The purple cloud no longer looked to possess any sentience and broke down before completely dissipating into the surroundings.
"Her name, Prachi."
Prakash closed his eyes and digested the last message the fallen mother had imparted to him. He had not only inherited a Skill from her but also inherited most of the emotions she had experienced in her final moments.
Opening his eyes, Prakash looked at the visage of Ugly Shaggy that looked relieved for the most part. Looking towards Vikram, Prakash noticed Victoris too to be sporting the same emotion as Ugly Shaggy.
Ugly Shaggy gazed into his eyes as if implying that it had finished the task it sought out to achieve in the first place. It was then that a moment of realisation hit him.
"Is this their instinct to protect a fellow Karmic Art from vanishing permanently?" The more he thought about it, the more he couldn't reject the possibility of it being the truth. It seemed like his Ugly Shaggy could somehow sense the life and death of its fellow Karmic Art manifestations. The same could be said about Victoris.
"Is the skill you obtained titled as 'Gain' in your Record, Vikram?"
"Yes, brother."
"So, what do you suppose we do now? There are no other birds in our vicinity."
"We, of course, use this precious opportunity to rescue the others."
The duo searched for the crow they had arrived on only to find it dead within a pair of broken seats.
Helpless, the duo transformed into a wasp and a baby pigeon respectively and landed on the ground. They hurriedly dissolved their transformations and walked towards the crow.
A Victoris and a mini Victoris plunged into the body of the crow and began to crazily devour its flesh. Approximately fifteen minutes later, the crow became a shrivelled mass of its former self.
In the meantime, the duo observed the two babies that were playing around with the mini Shaggy and Ugly shaggy. They were trying to glean information about its usage.
After completely devouring the crow, the duo walked towards the exit of the room while allowing Victoris and the mini Victoris to feast upon the other bird carcasses. They especially paid note to devour the carcasses of the eagles and the sole woodpecker first.
The duo walked towards one side of the room and pressed their ears on its walls, but their small sizes rendered their auditory senses pretty useless.
Prakash sent a mental input to his Ugly Shaggy that immediately turned transparent and phased through the walls.
Prakash closed his eyes and allowed Ugly shaggy to share its vision with him. Through the eyes of Ugly Shaggy that only managed to give a slightly blurry vision, Prakash gazed at the situation on the other side of their theatre room.
It was another theatre room where people were huddled together and were wallowing themselves in despair. They were mostly composed of teenagers, and hence, their mental sanity was long stretched taut by this point.
They had been feeling a sense of thirst for a long time but failed to find a source of water. Even the coke that was present in a few bottles available near them failed to satiate their thirst and for some reason also made them puke after a single sip.
They were confused due to many reasons that primarily resulted from their shrunk body sizes, while the interior was also becoming hotter and hotter since the air conditioners were no longer functioning due to a lack of power supply.
"Look there!"
"Monster!"
"Save me!"
The teenagers scrambled in fright when they noticed the figure of Ugly Shaggy approaching them in silence like a predator. Moreover, its ugly face and huge body size that was half their height further intimidated them.
Prakash controlled Ugly Shaggy and made it travel towards the door. Materializing its body, Ugly shaggy opened its mouth to reveal three rows of sharp teeth and bit onto the door handle.
"As expected!" Prakash felt joy at discovering the fact that Ugly Shaggy could create a slight impact upon physical objects.
Ugly Shaggy tensed the middle-regions of its body and pulled at the door handle. The door didn't budge. Soon, Victoris emerged in the area that further sent the teenagers to scatter in greater fear while gazing at its bigger body and its menacing spider head.
Victoris bit onto the handle and pulled it along with Ugly Shaggy. The door slightly bulged but didn't move anymore.
The duo retracted their Karmic Art manifestations and walked out of the room labelled 'Screen-1'. Their entire bodies were dyed red due to all the blood they had to walk through to reach out. The duo then proceeded to their right and gazed at the door beside on which a sign indicating 'screen-2' hung.
Ugly Shaggy and Victoris turned transparent and entered through the doors. Taking a 180-degree turn in the air, they materialised their bodies once again and bit onto the door handle. Constricting the regions around the mid-part of their curved bodies, they increased the tension with which they pulled at the door handle.
On the other side, Prakash noticed the door creaking a little due to the efforts of the two Karmic Art manifestations as he willed to transform and support them. They were stronger now that they were operating at a distance that was many times closer to their possessors.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated to form a cocoon that wrapped around him and shattered to reveal a puppy from within. The puppy then pushed at the door with all its might.
The moment the door slightly moved, a baby Gharial inserted its long snout into the gaps while the puppy bit into its tail and used its body as a lever and exerted force.
Blood gushed out of the tail of the baby Gharial due to the force the puppy exerted on it but fortunately, the door began to steadily open. When it had opened wide enough, the puppy kicked a small rectangular object it had brought with it into the opened gap and stopped exerting force.
The door once again began to close due to the action of the spring force installed in its hinge joint the moment they stopped pushing and pulling it from both sides. The rectangular object acted as a stopper as it got pressed on both sides by the edge of the door and the door frame fixed into the wall. It ensured that the door wouldn't completely slam down.
A gap wide enough for them to pass through had opened up now. The duo had taken the first step to save their fellow humans.