What was hell?
- It was a place of punishment.
- It was a place where you paid the price of ambition.
[*drip*]
...
As the teardrop touched the infinity below my feet, I heard no sound.
'Why am I crying?'
The floating sword was not just an illusion.
'I could touch it!'
I had finally found something which wasn't HP or me in that dimension.
'Where did you come from?'
I knew in my mind that it was my wish that had materialized, but it was hard to reconcile that thought with my yearning heart.
'Is he telling me to train?'
I looked at the God standing far away in the distance.
"Are you really God?"
The sheer expanse that the figure of Natraja had covered was more than the space I had travelled in my whole life, and I had travelled to a different galaxy.
What mattered then was not whether he was helping me.
"At least I'm not alone now, right?"
There were no answers, but my mind was at peace with it.
"Of course! You are God, and I'm just a soul repenting in Hell."
I made up the reason why a being – who could create a Sword out of nowhere – wouldn't want to talk to me.
------------
** AFTER 100 YEARS IN HELL
The daffodil in front of the porch was as perfect as it was yesterday.
The garden didn't smell nice, neither the flower bloomed on its own, but it was my small haven in Hell.
I got up from the bed and admired the architecture of the small house.
The paint was so smooth throughout all the walls that it felt as if it was the work of a single brushstroke by a great painter.
I picked up the jug from the round table and poured it over the glass.
(*gulp*)
It took me a little while to drink it all.
'I would bloat to death like this!'
I smiled.
Many things had changed over a century, I was not the naive fool I was once.
I went to the mirror and looked at everything that was me.
'Still the same huh!', I facepalmed.
It was weird to see a 115-year-old guy in a 15-year-old child's body.
'Oh Well! Gotta do what I got to do!'
I picked up the [Rudraksha Mala] from the round-table just adjacent to the mirror.
There were no other ornaments, jewellery, or even decorative in the seemingly perfect house, except for that one Rudraksha.
[ Om Rudra-ye Nama-ha ]
I chanted the Mantra of Lord Rudra while holding the [Mala], and exited the house.
"Good morning Ishwar?"
I wished my greetings to my lord and saviour.
The God which had blessed me half a century ago was still standing tall at the horizon.
Even though I never saw the face and only the outline, I was happy to find there was someone besides me in Hell.
"God, When are you coming to my house?", I joked.
Our relationship had improved over the past decade.
"..."
"Still as grumpy as ever, I see."
It was one-sided though.
Natraja hadn't answered even a single time out of the millions of questions I asked him.
However, that didn't discourage me anymore.
His existence itself was hope.
'Shall we have a conversation now, my friend?'
I asked the floating HP beside me.
`````
Howdy Punk!!
Frankly, I never thought we would last so long in Hell, and now that we are reaching Natraja, I hope we three can be together for once in our lifetime.
You don't talk and Natraja just giddily glances towards the emptiness of space all the time. He is also very huge, I don't know if he can even see us.
We must be like atoms to him.
Anyway, I never thought that practising the [way] would bring me here one day. I still can't believe that the third eye is real and has such ridiculous powers.
When I first started practising the [way], it was only so that I could brag in front of mum and dad. However, now that I stand here after 100 years into the future, I have a very bittersweet feeling about my initial commitments.
I went through so much, just because I wanted to look good in front of my parents. It is almost comical.
The excruciating pain never resurfaced after the awakening. In fact, every aspect of [way], be it meditation, Prana sensing, or feeling the Chakra, has become easier.
I was so sure at the moment that the pain would remain forever and wanted to almost end my own life. Thanks, Natraja, I didn't. Had he not appeared, I wouldn't have recovered at all.
Although I still haven't activated the second Chakra, even after practising the Prana techniques for a millennium. My total Prana capacity is already equal to Level 5. If comparing only the capacity of Prana, I'm already powerful than the whole Maiyatt team combined, not to mention I have diligently practise every art and craft my teachers taught me.
I have figured out the 'Power of creation' of the third eye. It can help me create matter at will, but only the inanimate matter.
I still can't create a complicated structure like machinery and computers, but got some minor success in creating gears and microchips last week. I have found that studying these complicated subjects and knowing their essence can help me create them.
What surprised me was, no matter what I do, I can't create star energy. I can create all other elements be it mercury, uranium, or something else, but star energy – like life – seems impossible to create.
..
..
I feel like our journey in Hell is nearing its end. I just hope Natraja would bless us when I reach him in few days.
Goodbye! I Gotta move on, still haven't finished my morning routine yet. KT would explode if he knew I was being lazy.
`````
[*lets go of HP*]
As the HP floated in the air and I start walking towards Natraja, the house behind me crumbled and disintegrated into nothingness.
To a normal eye, it might look like everything was destroyed, but with my third eye, I knew that the reality was different.
Just as the stars farther away look tiny. The garden, the house, and everything inside it had just become so impossibly small that, to the naked eye, it had just disappeared.
As the journey continued and I knew that I was nearing the figure of Natraja. I couldn't contain the excitement I was feeling.
'Hundred years! It took me hundred years to reach the destination!!'
Although it was just a number, I didn't need to sleep in hundred years if I didn't want to. There was no day cycle, so I never knew when was the right time to sleep.
I had only started sleeping after 50 years, although there was no benefit to it, I thought that if I didn't sleep I would lose my humanity for some reason.
'Sleep is one-third of human life after all!'
--------
'I'm here.'
Standing at that junction after hundred years of struggle, I didn't know what to feel and whether whatever I was feeling was the right emotion.
Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Confusion. I felt everything at once. Everything a little.
'It was a long journey.'
- I was in Hell.
Here no other life existed.
Even with the power of the Universe behind me and after completely practising the [way], life couldn't be created in this Universe.
'What was I?'
I was almost a deity.
- It was the result of hundred-year hardship.
I didn't have to suffer as long as I didn't want to.
- Except that I was alone.
I had to power to create everything.
- But not people.
'So Why I'm feeling sad.'
(*drips*)
There was still no sound of teardrops hitting whatever was below my feet.
'Why?'
Sandness inside of me quickly took over every other emotion I was feeling.
'Was it luck? Or bad luck?'
Coincidence cannot even describe my existence any-more.
'Natraja. You must have wanted me here! Right?'
The figures of Natraja which I had admired from far away for so long was standing right in front of me.
It was a weird feeling that couldn't be described. Although he was in front, it felt like he was not there at all.
I trusted my eyes, after all, they were no ordinary eyes anymore. I had the power to see everything.
Even with the confidence that I knew Natraja was standing before me, I couldn't feel his presence.
I thought about all the coincidences that had to have happened in order for me to be where I was.
I had to be born in a family of Hunters.
I had to reach the Ruin of the 'Thunderous Veil'.
I had to practise the incomplete [way] and destroy my foundations.
My mother had to have the ability of [Maya Maitri].
She had to be able to use those powers.
I was supposed to be sucked into Hell while my mother used her power to send me away from those assassins.
I was supposed to continue practising the [way] after feeling dejected.
I had to have endured and survived the unimaginable pain of separation, heartbreak, loneliness, and punishment of the [way] for 50 odd years.
"Was it all just a coincidence? NO! I won't believe that!"
"I will get my answers today."
I looked at the humongous figure that had inspired me to live on for so long.
"GOD! YOUR SON HAS ARRIVED."