"So is it your final draft man?! Confirm man… The way you have wrote these few chapters… it seems like an epic fantasy which won't finish with just one volume!.... Huh… where do you think you will fit the romance part? It seems like an impossible plot… are you sure you're going to write it on whim? You haven't even made an outline… Well the publishing board doesn't know you are writing anything so if you want to change the plot think now… "
Well, I get you are concerned but what is this woman doing here? Staring at me for the last two hours since we came back from the hospital… Well, why was this dangerous woman named Shreya here?
Two hours earlier, our so called family discussion was disturbed thanks to the loud bang we heard. The sound was that of footsteps, why are you declaring your presence? Well, the door was open so we could clearly see whom it was and it was nothing but trouble. That old man told me he stopped time… I think age has gotten to him.. I was surprised though, because that old man wasn't surprised at all, He was brimming with a bright smile. Has he lost it completely, letting stranger… more than that a mortal human know his secrets, she obviously heard my name and must have known whom I was… all secrets disclosed… why am I alive man?
"Hey come here Shriyasenu.. "
Huh? What did you say old man?
"H-Hello, and please call me Shreya old man... "
She's calling him old man? What's going on? Is this old man secretly having relationships with humans? Damn… Pedos all around… I looked at Ankur with a discomforting look, he ignored me. What the old man said next changed my plans for non cliché life to sigh of loss….
"She's your new companion… she was the one who saved you from your mom… "before he could complete, mom kicked him down his chair… What a wonderful family… "… I meant, the one who reorganized the time and earth… "
WHATTTTTTT…?
So yeah that's how she came here… Apparently she was an immortal too… WHAATTTT… WHY AM I SO CALMMM?? SHE'S AN IMMORTAL??? SHE KNOWS MY SECRET TOO NOW… SHE WILL KILLLL MEEE… WELL I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S POSSIBLE BUT SHEEEE WILLLL HURT ME…... I WON'T FORGIVE YOU OLD MAN... NEVER!
She tugged on my sleeve and had a confused expression on her face.
"Why do you look so scared? Do I look like a ghost?"
You don't say…
"He's fretting that you know his secret and real name now… and you might hate him now… "I kicked him in the stomach. DUDE STOP SPOUTING SHIT AFTER GETTING DRUNK YOU PEDO…
She went silent. SHE IS GOING TO KILL ME ISN'T SHE?
She laughed? She has lost it…
She started crying after that. Whyyy??
"You're Akash, I am your big fannn… Please give me an autographhhhh.. "
Okay okay but stop crying first… Her mood suddenly changed. It wasn't pleasant or rather it was pretty dark.
She didn't say anything, she just got up and went towards the door. She pointed to me to come out... For some reason I couldn't disregard that request… Yes, it was out of fear…
We walked for almost thirty minutes she wasn't uttering a word. I wanted to break the silence.
"… I... "I was interrupted by her holding my hand out of nowhere. Hmmm?
I didn't shake it away… there was some unusual familiarity in her touch… Fuck is this? Some kind of romantic scene… But my hallucinations were soon broken when I saw a shady guy and a lady… Noo nooo… again one of those cliché scenes, they will attack next right?
"Hey what are guys doing here? You have finals today right? After 2 hours?" Ehhh??? Ehhhhhhhhhh???? The finals... Yes the finals… how could I forget, the game tournament.. But that pedo just drank how can I make him sober… well I can… no wait I don't have my powers with me… Dang it man…
"I came here with Raghav since you told me you guys were going there early…..."
"I asked you to come alone!" Shreya said in a sharp tone.
"Why? Is there a… Huckkkk.. Whaaa.. "Her neck was pierced by a blade… Kriti's head was almost dispatched. I couldn't understand what I just saw, it happened so quickly...
"Guess I had no other options"
"Huhhh??? You had no other option but to kill her? Have you lost it? I think years of living have got into your mind... Believe me I know the feeling but… " She grabbed my mouth shut and pointed towards Kriti.. Her head re attached itself on its own??
"She's an immortal too?"
"Yup… but not one of us… she's the one who created that black matter "
Waitt hold onn, let me grasp it… she was the one who made me destroy the universe? She's the one whom even dad is scared, she's trouble, isn't she? Why is this girl bringing trouble upon herself...?
"Where do you think you're going? You are bound to see this fight between her and myself and learn a few things... "
Are you looking down on my lady? Well, not that I care…
"If you need any help just call me, I am going back to the hostel to wake that drunk idiot… "
"So, you're running away? Well, what could a kid like you… " She was attacked by Kriti… Her form changed for some reason… well it was huge… she changed herself into a shapeless monster… it was just hard to look at the figure… it was so dark… it seemed like it was sucking us in… erratic tentacle like things were sticking out if it's body…
"It's angel... "Shreya gritted her teeth.
Angel? From which angle? Well, from what I have heard… they should be source of light! It doesn't look like light from any angle… what's up with that logic?
"Angels swapped hobbies?" I asked.
"Nope they are guardian angels… they suck on the bad feelings of humans and rot slowly… she shouldn't be alive… I don't know how many negative feelings she has collected.. "
Negative feelings? But she seemed to be a cheerful girl… so these guys can act pretty cool? Huh? Well... That's that but…
"Why isn't it attacking already? Well, if it was an anime, I could understand but why is she waiting? And why is such a powerful being here? They superior species than us right? I heard they and some other dude made us? Why are they trying to destroy it now?"
"Good question! I don't know either, but why is it extending its tentacles inside the earth and across the whole campus and where is your friend?"
"As if I know… most importantly what about that guy there? His body just exploded, means other humans here must have died right? Let's leave, shall we?" I wasn't getting the point of staying here to get eaten by this monster angel...
"Too late… something is coming out of the underground… Woahhh… that's humongous... "
It surely was… a huge ball of dark sticky liquid came out of the ground…. the whole ground broke was gone… I could directly see the molten iron at the centre of the earth… What's up with that??? So, it's doomsday again huh? Isn't it happening on a daily basis nowadays?
"Hey where's your friend? The world ended and he's not here yet…?"
Hell if I know… I can't turn back time, only he can and with limited powers I doubt he can…
"Huhh?"
"Huhhh??"
What happened just now? Weren't we going inside the lava? Everything just turned back to normal and I couldn't see Ankur anywhere… That damned bastard, world ended once and he's still dead sleep… then my focus went straight towards where it all started… She was standing there with a lazy expression as if nothing happened. Lady let me tell you just destroyed the whole world… what is that attitude? She definitely seemed like a Shounen anime villain… I have watched too much anime…
"So, you saw what I can do right?"
"Yeah so? You are gonna kill us?" Shreya asked with somewhat nervous sound.
"Nope. I can't kill immortals even if I am superior here… I just wanted to show this girl how strong I am… she wanted to kill me it seems… now she knows her place… "
Excuse me ma'am this girl is powerful too you know; she reversed the time and… waitt..
"Hey what about those previous worlds we destroyed, are they still there?" I asked. Kriti looked at me with a smirk and then with a dark expression pressed her index and thumb of the right hand and a guy dropped from sky out of nowhere. He was the same guy Kriti squeezed to death just now…
"What's he doing here?" Shreya asked lazily.
"Ehhh… I don't like when a being talks about me like that… Owwww… owww… what are you doing… stop slapping me like that… Don't you know who I am? … Owww… "
What are they doing? What is he, her boyfriend? So he's that guy huh?
"Your pretending boyfriend?" I asked straight out. Kriti's eyes opened wide and an uncomfortable smile surfaced her face.
"Your friend told you that?"
"Yup"
She had an 'I will kill him' expression. You know what I will help you with that. So who's this guy anyway?
He gave a creepy smile and announced himself: "I am the devil "
"Let's go we have a gaming final in less than two hours" Shreya urged everyone to move completely ignoring the self proclaimed devil… What a cruel lady…
"How dare you mere immortal disguise my presence… I shall give you hell… "
" So which religion?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Huh… ? Ohh.. Well different religions call me by different names, like Lucifer, Mahishasur or rather Asur in India, Yaoguai, and many other things many other religions in different countries… they make me the villain but the species named as God, that's more evil than mine… he fucking created this universe, even though he knew it's gonna be a failure.. "
So my dad's God? Wow… damn they have misconceptions about God-these humans, this devil is right! I wanted to scurry through without letting him know I was God's son or something like that… Where the fuck are you pathetic editor?
"You don't seem to believe me that I am devil.. Should I give a live example by destroying this universe?"
No buddy, I believe you no need for that! More importantly…
"I asked that guardian angel about the worlds we destroyed and she summoned you… Give us some figures will you?" I asked without hesitation.
He made a face of disgust by listening to my words, What is there a cosmic repulsion between devil and God? Well, I won't call myself God…
"You stink of God, devil and human… what are you?" He asked me looking a bit terrified but holding that disgusted face still.
"Well you see… My dad is God, mum is devil and I had sex with many human girls so yeah, pretty much sums it up… "
I was joking obviously… Well for the most part… at least for me it was a joke but everyone's face turned serious… Damn I messed up..
"So that's how it works huh? You poor boy… don't worry, think of me as your brother from now on… " That devil put a hand on my shoulder. Is he showing me petty? Not only him, everyone? Why?
I came to know the reason why they were showing me petty soon enough. It was as they said You must be really confused which side to choose right? Poor thing, don't worry… I will let you join the devil kingdom… that self proclaimed devil said. The angel countered with… No you shouldn't defy your father, I will help you become more powerful, just leave it to me…. And they both started a war… turning the earth to rumbles again and again the time was reversed. It continued until Shreya grabbed everyone and dragged us to the gaming theatre or what I would like to call it. You should be asking where is Ankur? And I should ask you to tell me if you find him because I ran to the dormitory as fast as I could before the starting of the game final… and found that the room was empty… Ankur wasn't there….
So having no options left we had to replace Ankur with that self proclaimed devil and we entered the Hall. The Hall was unusually quiet. The Hall was full and all the contestants were there wearing those goggles again. We had to defeat four teams to win it… and this time, it was a head on match… Well, as usual I wore the goggles and entered the virtual world, the world seemed different this time though… it kind of seemed real.. Well I know Virtual realities are bound to look real but it was too real, and why are we floating in space? Woah! What's that spaceship there! The spaceship stopped just in front of us? What is this a space war game? Well the game was named Ratophilia, why? I still don't get it… Then I saw someone coming out of that ship and I knew in that moment what was going on…
It was Ankur! He jumped over one of the asteroids and gave me a hand. I balanced myself on that asteroid and then he pulled all of them one after another.
"You lured us, huh?" Shreya asked the exact thing I had in mind.
"Sure did… there was no other way….. After what Akash did… Dad made an illusionary universe and made Shreya believe that she reversed the time to bring back everything to normal but the case was different… Dad actually made that universe to gather the most powerful beings from as many dimensions as he could… we gathered fifty members… "
But there are only four of us here!
"Enter the ship you will know "
Not able to take this anymore, Devil burst out..
"What do you think you're doing son of God? You summoned me without my permission? "
"I knew you wouldn't have come if I asked you directly so I requested Kriti to lure you with her… Your list for women has trapped you today.. "
"Hell.. If I care, I am leaving… woah what's this I can't move..?"
He couldn't move a single muscle? And he calls himself devil?
"You made a contract you can't break it" Ankur said sheepishly.
"What contact?" The devil demanded, still struggling.
"You told Akash that you will work with him, that's it.. "
Dudee that's not fair… No one asked me if I wanted to be a part!
"What are you thinking about? You are God's son so you're born with that contact.. Cheer up" Ankur said trying to cheer me up. Is that what you call cheering up? Fuck you!
So we were forced inside the ship. It was a humongous ship, well equipped with emergency services… sure it wasn't made for humans, it was made for us cosmic beings… It was made of Xerovia… the most valuable mineral found in any universe, that I ever heard of. It had a darkish purple texture, giving off a cool environment because of its damp nature. But when touched it changed into the hardest material of the universe, that was the uniqueness of this mineral. This material was used to make this ship so that anyone could practice their strongest skills whenever they wanted without causing the ship any budges. There were practicing targets, substitute weapons, unlimited food, source of entertainment, in short it was heaven… Well that's dad for you!
We finally reached the room where the other cosmic beings were resting, we still had no idea what was the purpose behind collecting us all in this ship and where was this ship heading… but looking at the serious faces all around, anyone could guess something big was coming… and then it happened…