"Nothing" a voice came from behind.
We were surprised to hear another voice. We thought that people were still alive. We turned around with satisfaction on our faces but were not lucky to see our hopes coming true. We saw a grey-coloured creature slightly taller than an average human, much similar to us but with a little different body structure. We had never seen anyone like that before. It moved towards us, at the slowest speed we can think of.
"Who are you?" Priya asked.
"Your father, Azkely", we were shocked, how did he know her, "no doubt, it's been more than 4 billion years since we met, plus, your memory is erased every 80 years. But I am not happy with the friends you made. Have you forgotten who we are and what is our aim? And now you are befriending humans?"
Everything was going above our heads. This creature who is not a human is stating that Priya, who is a human, is his daughter? And for how many years has she been living? And who is this Azkely? And the most important of all, who is this creature?
"But how this can be? You can't be my father, I have already got my parents, moreover, we are different. And what rubbish are you speaking of?"
He came near Priya and stared into her eyes. Soon Priya was frozen with her eyes darkening as if he had taken control of her. Then there were strange things happening in her eyes. Different scenes were seen in her eyes. He was showing her something. We got worried for her and tried to bring her back but she wouldn't. His powers were too strong. We even tried to stop that creature, hitting him with objects but no effect. After some time they both got back to reality. Priya fell as soon as it was over.
"Hey, are you okay? What happened?" I gave her support.
She got up and went to the creature hurriedly, "Was that real? But how can it be? Why don't I know? And I am a pure human so this is impossible!"
Things were getting serious as it was all happening. We asked her what was the matter. In a soft tone, she spoke, "You remember we read that in the beginning there were about 50 Kamrales only? He is one of them. They were not like the modern-day Kamrales. He showed me everything from the beginning and I am slowly remembering many things. Those originals never died, they are immortal. And yes, I am his daughter, born more than 4 billion years ago but my life is restarted every 80 years and that's how I am still alive. But I was left here when the Kamrales left. I lived with humans for a long time and became like them. My body structure, my body functions, my memory, everything became like that of humans. My life is restarted every 80 years like a human so no one can doubt me. My real name is Azkely, as kept by my real father. And as I am also a Kamrale, if we see, then my motive is also to kill you all but I can't"
So this is something tough to absorb. Many questions going in our heads, more than they were going on till now and now we were thinking about what will happen next, what will this Kamrale do to us and will Priya support us or fight for her side.
"So Azkely, shall we go?" Asmero took her hand. But her choice was not the same as that of her father, "I am a human now, I love humans, I want to stay with them and protect them"
"niścita?"
"niścita"
Asmero raised his hands and immediately moved them towards Priya. She experienced a push and fell. He told, "I have snatched all your Kamrale powers. Now you won't be living repeatedly, this is your final life. Live like a human! And of course, I won't leave you just like this. But I will reward you if you all escape my plan" And he vanished. What he will be doing to us? And when? But Priya was more upset than any of us, she was crying. We tried to cheer her up. Finally, she calmed down. And decided to try to find any evidence or clue about Andrean. We began searching for something informative about Andrean and we found one scroll.
"Yes, this is the one!", Adam grabbed the scroll but it wasn't a normal one. It consisted of dials on one end and had to be rotated correctly to open the scroll, "So how do we solve this?"
Kevin was always keen to read the story behind something historical. He wanted to read the text written below where the scroll was kept as written below other artefacts but for this one, there wasn't any information. A few minutes later when we were still discovering what to do with these dials, the sunlight fell on the platform where the scroll was kept and a text appeared. Kevin read, "This says that it is a puzzle. Rotate these dials correctly to form the picture intended and then press the button in the centre when you are done. The scroll will open if it is correct but if it is incorrect, the hands of the holder of the scroll will immediately burn to ashes. Also, the picture intended will change every 30 seconds and will be reshuffled. The picture intended will only appear when in hands. We gave this task to Kevin and Priya as they were the ones out of us who could complete this. After an hour they concluded. The way they solved did make a picture but still, we were scared as anything could happen. We were too scared to press the button. So, I took the scroll and pressed it, waited for some seconds and yes! The scroll opened. At first, it was empty but then the words appeared. Firstly, it instructed us to go outside. We walked outside. But as soon as we got out, we saw a strange world. It was more frightening than before. The sky was darker than ever. We looked at the scroll for the next clues but it was only written 'Surprise!'. Just then the ground below us disappeared and we fell. We reached a dark place and it was dark everywhere we could see. Suddenly a creature appeared, not reality, it was a hologram. As soon as Priya saw him, she sat on her knees and lowered her head. We were wondering about the reason behind her action, "abhivādana".
"Samartho bhav Azkely", the hologram said, "I heard you have broken your ties with Kamrales. Sad to hear this. No Kamrales has ever done this sin. And we don't even want anyone to do it. So, as to tell the present and our future generations not to commit this sin, you will be punished, along with your friends", The place where we were turned into a room, "Let's play a game".