As the golden sun rose above the horizon, casting its warm glow across the world, it brought with it the promise of a new day. Yet, there was a dark underbelly to this peaceful scene. For with the sunrise came a tide of Prana, an presence that gave opportunity but also threatened to bring doom and destruction upon mankind. The sky was stained with an eerie shade of red, foretelling of the chaos that was to come. The world held its breath, waiting for the inevitable disaster to strike, as sun continued its slow ascent into the sky. The notification blared, its siren call echoing through the system panel, alerting all to the impending doom that was to come. Panic and fear began to grip the masses as the reality of the situation set in.
Prajwal was jolted awake by the blaring sound, he unlocked the screen and was immediately confronted by the warning of Prana's arrival. Prajwal knew that he had to stay focused, he readied himself from what was to come. As Prajwal sat cross-legged in the stillness, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting his thoughts drift back to what he had seen on the panel.
*Prana will be arriving within the next one hour*
He knew that this will be the main turning point of all the changes. As he had heard from the administrator, if you don't control the amount of absorbed Prana, then you will face something which you wouldn't want to experience. "I don't know how many will survive but I am sure that this will spell the arrival of apocalypse. Till now there weren't any major changes, this will be one and throughout history, every significant shift in society and civilization has brought about destruction and upheaval, reminding us of the fragility of our existence."
As this event unfolded, the university was filled with fear and panic. All of them had just let go of their fear just yesterday but reality had stroked them hard. Most of them broke beyond saving. They were given hope in the midst of their peak fear and anxiety but that didn't last long. Their hopes were crushed very next morning and were thrown into dread filled state. The atmosphere was charged with tension, as everyone's nerves were on edge. Huddled groups of people could be seen, their voices low and urgent as they discussed the latest developments. Some clutched at one another in comfort, while others looked on with wide, fearful eyes. Everything was crashing inside their mind.
"Everyone don't trust the school authorities. I bring the latest news with the proof. The university had forcefully sent about 60 people to participate in the trial but only one survivor returned. Yesterday's speech was organized to increase the dependency of students on faculties. The wrong information was circulated in the program to make you guys let your guard down so, that authorities can have easy time controlling you. To stop the spread of correct information, they even killed the survivor. If ever they tell you to do something in the current state, don't do it. Don't trust them with your lives else they will manipulate you into their doings. I know not many will trust me as most of you just want to rely on someone to survive the order but I will just request you to check the video clip on your hostel television. They don't work on connectivity thus I was able to play it."
Everyone was shocked by the news. Why did everything have to happen at the same time. The suggestion given was god sent for the determinant one but was worst nightmare for the weak willed.
"What are you doing? I'm not done. Wait….You..I won't ever forgive you. You killed Riya's husband and had your eye on her. You scum, I won't yield to you.....krzzzz.."
The broadcast completed with that. Everyone went to see the footage in the TV and were shocked to find about the truth. The authorities tried to stop it but were unsuccessful due to the opposition force. Even within the working members, there were people who wanted to know the truth. They stopped the authorities from stopping the clip.
Prajwal was standing in front of the TV looking at the scene of two person conversing and then murder of the person on the bed. Audio did lack loudness but it was crystal clear due to the silent environment. "Well, it doesn't affects my plan. I didn't plan on entrusting myself to others. Nothing's changed, except I will be having an easy time on my future endeavour. University has lost it's commanding power. Better for me." Saying this Prajwal made way towards his room and once again locked himself inside. He was reviewing the content he had learn in the trial. 'Prana is converted into mana inside the body. So my end goal is opening orifices all over the body for absorption and converting them into mana. Where does mana stays inside body, where does it flow?
I don't know answer to any of these questions. So the first thing I should do is learn the process then work on it. I feel I will be needing energy for the procedure.' Prajwal ate all the servings left from last night and sat crossed leg, ready to activate his zone skill. He couldn't keep it active for the long time due to lack of skill grade and huge mental troll.
After about 20 minutes, he felt trace of prana in the air. It was just in small amount and that was what he needed. He used his zone skill and focused on particles of mana in the air. He tried narrowing down his target to just a small cluster and observed it's movement path. It entered his body though pores on his skin and moved towards the heart area. As he kept observing, all the clusters traveled in fixed bound path but it was not any of the existing stream of the human body. Though Prajwal couldn't see to such level inside his body, he could feel it. It was travelling in it's own stream. Prajwal kept on observing the path and tried remembering as many paths as he could and making a blueprint of the stream in his mind. What was happening to the cluster after reaching the heart area he couldn't tell. Was it forming circular ring or just a round mass, he could only leave it to imagination. But what he knew for sure that they were being compressed.
Though it felt like a long time, it had just been about a minute. Within that minute he had already come up with the plan to take maximum benefit from the process. Just as minute passed, the amount of Prana in the air spike up, it increased exponentially. Prajwal entered the state of mushin translated to 'no brain' (In this state, the practitioner is fully present in the moment, able to respond to any situation with spontaneous and intuitive action. The mind is clear and focused, allowing the practitioner to react without hesitation or second-guessing. They lose awareness of time and their surroundings. In this state, the mind and body are in perfect harmony, and the practitioner is able to perform at their highest level.)
He then freed the channel/stream he had remembered and stopped the flow around the heart area. This lead to him absorbing a vast amount of Prana and expanding his mana stream. If all the mana had reached his heart, he would have suffered for sure. New channels were being added on top as all other orifices slowly opened. Prajwal remembered all the path and built a stream in his mind which looked some what similar to blood stream but far more stronger and wider. He then did two work at the same time. Guiding the mana inside his body while in-taking a large amount of it from surrounding and controlling the flow of mana into heart area. As more and more of it accumulated into the stream, it was leading toward the rupture of the newly opened mana stream. He had to loosen the area around the heart area to stop the rupture.
Prajwal was suffering from pain all over his body. He slowly increased the amount entering heart area. This led to pain in the heart but he still continued. His whole body felt like cracking from inside but he went on. He knew that, for a sword to be made it had to go through continuous hammering after being melted into the mold. He too was going through hammering which will make him stronger. He limited the absorption just below the level where he would burst open. This process lasted for 10 minute but felt like hours for Prajwal. As soon as the Prana in the air stabilized, Prajwal blacked out. He didn't recover as fast as he had when he was inside the white room as there was not abundance of mana like that inside of the white room in the atmosphere. As Prajwal didn't activate the skill himself, he was slowly recovering passively but slowly using his regeneration skill and surrounding mana.