"She's been training for the last three years to support you in the future, and this is how you welcome her??" My mother was furious. "Is this what I've taught you all this time? Don't feel bad if she also treats you the same after this. You always get in return whatever you've given, and now you'll have to deal with the consequences."
"I'm sorry, Mom. I..I just lost it for some reason. I've been having some premonitions lately and the person I saw in them wasn't Divyani. It was a girl named Avanti." I lied capitalising on the knowledge from my past life. Disguising it as a power of premonition that I would awaken later in my life as the heir of Sapta family.
"Avanti...?" my mother suddenly went quiet. "How do you know that name? Did your sister tell you? No... she isn't supposed to know that, she was at my sister's house back in Alik..."
"What happened to her? Please tell me..." I asked dreading that something bad had happened.
"Her grandfather came to take her back. We thought she was an orphan of the Kuru-Kosala war, and unrelated to the six families, but it turned out that she still had family left who were looking for her. After verifying that she knew the person who came to fetch her, we let her go. Your powers must have awakened early if you came to know that because of your premonitions. I get it, but still you need to go and talk with Divyani. Am I clear?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry." I somehow mumbled the words. My face went dark thinking why this life had changed so massively like this. Never in my previous life did she ever mention having a grandfather who was still alive somewhere. Things are slowly getting out of my hand.
"Mom?" I heard my sister's voice from outside, "Divyani wants to talk with Arvind alone. Should we just leave them to sort things out among themselves?"
Mother got up and opened the door. Divyani was standing there with my sister, her eyes furious. There was a hint of fear and nervousness within them, but it was clear that I wasn't the cause.
"Ma'am, I would like to talk to your rude son once. Can you leave us alone, please?" Divyani said with a stern voice. Her previous act of innocence and helplessness had already vanished away like a cloud after a sudden shower.
Mom and Sister laughed watching her serious expression and closed the door behind Divyani.
Suddenly she was right behind me, her movements akin to a short range teleportation skill.
I turned around fast, bracing myself to defend against whatever attack she was preparing for but found her drawing blood red Aksharas on the wall instead.
"Asura..." I muttered in alarm jumping sideways to pick up a flower vase from the dressing table.
"I'm here to save you, so you better not act like that. I was thinking of playing along, but it seems that she has already arrived." Divyani whispered, her eyes and fingers straining, as more and more red symbols formed in front of her fingertips. They hurriedly arranged themselves to form the circumference of a human sized egg.
"What are you doing!!! You're not supposed to be here!!!!!" I suddenly heard my Mom shout outside the room.
I kept glancing back and forth between Divyani and the locked door as the world suddenly slowed down.
"Shit! How many abilities does she have???" Divyani, now exponentially slower than she was just a few seconds ago, cried out in frustration.
"Somi!! Stop your father! Something's wrong with him!!!" My mother again shouted, her voice filled with despair.
With a crash an explosion rocked the room, as my sister helplessly flew across, slamming against the wall opposite to the now decimated door. She slid down along the wall leaving a trail of red blood along it.
"No!! Didii!!!" With the flower vase in my hands, I ran over to her side, just to see her disappearing in a flash of lightning.
"Why do you keep stopping me?" An old woman's voice I've heard a thousand times suddenly came out from the middle aged man who was now standing at the entrance to the room. The man stepped over the remains of our wooden door as I saw my mother at his feet, holding onto his ankle with all her strength. My mother was already coughing out blood from being ambushed at the corridor, with her legs bent at weird angles.
"Kalpa!! Why are you possessing my father's body??" I realised at once what was happening after asking the stupid question. Kalpa has taken over my father's body, presumably to take care of the Asura who has infiltrated our safe haven. But why was Kalpa fighting with her own guardian and my mother?
"Tsk, making me do the dirty work. I didn't want to do this, but you leave no choice. You managed to teleport your daughter away despite my interference making sure she didn't witness this, but what about you?" My father's body lifted his free leg, turned around and crushed my mother's hands with a stomp.
"Kalpa, Stop!! You only have business with this Asura, stop hurting my mother!" I shouted out helplessly.
My mother's moans as she tried not to cry out in pain drove a stake through my heart. She was still holding on to my father's leg with haemorrhaged and mangled hands.
"Please, spare him...please..." she muttered, between her sobs of pain. My body suddenly flashed just like my sister, but the light around me dimmed as soon as it appeared. My mother was trying to teleport me away from here.
Him?
I've come to save you?
I threw the flower vase aiming at my father's face without wasting anymore time and dove towards the Asura, standing between them.
My father's body didn't waste time, rushing towards us to stop the teleportation circle that the Asura was creating.
I met him head-on.
I went flying across the room at first contact, his shoulder crashing into my collarbone breaking it to pieces as they burst out from my muscles and skin.
Just from a tackle, my lungs seemed to be failing already.
I got up to see my father holding up the girl by her messy hair, and plunging his hand right into her stomach.
Yellow blood flowed down his arm as he swung it, flinging the Asura's body across the room.
"It was an actual young girl?" Kalpa's voice laughed creepily.
"I died protecting you last life Kalpa! I completed the seven trials, giving you the items to germinate the Hiranyagarbhas. And this is how you repay me?? I'll do that again, so leave my family alone!" I shouted, frustration and anger building up within me. I didn't care about the Asura, but my mother and sister were gravely injured by Kalpa. God knows what happened to my father's soul too.
"Yes, the Saptarishis showed me. What a futile endeavour! Oh, how useless you were!!! And now your future shows how you will again stand as an obstacle in my plan. This time as well. It's better to have you as an enemy instead of an ally. You're so useless that your opponents end up benefitting from your presence...Or you can just simply die here. Let's try changing my fate one step at a time." Kalpa's trembling old voice laughed, sending chills down my spine.
Before I could say anything else to buy time, I found myself right in front of my father, his hand disappearing halfway into my chest.
For a second, I felt nothing. And then blood gushed out of my mouth, making me realise that I was already on my way to Naraka.
"Arvind!! Nooo...." My mother's broken and exhausted voice reached my ears from behind my father's body. She's still alive... Will Kalpa spare her after I'm gone?
Hell No.
But what can I do? I was useless without an awakened chakra, and without a shred of Kundalini inside my body.
I fell on the ground as Kalpa freed my father's hand from the middle of my chest, now with a gaping hole, making me wonder how on Earth I was even able to think of these things right now. Is this my brain working in full gear right before it exhausted whatever life force that was contained within?
Falling sideways, my eyes took in the scene of the young Asura's fingers moving discreetly, as she lied there pretending to be dead.
Time. We need a little more time.
The sense of emptiness was really uncomfortable. My breath kept getting blocked at my throat. I again felt the helpless feeling from back then. When I was standing between Kalpa and the mysterious young man.
Why did Kalpa have to come now? Why not earlier? And how was she even able to come here this time? Only the significant other of the family head is allowed to know the location of this place. Did someone before us get compromised? My grandmother? I've heard that she also stays in hiding and was supposed to train Avanti.
Wait. Avanti.
"What did you do with Avanti?" I said, the words coming out as if I was gargling water while pronouncing them.
"She simply cooperated without requiring any convincing." Kalpa smirked, "Why do you think both me and her died last time? Because of you and Kalki. Do you think she'll forgive you for that? If we can kill the vessel of Vishnu's Avatar at the very beginning, there'll be no one to stop the plan. Except for one. I just need to know who that person is. Such a mystery."
Avanti had also regressed like me. Then my other friends... They'll never forgive me? Heck, that was not me at all. Who would have thought Lord Vishnu himself would destroy Kalpa? But watching her actions right now, maybe there was sufficient reason to do so. Taking care of all the obstacles at the very beginning is totally against balance. You should give some time for the heroes to grow stronger!
"Vishnu's power is still keeping you alive. Well, no one's coming to save you, so let's see how long you can endure..." Kalpa said, driving my father's foot into my stomach. More and more blood flowed out of my body as my father's legs kept stomping ruthlessly.
My body flashed a few more times but the effect was again negated by Kalpa.
"Persistent woman. You'll be free after this ordeal. Why do you keep struggling?? You've always cursed your isolated life. I'm just getting rid of all your attachments making things easier for you. Just stay still and don't try anything. I'll only move from here after watching him bleed out and die. Can't take any chances. If you make one more movement, I'll have to kill you too." Kalpa's voice threatened my mother.
"Do you think a mother will stay quiet like that? You hypocrite. You say that you work for us? All you want to do is extend your life!! You just keep weaving lies to keep us in order. Do you think everyone of us will fall for that??"
I watched in horror as Kalpa controlled my father's body to walk out of the door towards my mother, who was scrambling away on her shattered knees, her blue hands now also bent in impossible angles.
"Devi Parvati!!! Please, listen to this mother's final wish. Keep these two children safe. I plead you!! You are free to claim all my being as a sacrifice... Please, just keep them safe... Ple.." her words stopped short with a sickening crunch that assaulted my ears from the right of the corridor. Away from my field of vision. My mother had deliberately distracted Kalpa bringing her away from the room.
Two more cracks echoed outside as tears rolled down uncontrollably from my eyes. Pain and anger washed over my dying body as I tried not to imagine what happened in the corridor.
Memories of my mother, fresh from this life, and hazy ones from my previous ones came rushing into my mind. They were the only two people who stayed by my side in this isolated place for the last ten years.
"Mom... mom..." I remembered her taking care of me, feeding me and teaching me various arts since I was small. Her smile whenever I memorized a whole song, and her angry face whenever I lazed around without completing basic chores, everything came to my mind all at once. Across all my lives, she has loved me unconditionally without fail or complaints.
The only woman in the whole world who will love me like that. And I just lost her. Because of an entity I was a slave to in all my previous lives. I lost her because I was weak. Because I was betrayed by Kalpa and Avanti. Only Avanti knew when this portal will be activated. Only she knew when she first arrived here. Only she knew the coordinates to this place other than my grandmother and mother.
Who teleported my sister? Was it Kalpa or my mother?? She's the only one left among my family, not including this husk of a man now standing at the doorway again.
Did the six families force my father to be a vessel for Kalpa? Knowing that he would be left crippled?
"You're still not dead?" Kalpa said, her voice laced with irritation.
"Tell that to Lord Vishnu. He'll choose a new Avatar instead, and your plan will fail again. You can't change the inevitable Kalpa. Your demise is already written in your fate. Good luck changing it." I gargled again, blood now filling up my nostrils and throat. I just wanted to die now.
"Do you know? Your father cursed himself making it impossible for him to hold a weapon? How much he cared for you all. What will happen when he returns to consciousness only to see his murdered family in front of him? With blood in his hands? If you die now, I'll save him from that fate. So sever your connection to Vishnu and die quickly."
I closed my eyes trying to shift focus away from the pain in my body. Let me die. Please. You can decide on a new Avatar later. Please, release me.
I suddenly felt my head tilting behind as if the ground below it had disappeared.
Kalpa was destroying this isolated space.
I suddenly felt ants crawling over my body, moving towards my neck. What's happening?
It gave the sensation of a dense condensation of Kundalini around my neck, as if someone had tied a collar there.
Kalpa also sensed that and swiped his hand at my neck. With my connection to Lord Vishnu intact, the only way to kill me will be to drain away all my blood, making me unable to hold Prana anymore. There were sap vessels for Shakti and Kundalini. For Prana it was our own blood vessels only. Connections with the divine involve exchanging Prana, the only energy currently available in my body. Without a status, I had no idea how much was even left inside. With my heart missing, it was only a matter of time before everything drained away, but my body seemed to be special. It was trying to sustain itself by isolating the chest, clotting at important places to stop the loss of blood.
The Asura was suddenly infront of me, putting her left hand between me and my father. It went rotating away somewhere to the right side. With her other hand she grabbed my neck, pouring out her Kundalini to activate the portal.
She was trying to cut off my head and her hand together, by summoning a portal right across my neck.
A blast of energy pulsed out of my father but the Asura held on. The walls of our house broke away revealing the same purple cosmic background that I had seen when Kalpa's dimension was destroyed.
I felt the portal finally activating, and everything went bl....
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