"Congrats on finally waking up. Considering the condition of your body, it would have been better to take leave for another month and reincarnate with a new body instead."
Responding to Divyani's sarcastic wake-up call, I shifted my weight to the right elbow, pushing myself halfway up on the bed I was resting.
The morning sun outside was bright, forcing me to squint my eyes. The familiar smell of the baked mud walls and the fresh grass around me calmed my mind.
"I was down for eight months?" I fell back on the bed from my previous position, looking up at the ceiling. The muscles and joints of my body seemed to be contracting involuntarily, sending flashes of pain to my neural connections. My whole body felt weak and groggy, as if I had been suffering from dengue or chicken pox for quite a while.
"Shukracharya is mad at you. He warned you against using Descension for more than seven minutes. And you forced the connection for more than fifteen minutes." Divyani started scolding me, her eyes painted with hues of worry, anger, anxiousness, and disappointment.
After living with her for over eight years, I have already gotten hold of the secrets behind her subtle eye movements.
"Arvind." I heard Tejas, our gauntlet using Surakshak, from the door of my hut. "Good to have you back." His voice was as calm as always.
"I'm sorry... Tejas, but it was thanks to you that we got to return here safely while fulfilling a part of our mission." I remembered how he had sacrificed himself and provided us with the energy to teleport ourselves and the Rakshak corpses back to Tal-atala.
"It was the least I could do. Without you risking yourself while holding off all those sages, we would have lost more of our lives." He gave a reassuring smile, showing gratitude for what I had done.
"It was all Shukracharya's plan. He wanted us to gain experience and face our reality. That there are Rakshaks more potent than us already..." I mumbled, knowing that my words could annoy Divyani.
"He's like that only. The Daityas he sent to the other sections also got taken care of within one or two hours. Who knew they had such an intricate information network among the grades? Those four Daityas shared the fragments of a single soul. All four needed to be killed simultaneously, and they still did it." Divyani briefly described the bait we had laid in other sections of the Ashrama.
"Couldn't we have kept one of them here?" I asked instead, wondering what kind of fool required all four of them to go to the battlefield if a condition like that existed.
"Blessings always have a caveat. The Daityas needed to stay within a certain distance of each other to work properly. From this, we can deduce that all the sections of the Ashrama are located together in a group, near each other." Divyani went into detective mode, spouting things I already knew about.
"Knowing the location won't matter anymore. The rules of the barriers have already been changed to keep 'us' away. Shukracharya will require another hundred years to create a chitram that can force a couple of Asuras through the Ashrama barriers again. Forget about attacking them anytime soon." I remembered my fight with the sages as if it happened just yesterday.
I don't think I'll be able to reach such heights even after the promised three hundred years. Instead, I might have to keep training until that timer countdown touches zero.
Even Omkar came to meet me after I woke up, but I couldn't find a single trace of Nanditha.
"What happened to her?" I asked Divyani while drinking a weird blend of herbs made by Shukracharya. It tasted a lot like a mixture of bitter gourd and Tulsi.
"She either became a Forgotten or got captured." Divyani was quite casual about it, "She didn't return with us. Nor did she get resurrected in her hut on the off chance that she got killed."
An uncomfortable silence soon descended upon us. "So we just left a friend back there." I whispered, letting that sink in. Considering the number of lives she had taken during the invasion, she won't meet a peaceful fate.
"Our plan was full of hasty decisions. We should have started with Mayapuri's energy beam attack and then cleared up the rest who managed to stay alive through that." Divyani summarised our experience, keeping count using her fingers, " The barrier could have been set up better. Omkar's tree-staff's remote viewing option should have been enabled initially. Me and Tejas also underestimated our enemies a lot. Especially those chosen ones of Kalpa... When we finally delve into those temple dungeons, a single of these mistakes can easily wipe our whole party out."
"What did Maya say about the 'batteries' we brought?" I asked, my voice choking at those specific words.
"Not worth the investment." Divyani looked around and wondered whether to actually say what she was thinking, "The energy ray apparently used up a lot of Mayapuri's stored energy. The batteries we brought are nowhere near enough to compensate for that. And on a personal note, just when I finally managed to summon my Ayudhapurusha successfully for the first time... Those seniors had to come and foil our plans. Have you seen them in your previous life?"
"Probably not." I could only speculate, "Them being just powerful enough to thwart you and Tejas... means they should be in seventh or eighth standard. Any higher, and we wouldn't even have lasted a second. When I entered Ashrama last life, these Rakshaks might have already been in the tenth standard."
"That's a huge gap indeed. Next time, no matter who it is from the Rakshak's side, I'll make sure to win. I have to feed enough compatible chakras to Padmaka's Ayudhapurusha in preparation for that." Divyani's eyes glittered with determination.
A few weeks later, when I could finally walk on my two legs, Shukracharya summoned all of us. There were also two new faces who will probably become replacements for Nanditha.
"I hope you all will have no more qualms about the training regiment I have designed for the next couple of centuries." Shukracharya started his 'even longer than usual' speech.
"Only after I deem you worthy of leaving Tal-atala, will you be able to go out searching for mere tools to increase your strength. Unless you polish yourself to shine like divine obsidian, any ornament you adorn will just be an insignificant piece of jewelry." Shukracharya stopped momentarily and faced me, "Arvind, your body has been broken beyond repair. I did not wish for this outcome when I decided to Descend on you. But setbacks can also be used to gather motivation."
"So I can still be healed?" I asked, judging from the direction our talk was going in.
"Yes. But considering your current condition, I'm unsure whether you'll gain the necessary qualifications for that." Shukracharya looked a bit dejected. The only eye he had, other than the one on his forehead that almost always stayed closed, twitched only once while he pondered whether to tell me.
"The lowest Loka of this Brahmand, Nagaloka, has seven divine springs guarded by the Naga Kings like Padmaka. The one you'll require is the Divine Kund protected by Shankha. It's the same one that gave Bhima, the peerless hero from Mahabharata, a strength equivalent to ten thousand elephants. Your body will be reformed if you can bathe in that spring."
"We'll become strong enough to take on the trials of Shankha. So Father, keep teaching us." Divyani's enthusiasm was palpable. She always turns into an innocent, obedient child in front of Shukracharya.
"That I anyway will. Your first task will be to adopt the qualities of nagas and weave them into every fiber of your being. Imagine all the aspects of your life and give them a form inspired by snakes." Shukracharya started describing the tasks one after another.
This is something I never got to learn about in my previous life. Even Bhima's source of strength that he obtained from Nagaloka was shrouded in mystery. Who knew such wondrous secret items really existed in this Universe?
"So all I have to do is imitate the mannerisms of snakes..." I summarized, "From waiting patiently and sinking your venomous fangs into your prey in an instant, to their instincts... Even the way I use and imagine my energy."
"Yes. And only then will you get the mark of a Naga, a proof of your candidacy to one of the spring's trials." Shukracharya completed what I started.
"But why only one?" I asked, wondering what more constraints were there.
"That's the maximum any vessel can hold. Too much greed has always been the downfall of numerous ambitious people like you. Learn to keep it in control." He warned, "Do not test yourself, even if it is the Avatar's vessel."
I looked down, thinking about the useless rules set in place from the very beginning.
"Can't I put in a parasite bathed in a different spring inside me?" Omkar asked suddenly. Leave it to the insane guys to ask the unorthodox questions.
Hearing that, Shukracharya went into deep thought. "I'll try to find the beings that are suitable, taking the conditions into consideration. Keep up your training until then."
"I thought that would go differently." Tejas confessed, hearing Shukracharya's response.
After the meeting, we headed up to the Mayapuri, floating up in the sky using Shukracharya's teleportation spell.
No matter how many times I came here... It never failed to amaze me. The whole city was like a moving factory, reshaping itself autonomously and carrying out God knows what functionalities other than 'that', in the middle of the sky.
A multitude of brass, bronze, and golden towers stood erected in between the square 'containment' zones of the city, looking like the tubes of a pipe organ. They continuously billowed steam or flares of a sentient fire that kept changing colors.
We made our way to the northern tower, which seemed much like the twirly Suvarna Vrikshya, with a single stem in the middle and two separate sections spiraling around it. It felt like two colossal hooded serpents were coiled instead.
"The odds were not in your favor, so don't feel too disheartened. After all, holding out against that many blessed Rakshaks is no small feat. The equipment I forged for you must have been quite helpful." Maya's voice echoed against the walls of the topmost laboratory we were in.
As usual, he was nowhere to be seen. I sometimes suspect that maybe he's the whole laboratory itself. Levers, gears, crystals, mechanical parts, and ores were flying around the room as if controlled by numerous invisible Bhootas, positioning themselves in appropriate order and orientation to build machines, which were then carried off into a lift that sent them down the tower.
Bhootas... I felt pity for the Rakshaks, remembering what Omkar had done during the Ashrama invasion.
I could sometimes register the faint outline of a camouflaged humanoid in the periphery of my vision, but whenever I tried to focus, it would disappear in an instant.
"They were helpful. Especially mine." Divyani answered Maya with a smile while marveling at the mechanical storm rearranging the room itself.
"You manifested Padmaka's essence. Wonderful job, Divya!" Maya's voice arrived from behind us this time. "We have hordes of unruly demonic Nagas around Mayaprastha. You can... Use them." His voice became somber for a few seconds.
"You couldn't recover them?" I asked, staring at the containment zones from a French window overlooking the expanse of the deserted Mayapuri. There were Asuras living here, but not in a way like ordinary citizens.
"I was too late. The rate at which the essences of common Nagas erode in the Lokas above Nagaloka is quite rapid. It doesn't take long before they lose themselves to the Kruras. If you're not a kin of the Naga Kings, it's a death sentence to be banished from their Loka." Maya talked about the need for confinement zones in Mayapuri.
"Did it close up? Or is the hole still there?" Divyani asked excitedly, changing the topic. "I last saw it when I first arrived here. How many years was it?"
"Some forty years ago. You seem to be growing up too fast, little child. You should come by more often..." Maya's voice got a bit sentimental. "Everyone I have taken care of always met a gruesome fate. I hope you also won't go down a path of self-destruction like them. Come, I'll show you Pashupat-astra's Avasesha. Since you keep using the teleportation Chitram, you haven't seen the floors below, right?"
We took the lift that went down through a glass tunnel, exposing the inner areas of the central tower. Thousands and thousands of purple-green cylinders were arranged along the tower's walls, with an intricate network of tubes connected to them.
Golden bubbly liquid extracted and purified by huffing and puffing machines from the rotting bodies within the cylinders was passing through the tubes that met in a large distribution tank down below. This golden 'essence' is what reduces the Corruption rate of the Asuras race living inside the cuboid containment zones inside Mayapuri.
It is like a retirement home for elders, which is quite a controversial topic to dabble on for the people living both in Alik and Satya.
"When the Asuras are at the end of their lifespan, they finally gain control of their senses from the rampant Kruras that dictate their actions throughout their lives. I provide them with an environment to try and achieve Moksha before they reincarnate to repeat the process." Maya's disembodied voice echoed inside the lift, but I instinctively knew where he was standing.
I was fighting desperately against reaching out and touching him to confirm my guess.
"So without the guarantee that they will achieve enlightenment, innocent Manavas are sacrificed in the process?" Tejas subtly poked at Maya, trying to question his selfish actions.
"There's always two kinds of people in this world. People you care about and strangers. You'll be full of vulnerabilities if you can't distinguish between the two." Maya replied, his echoing voice now reduced to a whisper, "All the Asuras and you all are 'my' people. I don't care what happens to the rest."
The tower's basement had many more floors that were slowly revealed to us one after another as the lift kept descending.
We finally stopped at a floor with only a circular gate on the opposite wall.
Asuraksharas crept up the door as soon as we came out of the lift, starting an enormous engine somewhere behind the door with an intense humming sound. A circular hole opened up from the center of the door and stopped expanding only after reaching its circumference, exposing what was hidden behind it.
I shivered as a torrent of cosmic energy, the element of the topmost chakra, crashed into me. Having awakened it in my last life, I knew how potent the power was. I could feel a massive radiation crawling across my skin, threatening it to crack and wither away.
"Will we be alright?" Tejas asked Maya while rubbing his arms and squinting his eyes at the enormous purple-blue dimensional crack in the air.
"Don't worry, it's just a first-time feeling of something you've never experienced. Once your body registers this, you won't feel uncomfortable anymore. Look at Divyani. She's totally fine." Maya replied patiently.
I hate to say it, but he's a better teacher than Shukracharya.
Shukracharya always confuses us with seasoned Asuras and skips the basics of advanced concepts, thinking we already have them in our grasp. It makes sense considering his usual non-Manava students, but we can't change anything even if we argue with him about this. He's very gung-ho about the whole mentoring process... He thinks that his regiment is tailored to us specifically and that there's no need for any discussions.
Classic narcissistic Krura working its best in Tal-atala.
Even beings who have attained Moksha become vulnerable to the Kruras after staying in the lower Lokas for a long time.
I kept staring at the starry universe stretched beyond the dimensional crack. Looking carefully, I could see another crack inside it... Then another...
"Isn't it beautiful?" Divyani was amazed at the infinite sequence of embedded cracks. "If you concentrate, you'll suddenly find yourself between the cracks, extending on both sides... They'll get closer as if you're traveling between them... I got petrified the first time I saw it."
"It's just the cosmic energy playing with your brain." Omkar gave a thoughtful gaze, "It can be a basis for a good illusion. I'll have to try it later. The problem is the quantity of Shakti required to filter cosmic energy. Our Asuran chakra can create all seven elements, but the amount of Shakti used in the process differs."
"But even a small quantity of cosmic energy amplified with Maya can be potent. If you require some lessons, I'm willing to teach you on top of Shukracharya's regiment. Only if he allows..." Maya's voice moved places, surrounding Shukracharya, who had been keeping his quiet till now.
"If he's still able to walk after the day's training, I'll send him to you." Shukracharya's lips had a faint, amused smile.
"So this is from where Lord Shiva's Pashupat-astra arrived in Patala... The lowermost Iron city of Tripura must have been situated underneath the current Mayapuri, right?" One of the newer members of our team mentioned. They clearly looked like a girl but had the voice of a boy. I remember coming across people like that in my previous life. They had powerful word magic and used to live together in close-knit communities.
"Yes. The three children of the Mighty Tarakasura that I took care of after his death had asked for a boon from Lord Brahma, the Creator, after a penance of fifty thousand years. Of three cities, one for each one of them that can only be destroyed by a single arrow." Maya's voice trembled with sorrow and regret, "I couldn't save them when the negative impulses started to take over their minds. They repeated the wrongdoings of their ancestors, going down a path of destruction, oppression, and usurpation. I thought I had taught them well... I thought they were only being careful since they had lost their homes once... Who knew they still had so much hatred for the ones who killed their real father."
His voice choked at the words 'real'. Somewhere down the line, maybe, Maya had started considering them as his own children.
I remembered the stories of the battle of Tripura. Three cities, made of iron, silver, and gold, were hidden away in the three major dimensions of heaven, earth, and underworld while always ensuring they never came in a straight line joining the dimensions.
But after a few thousand years, predetermined by fate, those cities would line up right when their rulers' actions tilted the scales of Karma to their breaking point.
As a result, Lord Shiva, the Destroyer, was invoked to destroy the three cities, returning balance among the scales of Karma.
Shiva incarnated as a five-headed deity, Tripuranataka, and used the abode of the Gods, Mount Meru, as a bow, the Naga King Vasuki as a string, the Earth Goddess Prithvi as his chariot, Brahma the Creator as his charioteer, Vishnu the Preserver as the arrow, Agni the fire deity as the arrowhead, Pavan the wind deity as fletching, Surya and Chandra as the wheels of his chariot.
The other Devatas also joined in, combining their powers to create a weapon of mass destruction that could bore its way through all the dimensions and destroy all its targets wherever they were.
Massive respect to the three brothers for cooking up something that forced all the Gods to come together.
They could have simply lived their lives peacefully in their own cities, but no, they just had to take over and oppress the people of all the Lokas.
There are many versions of the story that try to provide a proper insight into the corruption of the three brothers, but none seem fully convincing.
"The leftover cosmic energy from this huge dimensional hole is an important ingredient in purifying the Kundalini produced by the chakras of the Manavas." Maya described the functions of the twisted machinery surrounding the Avasesha, which was leeching off its energy.
"Wait." Tejas looked confused for a second, "I thought Kundalini was already a purified version. Can we do it further?"
Both Maya and Shukracharya smiled, "That's the difference between the Chakras of the Devas and the others. Their Chakra can combine Prana, the seven elements, raw Kundalini as well as Shakti to create Divine Energy. After they drank Amrita, their physiology changed, enabling them to use a power beyond the imagination of other species like us."
"So what are we even trying right now? Why go against such beings who are clearly superior to us?" Omkar asked impatiently. The grip on his staff got stronger, popping out veins. The experience from our invasion has probably left him restless. Coming across stronger enemies made him rethink his previous attitude and strategies, forcing him to reconsider his goals.
"Imagine an archery competition." Shukracharya began his explanation, "Each participant was granted one minute to hit their targets. However, an unexpected interruption occurred as a cow wandered into the arena, bringing the competition to a temporary halt. Once the cow was safely relocated, the contest resumed. But a peculiar twist ensued: one group of participants resumed from their previous positions, while another unfortunate group had to restart the challenge without having their timers reset."
"We can choose not to participate anymore. Since the game got rigged." Tejas' opinion was not surprising considering his character.
"That's what the Nagas of the lowermost Loka did and got vulnerable to the Krura of Sloth." This time, Maya continued instead of Shukracharya, "But not everyone is like them. We too, have our pride and the desire to win in this so-called competition. What Kalpa and her minions are trying is to ban us from the game itself. Beings who have attained Moksha might retain their consciousness through the Renewal process, but without a species called the Asuras, I might be reborn as something else entirely."
"But why is she doing this? What gave her this much power, and how will she go about doing this?" The other new member chimed in.
He was a thin guy with a severe case of malnutrition, with one arm missing from the elbow. I looked down, my heart getting heavy at the pitiful sight.
"We already know about the third question. About the first two... No idea." Tejas replied to the new guy.
"We didn't ask to be born this way. I am doing all I can to help my brethren fight against their very nature. The corruption of Adharma keeps gnawing at our essences until it takes over our consciousness. There's no stopping it... But even after all these disadvantages, if even Kalpa makes things difficult for us, we will have nowhere else to go to..." Maya lamented the condition of the Asuras.
"There's also a limit to what I can do for the Asuras. We need someone who can bring together all the seven Patala Lokas to fight against Kalpa. Even though things will end up like it does every time. Once the scales tilt, the Trinity always makes sure to decimate the balance breakers. But we can try to make Kalpa a target, instead of the Asuras this time..." Shukracharya's brain started working through the possibilities the end of this Kali Yuga could take. The way his eyes twitched gave me an inkling that he was visualizing the future of a few executable plans.
"The Manavas are already on the verge of corruption. Why don't we take the attention of the Devas away from us and push it onto them instead?" Maya suggested. Did he forget that we too, were Manavas here? Or, with a change of vessels, can we be considered Asuras already?
Shukracharya glanced at us for a brief moment. "What do you think? Do you all wish to leave behind your Manava origins and become true Asuras? We can try to work out something if you agree... Other than Arvind. It's better not to tamper with the Avatar's Vessel yet."
As silence descended in front of the Avasesha glowing with purple-blue energy, I remembered what had happened the last time.
Instead of the Asuras, it was the Manavas of both Satya and Alik who got punished by the Trinity. Save for a few, who were isolated in the nick of time by Kalpa. Me and my friends were among them.
I was so conflicted... I wondered who occupied this body. And to which group this body belonged. Was I the Arvind of a different Brahmand with my affiliation to the Manavas, or am I of this world but with the memories of a different one and affiliated with the Asuras?
At this point, there's no sense in remembering the events of my past life, considering how much things have changed already. All I can do is remember the skills, techniques, and items that can be a game changer in this run. I need to make myself and my friends stronger. I need to avenge my family and destroy Kalpa. Finally, at the end of it all, I have to stay alive.
That's it. I have to live more than twenty physical years this time.
"Guys... Can you hear me?" A sudden voice transmitted itself straight into our brains.
"Nanditha?" Tejas' face flushed with various emotions, from relief to worry and anxiousness. He squatted down, covering his face with his right hand.
His reaction honestly surprised me. I didn't expect anything going on between them from the way they acted around each other.
"Where are you? Are you safe?" Divyani asked next, looking around to locate the source of her voice.
"There's good and bad news." Nanditha's voice inside our heads started rambling, "I'm safe for now but under confinement with all my equipment confiscated. Killing me will serve them no purpose, it seems. I have been sending out constant messages and finally got some replies. I wonder what's different this time."
It must be the dimensional hole in front of us. Having passed through all the Lokas, the Avasesha of Pashupat-astra is like a shortcut connecting all of them together. Her messages must have had a destination signature based on our energies, and being close to this gateway, we can easily contact each other.
"Sorry, I don't have much time. The person helping me in creating this communication channel won't be able to avoid detection if I go on much longer." Nanditha continued, "The Ashrama is making movements to guard the Peeths. There are other Asura factions who are controlling things from behind the scenes. Try to find out what their final goal is and join hands if it coincides with ours. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine... But don't take too long, okay? I'll keep sending updates whenever I can. Goodbye for now."
We stared at each other after the connection cut off.
"How are we supposed to save her?" Tejas looked at Maya and Shukracharya expectantly.
They didn't say anything in return.
"They won't do anything drastic to her, so don't worry, Tejas." I tried to calm him down, "If I remember things from my past life correctly, the people living in the Ashrama are not... Like us."
"What an irony." Tejas glared at Shukracharya, "Did we really have to go on this mission? The Rakshaks got Blessed anyway!"
"If you look at it carefully, we gained a lot by sending you there. The only things we lost were a member who can now act as an information provider and a healthy Avatar vessel that can also be cured. " Shukracharya gave his usual logical arguments, shutting down Tejas for now.
I could instinctively feel Tejas seething in anger.
"The things you need to do still haven't changed. Nothing like this would have happened had you all been stronger." Maya reproached all of us for some reason, "Complete your training as soon as possible and go to the Nagaloka for the Divine Kunds. Only then will you be able to withstand everything coming for you in the future. We will take care of the rest."
I sighed, thinking about our bleak future. I remembered the stories of the previous Avatars and how they had to overcome massive obstacles. I thought about the charisma and strength they possessed, being direct incarnations of the Preserver.
I was a far cry from all of that. I was weak, pathetic, and broken. Maybe there's a reason I'm not like the other Avatars. Perhaps a lot is going on that we aren't yet cognizant of.
Since Vishnu has let me be till now, maybe I'm just fulfilling a specific role in his all-encompassing plan.
Just like last time...
Isn't this what I hated the most in my last life? Didn't I want to be powerful enough that no one could make me dance on their palms?
Kalpa, Vishnu, and now Shukracharya... I can't stay naive and gullible like this. I'll have to devise plans allowing me to gain the upper hand no matter who was on the other side.
This time, I'll live for myself and the people I care about. Why did I forget about all that? Are the Kruras taking over my mind too, now that I have the chakra of an Asura inside me?
I'll have to start setting up plans using the knowledge of my previous runs. I have to find my sister, the last of my family, and keep her safe.
About Divyani, Tejas, Omkar, Nanditha, Maya, Shukracharya, and the two new people, I'll decide after more time passes. I'm still not sure who'll stick with me till the end.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo