ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"That's an impressive amount of Kundalini you're handling." The Yogi's surprised face also had a slightly worried expression, "Your mind and body are collapsing. They are somehow holding on because of your unwavering spirit."
Just before the fourth peak's foothill started inclining upwards, I found a flat clearing amidst the mountain jungle of deodars. It took only a while to set up five stages of my plan.
It boggled my mind how a single blessing could bypass hundreds of hours of effort with just a single thought.
"Your Blessing cleared up a few things for me." I said while repeatedly invoking a Skill I temporarily received a few moments ago.
"I won't ever be able to express the Skill I've worked so hard for, because of its energy requirements." When the Kundalini restrictions of my body were alleviated, a 'new' skill had emerged from deep within my mind.
In the orange light of the setting sun, the air around me got heavy, trembling from the pressure of the dense Kundalini fogs I was summoning and attaching to my Kundalini control network.
A set of movements, motivations, designs, commands, and manipulations I've given countless hours of my life, condensed into a series of mantras containing my Will. My inner cringe self wanted to say those words aloud.
"Beads made my Fogs. Those Fogs became Astras. Now the Fogs are my beads and my weapons, Divyastras. Vikashita Avara!"
My vision became red, and my eyeballs wanted to pop out. Streams of hot liquid poured down my cheeks and followed my jawline. A metallic scent filled my nostrils, forcing me to wipe away the dark red blood that stained my palms afterward.
I chugged down four bottles of Sarpagandha medicine to calm my mind.
"A fitting name indeed. Even the Preserver's Maya is bending because of how dense your Kundalini is. You still have six minutes left. Are you going to give your all in the final minute of my blessing's duration?" The Yogi surrounded himself in a multi-layered golden Kavach, giving me a proud smile. "Come at me."
Phase one. I took a deep breath.
Extending my arms and then bringing them together, I called forth pure, raw destruction.
Hundreds and hundreds of ten-meter earth javelins manifested above the clearing, all pointing at the yogi. They started spinning, accelerating, and then shot toward their target, leaving sonic waves in the air.
The trees encircling the clearing swayed away from the impact site, pushed back by an enormous barrage of air bursts originating from the collision of my earth javelins and the Yogi's Kavach.
"To think you can break through the Swarna Kavach. This is truly one of the best ways to utilize my five-minute blessing. Show me more. This isn't your limit, right?" The Yogi's casual voice arrived from the smog of gravel, dust, and the remnants of my javelins.
Phase two. Fifty seconds left before the blessing runs out.
I replicated Pratyusha's hand movements of opening a lid and willed all the broken pieces of my javelins to surround the yogi. They complied, joining together to create a sphere enclosing their target inside.
I closed my fist and manipulated the earth prison to grow spikes on its inner walls and get smaller. The yogi burst out from inside, thwarting my plan and sending more gravel and stones my way.
Phase three. Thirty-five seconds left.
Manipulating this massive network of Kundalini fogs and Tethers connected to my traps would have used up hundreds of points of Kundalini per second, but right now, the only thing I expended was my mental energy.
My brain could not take it any longer. It wanted to implode inside my cranium. That feeling of enormous pressure trying to crunch my brain into a mess of gray matter made me sick to the core.
Blood and bile rushed out of my mouth, forcing me on my knees, but I still commanded the traps installed on the trunk of the trees and in the clearing.
The traps blossomed, sending earth spikes from below and wood splinters from all sides rushing toward the Yogi. They impaled themselves on his self-healing multi-layered Kavach, which regenerated no matter how many times they broke or cracked. The deodar trees, acted upon by a devastating force on their trunks, started falling in towards the clearing in an endeavor to crush the Yogi underneath.
With a few swipes of his Kundalini-cloaked left hand, the trunks of the collapsing trees turned into cuboid pieces of firewood, flew away from the scene, and the upper part of the coniferous trees, which contained its leaves, fell around him, crashing and wildly rustling into the ground.
"Using your surroundings to inflict physical damage is a good idea, but it won't work on most enemies."
"I know. I'm just trying everything that's coming to my mind."
I stumbled along the edge of the clearing, setting up more traps for the subsequent phases.
I brought out my staff, connected it with my gem, and planted its handle on the ground.
Next... What was I thinking? Yeah... I can't lose to the mental burden right now... Not after coming this far. Concentrate!
The Tinnitus in my ears grew stronger, cloaking away my sense of hearing. My vision started rippling as if I was starting to hallucinate.
Twenty seconds left? Fifteen?
Phase Four?
I brought out my training javelin and chucked it towards him. I felt so weak by now that it only reached his feet.
Sidestepping, he manifested another barrier around him as soon as he realized that my javelin was augmented with Kundalini grenades.
They burst out, sending sharp stones manifested from Kundalini in all directions.
The accelerating pieces of soil bore through his Kavach but stopped after breaching three out of seven layers.
"You could have taken a bit longer to plan out your strategy. Instead of throwing everything at me like this." The Yogi looked a bit disappointed. "There's only ten seconds of the blessing left."
I leaned against one of the broken trunks, still standing after losing its upper part.
Once the blessing dissipates, my Kundalini Tether network controlling all the fogs will no longer be able to support itself.
I slid down and sat at the base of the tree.
I need to act like I've given up.
Once the Tethers disconnect, it will trigger the next set of commands written into the fogs.
Using the last bit of my will, I placed all the fogs still floating around in their target places. Most of them were littered on the ground to mask my actual attack.
I'm sure he can already 'see' where all my energies are gathering. The only thing I need to do right now is make him think there's only one layer to my attacks, straightforward and destructive like I've been doing till now.
"Time's up for your Blessing. Do you want to continue for the next five minutes?" The Yogi asked, running his fingers along his long beard. "Hmm?" He looked around, "Your energies have already started dissipating back to the ground. It will then get carried by the Shakti Rekhas into the Peeths to be recycled and redistributed."
"That was a new bit of information." I chuckled and got up on my feet.
"I'll try it the traditional way next." I brought out a red javelin made from my unlimited Kundalini blessing a few minutes before.
It came with some options, which will probably be needed very soon.
Ultimately, it came down to what gave me the most leveling experience till now. Hopefully, they won't attack me instead.
My internal countdown timer had already started, and I needed to take him to a suitable place. My next phase will begin when only three minutes will be left.
With all the stray energy beads and fogs I had strewn about on the ground, it might get a little difficult for him to sense what was coming from underneath.
I drank the contents of three high-quality healing and two Sarpagandha medicines and straightened myself.
I only have thirty seconds before phase five starts.
Bracing myself mentally, I jogged towards the Yogi, brandishing my javelin.
He brought down his right arm to his thighs, and a trident rippled into existence, forcing me to slam the brakes and reconsider.
"No wonder." I started laughing. "Shouldn't I rejoice just from getting a chance to fight you?"
The Yogi's face twisted, dark shadows encasing his eyes sockets, "I wouldn't appear infront of people who think like that. You've been doing great. Don't disappoint me at the end."
We traced the circumference of an invisible circle moving clockwise and maintained a constant distance between us.
"I had tried to finish things in a minute, but it seemed impossible after all." I said, readying my javelin.
After planting my toes on the ground, I took off, lunging towards the Yogi.
I couldn't even see his weapon swinging at me.
It sliced through fourteen of my shield layers and slammed into my ribcage. After a sharp sensation of pain, the world started spinning and racing away across my vision as if I were on a train that also spun while it headed toward its destination.
Another instance of pain erupted from my back and traveled to my stomach, jolting my body to a sudden stop.
Looking down, I realized I was hanging above the ground, and my stomach wanted to open up sideways. I was now stuck to a tree parallel to the ground.
"You don't even have a bit of strength. How long will you depend on your Kundalini? Are you one of those who get satisfied with what they already have and get comfortable?" The Yogi started walking towards me.
Using my elbow, I pushed myself away from the tree trunk and its branch that had impaled me and fell on the ground with a thud. I spat out the soil gritting between my teeth and got on my knees.
"Allocating my status points to strength? It wouldn't have made a difference." I gurgled out blood and grasped my stomach tightly.
Bringing out two more high-quality medicines with a trembling grip, I somehow downed their contents.
"Three minutes left." He said.
Time seemed to be moving too slowly.
"You actually sent me flying to a rather safe place." I smiled, wiping away my bloody lips.
All of the Kundalini fogs lying on the ground, among the leaves of the fallen trees and even the ones that stuck themselves to the lower part of his spherical Kavach while he walked around on the ground bloomed simultaneously, activating another round of my offensive measures.
The landscape changed. Gigantic forty-meter stone pyramids burst into existence, crashing into each other and destroying everything in the clearing.
The earth rumbled and quaked as more and more fogs bloomed in a chain reaction, into stone sea urchins impaling the ground, themselves, and even the trees in the forest.
I slapped my thighs. Get ready!! For the next phase!
I retreated from the ensuing destruction and circled along the perimeter of a circular clock to a position where my final trap would be at twelve o'clock, my staff at one, me on the sixth hour, and the Yogi at the center of it all. The radius was the distance he maintained while we were playing catch-up.
The screeching and crashing sounds generated from the collision of my stone spikes and his Kavach were reminiscent of deep roaring thunders. The ground we were standing on was also collapsing, probably killing hundreds of my cute little wiggly friends.
As soon as the last of my fogs above the ground bloomed, I ran into the sandstorm.
I sent some Kundalini along the Tether connecting me and my Kundalini Javelin, activating the double Kundalini skin over its tip.
It started spinning like an industry-grade drill.
The rotational force from the drill was difficult to contain, but I had no choice. Gritting my teeth, I gripped it with all my strength, slid underneath, and jumped over the horizontal earth spikes on my way to the Yogi.
His Golden Kavach in the smokescreen was finally falling apart and disintegrating, but it won't be long before he created a new one.
My staff was already waiting for my command. It sent forth a concentrated ray of blue energy and pierced through the Yogi's collapsing shield, forcing him to turn towards hour one, exposing his back to me.
The air infront of his trident, held by his left hand, vibrated, dispersing the ray like a blue starfish, but I was already breathing on his back by then.
Only a thin layer of shield separated us, with cracks webbing along its surface.
Planting my feet with a thump, I thrust the spinning Javelin aiming at his back, opposite to where his belly button should be. My weapon forced itself through the Kavach but halted as if meeting a wall.
He had turned ninety degrees, stretched out his arms, blocked the water ray with his Kundalini-covered trident in his left hand, and caught my weapon's long handle with his right.
"This was better." He chuckled.
It was done.
I only needed to ensure that 'my' Kundalini came in contact with him.
I released the javelin and stepped back.
Sensing danger, he also teleported from the center of my imaginary clock to the twelfth hour. Right where I wanted. Maybe teleporting was easier and faster than summoning another Swarna Kavach from scratch.
He thought he had thrown away my weapon held in his right hand, but it had broken down into dozens of small wiggling sections, sacrificing the part he was holding. They latched onto his arm like leeches, but still, a thin layer of Kundalini separated them. The drill worms tried their best to bore through his energy skin but fell after using up all their latent energy.
"Was that all?" The Yogi asked expectantly with an amused smile.
"Extend your blessing for a few minutes, and I can show you more." I said and sat down on the ground, exhausted.
Final phase.
"Rules are rules, and I can't change the terms during the test. It will be for another time." He said, relaxing his arm and hiding away his trident back where it had manifested from.
"How much time was left?" I asked, anticipation building up within my heart.
"One and a..." He stopped, looking down at his feet.
He started laughing.
"Gotcha?" I asked, smiling back at him.
"Yeah, it seems you did."
Standing on one leg, he started pulling out the wiggling drill earthworms who had sunk their tips into the underside of his feet just a few millimeters in.
It was gross.
The Yogi also sat down, stretching out his legs.
"How come the ones on my hand couldn't while the ones underneath could...? They were made from the same amount of Kundalini." He wondered for a second before understanding the trick himself.
"You knew there were things underground." I said the obvious.
"I knew everything but clearly underestimated them. The benign payloads on the worms originating from the Javelin were there to trick my senses. And the ones underneath were using all their energy." He released a golden light, getting rid of all my wounds, fatigue, and mental stress.
After removing all the worms under his feet, he stood up and healed his shallow wounds. They were still not powerful enough to pierce through the actual divine skin of a God. Holding onto that thought, I asked, "Which incarnation are you actually?"
"The place I want to take you is far from here. You'll also need to return to your friends as soon as possible, right?" The Yogi pulled me up after he asked for my hand through a gesture, ignoring my question for now. "You need to take back the belongings of your seniors. Atleast the ones I had managed to recover. "
My heart halted for a second.
"Seniors?" I mumbled, trying to stop my brain from cooking up horrifying images of worst-case scenarios. What should I do? Should I let the Ashrama know? Did they leave behind their belongings for some reason?
"Yes." The Yogi said while preparing to whistle by putting his fingers under his tongue.
He blew hard, but not a single sound came out.
"You're too afraid of the future, Dhruva. The time you spend thinking about what might happen can lead you to paths where you can't come back from. Paths that people enter when they fail to act when it matters." He said without looking back at me.
Orange rays of the setting sun danced through the gaps of the rustling tree leaves, creating dynamic patterns on the green grass and the tree trunks while we walked in some arbitrary direction. Since he was already leading the way, I didn't care to check where I was going. I knew it was a wrong decision, but honestly, I was tired of thinking and using my brain right now.
I stopped as soon as I heard growling and a series of barks. The ground vibrated rhythmically as an enormous dark yellow dog pranced towards us, tongue wildly hanging out of its mouth. The dog seemed happy to see its master. Its shape and face resembled a veteran stray dog fighting in the streets for survival.
The Yogi gently tapped the glistening nose of the tank-sized dog.
I knew which Divine Being used a Dog as their Vahana.
"Allow me to complete my introduction. I'm the fifth of sixty-four Bhairavas, born from the matted locks of The Destroyer's Divine Hair. Also responsible for guarding the severed tongue of Primordial Goddess Adi Shakti." The Yogi raised himself and mounted the dog. "I would like to task you with the retrieval of the Shakti Peeth and return it to its rightful place. It's a mission your seniors failed to carry out ."
"Aren't you the actual guardian of the Peeth? Why aren't you going yourself?" I asked with a skeptical look, climbing up the dog behind him. The dog waited until I settled and started running.
"I will be going there." He glared back at me, "And I also went last time. But unfortunately, we failed. I thought the thieves managed to steal the Organ of Power because I was inattentive. But they were invisible, without any presence."
"Wait. Even 'You' couldn't sense them, and to top it off, they were also invisible?" I started panicking.
"Yes, they all had the Siddhi of a myth. It provides them with a powerful trait that keeps them hidden even from the eyes of Divine Beings..." Bhairava mentioned with a worried tone.
"Do you know why me and my friends are even here?" I asked.
"You came as reinforcements to take back the Peeth, right?" He looked back, confused.
"No. But it all makes sense now. Our targets are the same." I told him about the attack on the village by invisible Lakeh, Jamadagni's quest to revive the Saraswati river, and how they were connected.
"The Shata-Sahasra Padma you're looking for must have gained the myth of stealth after successfully hiding from the Avatar of Vishnu... The Lakeh somehow managed to transfer the myth onto themselves." Bhairava summarized. "They stole Devi Adi Shakti's tongue using that power and are probably planning something with it."
"I understand you all didn't know that your enemies were invisible... But still, even we managed to defeat a few of them. What went wrong with your first mission?" I needed to understand the depth of our enemies' abilities.
"Yeti." The Bhairava muttered coldly, "Thousands of them. And a lot more Lakeh. We fought for four days and nights, only managed to take out three-quarters of their numbers before succumbing..."
"Things got simplified by a lot. And we also got a powerful ally. Let's wipe them out for good. We even have a sage with us this time."
"But let us go visit my abode first. I have to reward you for passing my test. And get ready while we are at it." Bhairava asked his mount to gallop even faster. "What are your friends planning?"
"Hopefully, they'll come up with something and let me know by nightfall. By then, I'll have to complete attaching my Kundalini network to the reserve fogs I had created during our fight."
"Seriously?" Bhairava was exasperated. "I thought you were giving your all during the test."
"I was." I defended, "What I can control without your buff is just a mere fraction of what I showed you. With just a single thought, I had created my entire fog system, which I take days to create and kept aside for later."
"How much Kundalini did you actually use during our fight?" He asked for the technical details of it.
"I can usually control about six fogs for forty minutes with my staff, chakras, and gem taken together." I started doing calculations in my head, "Six fogs have about twelve beads within them, and every bead is made from eight points of Kundalini. But during our fight, I'm not sure either."
"Five seventy-six for usual then." Bhairava said instantly, "That's way more than the total capacity of Manavas. How old are you?"
"Twelve... "
Bhairava stopped his mount and turned around to look at me.
His fiery eyes bore through my flesh and started examining my soul. It felt really uncomfortable.
"Interesting." He started laughing. "You... I've been feeling this uneasiness for quite some time. How your body didn't match your mind. You're not twelve. That's all I'll say. I feel something huge is at play here. I, for some reason, managed to get a glimpse of that."