"What are you doing?" "...son"
Boddh looked beside him hearing a deep sombre voice but couldn't see anyone. He saw a handsome man flying in the air as he looked ahead. The man with porcelain skin, like Boddh, had hazel green slanted eyes, a greatly sought Greek nose, and thin lips. He had medium-length textured black hair with streaks of white flowing backwards on both sides of his hair showing that he was old, maybe in the late 30s, though that didn't make him look anything bad, in fact, the old look brought out his beauty a lot more. His looks and each gesture he made had a certain elegance and aesthetic feel to them. It was like a work of art was brought to reality.
Boddh was momentarily lost in the looks of the middle-aged man so much that he forgot the most important fact that the man was flying in the air. He came back to reality when a word echoed in his mind.
'...son'
As he came back to reality and noticed the man flying and the word the man uttered, he unconsciously let go of the railing but just as he was about to fall, he was caught by the flying man's hand.
The man looked around and said, "Though the view here is great, let's move somewhere else and talk."
The man pulled Boddh closer and flew away. Boddh looked around and was speechless at the scenery that he saw. He had always wondered how it would feel if he flew away from all his troubles like the birds and he had to admit it was something he was never gonna get tired of.
----------
After an hour of flying, they were at the top of a waterfall, when Boddh saw the view of the waterfall from higher up, he was again dumbstruck and thought, 'Maybe this is what heaven looks like.'
When they both got down to the edge of the waterfall, Boddh could see a cottage a bit far away and hills all around. The man then spoke,
"Madhe Ghat Waterfall, a great view, isn't it? Your mother and I used to come here a lot before.", even though the man was smiling, Boddh could feel a hint of sadness in the man's voice.
"You're my father? How am I even supposed to believe that? And who even are you? Flying in the air?", Boddh snapped back to reality and asked immediate questions he had on his mind.
"I'm telling you I'm your father, is it that hard to believe? And what? Although I've never been there for you when you grew up, did you never see my photos in the album?"
"Yeah, yeah, if you are my father then I am..", Boddh snapped his fingers and said, "...Ironman."
His father had a weird look on his face hearing that.
"Kkhhmm..., well all the photos got burned in the fire when I was a kid and I don't remember much.", Boddh coughed a bit seeing that look.
His father then took out his Aadhar Card (an Id card in India) and which had his name and photo on it.
"... Anurak Dharma", Boddh looked at it and remembered his father's name being the same as it was on the Id card.
"But these can be forged."
*sigh*
His father sighed and said, "Well, at least you are a smart one.", and took out the leaf-shaped pendant he was wearing around his neck and showed the photo inside of it. It had the same man but slightly younger, his mom and a kid in her mother's arms. Both of them were smiling ear-to-ear and looked like a great happy family and the kid in the photo was him.
"You really are...", Boddh had a strange look on his face as he faced the truth that the man standing in front of him was really his father and all the resentment and pain that was built up flowed down like a waterfall from him.
"Where the hell have you been, you bastard of a father? Do you know what I had to go through because you were never there for me? E-even mom died in a fire accident. W-what have you been doing, a-answer me...Dad?"
His father, Anurak could feel deep hatred and resentment from Boddh's voice and at the same time could only imagine what hell he had to go through. Anurak got close and hugged Boddh and hugged him tight as well as at the same time softly. Boddh felt warm, even though he had never met his father before but at that time being embraced by him, he felt like he would be safe now, and after a long time tears finally flowed down his cheeks as he didn't hold back and let go of his emotions. He never cried when his real mom or even Priya died, it was like something broke inside him but this moment was all he needed to get out of that trance.
All Anurak did was embrace Boddh and say, "I'm sorry Boddh for not being there for you, I'm sorry for not being there when you needed me the most, I know no excuse of mine would help alleviate the pain that you had been through but just know that this father of yours is really sorry Boddh and everything's going to be okay now, I'm here for you, I'm here for you..."
----------
After about half an hour of crying, Boddh let go of his father and felt like a heavy load had been lifted off his heart. After recollecting his thoughts, he then asked his father about his whereabouts and why he never contacted him before.
"So.... why did you not come before, Dad? Where had you been?"
His father had a resolute look on his face and said in a solemn voice, "Before that, there is a truth you need to know Boddh, actually, your mother did not die in an accident but was murdered!"
"W-w-what?! How?!"
Boddh had a bewildered look after hearing this as he had always thought of his mother's death as a fire accident and even the police investigation concluded the same that the fire broke out due to a gas pipeline explosion. Anurak continued,
"She was murdered by what we call 'Outsiders'. Your mother, Yona, was a warrior of the 'Swadharma Tribe' and she died while fighting them. They had gone to get you but you were not at home that day and so your mother fought them to protect you."
Boddh then remembered that that day was Saturday and was supposed to be a holiday from school but since he had a martial arts competition that day, he had to go to school and when he came back he found his house on fire and his mother's charred body.
"B-but there were no signs of any fighting, if someone had fought, then, surely people would have noticed?"
"Boddh, does flying in the air sound plausible to you? There are some artifacts capable of creating illusions to prevent any outside interference. Here, let me show you.", Anurak then took something out from within his pouch and murmured lightly, " 'ʃild' ".
"What happened?", Boddh could not notice anything strange in the surrounding.
"Trying moving 100 yards back."
Boddh did as he was instructed so and when he reached the 100-yard mark, he was stopped, it was like some intangible force was stopping him from moving forward.
"What is this, Dad?"
"It's a barrier field, Boddh."
"Ummm... like in the novels?"
"Is that what's trending these days? Well, you can say so. Magic is real, Boddh. Though I don't deal with that stuff instead what I used was a 'Magic Artifact'. "
"Dad, tell me the truth, what's happening?"
"Well, where should I start..... have you heard of the Akashic Records?"
"Ummm... yeah I guess so, it's come a lot in the novels these days."
"It will be easy to explain then. You see, there is something called the 'Akashic Records' and these records are a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms, not just human. In simple terms, it's a broader form of the Internet. It exists and also at the same time it doesn't. Now, 'Akashic Records' is also a protector of our universe, I can't say about other universes but in our universe, 'Akashic Records' has records since ancient times when our universe was formed. No one knows how it was formed or what its main purpose was but there have been some records of its existence. Let me ask you something, do you believe in gods? Like Shiva, Buddha or Jesus or any other?"
"Ummm... No."
"Well, the thing is they do exist but not as Gods that people know but are transcendent beings who have tapped into their higher self and are capable of powers which people call miracles. They are not truly gods, but their intelligence and power are so ahead of us that they seem deities. Like I was flying earlier."
"So you are a transcendent being too?!"
Anurak had a troubled look hearing that, well every father wants to be a cool dad in front of their child, don't they?
*sigh*
"No, Boddh. What I just did was just a portion of the powers that those beings are capable of."
Anurak thought that Boddh would be disappointed hearing that his father was not a transcendent being but Boddh's reaction was quite the opposite.
"Wow! So you are in the process of being one?!"
"Umm.. yeah, you can say so. Anyway, so what was I saying? Yeah, these transcendent beings who grew so strong that they were able to tap into the knowledge of the existence of 'Akashic Records', that's when people started knowing of the existence of 'Akashic Records'. They came to know that some entities exist in the deep space which we refer to as 'Outer Gods' and their minions as 'Outsiders'. What we know as of yet is that their main purpose is to infiltrate this universe. We don't know what their reason is but all their minions have done before is only catastrophic and destructive."
"The 'Akashic Records' had created an intangible wall before which stopped the advance of these 'Outer Gods' in our universe. But around 5000 years ago, the wall started to be affected little by little, its power was fading. We have no idea what this effect was caused by, the most plausible idea which is being believed by everyone is that their power is growing. In the beginning, it was just a minimal effect but soon the 'Outsiders' started to enter the universe and interfere with the world's process."
"We have no information of how they know but many times, they have led many worlds to their destruction. Most of the time, they did so by killing a notable figure of that world who was supposed to be the one to lead the world to a better and stronger path but few worlds met their destruction even though no significant figure was killed but their traces were found there."
"And I have been fighting those 'Outsiders' for the past 12 years at the wall and that's the reason that I couldn't come before to take care of you and had to stay away. Your mother and I met each other on the battlefield too and before we knew we were in love with each other and had you. Your mother had to stay here to take care of you. And I had to go to the battlefield since there had been a sudden influx of those 'Outsiders' near the wall. I'm sorry, Boddh, I'm really sorry for what you had to go through because of that."
"So... why did they go after me due to which mother had to die, Dad?"
"Well, there was a prophecy, and it mentioned Earth and specifically what everyone calls as 'The One'."