Remembering that incident from a year ago, when he was the only one who knew what had happened, made him wonder about everything related to it.
One year ago…
Near the mountains behind the Skambha mansion, a 15-year-old boy was practicing sword skills. It was Rudra. Before he started, he took out a book on basic sword techniques. He opened it and started reading, refreshing his memory even though he already knew a lot about swords.
After finishing the book, when Rudra took out his sword to practice the techniques, Suddenly a thundering sound echoed as if the sky was tearing apart. He looked in that direction, only to find a terrifying scene of cracks appearing in the sky, soon those cracks began to spread across, and suddenly those cracks widened letting an opening through a black space behind them.
It looked like a black hole in the sky, with those cracks spread across as if someone forced them to open up. From within the hole, was shot out a lightening which within a second fell down.
Boom!
That lightning struck the ground, the impact was so powerful that caused the surrounding area to be devastated. As a 15-year-old boy, Curiosity got the better of him. Rudra sheathed his sword and ran into the forest on the hills where the lightning had struck. As he got closer, he felt a strange and powerful energy in the air. It was so intense that it made his energy feel unbalanced.
This caused Rudra to become aware of the things near him. But he still kept running in that direction. A few moments later, a huge crater became visible in Rudra's sight. The crater was leaving off smoke, as most of the trees around were burnt to crisp.
Even the rocks nearby melted down and evaporated, the lightning had turned the whole once beautiful area into a ruin. Rudra became aware and carefully walked around glancing at every single thing, he was inspecting that spot.
While checking everything, he got a feeling to check the center of the crater. He jumped into that crater, approaching the center, and all he found there was a lightning talisman. When Rudra spotted that lightning talisman, small lightning sparks started to crackle around that lightning Talisman.
In curiosity, Rudra extended his hand to grab that Talisman. But unexpectedly, Talisman shot towards Rudra's chest with an unimaginable speed. This was too sudden for him to even react, within a second he felt a tearing pain in his chest and he fell unconscious.
Rudra slowly opened his eyes as a few drops of water fell on his face. He looked around and realized he was still in the crater. Rudra was feeling a lot of pain in his chest, and a weird feeling in his took over his body.
He looked around only to find that the talisman had now disappeared and the sky was covered with grey rainy clouds. He looked at his hands, and all he saw were a few scratches.
"Where did that lightning Talisman go? It had hit me in the chest, right?" Rudra was confused. He gets up and looks around for a few times, before wondering if it was just his hallucination. But if it was a hallucination where did that crater come from, thinking these things when he forced his mind, he realized he was forgetting something. Pressuring his memory he finally recalled the important thing for today.
Today was the energy talent ceremony, and he had to attend it to discover how much he had improved with his talent. He ran towards the mansion, he wanted to get back as soon as possible, the people there wouldn't wait too long for him.
He ran towards the Skambha mansion, eager to get back in time. When he reached the crystal field, he saw the young people who had crowded the whole field and were bustling with excitement.
"Hey, do you see that guy? That's Rudra, the only one in our clan who uses the saint way to cultivate," a boy whispered to his friend, pointing at Rudra.
"What? For real? You'd have to be crazy to choose the saint way!" the other boy replied. "Do you know about his energy talent?"
"Yes, he has an elemental energy talent of fire," the first boy said.
"Which level is he on?" the second boy asked.
"You're new here. He's been cultivating for nine years, but his kundalini hasn't reached the first chakra. That's how tough the saint way is," another boy chimes in and explains.
An old man wearing black attire was standing right next to the crystal calling out to names of different people from the list held in his hands.
"Next, Mayra come to the center."
As soon as the name was called, Mayra walked to the crystal in the center. Her hair flowed in the cold breeze, and her scent filled the air. Everyone admired her beauty, all the men loved her, even the girls. She was a role model for all the females in the city.
The old man gave the instructions, "Mayra, 17 years old, come forward and gently touch the spiritual stone to reveal the state of your spiritual energy, body energy, and energy channels."
The old man referred to the crystal as a spiritual stone, spiritual stone is a form of condensed spiritual energy that manifests in the form of different types of crystals. Whenever one touches this crystal gently, the spiritual energy in the crystal scans the body of the being and gives every detail about it. It can even be used to absorb spiritual energy, but it is restricted for people as it contains raw wild spiritual energy that would go rogue once it comes out of the crystal.
Mayra did as said and gently touched the crystal, and a light shot towards her head. Words appeared above her head, "Beginner spiritual energy, high level, energy channels in excellent condition, body energy level: practitioner level, third stage awakened.", upon hearing Mayra's result the whole crowd burst up into loud cheers.
"Rudra, come to the center," the old man called out. Rudra walked toward the center filled with excitement, but a sharp pain in his chest crushed all that excitement, he wasn't even able to move properly. He still somehow managed to approach the center.
"Rudra, 15 years old, come forward and touch the spiritual stone gently to reveal the state of your kundalini and energy channels," the old man instructed, adjusting his words for Rudra's unique cultivation path.
This time the old man made some changes in his instructions accordingly, as Rudra used the saint way. Rudra comes forward and touches the spiritual stone and a beam of light shoots out and hits his head. Soon a light flashes out above his head taking the form of a few words.
Rudra touched the spiritual stone, and a light shot towards his head. Words appeared above his head, "Elemental energy talent has suddenly disappeared. Kundalini reduced to a very low level. Energy channels shrinking. Health deteriorating. In this state, it will be very hard to unlock his chakra."
The old man looked shocked and disappointed.
So was everyone else. As Mayra's brother and the clan leader's grandson, they had high expectations from Rudra. His condition was fine recently, so what happened to him, everyone was shocked that the spiritual stone was not able to detect his energy talent. All of them believed the spiritual stone as it could only show false results until it was broken. As the guardian had said the spiritual stone was absolutely fine, and as guardians cultivated spiritual energy, their intellect is the most respected in all of Suryalok, they can't lie.
"hahaha, just look at this pathetic boy, his condition has become so bad that he can't even unlock his chakra points to awaken them, so bad, hahaha.", this boy, whose name was Sourav laughed out at Rudra.
Sourav, even after being the second most powerful in the young generation of the clan after Mayra, had some problems with Rudra and always sought for ways to tease him.
"This should all be the result of your laziness!"
"You were never serious about it, so you don't deserve it."
"Looser, you are a loser, you are not worthy of being the next clan leader.", most of the people who commented these were Sourav's friends.
"Enough", Mayra with her beautiful voice screams out in anger.
Everyone's mouth shuts down, "Whatever Princess", Sourav moved back as he said. Mayra then Grabs Rudra's hand and gently walks him out of the field to the Skambha mansion. Rudra seemed to be in a state of shock.
This was when bolts of lightning surged through the black clouds above them. Those thundering clouds soon began raining down all the heavy water drops contained within them. Mayra ran inside the mansion with Rudra, and tried to explain to her brother, "Hey, Rudra, don't worry, what if your condition is bad it doesn't mean you can't achieve your dreams, with strong will if you keep trying, nothing is impossible."
But Rudra stood silent, lost somewhere. Mayra was getting even more worried looking at Rudra's condition. Till now for 9 years he cultivated the saint way, and when he was about to make a breakthrough, everything crumbled, this reality hit him quite hard, he had regrets, and was disappointed that even after so much struggle he lost.
" I will bring the elders you stay here!", Mayra said as she ran towards the elder's room.
While here, all Rudra was doing was remembering that lightning Talisman and that lightning bolt that had fallen tearing through the sky. His mind kept jumping to every single scene of that incident.
As the memory of the lightning, Talisman flashed again and again in front of his eyes, he again felt the pain in his chest, but together with the pain, came a shady memory. Struggling to remember, he finally remembers a drawn figure of a Talisman in a book.
With the book, Rudra realizes that it was the library where that book was. He runs towards the library near his clan's mansion which is owned by his clan. Recently he had read a book named, "Gods, blessings and curses."
He remembered that due to high curiosity when he opened that book to take a glimpse of it, at that time he saw that drawn figure similar to the lightening Talisman. But then he also remembered that at that time looking at that figure made him think that he shouldn't waste his time in such books.
He ran towards the library to find that book titled, "Gods, blessings, and Curses."
This book could be the key that could help him to know what that Talisman was, and what had it done with him.