Hey Readers,
How are you? I hope you are okay.
I am doing okay, but was busy with night shift, few hours of rest followed by second shift. Then after few headaches and sleepless nights, I barely had any time to read or write. But since I was committed to NaNoWriMo, I wrote still anyways.
I uses sprints like 6 mins, 10 mins, 16 mins, 5 mins and wrote 2540 words in two days. I could’ve written more, especially on Day Fifteen, after I had written Chapter Thirteen. But as I had said earlier, I had night shift, followed by second shift the next day, and we had team meeting for more than two hours followed by barely any time even to prepare dinner.
By the time it was finished, I was exhausted, barely able to write few words.
What about you? How’s your day going? I hope it was better than mine.
Without further ado, here’s Chapter 14.
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Chapter Fourteen: Syri’s going to die?
Surya was so scared and afraid for Syri that he barged into the Living Realm. He saw her form was still solid, but it was slowly losing it’s solidness. Slowly becoming transparent. As if she were becoming non-existent. He was afraid that he was going to forget about her, forget about the memories that they had shared together.
He wanted to talk to her, confirm whether what he heard was truth, but he was afraid that if he did so, she would fade away faster. He had to save her.
He just recently learned that if he were to save Syri, he had to complete his task of rescuing Shravani, the one he had to spend the rest of his life with. He barely believed what they did. But one way or another, he had to rescue her so that he could obtain the sword. He would get a reward, and he could ask for her to be revived.
He didn’t know that’s how it was going to work, but Bharghav, or her female self said she knew about him, his Super Task Cultivation System. She knew that he had been the Harbinger of Darkness, gave a perfect explanation as to why he was also the Harbinger of Light, what it means to complete the task.
She survived extreme torture. He believed that if him rescuing Shravani would make her cure Syri somehow? He knew he sounded stupid. But he had to believe that he could save Syri.
To accomplish all of this, he had to defeat Madhav, Ira and her schemes which were so cunning. She had been manuipulating him from the start. But now, it seemed like Princess Shravani also had something to do with the schmes. She was doing it, manipulating all of them to achieve her dream. To get the one she had to spend the rest of her life with. The one, who was going to be both the Harbinger of Darkness and Harbinger of Light.
It was all a convoluted mess. His head hurt to think all of it. But he had to agree that he didn’t know how to accompish all he the others were expecting him to do. He had to ask them.
He stepped out of the Living Realm, to find Bharghav, changed into male form, standing nearby Neeraj. Both of them were more comfortable now than they were when she were in her female self. And both of them were discussing something serious.
“You hate this version of me, not the real me,” Bharghav said.
Neeraj raked his hands throug his hair. “I kind of. But now that I know the truth, I love both versions of you. I—” he was cut off by Bharghav glaring at him.
“This is not my original version, the one that I born into was female. You have to love the true me, not the illusion I put on top of my true version,” she said.
Neeraj sighed. Instead of answering, he hugged her. “I love both versions of you. Or at least, I am sure that I will love your true self, just like I love your illusioned self. I think it was time that you accept both versions of yourslef,” He said.
“If I remember correctly, we have to take care of Madhav, Ira and an army. We don’t have an army of our own. Neeraj was good at fighting, but he cannot take care of an entire army. I am supposed to stop Madhav and I suppose I could do it using the sword. How are we going to take care of Ira,” he said.
They let go of each other reluctantly and Neeraj gave him a hopeless sigh while Bharghav glared at him as if Neeraj loving her male self more than her female self was his fault. He didn’t want to get involved into their love battle. “If you don’t remember, we also had to think about the Sandstorm,” he said.
“Sandstorm was nothing that we should be worried about. I am more worried about Madhav and his sword. I believe that he had already finished bonding, or at least closed to finish it,” Neeraj said.
“No. His task was to eradicate your army completely, but your army still alive and well,” Bhargahv said.
Surya gasped while Neeraj stared at her in disbelief. “I heard my entire army marched to take care of Madhav and his army, upon the orders of the shape shifter who disguised as me,” Neeraj said.
Surya nodded. “And I killed most of the—” Surya couldn’t get himself to finish it. He choked on his words, his hands trembling.
Bharghav looked at him as if he were silly.
“It’s true that the shape shifter had ordered your army to go and attack Madhav, but they had been take care of Princess Shravani. She had spies amongst enemy soldiers and she had sent them ahead of time to stop the army from approaching. Now, they would attack when you do.
“Neeraj’s army would take care of Madhav’s army. Neeraj and I would make sure that Ira would be trapped while you would defeat Madhav, rescue Princess Shravani and save your master,” she said.
Neeraj gasped. “How are we going to take care of Ira. She’s powerful, manipulative, capable of making strong illusions. She—”
Bharghav’s cut him off. “I hope you still remember how you found out the loophole of Ira’s illusions and rescued me?” he asked.
Neeraj nodded. “Then you have to be quick in recognizing her illusions and help me while I will tackle her. Even though she was physically powerful and a powerful mage, you cannot deal with her physically, but I can. I am stronger than you can ever imagine. But I succumb to illusions. You are not. You learned the secret. You destroy her illusions as soon as she created them and I would attack Ira at the next moment. We will have to keep on fighting her until Surya takes care of Madhav and rescue your sister and finally, save Syri. Then, Syri will take care of Ira,” she said.
“We are forgetting that Syri was afraid and weaker than Ira,” I said. “Now she was close to dying. You still hadn’t told me how we are going to save Syri.”
Bharghav sighed. “I know that you are worried about your master. But trust me, Princess Shravani’s working on that part right now. You have to defeat Madhav, resuce her, our army going to take care of Madahav’s while we are going to deal with Ira. This would give Shravani an opportunity to destroy an object belonging to Ira, the one that trapped Syri’s true power inside. Once that’s done, Syri can take care of Ira,” he said.
Surya shook his head. Syri was going to take care of Ira? Not in this life. She repeatedly said that she was not going to interfere unless and until Surya’s life was in danger. “Not going to happen. You said you know about me, my master and the Super Task Cultivation. Then you must know that Syri can’t help us defeat Ira, unless and until my life was in danger.”
Bharghav looked at me as if he were looking at someone foolish. “I said, Syri was going to take care of Ira, not going to defeat her. Her kind were very rare, a danger was approaching to our world as well as theirs and they don’t want to lose anyone. Syri would be strong enough to subdue Ira, or more simply, put her into sleep so that she could communicate with the rest of her sisters and they would then take her to their homeland, where she would be cured,” she said.
“Alright. Then let’s move towards the army,” he said.
“Yeah, but before that, could you give me a moment. I want my servants to go to the underground storage cavern,” Neeraj said.
Bharghav nodded and went towards his servants while Surya waited with Bharghav.
“You love him?” he asked Bharghav.
“Yeah. The moment I saw him, I knew he was the one I would spend the rest of my life with. Though he didn’t know at that time,” she said.
“It will take some time for both of you to get used to,” he said.
She nodded. “I know, like the same way it was going to take some time for you to get used to being in love and in a relationship with Shravani,” she said.
Surya didn’t believe that was what going to happen. He didn’t even believe that Shravani loved him. But he couldn’t say that to her, especially when she was so nervous that she kept on changing her gender.
Finally, Neeraj arrived.
“To the rescue of my sister,” he said.
“To saving my master,” Surya said.
“To begin our love life,” Bharghav said.
Shravani was tensed, very tensed. They were supposed to arrive, drive away Ira’s attention so that she could find and destroy the object that would help her beloved, Surya. She knew that they had met just once and she had acted like she had hated kissing him, but the truth was that she was irritated she didn’t get to kiss him alone and for a long time.
She sighed.
She would get time for that.
But for now, she could only pace and wait for them to do their part, make a way for her.
She remembered the time when Madahv killed her father, right in front of her eyes and proclaimed his love for her, expected her to shower him love and kisses.
A seething anger settled inside her heart, which kept burning even now. It wouldn’t be doused until and unless Madhav was dealt with.
She paced more and more as she waited for Surya and others to arrive.
Madhav lifted his sword, glared at it and anyone around them. He hadn’t known that there were spies amongst his own army, guarded carefully by Ira. But she had been so distracted lately.
One minute, she was present beside him, helping him. Next minute, she was gone, doing something only she knows.
“Where was she?” he asked his guards again.
They shifted nervously. But didn’t answered. “At least send someone to look for her,” he said.
“She ordered us not to look for her. She said what she had to do was more important than her guidance in the upcoming war. She said you would learn to do things on his own, improve and progress faster,” the guard said.
Madhav gritted his teeth and dismissed them.
Who does she thinks she is? Just his master. Just? No she was his master that showed him hope, when he had lost everything. She had guided him, made him powerful and promised to him that he would obtain unimaginable power in the future, provided he does things that she asked.
She even promised to him that he would get Shravani’s heart if he was able to eradicate their army. Their army was not eradicated, they seemed to be waiting for the arrival of Neeraj or that damned mage, Surya.
Thinking about him angered him even now. How dare he kiss Shravani, put a spell on her and make her fall in love with him. Whenever Madahv went to see her, she would whisper about Surya, a stupid grin on her face. Sometimes, she would look out the window, as if she were waiting for Surya to arrive.
He was going to defeat Surya, he knew that he was going to come, Ira had promised that. He was going to defeat Surya in front of Shravani, once and for all, so majestically that he proved to her and most importantly to himself, that he deserved Shravani, he deserved the power that Ira had promised.
He clutched his sword, which he hadn’t yet bonded. He hoped that by defeating Surya, Neeraj and his army, his bonding would be completed.
Ira’s head ached. She was inside the Living Realm of Madhav, which was so cracked that it was dangerous to be inside. But she could control better over here. She would be safe from Surya, and especially Syri.
She boasted to Syri often that she were more poewrful than her. But the truth was that, she had sealed Syri’s powers and memories inside a locket, and kept it at a location that only she knew. Inside the Living Realm of Madhav.
She had to guard it, and direct and manipuate others accordingly using her abilities. She had to make sure that she was well hidden, at the same time, she had to make sure that she would win this. No matter what. She had to prove to her father and her sisters that she was more deserving than others.
If what she guessed was right, by this time, Surya would’ve learnt the truth about the Harbinger of Darkness, the sword that was the heirloom for Shravani’s.
If Bharghav had recovered, then he would’ve shown them how to assemble it into the locket. The thing it was required to activate it was something that depend on the task of Surya’s. To defeat Madahv and rescue Shravani.
She knew that Madhav was better at physical and mental magic. Surya had none. Madhav was in agitation that his army couldn’t finish off Neeraj’s in a trap that he had set for them, but she knew that were not the case. His army had to defeat Neeraj’s army, by facing them and not by setting them up in a trap.
And more importantly, if he was able to defeat Surya, the power and confidence he could obtain was un imaginable. She intended to make him the most powerful, even than the one trained by her father.
She waited nervously for the battle and the sandstorm that was about to engulf them in few minutes.
Syri… she felt so afraid… so weak. She knew that she was losing power. It was a struggle just to move a little. She knew what she would find if she looked at herself. She would become translucent, finally exist altogether.
She wanted to help Surya, really wanted to help. That’s why she went as far as to fight against the darkness that tried to consume Surya.
She almost lost herself, but blessedly, Surya’s strong will had defeated the darkness, which now surrounded itself against the brilliant white sphere, that was pulsing inside the Living Realm.
The darkness and whiteness, chased around each other, forming an infinite pattern, just like the vehicle that she had arrived and struck Surya in his chest under the cover of the meteor.
She was afraid that before Surya’s succeded in his task of defeating Madhav and rescuing Shravani, she would lose herself.
If she were not present when he compltes the task, Surya wouldn’t be able to unlock the true potential of the Harbinger of Darkness and Light.
Gritting her teeth, she forced her consciousness to move nearby the pulsing light and dark. The only way to save herself was to fuse herself with the pulsing orb. It would prevent her from dying, but at the same time, it would make her lose her power.
But she had to do it.
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Until Next Time,
Nagendra Kumar Yadav T.
Nagendra's Stories and Craft 