Chapter 06: Lets Go

Overwhelmed by what they saw.......

"Jes.....Jessica,who taught you magic?"lilly shakes her in delight.

"My ....Mas...ter...did. Onee-sama stop shaking me"loosing her balance to constant shaking.

"Sorry..........Can you take me to your master? I would like to meet him"lilly asks.

"No"

"That was short and quick"Aryaman twitches.

"Why? Jessica...."lilly asks.

"If i returned without horn, he will bansh me and stop teaching me magic"she speaks with a sad face."What a jerk"Aryaman murmurs.

"Then its decided, we will help you get that horn. In return i want you to take us to your master". "Ha! did i hear that correctly? A moment ago weren't you talking about it being impossible"he asks. "With the power she possess I am almost sure of us getting a hand on that horn"she replies. "Almost.....That doesn't sound assuring"he shrugs.

"Lets go. If we start now we would be there by evening". As Jessica nods ...."By any chance could you use magic to find my stuff" Aryaman asks humbly. "......Per...". "I have a name see. You can call me Aryaman"he speaks with a smile. After giving a thought she nods.

"So could you do that?"he asks again. "I am still new to that magic but i can try". She raises her wand and chants ...... "It weird". "Whats weird?"he asks. "My magic tells me that your stuff is right here"she speaks in confusion. "Right here....I don't see a thing. Where exactly? he asks. She points at him "Its inside you"she replies.

"Huh! What! you mean inside inside". I don't know. Nothing like this ever happened. I am sorry I can't help" she starts crying. "here here, You did your best. Its his fault to begin with". "Say what?"Aryaman rushes after them. Three of them spent few more moments laughing and getting to know each other. After that they make their way to Temple of Rudra.

Chapter 05: Jessica

"Come out Come out, whereever you are hiding"spoke a man with weird sense of fashion. "No matter where you hide or run to, you can't escape my seeking eyes"he asserts.

Aryaman and Lilly watches from behind the broken wall. "What a weird guy, you know him"he asks lilly."....sigh! a little"she replies. "Who is he?"... "A pain in the neck"she replies"......"That didn't answer my question"

"He is among the people who benefited from Avils rise"she said. "Then shouldn't we kick his ass"he replies with zeal. "Not now. He may look dumb but he is now a commander of the armored fleet. We can't be hasty"she replies. "First we must assure ourselves of the surrounding. He might have set traps"

"By they way do you know that little girl" Aryaman points out. Little girl with a pointy hat, wand tucked to her waist walks past the enemy commander as he watches in perplexity. "Hey hey hey! You there. I order you to stop" But little girl pays no attention to his words. "What should i do? it seems i am going on and on in circle. Just where is that place" little girl murmurs.

"........"Enemy commander takes out his sword and points it on the breast of the little girl"Hey! Didn't i tell you to stop"he speaks with displeasure."She is in trouble"lilly speaks hastely.

"............Eek!.......Hentai" She takes out her wand and slams at his head as Aryaman and lilly watch dumbfounded. But she doesn't stop there and keeps slamming her wand on his head."Hentai Hentai Hentai"

Lilly rushes to the spot to calm her down. "Little girl don't you think you are over doing it" Little girl looks at lilly with weepy eyes "Onee-sama......" she bear hugs lilly "I think i am lost". Lilly tries to comfort her. "Wow what a girl. He is out cold."  

"...........Pervert" as she raises her wand. "Oye Oye who are you calling a pervert"he speaks with a poker face. "Master said all men are pervert"she replies. ".........What.........."

"Little girl would you tell me who you are and what are you doing at this dangerous place"lilly asks compassionately. "Uh-huh .....My name is Jessica and master sent me here to get an ingredient for his medicine"she replies. "What kind of man sends little girl to dangerous places"he speaks with a straight face. "No one speaks ill of master" as he lifts her wand again. "......Not again" raising his arms in defence.

"So Jessica, would you tell me where you are from and what you are looking for?"asks lilly."Uh-huh .... I am from septium and i am looking for sand golems horn"she replies. Lilly is pinned in disbelief. "What's the matter? do you know about it?"he asks.

"Yes I do but how come she and her master know about it." 

"Why?Whats so special about the sand golem?"he asks. "Sand golem is an ancient being who resides in the lower levels of temple of rudra. He is described as guardian of some sort of jewel. Its a well guarded secret among the rudra priests" Listening to her reminds Aryaman of his quest.

He grabs lilly "You mean jewel of chaos". "Why....How do you know that?"lilly asks with a surprised look on her face. "That jewel is the reason why I am here. I was told by Dwar to return with it." He grabs her tighter as she starts to feel pain. "....You are hurting...."

"Leave onee-sama..."Jessica raises here wand again. " ....Sorry! I got moved by emotions...ahhaha"he replies awkwardly. ".....Pervert"...."What did i do to earn her irk"he murmurs.

"How are you planning to get that,Jessica?" Lilly asked a valid question. There was no way in hell, a little girl could get a horn out of an ancient being. "You see....."

BOOM BOOM BOOM

"We have found the women who killed our men."
" ATTACK! don't let her escape" A whole fleet of armored men raise their canons to fire at them.

"Shit! They found us."

"Don't worry, Onee-sama....Leave it to me" She swings here wand and chants something weird. " om sam bem shem hazem dwam yaha aki mumom" As she finishes the chant a magic circle appears above the armored fleet.

"What in the hell is that?" Lilly and Aryaman watch in disbelief.

Countless lightening bolts drop down on the enemy causing a major damage. As dust settles only charred bodies are left."You see I am a Mage"she winks.

Chapter 04: Lady Swordsman

Woken up by the ear-splitting sound of explosion in the distance, Aryaman finds himself put in a strange scenery. He looks around for hints about his location. He scrambles around his memory for any knowledge of how he got there when another explosion caught his attention. He turns towards the door only to find it locked. He looks for another path but can't find one. He thinks about breaking the door but his weapon's missing.

"Hang on, Where is my sword...... armor, shield and book are also gone."

He's startled by the knock on the door. He moves towards the door knob but this time its unlocked. He opens the door carefully but finds no one outside.

"Who knocked....? Who unlocked it?"he thought.When another explosion shake him out of his thoughts. "This one is closer" As he rushes in the direction of the explosion. "Where am i?" He tries to remember. "Magos....." He stops at plaza of the ruined city .

BOOM BOOM BOOM

"So that's the source of explosions"

A confrontation taking place between an injured swordsman and armored men carrying canons . "Three of you with superior weapons fighting against a swordsman. I would not call that a fair fight." As baffled fighters look ...."Hey who are..........."

Aryaman unintentionally manages to create an opening in their defence. Swordsman uses that moment to slice open his enemies as he looks in astonishment. Swordsman gives him a piercing glance before falling unconscious.

"Where am i? Is this hell" regaining consciousness.

"Nope. You are pretty much alive"

Swordsman takes a cautious approach.

"Looking for this?"

"............"

"Take it. I ain't your enemy"

"Who are you?"asks swordsman.

"Aryaman is the name. By what name should i call you?"

".......Lilly"

".........Lilly.....But that's a girl name...."

"You are being discourteous....."

Aryaman blushes as he takes a good look of swordsman. "Hahaha....Apologies if i came across rude".

"Apologies accepted"

Ahem! clearing his throat he speaks,"Why were you fighting those men and who were they? Why is this place so ruined?"

"They were soldiers sent to capture the survivors of the previous attack which turned this prosperous city into ruins."

"Could you tell me more about it?"

She nods."This was once the most prosperous city state of Magos ruled by the Mago family. One day a man in black robes paid us a visit. With his help ruling family was able to subdue its competitors. As he gained their faith, he rose in position. He was made the head priest of Temple of Rudra. As he gained power he took over the reign of the city by killing the same ruling family who patronized him. After that he went on a murderous spree killing and capturing most of its population."

Aryaman listens as he clenches his fists in anger. Tears flow down her cheeks as he raise his hands to console her. "I don't know who that guy is but i promise i will avenge you and the people."

"Courageous of you but its impossible. Whole army at his disposal against the two of us. Even if we arm the survivors we can't even think of beating their patrol troops."

"I may not look like a fighter but not long ago i bested a giant spider and a bull carrying an axe. I don't think any army can defeat those two without heavy casualty."

"If you manage to defeat me then i will consider your offer"speaks bemused lilly.

"Deal......Wait! But you see.....I am missing my weapon and other stuff. Without them I won't be of much help. I need to find them first."

".................."

"You see........" Aryaman narrates his side of the story.

Lilly breaks into laughter as it made no sense to her. "You are one hell of a story teller". "But its true",as he tries to make her believe.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

More explosions put their conversation to hold. "They have returned. We must move or your plans would never come to fruition".

Chapter 03: History

"Where am i?"

"What is this place?"

"I don't i feel my body"

"I feel so calm....."

Oh! Chosen one, I Dwar; gatekeeper of the worlds shall narrate to you the tale of this world. Mithos, the fabled sphere of life was home to the two competing races of Devas; Shuras and Ashuras. Shuras were the residents of sky and blessed by nature with the knowledge of magic. Ashuras dominated the land and strength was their only virtue. For long they grew independent of each other and peace prevailed but this peace wasn't long lived .

Shuras made the initial contact. They came to dislike ashuras uncouth life style and despised there violence which had created chaos on the land. The shura assembly under their king Indros decided to make full contact with them. The plan was to civilize uncouth ashuras and spread the shura dominance to land which was more resourceful than the sky. Contact was finally made with the ashura elite and things looked promising.

Knowledge of civilization was spread among the ashuras in exchange for the crystals which were in abundance in ashura land. Decades later Indros was succeded by Hados. Hados never liked ashuras nor did he like the policy of Indros. As soon as he took over the reigns of the sky, he declared war on ashuras.

This came as a surprise to many. Ashuras were slaughtered. Innocents were massacred in thousands. Unhappy with working of Hados, many shuras rebelled against the Hados and turned over to ashura side. Under the leadership of shura named Brahm, ashuras managed to defeat Hados. Before he could be caught Hados escaped never to be seen or heard again. 

Peace prevailed.

Brahm took over as the new ruler of the sky. Ashuras dedicated to their savior a Hero tower. With the help of shuras a path was opened that connected the sky with land. Many ashuras became residents of the sky and intermingled with shuras on large scale. This gave birth to a many mixed blood families. But they lived in misery and were frowned upon by the pure blood families.

One night Brahm disappeared from his palace mysteriously. Without a hero and an able ruler, chaos took over in the sky. Many mixed blood were hunted down. Ashuras weren't spared either. An all out war broke out when several pure blood families were massacred by unknown assailants. To bring an end to this massacre they planned out the destruction of the tower; pathway that connected land and sky.

On the rare occurrence of twin moon which happens once in millennia, siege of the tower took place. It crumbled as both the masses watched in awe. Destruction everywhere yet many were joyous about it .

Then something happened

From beneath the tower ruins shadows arose engulfing everything in its path. As shadows spread its wings, Brahm appeared out from the hole in the sky. People rejoiced at the sight of their hero. Their savior had returned. Before he could do anything about it he got surrounded by mysterious people in black robes. It was clear they wanted to stop him. They argued for sometime after which fight broke out but he didn't have time for the skirmish.

Brahm had an ace up his sleeve. He began chanting which left him open to enemy attacks. Though severely wounded he kept chanting. A grand magic circle was cast on ground where the tower stood. The luminescence of the magic stopped the shadows from expanding. But it was too strong to be banished into the tower.

Another spell he cast over the twin moons which locked the tower in time as men in black robes watched in angst. They turned their attention to Brahm but he was no where to be seen. In frustration they slaughtered anyone that came in their sight. Blood shed went on for long.

Millennia later

Magic that once flowed through out Mithos disappeared and seal that locked the tower grew weak.

From here on your role begins, Oh! Chosen one .....Gather the Jewels of Creation; Chaos and Order. You must eliminate the leftover shadows. If they returns it will not be threat to Mithos alone but to all those worlds that are connected to it and that include yours. If you succeed I will grant your wish.  As the gatekeeper of the worlds, i will now send you to Magos where you must find the Jewel of Chaos.

I will await your return .........

Chapter 02 : Book

The room he enters is full of skeletons, weapons and cobwebs. Sheer amount of skeletons and weaponry was baffling. "Something big might have happened here". Most of the skeletons were damaged. Were they fighting? Were they also looking for the book?

It was as if no one was down there in ages. Some kind of sound caught his attention .

"Who goes there?" 

..............He continues on his path removing cobwebs when the sound is heard again. He turns around only to find a giant spider rushing towards him. Its hissing sent shiver down his spine. Without a second thought he ran ."Fuck! For real."

His feet get stuck in the cobweb. Spider jumps on him and grabs him by torso. The struggle doesn't go for long as spider slows down eventually coming to rest. With all of his strength Aryaman pushes the giant spider away.

"This stuff is...... Is it blood" Aryaman is covered in spiders blood. Just moment before spider attacked, he got hold of a dagger from near by skeleton which he thrust into the spider. He grasps for breath and continues on his path.

"Its a dead end". According to Yazir, book is somewhere down in these ruins but I don't see any path ahead.


He stares at the wall for some time. "There has to be a secret passage somewhere". He knocks and pushes various stone bricks but nothing happens. With no path ahead, he sits beside the skeleton."Yesterday I was taking part in a championship surrounded by cheering crowd. Now I find myself surrounded by weird people, dead people and giant spiders. It seems you were in a better situation than me. I don't know what happened here but of all , you seem different. You smell of royalty. Your shield , armor and that sword ......."


Sword catches Aryaman's attention ."Don't mind if i take a look at that sword of yours." He removes it from his hands and lifts it in air ."What material is it made of? Looks nothing like the ones back home. It looks new.........."

On the shinny surface of the sword he finds something weird . He looks behind then looks in the sword again."Sigh! Who would have thought this, more so who came with such a trick "

He looks in the sword and moves sideways. He raises his hand and touches the spot on the stone brick. With a tick sound, secret passage opens up."Your stuff may come handy, so don't mind me taking it for a while."

He removes the armor set as well as the shield."Looks good on me."


With better equipment at his disposal he marches ahead. He takes the stair down that leads him to another room. This one has a giant door. On both sides of the door are wall carvings. One on the left depict people worshiping the sun and the one on right depict people worshiping the moon. But something is weird..... it only has one moon.

But the carvings on door are different. It depict some sort of war. As he turns towards the door a loud nerve-racking scream spreads across the room. Who could have screamed like that? Door opens slowly. Aryaman could feel the pressure from behind the door. Finally the beast come out. Its huge.

" You must be joking "

An axe wielding bullman only heard of in myths as minotaur appears. It walks slowly towards Aryaman. He is stuck to his place in fear. Beast raises its axe and slashes across Aryaman. He comes to his senses in time and dodges the attack but shock waves threw him far away. It screams again.

"What an attack! If i were late by a second....."

He thought of running but it was not that simple. Showing back to it could have been deadly. What could he do in such a situation? Fighting it was't an option.

It was risky but he decided it was worth taking. So he prepared for the dash. As soon as he dodged its next attack, he ran as hard as he could but to his surprise beast threw its axe towards him. He was staring at death when in reflex action he put his shield to defend. To his surprise he defended the last attack successfully although force of the attack threw him further back.

Fight.......
Slash.......
Defeat........

Aryaman thought he heard someones voice. He looks around but finds no one other than the beast.

Use me......

He heard the voice again. He looks at his sword and sees his own reflection. He clearly sees fear on his face."........."

Recovering its axe, bullman prepares for another attack.

Now attack...........( Weak voice )

Aryaman slashes as hard as he could. White light comes out of his sword which injures the beast. Bullman bleeds as it screams in pain . Aryaman slashes again this time at its legs. Bullman falls on its knees ."You are powerful. Without these I would be long dead but I ain't dying before i return home. Its good bye for now."

Aryaman and Bullman attack one final time. Last attack shatters bullman's axe and makes severe damage. Beast tastes defeat. Condition of Aryaman wasn't any better. Those light attacks drained him of his energy but with destination in sight he pushes his way through the door into a room filled with crystals.

In middle of the room he sees a beautiful crystal chest with a book inside. Aryaman takes a sigh of relief. But how to open it ? It has no locks to pick. As he looked at the chest carefully...."This seems familiar. Where have I seen it? Oh! Ya, this is the same material as this sword." 

Chest reacts to the touch of the sword and opens. He finally gets hold of the book." So much trouble for this tiny book ." As he opens it, luminescence engulfs him.

Chapter 01: Whereabouts

Those words were like breath of life. Finally someone with whom he could communicate and get an idea about his situation."You can speak my language",asked buoyant Aryaman.

"Yes , indeed"

"I need your help. I don't recognize this place."said Aryaman hastily.
"Calm down",said old man. You look weak and hungry. Have some food. We have enough time for talk.


Aryaman was indeed hungry, so he nodded. Old man clapped and entered women with fine looking cuisine. Wherever he looked all that was served was meat. Aryaman ate like a beast that devours flesh of its prey.


"You don't appear to be from here",asked old man. Everything about you seems different.

"I am Aryaman",he replied. I am from India. I was in middle of a competition when my parachute malfunctioned and somehow end up on a deserted beach. I came across scenery i couldn't recognize.


Old man's interest peaked.


"More importantly, I saw duplet of moon. Isn't there supposed to be a single moon?" Then i was hit hard on head by someone and brought here by people outside.

"I am Yazir"replied old man. I am chief of the people who brought you here. Apologies for their behavior but they don't know how to handle strangers.
"Apologies accepted but could you tell me more about where we are right now?"

Yazir took out a scroll from his wardrobe and showed it to Aryaman. "Open it". It looked like a map but made no sense."This is a map of Mithos. Right now we are in the outskirts of the ruined city of Rahh",explained Yazir.

Baffled at what he saw,".......You are kidding right?" What about seven continents and four oceans that Earth has?

"Young Man, I don't know about the Earth and continents you speak of."

"hahahaha......."Aryaman kept laughing as it made no sense."If we are not on Earth then where are we?"
"We are on Mithos"spoke Yazir.

".......I don't believe you......"
"What about duplet of Moon and a wall of fog?"asked Yazir sarcastically. 

Those words changed the whole atmosphere. He realized Yazir wan't lying... 


"I need to know more...?" 
"Ask me anything?"

"What is that dense fog which surrounds this place?"
"Its some sort a barrier. No one knows what lie beyond."

"Duplet of Moon?"
"They are there since my birth"

".....If I am really on Mithos then how did I come here?"
"That i don't know."

"How to go back home?"
"Don't know.......wait! There is something that might be of your interest."

"......"
"Follow me."

"To where?"
"To the ruins not far from here."

He agreed. They made their way to the ruins and reached there in no time. Aryaman was amazed by the sheer size of carvings. "These are the ruins of an ancient civilization that once dominated theses lands. But one day catastrophe came through a gate and destroyed their civilization."

"Gate....What kind of Gate?"
"I don't know but legend speaks of a book they left behind. If you can find it you may be able to find a way back home."

"........"
"Worth trying don't you think"

"Fine. So where to look?"
"Right here"

Yazir pulls a lever on wall that opens a trap door, "The hell....."
"Best of luck finding that book"

Aryaman is flushed through the underground veins into a dark room. "Son of a.......Where is this place?" He walks through the narrow corridor into a room unaware of the dangers ahead.

Prologue

Where It all Began



Thousands of People have assembled at Lions beach to witness one of the greatest moments in the history of modern sports. We are moments away from the final round of the First World Skydiving Championship. After five rounds, five contestants have made their way into the finals. They are Mitch(New Zealand), Adam(US), Jacobs(Egypt), Lee(Korea) and Aryaman(India).

Contestants will dive from about 2000 meters and criteria to win is to land safe on the finish zone in the middle of the ocean by opening parachute at the lowest distance from the touch down. Participants are taken by the copter to their starting point. First to dive will be Adams .

Adam is an ex marine and has a wealth of experience in such events. He has jumped...............He is now in a free fall. He has opened his parachute. Adam makes a perfect landing. He waves at the crowd. We have the data on Adams and its 252 meters. He has bested himself by 23 meters and recorded the best figures in the competition.......Three cheers for Adams......

We have our second contestant ready. Aryaman is a former IT professional who quit his job following an altercation with board members. He later joined sky divers association a years ago where he has received training for this competition. He recorded the height of 291 in qualifying stage. He needs to improve by a lot to have a podium finish.

Cheering crowd watches in ecstasy as Aryaman jumps out of the copter.

Has he drifted away from his path? .......

Strong sea breeze dragged him away from his path as nervous crowd watched on. He was 250 meters away from the ground and still no signs of parachute opening. "Has the parachute malfunctioned".

SPLASH

We have an accident shouted the host. Officials rushed towards the scene. Competition came to a halt. Tensed and dejected crowd was asked to leave. Officials kept searching for Aryaman but found nothing.

While all this was going, Aryaman woke up to a new reality.

"........"Coming to his senses he found himself alone on the beach. "Where the hell am I," he wondered. He was bewildered, after all he had fallen from 2000 meters yet he was breathing fine on a sandy beach instead of being dead, drowned and broken. He looked around in surprise, barely recognizing his surrounding. In northern direction a large rocky mountain looked like an ideal place to get an idea about the place.

On the way he failed to find any human. Standing near the rock he realized how huge it was. As he climbed half way through, he saw a huge wall of dense fog surrounding the beach.

From top, Aryaman now had a better view but he was in for a rude awakening. It didn't look like the place he saw from the copter. A long stretch of trees in one direction and ocean in another surrounded from everywhere by dense fog. It was clear to him that he was somewhere else but where exactly.

With no option left he returned to where he started. It grew cold so he lit a camp fire from the material gathered on the way. He began contemplating on the events. Many questions came to his mind; "where he was", "how he end up here", "what happened to people and competition".

As if things were not weird to begin with, what he saw in sky made him question whether he was alive or dead. "I must be dreaming....haha" as he pinched himself to pain. "Oh dear its not a dream.." What lie in the sky could not be explained. He rubbed his eyes to ascertain himself only to be left high and dry by the majestic duplet of moon.

"This no longer make sense. Am I really alive". As he was brooding over it something hit him hard and he fell unconscious. On regaining consciousness, he found himself surrounded by people barely clothed. "Where am I?" he murmured. In came a well dressed man and everyone bowed. That man looked like their leader. He ordered his men in a language Aryaman didn't recognize. "Hey why are you tying me. I have done nothing" he kept shouting but no one gave an ear.

Aryaman was taken to their settlement. He was untied and pushed into a large tent where he was welcomed by an old man, "How are you young man".