Chapter 8: The realm of minds
Vishwaprit and Setupati reached home by midnight. They were too tired to make any conversation. Everyone was shocked, but didn't have anything to say. They all kept looking at Vishwaprit, like he was some kind of god, but they were also afraid of him knowing that he had a part of dark lord in himself.
Bhishu's love hadn't reduced by a bit though, his devotion towards Vishwaprit was still the same, only the difference was, he had gotten more protective towards him.
They entered the house and headed towards their respective rooms silently. Setupati's head was splitting in half because of all that happened and also his mind had become a mess of all the information about the world which he wasn't ready to handle. He needed a break from everything, so his legs automatically walked towards the freezer to grab a bottle of beer. He grabbed one for himself and another for Vishwaprit. He came back, dropped his body into the sofa and offered the drink to Vishwaprit.
Vishwaprit wasn't a fan of drinking alcohol, but the situation was so intense that he accepted it gladly. Both of them sat their, drinking their beer, trying to digest the new reality.
Vishwaprit was feeling the weight of responsibility of saving the world, but he was also glad that Setupati was beside him, helping him through every hardship. The path towards the victory was so dark, that he would need the light of Setupati's wise advise. He closed his eyes and laid there for a while. His mind was skipping back to the scenes where it happened, how he touched the monsters and how his powers brought them back to humanity. His thoughts kept swinging between reality and dreams. He felt asleep after a while, but his dreams continued. His mind kept searching for the existence of god. He found him inside himself, inside the 'Shivlinga' of the Lord Shiva's temple from his town. His mind focused on the drops of milk which were showering the 'Shivlinga'.
Suddenly the drops stopped falling down and he heard the sound Damru (Pallet drum). The intense sound of Damru grabbed the attention of all the universe and he kept searching for the source of sound. His eyes stopped on the door in front of him. He walked towards the door and opened it. There was nothing but the darkness beyond it. His curiousity made him walk the door and he entered into the pitch darkness. Only the sound of drums and the view of shivlinga was visible from the door.
Suddenly, the door started moving away from him, his legs froze, he couldn't move and the sound of drums kept lowering down and finally it stopped. There was only darkness and him standing there. He had entered into the nothingness. No smell, no voice, no light, only infinite darkness!!!!! Vishwaprit's eyes kept searching for something, but he couldn't find anything.
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Raghav and Ganesh's police force, picked up all of the unconscious and dead people from the ground and tied them securely. They looked at the destroyed dead bodies of innocent people, these monsters had killed before falling down. They decided to declare it as a terrorist attack.
Ganesh walked towards Shastriji, who was sitting on the rock where Vishwaprit had sit before. He asked him,
"Where should we take them? I don't think it is safe to take them to police station. It is far too much crowded for those monsters. We can't keep them until Vishwaprit arrival tomorrow. Do you have any where we can take them?"
"I am thinking, you can bring them to my 'Aashram'. We can control them until he returns tomorrow. I will just need few of your police officers to help them manage." Shastriji replied.
"That's actually a better idea. The monsters will be kept in check by your powers and secrecy can be protected too. I can ask Raghav and few others to stay with you." Ganesh agreed to Shastriji.
He walked towards Raghav and informed him regarding the situation.
Shastriji stood up and said,
"We're leaving, you csn follow us to the Aashram."
"Yes Shastriji." Ganesh replied immediately.
The sound of cars filled the empty ness in the air. All the wheels started moving towards the Aashram.
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They reached the Aashram after an hour and Shastriji showed them the empty rooms to tie the monsters down. They arranged a different for humans who were turned back. He then walked towards his residence and called for his daughter. A very kind faced and spiritual girl walked out from the house. Shastriji told her,
"Beta Meera, will you please look after these guests? We'll talk about the situation later."
Meera nodded respectfully and walked towards Raghav and team who were bringing down all the monster's unconscious bodies. She asked him,
"You keep them here, I will arrange something to tie."
"They're already tied securely. Why do they need anymore tying?" He asked curiously. His heart was beating faster than normal, his nerves were getting anxious. He didn't understand what was happening to him. And he realized he was staring at her so hard that he couldn't understand what she said.
"Sorry, what did you say, will you please repeat?"
"I am saying that these ropes will not work on them once they wake up. I will arrange something powerful to tie." And she left to bring something powerful.
Raghav's heartbeats started coming down gradually.
'What was that?' He thought to himself.
He dropped the weird thoughts from his mind and focused on the activity of unloading the cars.
Shastriji was staring at Raghav from his house, sitting on the chair. There was something about him, which disturbing Shastriji's mind's peace.
He laid back on the rolling chair and closed his eyes. His mind kept thinking about Raghav. And suddenly he experienced the presence of something unexpected, unwanted entity in the realm of minds. He tried to search its location, his vision kept traveling. He reached the temple of Lord Shiva, where he used to worship when he was a kid. The white Shivlinga was shining brightly. He kept looking at it mesmerizingly. But suddenly he felt something weird about that place. He ran towards the exit and saw darkness, there was only darkness. But his instincts were forcing him to keep walking. He crossed the spiritual door of Lord Shiva's temple and entered into the darkness. His eyes kept searching for something, on the right, on the left. Nothing! But he knew there was someone, only he couldn't find him. He started chanting some mantras to break the darkness and see beyond. After few trials, he was able to penetrate through the darkness for few seconds and he saw Vishwaprit standing in the darkness on the other side. He tried to reach him, but the door closed off into his face. He felt helpless. He had to do something. He realized, if Vishwaprit was also caught in the darkness, then his mind must be in danger. He started repeating his chants harder. His voice was the only thing alive in that darkness!!
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Setupati was soundly asleep after pouring a bottle of beer into his belly. He had no idea what was going on in the surrounding. Vishwaprit sleeping beside him was stucked into a bad dream and wasn't able to bring himself out. Setupati had always protected him since this adventure started. But he was not able to protect him this time.
Suddenly, Setupati heard a sound bell ringing loudly in the temple afar. The sound was so intense that he opened his eyes immediately. The lord Shiva had called him. He didn't understand why. He looked at Vishwaprit, whose aura was diminished measurably, he realised something was off. He touched Vishwaprit on his arm, but suddenly left the grip out of surprise. He saw a glimpse of the world nobody ever wanted to put a step into. The dimension where there is no difference between light and darkness, where demons rule over your mind. The shadows lurk there, to eat your mind little by little. But Vishwaprit had entered such a world. How did he even cross the edge? Setupati hadn't crossed the it himself, even though he could. Several questions messed up his mind and the effect of the beer diminished into nothingness too.
He closed his eyes and prepared himself to cross the path of light in the realm of minds.
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Vishwaprit was trying to look everywhere, but he couldn't feel anything. He heard someone calling for him for a brief amount of time, but the sound was so weak, he couldn't reach. He was feeling the fear of his mind reaching to his bones. The cold was touching his nerves. There was nothing to see in the darkness. He lost the sense of time.
Suddenly, he felt someone was approaching him, he couldn't see him, but he was feeling his presence. It was moving slowly, as if it was afraid of Vishwaprit. It stayed at a distance for a while, to examine Vishwaprit's reaction. Vishwaprit felt frozen, he couldn't understand what should he do. His mind had stopped making sense. Then, it started moving towards Vishwaprit slowly but gradually. Vishwaprit could feel cold and dark shadows were surrounding him, but he felt helpless. He tried to scream but he couldn't make any sound. The shadows kept coming nearer. He realised he couldn't do anything. He closed his eyes with disappoinment and accepted his fate.
In that moment, he felt that someone teared the time and divided the seconds into minutes. His closed eyes felt the presence of light. He opened his eyes to find out the source, but the powerful red light coming out of the flames blinded him for a while. He just heard a powerful voice, saying
"Don't even think about it!"
Vishwaprit recognised the familiar voice. He tried to look at the owner of the voice, Setupati, grabbing the neck of a shadow who was trying to reach Vishwaprit. Setupati grabbed his neck and kicked him into his guts. The shadow was thrown back, but it stood back up and tried to reach Vishwaprit again. Setupati opened his arms and screamed loudly; the heat of the flames burning through Setupati's body wasn't bearable for the shadow. It felt powerless, but was still trying to reach him. Setupati stopped screaming, looked at the shadow and said,
"I'm Setupati, the true protector of the mind world. And I demand you, the shadow from some another world, to leave this place at this moment and never return, or I will burn you to the ashes."
His loud and powerful words made Vishwaprit speechless. The shadow stopped moving for a moment, but he didn't pull back. Into its mind it thought, if it went back empty handed, its lord would finish it anyway, so better die trying. And marched forward towards death.
Setupati saw the shadow was still moving. He lost his patience and his flames reached the shadow before the shadow had covered half the distance. The flames surrounded the shadow from every direction and burned it down.
He then, turned back and looked at surprised Vishwaprit. The exposure of Setupati's flames had warmed him a little. Setupati touched on his shoulder and said,
"It's over. I'm sorry I was a bit late. It took me a minute to shake off the beer!"
He then looked at his left, lifted his left arm and broke the darkness to open a portal for Shastriji who was still chanting mantras to protect Vishwaprit. Shastriji looked at both of them with surprise and relief and crossed the portal. He realised the presence of a mind lord and gave Setupati a respectful gaze, saying,
"I feel myself lucky to stand in the presence of the lord of the realm of minds. I couldn't recognise you before but now I can feel your powerful aura." He lowered his head to give him the respect.
Setupati smiled and said,
"There is no need of any formalities Shastriji. You're a powerful entity yourself. We're graced by gods to have you beside us."
He then looked at Vishwaprit and Shastriji and said,
"Let's get out of here." And he waved his hand in the air to open a portal to back to the light. They all traveled through it and reached the lord Shiva's temple. They all paid their respects to the Shivlinga by bowing their heads.
Shastriji asked for their permission to leave and diminished into the light. Setupati looked at Vishwaprit and said,
"I leave you here my friend, enjoy sweet dreams!"
Vishwaprit smiled at him and nodded his head.
Setupati also moved away with speed of light, smiling to himself. He was proud of himself today. He had claimed the realm of minds and he meant it.
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