The start

At midnight, amidst of darkness, he was waiting for somebody. Only the sound of fire was present at the moment along with some crickets chirping. He was walking to and fro as he was feeling anxious. Sound of someone running from far away broke his concentration. He looked towards the sound in the darkness. His body flinched a little as the air was feeling cold suddenly.

'Is it because I am nervous or something is really going wrong', he thought to himself.

The running figure reached him, but it couldn't speak a word as it was struggling to breathe.

"Let's go inside and talk" He said and walked towards the small cabin near him.

"Maharaj," he stopped to breath, "it's coming towards us. It's really coming."

"Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?" He asked fiercely as his ears couldn't believe it.

"God will cut my tongue if I lie to you & certainly not about it."

"..."

"We have to do something. Else who knows what will happen?"

"How can it return? It was destroyed ages ago."

"Maharaj, nobody knows what happened back then. But some say, it wasn't ever destroyed. It is itself a destroyer, it cannot be destroyed. "

"We got to leave..... We have a war to fight. Gather every soul you get. We will finish this, once in for all. And ask Jyotish (Astronomer) Setu to meet me. We have serious matters to discuss". He asked firmly, his eyes were determined to destroy his enemy.

"And Bhishu, don't call me Maharaj (Lord). I do not like it." Words came out of his mouth hesitantly.

"Maharaj, you may think that way, but you're 'Maharaj' for us. Our only hope, our only saviour. " Bhishu expressed his feelings with immense love and respect towards his lord.

Vishwaprit looked deeply into Bhishu's eyes. Bhishu's love towards him touched his heart and soul. Their love was unconditional and he carries the weight of responsibilities on his shoulder to fulfill their whishes of him to be their saviour. He closed his eyes for a moment and walked towards his vehicle.

********

Raghav was getting ready for his first day on his dream job. He always wanted to fight for justice, so he decided to join city's police department.

He was passionate about martial arts from childhood. He was gymnast when he was a kid. Later he joined judo, as he felt, gymnastics wasn't helping him in the fighting. So, he got selected in the department with shining stars. And one more noticeable thing about Raghav.. He was second son of Kns group industries. He didn't like to show it off but it kind of part of his personality. That's what happens with the heirs of big group.

"Take care of you there, big brother." Taniya came into his room and stood against the wall, looking at him getting ready.

He smiled at her and started to leave.

His mom greeted him with smiling but with worried eyes. She couldn't understand his decision to join the police department. She wanted him to enjoy the luxurious life and take after his brother to handle the business.

She sat on the dining table for a while, trying to understand him.

"Let him go, let him do whatever he wants. He doesn't realize how hard this world is! He will come back once he sees the reality. He is naive and he needs some lessons to grow up." Her husband expressed his thoughts.

"But that's what I am worrying about. He is naive. He can get hurt. I am not feeling good about all this. He is not thinking clearly. Those martial arts he studied, those are for fun. Not to fight random thieves and criminals." She was still worried.

"Don't worry. They're are not going to ask him to fight criminals on his first day. And they realise the value of his life very well. After all, he is second son of Kns group. Just relax. He will be fine." Father smiled with pride and started to leave.

"The head of police department is your friend, right?"

"Not very close, but yes. We understand each other."

"Then ask him to take care of my son. I will not bear a single scratch his body."

"Fine. I will talk to him. You need to realx. Nothing is happening to him."

She felt relaxed a little bit. But still her heart was pumping hard. Mother's instincts maybe. In her inner mind, she believed that her son was getting into a risk. She started to pray for his safety.

*******

Vishwaprit was reading the history of their kingdom, Trying to know more about the darkness he was feeling inside his heart. His instincts were kicking hard, warning him to be prepared. But he couldn't find anything useful in those books. All of them were filled with greatness of his house and the bravery of his great great grandfather, who had defeated the enemy long ago. Nothing was written about the enemy, or how they defeated it.

In childhood, he always felt very proud and brave while reading those books. How his ancestors fiercely slayed the enemies. He was very proud to be an heir of such a family. But now, it seemed like those books were fairy tales. Far away from reality. They couldn't help in understanding the enemy, or how to defeat it.

There were only few people who still have the knowledge and information about this enemy. Setu (the astronomer from kingdom) was one of them. And fortunately he was Vishwaprit's childhood friend. The only problem was, he wasn't a kind person Vishwaprit liked to deal with. He was real pain in the a**. But now that situation was so urgent that he didn't have other option but to take advice from Setu.

Vishwaprit had asked Setu to meet him two days back, but he hadn't contacted him yet. There were not many people in their kingdom who had guts to ignore Vishwaprit's invitation, even though he wasn't that scary as a Lord. But he certainly was loved abd respected by all.

'He is ignoring my invitation as if I'm asking him to chitchat. This man is hopeless, still I need him. I need to go to him this time, maybe.' He thought to himself.

"Bhishu" He called Bhishu in a hurry.

"Jee Maharaj?" Bhishu entered the library immediately.

"Ready my vehicle. We're going to meet Setu. Looks like he is busy somewhere."

"We can drag him to you if you want. He disrespects you too much, Maharaj." Bhishu expressed his disappointment towards Setu.

"There is no need of dragging and beating Bhishu. We will go ourselves to meet him." Vishwaprit stopped Bhishu's violent thoughts.

Bhishu cursed Setu in his mind for disrespecting his lord. But he let it go for his lord's sake.

"I will make the car ready." He said and left the room.

Vishwaprit sat there silently for some time. He was trying to grasp the situation's urgency.

'Can we do this on our own? We need help. We need alliances. We need to contact everyone we know & ask them to be ready. But, will they believe it has returned..? Plus half of royal clan has left the town, settled in the city for luxurious life. Will they receive 'Vijayprath' clan's request?'

He felt tired. All of this was too much, it made his mind anxious, like it was going either stop or explode.

'He looked at his father's photograph & asked god in his mind.

Is there anybody who will be able to help us? Is there anybody out there?'

*******

The usual busy road of city was dead silent at this mid hour of night. The noise of someone's running and shouting broke the silence.

A mid aged man was running for his life. He was running fast for his age. But the person who was chasing him was even faster. He was wearing a black hoody and black tights, like a dark saviour. He was wearing a mask to hide his face. He caught him in no time and and tripped him down on the road. He pressed his knee against his neck and asked,

"What were you doing?"

"..."

He asked again, "What were you doing in that temple? Why was there blood? Whose blood was it?"

The mid aged man looked him the eye and spoke while shivering, "He is back. He is back. We cannot hide anymore. I had to do that. It was hungry for ages. I had to do that?" Tears of fear and terror flew down his cheeks.

"Even you can't hide from him either. He is coming for you all. Coming for you."

His talks were irrelevant and insensible, at least for the hooded figure. He felt like the man was stalling him, waiting for somebody to come and save him. He heard somebody's presence around him. He was right. The man was stalling. He looked straight in front of him and tried to count the enemies. Seven. They were seven.

He looked at the cowardly helpless man and striked at his neck. The man stopped moving, went unconscious.

The hooded man stood up & looked at the enemies. They had guns but they were not using it. They didn't want the attention of police by firing. They wanted to do it in old way.

"So you want hand to hand combat. Fine. Let's do it."

They attacked him with the sticks in their hands. He dodged all the attacks but one stick touched his leg. He felt the electricity flowing through his body and he screamed.

'The ectricuted sticks'

"That hurts, you ba******!!" He cursed them and stood up to fight. He used different approach now. He wanted one of that stick. After few efforts, he got one.

"Now it's going to be my turn".

He started playing with the stick as if it was a toy. It scared off his enemies for a moment of time. But they were seven against one. They shed their fear away and marched on him. He dodged their attacks as long as possible and attacked them with lightening speed. Within few minutes, four of them were on the ground, screaming with pain. Remaining three surrounded him. Their eyes fixed on his movements, trying to predict what would he do next. He was certainly quick in his movements so they had to be quick too. They were alert now.

The hooded figure was surprisingly calm. He was waiting for them to act. But nobody was attacking. He guessed that his enemies were in confused zone where they weren't sure if their attacks would work. Hence, they were waiting for him to act first.

'Fine, I'll start first.'

He thought to himself and attacked, but this time he had a knife in his hand along with stick. Though his att attacks were quick, they dodged them well, but he got one them dodging on wrong side and the knife in his other hand did the trick. One was down. The other two got scared to death now. They looked at each other, but they couldn't decide if they should continue fighting or they should leave from there. One of them looked at his friends laying on the ground and came forward to attack the hooded man with all the strength left in his body. But before he could attack, the other one's word hit him hard.

"Let's get out of hear. One of us has to go back to tell them what happened here. We need to leave. Nowwwww."

He got confused and he jumped back.

"What about them?" He looked at his friends.

"We will get them out if they put them in the prison. But we need to leave now. The sacrifice is done. Our work here is done. Once he reaches here, these measly people will not be able to do anything to us."

" Let's run."

The hooded man figured out that they were going to run. He didn't try to stop them. He felt tired. Plus he had to hand over all of them to the police and explain what they had done.

He tied all the unconscious enemies at his usual place where police could find them in the morning. And took the middle class man with him. He dragged him with all the strength left in his body and threw him in his Jeep. The Jeep started and he left the place silently.

There was message written for the police,

"Found these people doing nasty things at nearby temple. Not sure who they are. Take good care of them. Good luck!'

- कालशृंग KalShrung (Night Slayer)

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