Reincarnation (3) - The Forgotten History

[ Author Note ]

This is one of the longest chapters I've written at 2200 words. Please show patience, and please vote for this story if you are enjoying it. I've zero likes and it is really discouraging to my pride.

·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

[ AN End ]

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Param Guru intercepted Hound's attack before it could reach me.

His fluttering orange rob and long hair tied behind his head both shook just ever so slightly as if a child was playing with them.

I was feeling strange. It was different from the time when I had met Natraja in Hell. It was different from the time when I had encountered the love of my life while I was still in the army.

Looking at his back shielding me from Hound gave me a sense of belonging that I had forgotten ever existed.

'When was the last time somebody stood beside me and not against?', I thought at the moment.

The two centuries of life flashed inside my head. I was a 200-year-old ancient who could stand at the top of any field in the world, and yet, such a simple gesture was making my heart turn into mush.

'What is happening?', I interjected again. My health was recovering and I felt my life force rejuvenating.

~Beta, I'm sorry, I couldn't come sooner.~ He was using his own Prana to recover mine.

~It's fine.~ I replied.

I didn't know what had come over me that made my face blush, but I felt grateful that his back was turned at me.

'Alas! This is how it should end.'

I looked upwards toward the metal ceiling, trying to find the semblance of my lifesaver, Natraja.

[*eyes close*]

Using the third eye, I could sense more people approaching and Guruji was still not close to winning over Hound. At that moment, with more enemies approaching us, it seemed impossible for both Guruji and me to make an escape.

[*straightens his back*]

As I walked in front of Param Guru, he looked at me with sorry eyes. He had probably already understood my plan.

"I'll take care of it here. Please go ahead."

Even though we were equal in height, Guruji still looked at me as if I was taller. I could feel his gaze that looked at me with warmth and sorrow.

I didn't wish to look grandiose. Heck! From my perspective exchanging my life for Guruji' was only a selfish decision.

'Faith sure loves to play such pranks, isn't it?' my thoughts wandered once more.

I handed over the temporary possessions I was handed over by Guruji for safekeeping.

Param Guru held out his hand in unconsciously and I put both the ring and the mala in his hands.

"Wait! What are you saying? As your senior, I can't possibly let you die here."

"Guru Ji, even if you hadn't come, I would have died in a few years anyway. What are few years in the span of this miserably long life?"

"...", he looked sad.

"Don't you think that I should go see my parents before they go through the cycle of reincarnation?", I said.

He looked deep into my eyes as if searching for my soul. His eyes blinked slightly and then he turned away. He must have known the resolve with which I had said my words.

Without saying anything else Param Guru opened the door behind my back and entered the warp room to activate the star energy warp engine.

"Old man, your chance is over now, I don't need you anymore.", Hound said.

(*woosh...*) An attack followed soon after.

"Ho! You really are one excited hound aren't you?"

The pupil in my right eye glowed with a purple halo and everything around me was slowing down.

The hound's level 5 attack, which was impossible to defend normally, moved at a snail's pace under the influence of my third eye.

"Alas! The third eye really is one menacing technique that can tear apart and stare at the truth of anything."

[ Maya Shruti: ऐनक ]

I chanted the Mantra that my mother had bestowed upon me, her inherited art which was designed specifically for her powers of [Maya Maitri], a power to find the holes in Maya, was weirdly compatible with the third eye. It was one of the mysteries that I had struggled countless years trying to decode in the army libraries.

[ AN: Maya is the illusion created by Samsara. Maya is also a goddess of illusion. ]

I could see the faint glow of gold and black stripes covering Hound's body.

'Oh! So this is his Aura.'

His Aura was of bestial nature. The power of the silent hunter, the Tiger with the golden stripes.

'No wonder, he could fight toe-to-toe with Param Guru.'

I slowly raised my hand (slow only to my eyes) and touched the staff in the centre ever so gently. The third eye showed me exactly where lied the epicentre of the power in Hound's attack.

`````````

(*tick ... whoosh ... bam!!*)

His gentle touch at my staff completely destroyed my whole momentum and all the Prana that I was using dispersed in an instant.

"What is this power?", I asked the old senile man who had his one foot at death's door already.

His body looked weaker than the malnutrition kids on the lower Earth, but his demeanour gave me a sense that he was above all the mortals.

I got up and readied my attack once more. I needed to gather Prana in my staff before I could initiate an attack, that was the shortcoming of my [Lathi Shastra].

[ AN: Shastra in Sanskrit generally means percept, rules, or manuals of some kind or subject. ]

[ AN: Lathi Shastra means the 'The Art of fighting with a spear/stick' ]

This old man who was only wearing a torn white fabric around his waist, which looked like it was taken from the lab curtains, gave me a sense of fear which was on par with the Param Guru.

I positioned the staff and plunged towards him with all my might.

Just as I reached five meters within his presence, a fear which I had not known before completely overshadowed my body. It felt like I was being stared at by the demons in Hell.

'What on par? He is dangerous than that stupid Guru of mine.'

When I was only 5 meters away from the old man, my vision completely distorted and I saw the real face of the monster covered in wrinkles and bones.

Suddenly the old man who was only minutes away from death became a deity from the ancient legends. His two hands turned into four, his skin turned blue and his grey hair turned black.

The two hands behind his back were holding [Damru] and [Blue Fire], each giving me a pressure that was more than 100s of Guru combined.

'What..', I couldn't even finish my thoughts before all the Prana in my staff as well as my body was sucked away and it was then that I saw the most menacing thing of my life.

"YOU... YOU MONSTER!! WHAT ARE YOU!? WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH POWERS!!!"

``````

[Maya Shruti: जीवन चक्र (Jivan Chakra)]

I chanted the [Mantra: Circle of Life and Death] and a clock appeared beneath my feet as me at the centre. The clock which was naked to every other eye except my own expanded for 5 meters all around me and gave me a sense of invincibility.

This was my final trump card. The [Circle of life and death]. It made me invincible around the 5-meter area for a very short amount of time. Any and all life in my range would be at the mercy of my command and even 'God of death' can't enter the range without consequences.

Just as I was ready to initiate my attack and take away the life out of his body, Hound stopped.

He fell down to his knees and looked at me with an inexplicable fright in his eyes.

'What happened to him?'

I was confused, but there was no time. The usage of this technique meant I was exchanging my own lifespan for powers, and I didn't have a long lifespan to begin with.

'I must finish him.'

I disappeared and appeared next to Hound. With my powers, I raised Hound's body who kept on staring at me as if I were a ghost.

"Let's end this."

I swung my arm and Hounds body which looked like a ragged doll was thrown towards the other end of the corridor.

(*woosh .... bam!!! ... thud!*)

'I guess Param Guru can leave safely now!'

I remembered the face of Param Guru which oddly enough reminded me of my own father instead of Kala.

'I hope I can live a normal life in the next re-incarnation.', I thought.

"Natraja, won't you see me one last time?", I asked facing towards the ceiling.

I couldn't see the sky, and I didn't know whether it was the right direction towards the God who had saved my life once.

"Anyway, just don't push me so hard in my next life. Okay?"

~ ... ~

[*silence*]

I wasn't hoping for an answer. He was one proud being after all.

'It would be nice if I can meet my parents and my teachers again.'

I closed my eyes.

[*grabs*]

I felt a wrinkled hand grab my shoulder, however, I had become unconscious before I could see who it was.

``````

"I have failed you again my child."

I had lived for 200 years and was the most powerful person in the Union. "The Param Guru" they all called me, but I was not worthy of their praise.

"Karn! I have wronged you most of all."

I looked at Karn who had grown into a man worthy of my admiration. Even after all the hardships of being an orphan, he never deviated from his own path and lived a life where he helped countless prisoners throughout his military career as a priest.

It was 9 decades ago when Karn's father had brought an unconscious boy to the Union asking for help. He was ready to exchange his own life for this boy, but there was nothing I could do to help then.

"Even now, after 90 years, I've still failed you again! I've wasted your sacrifice."

The warp portal was a fake and we have been caught in the trap of the military.

"Dammit! This monster. How was he able to do that!", Hound said with a dry voice.

He had bruises all over his body and was still spitting blood with every breath. His military-grade uniform which was meant to withstand any level 4 User's attack was in pieces. He had survived Karn's onslaught because of his modern equipment made from Ruin artifacts.

"HOUND!!!"

I was angry. Even after Karn sacrificed himself, seeing the parasite alive, made me lose all sense of reason.

"What!! You love him more than your own student now? Hahaha... it's very amusing... Hahaha"

"You are no student of mine. You are a parasite that shouldn't have been born in this world."

"Spare me the lecture, Guruji. I don't know how you did it, but this dead man definitely inherited the [Seal of Samsara], and now that he is dead, it is without an owner. I can take it away even without your help now. Save your life and get lost"

It was the truth.

Karn could inherit the [Seal of Samsara] because of his mother.

She was the [Maya Maitri] of the last generation and Karn was her only blood who had inherited her powers.

I got up with Karn's body still in my arms.

Although his heart wasn't beating, there was a very pure and untainted Prana covering his body. It meant that the seal wasn't yet completely without an owner.

'This is my last chance!', I thought.

I looked at the stasis chamber pods lying in the warp room.

'I have no other option. I must save Karn no matter what! This is the debt of life I owe to too many people of the past.'

I ran away in the direction of the stasis chamber and placed Karn's body inside.

The hound was slower because of all the damage Karn had done to him beforehand.

"What are you doing! He is already dead, do not struggle unnecessarily"

I threw Karn's body into the white-blue pod and alongside threw the [Ring of wisdom].

"No, you are not going anywhere!"

Hound plunged once more, gathering all his remaining strength, and punched me with all his might.

(*crack ...*)

I heard the old bones in my arm cracking.

[*pushes button*]

I pushed the button on the launching pad with my other hand while still pushing away Hound's body with my own.

(*grunt ...*)

I could see Hound's face getting distorted. Without the [Ring of wisdom] no one can control the [seal of Samsara].

'It is better this way.'

(*clack...clutch....woosh*)

"What have you done, you foolish old man!!"

Hound raised his arm and pushed me aside. But the deal was done, there was no way he could grab hold of the [ring of wisdom] now that the stasis chamber had been released in the atmosphere.

"Goodbye! Karn!"

"...I hope we have different circumstances when we meet again in next life!"

[*khatchack*]

I broke the [Mala] while looking at Hound who was fuming with so much anger that he could burst any moment.

"Intercept the pod!! I repeat. This is the highest priority, IN-TER-CEPT THE FUCKI**G POD."

He was too busy giving orders to his minions to even notice that I had destroyed the [Seal of Samsara].

Releasing the seal was the only way to make sure that the powers didn't land in his hands. I couldn't even imagine giving people like Hound the ability to change the reality as they wished, It would be worst than the most dystopian future humanity could have ever imagined.

'I hope that the tragedy of the Forgotten History won't repeat itself, but it's all in the hands of Karna now...', I prayed to Krishna - the dark blue herald of creation, 'Please let him live a normal life this time, Ohh Nanda-lala...'

[ AN: Nanda-lala = "beloved son of Nanda" ]

[*tap ... tap ... tap*]

As the beads fell on the ground, one by one, Hound also noticed what had happened.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!"

The hound's shout was like a tiger's grown gone mad from disease.

"Now, the seal is undone. This is what you wanted right!!", I smiled at the Hound who was going mad from speculating all the possible outcomes of my action.

It was petty but I felt a greater sense of relief watching the disgusting dog fuming with exploding anger. 'Suits you better...'

(*whoosh .. thud ...*)

Hound jumped with all his anger centred around his punch, it landed right on my chest this time, but there was no pain.

This life.

This world.

Everything was Forgotten.

And the real "Forgotten History" shall take shape.

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:: END OF VOLUME 1 - The Non-Existent Existence of Forgotten History.

:: VOLUME 2 COMING - The act of Re-Acting: The Cosmic Pause Undone