Vijay still couldn’t move, because of those black spear-like things stuck in his body.
When he heard the voices of that woman and Sharv, fear struck him too.
‘No! He shouldn't die!’
If Sharv died, then he too would end along with him.
Thinking about this, along with fear, a will to fight started to awaken inside him.
Grit!
He clenched his teeth hard and...
‘Ughh!’
Slid!
With extreme difficulty, he pulled one of the spears out of his body.
‘Huff! Huff!’
Just pulling one out left him in that condition, but he couldn’t stop.
Slid! Slid! Slid! Slid! Slid! Slid! Slid! Slid! Slid!…
‘Aghhhh!!!’
The pain was unbearable, but he kept going. And finally, the very last spear came out of his body.
One by one, he had removed them all. He looked at the spears lying on the ground.
‘Gasp!’
‘These things… they caused me this pain…’
He knew one thing for sure—that he could only feel pain by Death Prana, or by a spiritual master.
That meant these spears were definitely made of Death Prana.
‘But if that woman isn’t a spirit and is really a human… then how can she use Death Prana?’
Countless questions ran through his mind, with no answers. But one thing he did know, he was nowhere near equal to that woman.
He kept staring at the spears.
‘Ah! Fuck I'm doing it...’
He went over to them, broke off small pieces with his new peacock feather with some difficulty, and then...
Crunch! Crunch! Gulp!
Began to eat them.
***
Crunch! Crunch! Gulp!
After a few minutes, when Vijay had eaten all the black spears, new Death Prana began to stir and flow inside his body.
‘It really was Death Prana.’
‘!!!’
His body trembled, his dark green peacock feather now turning blackish-green.
Whooong!
The Death Prana developing inside him radiated outward from his body.
‘I-I almost advanced to Disastrous Spirit?!’
The newly entered death prana, was so much that he was at the peak of Strange Spirit rank.
Just a few more death prana needed, and he'll surpass Strange Spirit to Disastrous Spirit!
But then...
“You son of a bitch! Aren’t you afraid of death?!”
That was the voice of the same woman.
“No! No! Wake Up! You Bastard!!!”
Vijay heard her shout again, this time even more higher.
“ARGHH! WAKE UP!! YOU MOTHERFUCKER, ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!!!”
‘!!!’
Vijay’s pupils shrank. Forgetting everything else, he ran straight toward that voice.
***
In the woman’s arms was Sharv’s lifeless body. He wasn’t breathing, he was dead.
Clench!
The woman clenched her fists tight. Rage boiled inside her.
She had wanted to interrogate this boy, but he would kill himself instead? She hadn’t expected that.
“Arghhhhh! How long do you plan to keep me imprisoned!!!”
The woman screamed looking upward, her voice echoing through the endless black abyss.
However...
“...Got you!”
‘?!’
A voice came, and the woman suddenly felt someone grip her right hand.
She looked and saw that boy was alive!
Not only alive, he was smiling. And that smile stretched all the way to his ears.
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“You... You were faking it?!”
But then...
Whoooosh!
Sharv used Samavesh.
The prana energy flowing out of the woman’s body, he began absorbing it, into himself.
The woman’s eyes burned with fury. She had never imagined he would do this.
“You fool! Do you even know what you’re absorbing?! This isn’t some ordinary prana!”
“I know. It’s Death Prana.”
‘?!’
Sharv spoke firmly.
He had already suspected it this energy flowing out of her was like Death Prana.
But now, being this close to her, he was sure. It really was Death Prana.
On the other hand, the woman’s mind was spinning.
‘Who exactly is this boy? How does he even know about Death Prana?!’
She looked at Sharv, thinking—she had to catch his bastard anyhow, find out how he knew about Death Prana and all those other things.
Whoosh!
Sharv’s own internal energy began to surge. The woman had sensed that he had internal energy before, but this...
“This too is Death Prana!”
The woman muttered to herself.
Her mind reeled. Not only did this boy know about other things, he also possessed Death Prana himself.
She desperately wanted answers from him. But...
“Ahh! Let go of my hand!”
If he kept absorbing her internal energy like this, hers would weaken.
Swish! Thud!
The woman slammed Sharv into the ground again. But even then, he still hadn’t released her wrist.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
She smashed Sharv into the ground three times before finally shaking him off.
Sharv’s body lay on the ground, but now it was surging with massive amounts of internal energy.
Even though he had held her for only a brief moment and absorbed only a little, for him it was still overwhelming.
And not just that something else had come into his hand, something he hadn’t noticed before.
Beads!
The same ones that were on that rotten hand.
They had been invisible on the woman’s wrist, but when Sharv pulled them off, they became visible.
‘Maybe… this is the key to escaping this place…’
‘Sharv!!!’
Then Sharv heard a familiar voice. Vijay’s voice. When he looked, he saw Vijay running toward him.
‘Sharv, you’re alive, right? Why do you have your eyes closed?’
“Your strength has grown, hasn’t it, Vijay?”
‘Yeah! I almost became a Disastrous Spirit. But forget that are you alright?’
“Yes, I’m fine. Just trying to focus my mind a little.”
But just then the woman shouted demanding answers from them,
“Tell me—who exactly are you two? That boy has Death Prana, how is that possible? And how does he know about Samavesh, Gravitational force and Domain Control?”
’?!’
At the mention of the three forbidden powers, Vijay’s brow furrowed.
As far as he knew, no one in the outside world had any knowledge of those techniques, except his family.
His family knew about them, but had never attempted to practice them, because according to their ancestors, they were far too dangerous.
In fact, his family had hidden them within that, book ’The Wall Between Spirit and Man.’
So then… how did this woman know?
‘How do you know about these techniques?’
“Answer my question first, you lowly spirit!”
Grit!
Vijay clenched his jaw tight. He wanted to attack that woman, but he knew he was nowhere near her equal.
Even if she wasn’t a spirit, if this women is compared with vijay, who is now at the peak of Strange Spirit, then that woman was surely at the Mythical Spirit, or perhaps… even higher; Demonic Spirit.
She was far too powerful. Vijay couldn't fight her. He just needed to buy time, at least until Sharv could stand up again.
‘These techniques… my ancestors recorded them in a book. That book was never meant for outsiders, so my ancestors had said. But this boy, after my death, found and read that book, and from there he learned of these powers.’
“...Your family…What's your name?”
‘Vijay Prakash Rai!’
‘Prakash Rai?...’
The woman thought for a moment after hearing the name, but still, she couldn’t recall anything.
‘Now answer my question… how do you know about them?! These techniques were safeguard by my ancestors for centuries, so how do you know?!’
“Sigh!...Look, it might be a little hard for you to unde...”
“Haa!…”
Sharv exhaled deeply and tried to stand.
His back ached from when the woman had slammed him into the ground.
“Ugh!”
But still, he forced himself up.
Crack!
He stretched his back. From where they stood, both the woman and Vijay could only see his back.
Vijay could feel it; Sharv’s internal energy had also increased a little.
Sharv turned around, but...
‘Sh-Sharv, your eyes!’
“What the…what’s happened to his eyes?”
Both Vijay and the woman spoke at once, leaving Sharv confused.
“My eyes?”
He could still see perfectly fine, without any difficulty. So he had no idea what they were talking about.
But then...
‘Your eyes have turned crimson!’
“Your eyes… are blood red.”
Both said it together.
Sharv was stunned. He couldn’t see his own eyes right now, so it was hard to believe them.
Sharv's eyes, Iris which were once black, now turned blood-red. A small black pupils glowed within, while the rest remained white as before.
“What nonsense are you talking about? How could my eyes turn red? I’m not some beast.”
‘...’
“...”
Both Vijay and the women fell silent.
They didn’t know how to explain this, to the boy that his eyes truly had changed!
And it wasn’t even their fault, because Sharv couldn't feel any change in his vision, so it was reasonable for him to be doubtful.
This place had no mirrors, nor any clear water. So how could he see his own reflection?
Swish!...
Sharv stopped the Death Prana radiating out of his body.
And then.
‘huh?...Your eyes… they’ve gone back to normal.’
“That’s right.”
Vijay and the woman said together.
Even now, Sharv didn’t feel much difference in his vision.
But from what Vijay had said, if his eyes truly had turned crimson.
Then perhaps it only happened when he used Death Prana throughout his entire body? Or maybe, only when, he focused Death Prana directly into his eyes?
“Tell me, how do you have Death Prana in your body?”
The woman demanded. Sharv replied,
“Why should I tell you?”
’...This brat!’
Her eyes flared with anger again, she was going to lift her hand, but then.
“Ah! Don’t think you can just kill me and get your answers. I won’t allow that… because now I’m leaving.”
‘?!’
The woman couldn’t understand what Sharv just said.
‘Leaving? He’s… leaving?!’
‘..!’
Then her gaze fell on the beads in Sharv’s hands.
She suddenly remembered, when she had tried to pull her hand free from his earlier, she had felt a strange jolt. She hadn’t paid much attention to it then…
Because...
She had been imprisoned here for countless years, and she knew once anyone entered this place, they could never leave.
The one who had imprisoned her had placed a powerful seal upon her, a seal that prevented her from ever escaping.
But she had never been able to break that seal, because she had no idea where it even was.
And now, looking at those beads in Sharv’s hands, she finally understood.
The seal had been with her all along, on her wrist.
Clench!
Fury boiled within her, and she dug her nails into her own palm so hard that blood began to drip.
She had spent countless years searching for that seal within this abyss… and now this boy stood before her, claiming he was about to leave?
Her rage burned, against both herself and the one who had trapped her here.
Sharv summoned Vijay back into his Sacred thread and said,
“She isn’t a spirit. Then there’s no reason to stay here anymore. Let’s get out.”
Sharv held the beads firmly in both hands, ready to crush them when,
“Wait!”
He turned toward the voice, it was hers.
“Wait! Don’t leave me here… take me with you!”
Sharv looked at her with emotionless eyes and said coldly,
“And why should I do that?…”
“Uh?”
“I mean, what benefit would that bring me? I came here because I thought you were a spirit, and could be tamed but your not spirit. I lost my only reason why I came here. And, I don’t even know what you’ll do once you’re free. For all I know, the first thing you’ll do outside is kill me.”
“…”
“…Sigh! If there’s no gain for me, then I won’t be taking this big risk. Anyway, I’m leaving. Farewell! I hope you find your next prey soon.”
Sharv tightened his grip on the beads.
The woman’s anger spiked, she wanted to lash out.
But she also desperately wanted to escape. And for that… she was willing to do anything.
“Wait! Wait!—WAIT!!!”
She shouted. Sharv paused for just a second, but then pressed down again.
“Listen—wait! Tell me… what do you want?”
Sharv hesitated for a moment, then said,
“The thing I want… you’ll probably refuse to give. So forget it.”
“No! Stop! Whatever it is, I’ll give it, as long as I’m capable of it. In return, please, take me out of here!”
“Anything?”
“Yes! Anything!!!”
Hearing this, a faint smirk tugged at Sharv’s lips. He then said...
“Then let me absorb a little of your Death Prana. Ok?”
‘!!!’
