The Last Rudra

Millian swept his spirit sense around, scanning his surroundings buzzing with the night- sounds. For the first time, he realized why the Glassians called these hillocks burials of devas. In the faint light of a thin slice of the moon,  they did seem to him hiding something in their swollen bellies

He checked every mound closely, but for three miles he saw no trace of the boy. It was as though he had vanished into thin air. 

The stars in the sky were eyeing him as if they were also stunned at the sudden disappearance of the eavesdropper.

He licked the blood from his arrow again and closed his glowing eyes as if relishing the taste. 

It was human blood, however, there was something else hidden in the salty serum. Something that he had never tasted in Glassia before. 

The discovery rattled his calm heart. A deep frown appeared on his wrinkleless face.

Had some other wizard found out his well-guarded secret? Or had Morians betrayed his trust? 

He had to find out this lad with uncanny camouflaging skills. He couldn't afford any accident, not now when he was so close to the key of this eternal prison.

With a sullen face, Millian whispered in an alien tongue, a strange syllable that stunned the night breeze. The silence fell around the Millian, an uncanny silence that hushed even the sea-roars. 

"Why have you stopped me, death-worshipper?" an ownerless voice asked. 

"This Izidor, scion of Hyde the great, needs your help to find someone, Great  Ventus," Millian said in a solemn tone. 

"Who?" 

"The owner of this blood.''Izidor stained his finger in the blood and rubbed it with his thumb.

The voice didn't reply immediately as though deliberating on his choice. 

"I'm afraid I'm incapable of helping you this time. " The ownerless voice spoke after a long pause in the same emotionless tone.

"What? " Izidor was so surprised at the unexpected answer. "Do you dare to breach the ancient treaty? "

"You heard me wrong, death worshiper. " The ownerless voice said, "I'm incapable of sharing the secret. "

"Do you mean he is one of us?" Izidor's eyes widened, as he recalled how he had missed the boy earlier. If Jaffal, the spirit-defiler hadn't glanced towards the camouflaged boy, he would've never known he was there. 

But who he was, he hadn't seen him in Karnak. Besides, none of them was so young. As for the possibility of him being an apprentice was also nil, for after the fall of Sky Castle none of them could pass their knowledge to anyone. 

"I think I was clear enough that I can't divulge the secret." the voice said, "Could you release me now?I have a long way ahead."

"Ok! Ok! But tell me how many moriyans have come " Izidor could do nothing, except let go of the wind, for the treaty was clear on it. Ventus would never speak about taboos- and secrets of other wizards were such taboos. 

"10,000" the voice replied. "More are coming"

A smile surfaced upon the sullen face of Izidor.

  At least, Jaffal hadn't lied to him. 

Izidor released the wind. And everything returned normal. 

So someone else had also deciphered the sigil of Ursha. But who? 

Izidor thought about all the seven survivors of Kemet. 

White robed,  Alizarin was too heartbroken to care about anything. Izidor doubted the old man would have even left his dingy cave for the last 500 years. 

Udalf had gone in search of Mitras and hadn't been seen or heard since then. Perhaps he had met his demise in Mayavan forest, like his elder brother. Izidor had advised the fools, but they were too blinded by myths.

If Mitras were real they would have done something to stop Mora, the evil lord. But none had come forward to help the masses. If not for Ankha, Mazia would have been at the mercy of the Evil Lord. 

Elyna was in Ahom looking for the temple of Mahamaya, another myth concocted by magsmen. Izidor reckoned the story was a tale weavers attempt to give a sense of purpose to their seemingly purposeless lives. 

`` The weaver-of destiny"  -- one who had been chosen to write the destiny of the whole world. 

Sutas really got creative minds to think of such a person. Izidor wondered how people could even believe such baseless lies. 

Larissa had joined Mora in his world conquest mission, and after Mora's demise, she vanished from the surface of Mazia. Izidor, along with others, had tried to haunt her down, but they couldn't find her. 

Now only one left was Geron.

  Izidor shook his head. Of all the seven survivors Geron was the last person he would expect to be interested in Ursha's sigil. After Mora's demise, Geron left to roam the world with a band of Nimois. 300 years ago Izidor had seen him in Okala, enjoying the dance of mountain nymphs. 

Come to think of it, none of them seemed to be aware of his pursuit. Izidor's curiosity picked up about the boy.

Who was he? What was he doing in Glassia? Most importantly why was he spying on him? 

Izidor's mind, which had deciphered myriads of enigmas and riddles, was unable to come up with rational answers.

Now the only thing he could do was to use his magical creatures and hope they would smell out the spy by the crack of dawn. 

As much as Izidor hated Mora, he couldn't help but marvel at his uncanny wisdom. The Evil Lord had not only discovered a new magic system and invented treasures but also bred many creatures with mind-boggling abilities. 

Take the example of the spy- mosquitoes. 

The creatures could spy and look for anything.  With just a thought, the buzz rushed out of the special pouch tied to Izidor's waist. He tasted the blood from the arrow and commanded them to look for the spy.

The buzz of mosquitoes flew in all directions. 

Izidor sat down on the mound, waiting for his minions to send back singles. The silence of night resumed about him. 

****

                    ---- power levels and working of shields and attacks---

There are some basic things you should know to understand the coming battles... 

Novice ---

**1. One who has just awakened one's nadis, knew nothing about the spirit paths.

  **2. The spirit wielded by a novice is of silver color with a light blue hue.

** 3. A novice doesn't have a spirit pearl 

Beginner--- 

**One who has forged one's spirit body. And knew a handful of spirit paths and is still learning, and practicing them. 

***A beginner has a seed of the spirit pearl. 

**The spirit wielded by them has a light blue color. Of course, the color can also be silver depending on how much spirit the wielder has condensed. 

Apprentice ----

**One who has learned all the spirit paths and mastered them. 

**The title is bestowed by an academy after one passes its entrance trial. 

**Spirit pearl starts condensing at this stage. 

**The spirit, wielded by an apprentice, is of three colors---silver, light blue, dark blue with a golden hue. 

Master ----

**One who has condensed one's spirit pearl.

**Spirit color--Golden, violet, dark blue, light blue, silver

**They can devise their own attack and shields. 

Above mentioned levels are common for every spirit wielder. But name or rank changes with their types namely --yoddha, falconer, spiritualist so on and so forth. They will be revealed in the coming chapters.

Before we discuss shields and attacks, you have to understand what a spirit diagram..or a spirit path is ..

Spirit paths---

**In the human body, there are 72000 energy paths or nadis. 

**These paths take prana to every cell of the body.

**A spirit wielder guides the spirit through a set of nadis called spirit diagram, and thus achieve powers or siddhis such as telekinesis, heighten their senses, namely spirit eyes, spirit ears, spirit nose or one can sum up all of them by saying spirit sense. 

**The siddhis or powers achieved by guiding the spirit through spirit diagrams can be further enhanced by deepening one's insight into natural laws as an apprentice does by studying and experimenting in an academy. 

Spirit shields---

**It's a combination of the spirit and natural laws.

**According to spiritualists, the world ( Mazia, and maybe our world too) is also a body more complex and advanced. Just like the human body, it also has spirit paths or nadis everywhere. The number of nadis varies depending upon the world's complexity.  Agusta, one of the wisest spiritualists of Mazia, had proposed a theory. In his book "The Anatomy of Mazia" he had claimed that the number of nadis in Mazia can be calculated by a simple rule called Agasta's law 

No of nadis in a world = 720000* no of types of species * 108 

The validity of the rule is still under discussion. 

But anyway his hypothesis did explain the working of shields…

Theory for forming a shield …

**A wielder must decide first what kind of shield he wanted to form..

**Taking the guidance of already devised shields, he should visualize the nadis of the world which the spirit has to pass through to form the shield. 

**Once he finishes with visualization, he should command the spirit. 

Caution:-  One must ensure first that he has sufficient spirit in his body to sustain the shield. Or else it will lead to a fatal accident. 

The strength of a shield depends on two things 

  1. Types of spirit and amount of spirit used

  2. One's understanding of natural laws 

Attacks---

Though the spirit is creative energy, one can still use it to attack in battle. 

For this, he had to learn battle skills or arts 

Battle skills or arts--- 

Just like shields one can take guidance from the pre-existed battles skills and can condense astras. 

However, a spirit wielder can also use astras forged by smiths in battles. Most of the wielders prefer them for they save spirit energy during a battle and enhance their fighting prowess. 

Though there are many battles skills in Mazia, one can look through them for guidance, but self-devised skills are supposed to be good in a real battle. 

Just like shields, devising good battle skills needs a deep understanding of the natural destructive forces. such as lightning, thunder, volcanoes, storms, earthquakes, etc. 

Astras 

Astras are weapons used in battles by spirit wielders. Different types of wielders use different kinds of weapons. for example, a yoddha uses swords, blades,  tirdents, clubs, bows, and arrows sometimes whips. There are some unconventional astras such charka, unique to some spirit wielders. 

A falconer may use nets, bows, and arrows, whips, charks, etc. Most of the time they use their bonded birds to attack.

As for a spiritualist, he can use anything for fighting as they are mostly good at telekinesis. usually, they use needles to attack. 

Astras are of two types :

One condensed by a spirit wielder by himself. Their power depends on the type of the spirit used to condense them. Each Astra has core spirit paths called yantra, which also affect their strength.

The main drawback of self-condensed astras is that their strength decreases as the spirit wielders get tired.

Besides it,  not everyone can forge good Astras, for it needs a good grasp on the working of Yantras. 

The second type of Astras are forged by smiths..

A smith, ( one who has a deep insight in Yantras, and forging metals): 

Smiths are also spirit wielders, but they have a deep insight into forging.  They can forge astras that spirit wielders can assimilate with their spirit sense or so-called spiritual sense and wield them as conveniently as a self-forged astra. 

The only drawbacks of these astras are ..

1. they can not be disintegrated at will so one has to carry them around. 

2. You can not modify them by yourself.  You have to visit the smithy for this. 

Please let me know if still have doubts