THE ARTIFACT

I feel like I am walking in a maze. After passing through the entrance, the whole cave system got tangled proceeding downward into a big mess.

If not for the man guiding me from the front, I would have lost my way long ago. If I think back, it's a foolish idea to infiltrate these caves.

--------Barka's POV -----------

It's been a month and a week since our head monk declared that one of our biggest burdens, 'THE ARTIFACT' will be handed over to a worthy one that is to come.

It is one of our sacred duties to protect it at all costs and Jora is the one to safeguard 'the artifact' in this generation. But he was suddenly told that he doesn't need to anymore, so I can understand his reluctance.

What I can't understand is the monster behind me. We, Aghoras from childhood till death strive harder than anything to master and improve our skills, to one day put our life on the line to perform our sacred duties.

But a twenty-year-old juvenile bested Jora, the best in his generation. It's not just the skill with his sword but also his composure facing us and God-given control of his swings.

He swung his blade at Jora for a total of hundred and nineteen times in the few minutes they fought, of which sixty-two swings targeted at sensory nerves and muscle fibers in the body, thirty-six swings targeted the vital points like throat, heart, kidney, liver, and head, while the remaining went for bone ligaments and tendons.

It's not like he fighting Jora but dissecting him, showing how weak we mortals are in front of him. This reminded me of our head monk's teaching in my childhood. We are working this hard because we, mortals are weak and can be killed in many ways. We strive hard not to win but live longer in front of the truly strong.

But what's even scarier is his control over the strength of his swings. Every swing starts with the power to break the body but just leaves a minute nick on it. How long has he been training for, to gain this much skill? I wouldn't even be surprised if someone told me that he was training from his mother's womb.

O Lord Shiva, is the upcoming calamity really that big for you to raise a monster of a child like him to safeguard the artifact?

--------Suman's POV ------------

While both of us having our own musings, we passed through many tunnels and met many Aghoras who greeted Barka and gave me odd looks.

After a long time, we reached a very big opening where many elderly Aghoras sitting in a row. A very older monk sitting in the middle of them and watching me like an overexcited kid.

The old monk, his eyes are completely pitch black like black holes. He seems to look at everything and at the same time his looks felt hollow like he is just looking blankly into space like any senile old man would do.

Barka has introduced the old monk as the head monk and also announced Jora's defeat in my hands.

Many gave me a skeptical look except the head monk and one of them asked Barka, "did he really bested Jora?"

"No, " he stopped for a second and continued, "He played with Jora like an adult playing with his kid".

Many gasps echoed in the cave but stopped with the rise of head monk's hand, then he said, "Tell us, child. What have you come seeking for? Name it and you will be given".

So, is this considered as the final test? I thought and answered, "Brahma Kapalam". The whole cave became quiet, even the breaths of all the people stopped.

Yes, that is the name of the artifact. In ancient Hindu myths, 'Brahma' is the God of creation and 'Kapalam' means skull in Sanskrit. Its outer appearance is like four pure white skulls fused together with four faces facing outward, four different directions and a little crystalline luster.

The real power of the artifact is not in the skull but a flicker of burning flame inside it, called 'flames of death' came from the third eye of Lord Shiva, which can only be contained in the skull of the God of creation.

The head monk sighed deep like wanting to sink the whole mountain a couple of feet down with it and looked at an elderly monk beside him, nodding a little.

The elderly monk went into a branch of cave off to the side and came out with a black ball of little less than one feet diameter. He looked at head monk for final confirmation and handed it over to me.

After receiving the black ball into my hand, I looked towards the head monk. Then he explained, "The artifact is sealed with a single hair strand of its protector in every generation, before retirement and passed down to protector of next generation. Thus, it came to be in its present appearance".

I placed the orb, with the size of a football as it is in my backpack and said goodbye to all the Aghoras in the cave. Barka guided me outside of the caves but never seen Jora again in the way back.

It is early evening by the time I got to our hotel rooms. Only Raj stayed in the room watching the news on the TV.

"Where did they go?" I asked Raj.

He looked towards me with a smirk and said, "You riled him up too much yesterday. Today they went for picking flowers".

I also laughed at that and glanced at the TV, seeing this Raj said, "They are saying it will be scale 9 earthquakes all over the Pacific Ocean in a week, it will shake the whole earth and UNO started evacuating all island countries in Pacific ".

so, it's still happening same as in the past. UNO helped with moving people and many countries proactively helped it but what they don't know is, it's not just an earthquake but a whole new world.

While I am immersing in my thoughts Raj irritatingly said, "Damn! They are at it again".

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"The alien conspiracy theories, " he replied.

He talking about a scrolling on the bottom of the screen with a heading 'hot news'. The channel is good for normal news but they have quite an obsession with alien conspiracies.

The scrolling is about a UFO falling into Pacific yesterday, seeing this I remembered a memory from origin tree.

'Shit they are already here?', right, If the timing is correct they should have already been on Earth by now. The final fight to change the destiny of this planet.

"Is something wrong?" Raj asked seeing my hardened face. He is as perceptive as ever, but it's too early to scare them.

"It's nothing, " I said and went to my room. I have to prepare well.

Thinking about it, it's about time I called my family and have a serious talk with them. I took out my phone and dialed the number of my house. It rang a few times before getting picked up.

Even though I said, my family, it's just my little brother, four years younger than me. Both my parents are scientists working in government research institutes. So, they are cooped up in their labs but protected 24/7 by security. We live with our nanny and few servants.

"Hello! Who is this?" asked a young and immature voice.

"It's me Sammy," I replied.

"Hmph, wrong number," he said and cut off the line.

Yes, he is my little brother Sameer. He is an overachiever in our family with distinction in everything he studied, so he got more pocket money than me.

Unlike me, he is saving his money and it piled up in his secret account, which he thinks I don't know. I completely emptied his secret account before coming to the trip, I think he found it out.

But Mr.perfect has his weakness too. I called again and he picked up again but before he cut off the line I said, "I brought 'Mage Meister' premium version and installed it on the computer in my bedroom".

"Hai bro, how are you? how is your trip? " he replied sweetly.

He is a good student but when he fell into gaming no one can bring him out. So, our parents banned him from gaming, even though our nanny dotes on him she still won't agree to indulge in games. Now he can play secretly in my room.

"But I have a condition to give you the password," I said.

"Scoundrel! I knew there would a catch. Did you find about my second account? I won't give you a penny" he grumbled. Oh, I didn't know about the second stash but whatever, why say no to the free lunch?

"I have another condition other than your stash" I demanded.

"..." he stayed silent for a moment and said, "You didn't know about my second stash until I told you just now, do you?" he asked.

Damn, he is getting good at this. After all, he is my brother but he is still bad at poker, "So, you don't want the password ha? alright then farewell my dear little brother, " I replied with a chuckle.

I can even imagine his grumpy red face from this side, " What can I do for you respectable big brother?" he replied with a gritted teeth.

Haa...is this how you feel, when kids grow up day by day in front of you absorbing everything you teach them? Now he can mix sarcasm with his anger in a respectable tone.

"Are you watching the news about earthquakes in Pacific?" I asked with a serious voice this time.

"I was just watching it in the news, they are repeating it again and again in all the channels like it is the end of the world, " he replied in a serious tone.

"It's really going to shake the whole world and there may be crashes in our neighborhood, " I said seriously, "There would be unrest and panic, I suggest you stack as much food as you can in the house immediately right now"

"Really? then what about mom and dad? " he asked with a frightened voice. He knows I rarely talk in a serious voice so he trusts me so we have that kind of understanding between us.

"They will be protected, don't worry about them and now your task is to stack as much food as you can today itself. After you complete your task, I will tell you the password " I reminded him again seriously.

"...Thanks," he said silently.

"Oh, don't forget about wiring your second stash, " I said with a chuckle.

"Scoundrel, " he said and cut off the line.

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We toured for another week and covered four more hill stations and tourist spots in that time.

By 27th evening we reached 'Pangdo hotel', which is just fifteen kilometers from Manasarovar in the Himalayas. We took our rest that evening and started trekking the next morning.