CH 04 The Paradox

"First I would like to ask for some answers to my questions!" Yasha demanded. No way was he going anywhere with these weirdos who suddenly turned up.

"Sure, go ahead." The Ancient One nodded along with Rajeshwari.

"First of all, what is Kamar-Taj?"

"Kamar-Taj is the home and training grounds to the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Kamar-Taj is a place where sorcerers and sorceresses train. People often come here after being broken or damaged, physically, and metaphorically. Kamar-Taj also houses spell books that have dangerous spells. Despite this, the warnings come after the spells rather than before, a common practice in the rest of the world. This can cause sorcerers to practice spells without knowing the risks and costs."

"Now who are you then ?" Yasha turned to the one in fancy garments.

"Well, you can say I am a really distant relative of yours." the woman said with a smile "a really distant one. You have separated from us a very long time ago but you are finally back."

"I don't remember having any relative while growing up," Yasha said with a growl "Those who try to trick me won't last long!"

Yasha didn't know why but her presence both filled him with longing yet repulsed him from his core. Without even meaning to he found that his Malachai form was already unleashed to its Second Stage. His Body swiftly transformed, Black hair streaked with red, black eyes flashing red, black skin with ancient red symbols.

A pair of giant bat-like wings sprouted behind him, each more than thrice the size of his body. A rough crown of crystalline material appeared on his head as if fused with his head. Yasha was surprised, his winged form seemed stronger than the previous time he unleashed it. He could feel power swirling in him like an unending flow.

Just as he was wondering what was going on, he felt energy rushing into him from his surroundings, feeling like a rush of purest elixir. It was then that he noticed that all the foul energy that was soaking the surroundings, because of whatever ritual the bony guy had done, was now rushing into him. It was as if he was a powerful magnet attracting all the iron dust.

He wanted to growl in anger, in his annoyance at the two in front of him he had forgotten about what would happen if he unleashed the Malachai here. Extaria had warned him about this, now there was no going back. His power welled up swiftly like an out of control nuclear reactor, just more deadly.

"Oh no," the gaudily dressed woman named Rajeshwari exclaimed in exasperation "the child has lost control of his powers. The evil in the air has overcharged his capacity. He has to unleash the energy in a controlled manner or else the consequence will be really bad."

"How bad?" Ancient One exclaimed in a hurry.

"Hmm? Wouldn't you already know?" Rajeshwari asked, "After all even gods like me are not spared from the Eye and the stone within?"

"I would have tried but the Eye is powerless against him for some reason. Whenever I see through it it shows me events without him in it. He is sort of a blind-spot for some reason. Never encountered something like this." Ancient One admitted helplessly.

"Huh, look at that, there is something you cant do after all. Well, that is really bad for us, because this child is a god killer. His powers are deadly even for gods, he will absorb the powers of any god he kills, making him even stronger. It's sort of an eternal loop of damnation for us, he kills and gets stronger then kills some more."

"What kind of a broken power is that?"Ancient One shouted in despair.

"Hey, look at that, you spoke in the lingo of the kids nowadays" Rajeshwari exclaimed happily, unworried of the situation around them "Anyway if he goes berserk then he goes berserk. Nothing we can do is going to stop it. He will literally rip through this dimension."

As they both looked on, one in horror and one in fascination, Yasha kept on powering up. Suddenly, intense green light emerged from the Ancient one's chest. Before they could react, a ray of green light emerged and hit Yasha square in the chest. The next moment it was as if the world glitched for an instant and Yasha disappeared from before them.

The next moment a handsome tall guy was standing in front of them. He was young, powerful, and dripping with charisma. Wavy black hair-like strands of the pure night sky and dark brown chocolate eyes greeted the two ladies, on a caramel-colored face. He was easily above six feet in height, built muscular yet lean.

"Who are you?" Ancient one immediately summoned two runic mandalas in her hand, able to work as both shield and blades. Next to her Rajeshwari also shifted her body subtly, but any master combatant would notice that with a simple shift she had somehow managed to remove all openings she had left previously. Clearly, she was a great combat expert.

"Huh, forgot about me so soon? I thought I didn't leave for more than an instant, did I?" the guy smirked mischievously.

"No way! How? When? What ?" Rajeshwari short-circuited as she started fumbling.

"How did you do it?" Ancient one asked, suddenly catching on.

"An elaborate time paradox loop," Yasha said "the eye you are hiding there helped quite a bit. The moment my powers went berserk in front of it formed a time node. It was perfect for a sustained paradoxical loop I used to achieve this, taking the position of my past."

"Where is the you that was supposed to be here?" Ancient one asked

"Well I am the me that was supposed to be here," Yasha said "As I said, it was a paradoxical loop. So I had sent myself back to that time before too. That is how I came to be here. If I hadn't sent myself back then, I wouldn't be here and vice-versa. I think at the moment my powers lost control I somehow instinctively realized what I would have to do."

"Anyway, I guess it was a one-time thing. I can't replicate that without the time stone, and I don't want to anyway. The time stone gave me more than enough I need to shield myself from further such events. Moreover, I am in better control of the Malachai now. I know what makes me tick."

"The Time Stone gave you powers?" Rajeshwari finally came to her senses and asked.

"Oh ya, I awakened a Time Core in me and I have Clairvoyance, Divination, Perspicuity, and many such tricks now. Nothing will illude me or be hidden from me if I look for it. But it's a pain most of the time so I don't. Also, I don't have as many paths visible to me as the user of time stone will have. I only have access to paths that will be most likely taking place, based on the choices the mortals of the specified time have already chosen."

"Hmm, alright," Ancient One said, "Where are you right now then?"

"Haha, I know what you mean" Yasha chuckled "Let's just say I sent him to a place he will learn to best use his powers and who knows, maybe gain some more in the meantime."

"Oh no, please tell me you didn't?!" Rajeshwari said, almost in tears.

"Why? What happened?" Ancient One asked

"He sent him to war!" Rajeshwari shrieked "that is the only place a being born for war can swiftly master their power."

"What?!" Ancient One glared at Yasha.

"Relax, I came back didn't I? I am sure he will too." Yasha retorted calmly.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

In the meantime,

The original Yasha found himself in the middle of a vast plain, seemingly in ruins. This place had definitely seen better times. But Yasha didn't care about that. No matter where he suddenly found himself, he was bursting with energy from earlier. He simply roared as an enormous shock-wave emerged from him, pulverizing the already barren ground to powder.

Panting while kneeling on the ground, Yasha finally felt relief. He decided then to figure out where he was. Before he could do that, he heard a few loud vehicles in the distance, moving towards him. When he saw them clearly, he could not believe what his eyes saw.

He saw a strange armored vehicle, seeming as if a child put it up together, that is if a child had access to military-grade equipment. It was like just a bunch of metal plates put together. Two of these vehicles were rushing towards him. He stood up casually and looked at them. He heard some people in it soon, they were screaming something in German.

Next moment a burst of gunfire attacked him, originating from the two vehicles. Well to everyone's surprise except his, most missed him and the ones that were one mark got deflected by a thin energy shield covering him. This went on for a while before a hand-held launcher attacked him with some grenades.

He frowned a bit and waved his hand casually, generating a wave of wind that reflected the grenades back to the vehicles. As a result, most of those grenades exploded around the vehicles, tearing them apart and killing most of the men in them. He slowly walked up to the demolished vehicles and found that two of the people in it were barely alive since they were in the vehicle at the back and we're sitting in the backseat too.

He grabbed both of them without a word and decided to break into their minds. He had unlocked another portion of his powers due to the energy overload in him, along with whatever that green-ray had done to him. He now could access clairvoyant powers, along with telekinesis, divination, and perspicuity.

Clairvoyance also allowed him to read anyone's mind he was in direct contact with, while also allowing him to observe most of what is going on in a wide range without having to see or hear it through physical sense. Telekinesis was self-explanatory, while Divination allowed him to get knowledge of the past present, and future through various means. Perspicuity allowed him to look past all mystical, physical, or magical methods used to illude his senses.

Using his powers instinctively on those two near-dead people, he realized they were all soldiers, including the ones he killed. He read their mind and its content made him shocked. He was in the year 1943, in a place close to Dachau in Germany that held a concentration camp. His outburst had worried the resident soldiers that someone may have fired a bomb at them.

Other than these eight or so soldiers he just killed, there were about 50 more soldiers in the camp currently, and many more prisoners, almost in hundreds. But most were on the verge of death because of the brutal experiments and torture they were put through. Maximum prisoners in there were Jews, with a few suspected spies thrown in there for torture.

Yasha figured if he wanted some information then a German camp would be an ideal place. He used spirit energy arts to make himself one with nature, which lets himself blend with surroundings and no one would be able to notice even if he was right in front of them. This was the ultimate stealth technique to be used on those that lack strong wills.

He switched to winged form and swiftly flew over to the camp. He reached it within a minute and started to look around the place. It could literally be called hell for the people there. The German soldiers and officers were just standing at their assigned spots, high on the walls and neat rooms. The prisoners were treated like animals, most doing extreme menial labor.

He flew past them like a breeze, cautiously sneaking deeper into the facilities. It wasn't as if they or their weapons could put even a scratch at him, but he didn't want panic to make the lives of the prisoners worse than it was currently. He slowly infiltrated deep into the facility, following clues and hints the Germans and the prisoners unintentionally gave out. There were paths both the soldiers and prisoners instinctively shied away from, he just had to find and follow those.

These paths led him to the real dark side of this facility, gas chambers to cleanly dispose of prisoners, labs outfitted for inhuman experiments, and much more. However, the true horror was the poor beings that were made to undergo these procedures on the whims of some madmen. He found the cages where they kept those they were experimenting on. He waited and watched for the whole day to get the whole picture.

It seemed the situation of the war was not going as the Germans wanted. They were winning few battles sure, but the overall morale was constantly going down, since they were basically surrounded all over by other countries. Especially the slave colonies of the British were a boon-sent to the Allied Army and a Nightmare for the German.

The Allied Army threw millions of people as fodder for the war, forcefully brought from British Colonies like India. India was currently the top most suppliers of soldiers, doctors and other necessary manpower for the war, more than all the other Allied nations put together.

The wave tactics were working and even though the Germans were winning currently, the wave tactics was bound to drown them sooner or later. The Allied Army weren't worried one bit for those they forcefully conscripted from the colonies, but the Germans didn't have such benefits.

So they were currently working on genetic experimentation, with these prison camps as smokescreen. They had got some incomplete chemical compounds that could theoretically enhance humans into something more. Along with that they had also got their hands on some kind of super energy that was letting them build weapons and tech nearly centuries beyond their time.

The more he listened to, the more grim Yasha's expression became. They were trying to make super-humans and didn't care what they had to sacrifice to do it. Hell even he had experimented on humans with those gang members in his time, but he had at least been humane about it. These guys had no bottom line, going past all moral and ethical boundaries.