Happy Cooperation!

As the hands fell on the glowing 'Universe', a gigantic bolt of lightning rose from the point of contact, spreading into the nothingness. Saksham felt that if that bold of lightning fell on a galaxy, then the galaxy would cease to exist from that point onwards. Even though Saksham was standing very, very far away, Saksham felt as if his internal organs were going to be destroyed. But this didn't bother Saksham much right now. His mind was reeling at the fact that the godly being was about to destroy his entire 'Universe'.

He wanted to do something about it, but his body just trembled in fear as he looked at the otherworldly being's hands coming closer and closer to the 'Universe'. No words came out of his mouth. A strong sense of powerlessness grew in his heart along with frustration. He was nothing more than an ant in front of that being, no, calling himself an ant would be overestimating himself. He was just a microbe in front of that being. He can't do anything to it. He could only wait and watch his 'Universe' getting destroyed. Each passing second impacted Saksham greatly. Never in his entire life had he ever wanted to be strong than now. He hated this feeling of powerlessness. He felt as if his entire chest was being pressed by something incredibly heavy. The feeling of powerlessness left him no room to breathe too.

Saksham took a deep breath and once again looked ahead. The situation ahead got worse. He could see more and more bolt of lightning erupting in all directions as the behemoth presses the 'Universe' in his hands. The size of the lightning bolts also grew in size with each passing second. At one point, the bolt of lightning suddenly fell on the otherworldly behemoth. Saksham's eyes widened as he saw a huge wound on the chest of the behemoth. The behemoth didn't bleed from the wound. Instead, Saksham saw something like magma filling in the wound as it disappeared in a second. But it seemed as if the lightning had found a target to strike, they continuously fell on the body of the behemoth.

As more and more lightning bolts fell on the behemoth's body, it left a variety of wounds on it. But the wounds would heal in just under a second. It felt as if all the lightning bolts didn't bother that behemoth at all. And as the lightning grew more and more intense, Saksham saw the upper body of the behemoth during the flashes between each lightning. Saksham saw a rough grey upper body with runes and symbols etched into the skin. Those runes and symbols were all over the upper body of the behemoth. They reached till the neck and even some part of the face. The face of the behemoth looked like that of a human, male. He had 2 eyes, a nose under the eyes, and a pair of lips under the nose. The only thing that made Saksham feel really uncomfortable was the cruel smirk on the corner of that behemoth's lips. Yes, the behemoth was smiling as he got closer and closer to destroying the 'Universe'.

Saksham couldn't understand why was that godly being trying to destroy the 'Universe'. Though he also wanted to know who was he? Where did he come from? Was he a god? Saksham had many questions but no one could answer him at this moment. Just as Saksham was pondering over these questions, something happened.

BOOOOM!!!!!

Saksham trembled slightly as he found out that the 'Universe' had in the behemoth's had suddenly sunk in a little. He didn't hear any sound in the nothingness but he knew that there had been some sort of explosion there on the scale that was even bigger than 2 black holes colliding. Just as this thought passed his head, Saksham found that there was a huge tremor in the space around him. The tremor got bigger and bigger. Saksham gritted his teeth and realized that things are not good and fixed his eyes at the place where the 'Universe' had sunken in. The next second, Saksham's body popped like a balloon.

____________

Saksham suddenly opened his eyes and fell on his knees. He gasped for breath like an old cow as sweat-drenched his entire body. Saksham clenched his fist and tried to get his breathing under control. He felt as if somehow had pounded his head with a giant hammer. It was throbbing with intense pain. Saksham wanted to faint right there and then but he knew that he couldn't do that at this time. So, he bit the tip of his tongue until he felt a taste of iron in his mouth. He wanted to stay sober by any means possible.

"Mr. Asura, are you fine?"

At this time, a worried voice entered his ears. Saksham turned his head a little and found Sakshi standing behind him with a worried expression. Saksham nodded lightly and closes his eyes again. He tried his best to suppress the turmoil of emotions in his heart. The shock, the feeling of powerlessness, fear as well as trembling of his body, he wanted to calm all of those down. After a while, when he found that almost everything was under control, Saksham stood back up. He turned around and faced Sakshi. Before he could open his mouth, he heard a mechanical voice coming from above.

"All signs are normal. Except for the slightly increased heartbeat rate, everything looks normal."

"That's a relief." Sakshi sighed with relief.

Seeing the puzzled eyes of Saksham, Sakshi said, "When I was introducing you to some other products in here, you sneaked and came to this stone. I don't know what happened after that but you suddenly stopped there in the same position for the whole time. When I found you, you were already gasping for breath. I called Deepak to see if there was something wrong with you, but you woke up suddenly. What happened there Mr. Asura?"

As Saksham heard this, he hesitated a little. He didn't know if he should tell IOEA about what he saw. But then he decided against it. If he told IOEA about seeing all that after touching the giant rock, the IOEA would not give it to him at any cost. So, he just shook his head and said, "It's just a side effect of my practice. I suddenly feel very exhausted and fall to the ground."

Although Sakshi didn't buy it, she still nodded and said, "It's good that Mr. Asura is fine. So, shall we take another look at the items here?"

Saksham also knew that he can't really deceive her so he just shook his head and said, "No, I would like to go back. We can continue all this later."

Sakshi nodded and said, "Alright, Mr. Asura. Follow me. I will show you the exit."

As Saksham and Sakshi exited the underground room, a mechanical voice once again sounded from above.

"Uhm..Ms. Sakshi…don't forget our promise, ok?"

"If you keep that up then I really won't be saying anything to the technical department," Sakshi replied.

Hearing this, Deepak shut up honestly and didn't utter another word. Saksham also shook his head and smiled under the hood. The Ai was really interesting.

Soon, both Sakshi and Saksham boarded the elevator and stood a meter apart. Saksham suddenly asked, "If I want to redeem that rock, how much Contribution point would I have to pay?"

Sakshi heard this and looked at Saksham in doubt. After thinking for a while, she shook her head and said, "I have to ask the higher-ups about this. But don't worry Mr. Asura. I will inform you as soon as I find about the redeeming price for that rock. But before that, Mr. Asura has to sign a contract with IOEA for the Partnership Program."

Saksham nodded and said, "Alright, let's sign it today before I go."

Sakshi smiled and nodded. She stretched out her hands and said, "Happy co-operation Mr. Asura."

Saksham also stretched out his hands and shook it with Sakshi. He said in his usual rough voice, "Happy Cooperation Ms. Sakshi."