Prologue: The son of Indus

Ladakh, a land of high passes, is a region in northern India. It is part of the state 'Jammu and Kashmir'. It is located between the Kunlun mountain ranges to the north and Himalayas to the south. The sight of majestic granite mountains and barren lands touches the soul of a person in ways that cannot be described in words. Cutting through these majestic mountains and barren lands is the mighty and ancient river of Indus. One can imagine how ancient and historical a river has to be to have a country (India) named after it. India has seven major river systems and numerous minor rivers but Indus River steals all the glory.

On a night so dark that it could devour hope and birth fear, a middle aged man in ancient black robes stood on the northern banks of this mighty river. His long hair was tied down by a strip of green cloth. His finely groomed beard gave a feeling of elegance but also well hidden savagery. His black eyes which threatened to devour the dark night looked as ancient as the river he stood before.

He stood there patiently waiting but no one knew what he was waiting for. Maybe he was waiting for his kin, maybe he was waiting for answers or maybe he was waiting for hope. Days passed as he stood there waiting, staring silently at the flowing water as if listening to the long forgotten tales of the ancient lands. On the 12th night since he stood there, he heard a faint and weak cry of a baby. A glint appeared in his eyes as he disappeared from the spot where he stood unmoved for twelve days only to reappear a few hundred meters away standing on the flowing river water. In his arms was a dying baby boy wrapped up in a wet piece of cloth signifying that he baby was flowing along the river currents before being rescued by the black robed man.

Looking at the baby's dimming eyes and vanishing life force, emotions appeared for the first time in the eyes of the black robed man. He looked at the mighty river, the barren lands, the majestic mountains and the vast starless sky and let out a forlorn cry. No one knew what he said but his voice was so majestic that the river stopped in its track for a second as if time had stopped, the barren lands rippled, the mighty mountains shook and it appeared as is the sky was pushed back a little. After giving out the cry the man looked at the baby with love and pain in his eyes. He then brought his fist near his mouth and whispered something in it. When he opened his palm, a metallic, foot long hollow cylinder with intricate design on its surface has appeared on it. He slowly brought down the cylinder towards the boy's chest. As soon as the cylinder touched the boy's chest, it shrunk down to the size of a necklace and two magical strings emerged from the ends of cylinder. These strings, as if alive, slithered around the boy's neck like snakes before tying into a knot. After this was done the man walked away with the baby in his arms. Their departing figure slowly turned into sands and flew away with the mountain winds.

9 years later.

Arunachal Pradesh was one of the seven eastern states of India, popularly known as the seven sister states. The beauty of nature was easily visible in these states in the form of untouched dense forests. Somewhere in the middle of these forests was a small village with around twenty to twenty-five families. There was an orphanage in the outskirts of the village. This orphanage was a home to orphans of most of the surrounding village. It was run by a kind old man named Kabir. The children in the orphanage called him Kabir dada or Grandpa Kabir. The villagers respected the old man a lot and often made donations to the orphanage in the form of food, wood and other materials. What the villagers did not know was that hidden underneath the orphanage was a dark underground basement. The mud walls and floor of the basement had a reddish brown color which was quite different from the brown soil in the area. The room was filled with steely smell of blood making the inside of basement a horrifying sight for anyone.

Currently in this room stood old Kabir with a candle in his hand which was the only source of light in the room. Before him were fifteen kids, their ages varying from nine to twelve years. The group consisted of ten boys and five girls, each dressed in torn clothes and carrying weapons such as knives, small axes and hammers stained in blood. The smell of blood did not affect the children as each one of them stood there wearing an emotionless face. At the corner of the group stood a nine year old boy wearing a strange cylindrical shaped necklace. He had a pale face and his features gave him an evil look like he was always plotting something malicious. He stood there tapping the handle of straight ruler like knife tied to his belt. An eleven year old dark skinned boy holding a small axe stood very close to him. Both of them were as close as blood brothers and had taken care of each other till now in the orphanage.

"Today is your final test and only one of you shall pass. The rest.. will die. The one who passes will become my disciple and a member of the 'Hall of Purple Moon'. Your test starts …. now."

As soon as Old Kabir finished speaking, he blew out the candles drowning the room in darkness. This darkness brought with it a merciless carnage as sounds of metal hitting metal and metal cutting flesh continuously rang out in the room. The fact that there were no sound of grunts or cries or even breathing in this darkness was an evidence of great mental strength and showed how exceptionally skilled these children were in the art of killing.

The sounds stopped after two minutes and Old Kabir magically lit the candles with a flick of his fingers. The sight that welcomed him even made him raise an eyebrow. Thirteen dead bodies lay across the floor brutally murdered. Six bodies had a knife cut on their throats and seven had an axe cut at the back of their neck. Looking at the positions of these bodies it was clear to Old Kabir that these thirteen had teamed up against the remaining two but had still lost. What really surprised Old Kabir was the fact that these two children had managed to hide their skills from him till today and now had hidden themselves somewhere in the room directing their strong killing intent towards him.

"So the two of you refuse to kill each other. Oh such friendship. How fun would it be for me to kill one in front of the other?"

Old Kabir frowned when his provocation was met with no reaction. He looked around the lifeless room and shook his head "Your skills are extraordinary but your resistance is futi…"

Suddenly old Kabir turned around and caught the knife speeding towards his neck with one hand and choked the neck of the pale skinned boy holding the knife with his other hand. Exactly at that time a whistling sound came from behind him which forced him to let go of the pale skinned boy and catch the axe flying towards him. What alarmed him was that there was no one holding the axe. While he was catching the axe, a shadow emerged from one of the nearest dead bodies and bolted towards him stabbing him with a pointed stone. At the same time he felt the force on the knife in one of his hands reduce. The pale skinned boy had also let go of the knife and stabbed him with another pointed stone. Both the pointed stones stabbed him in the front and the back at the same time but there was no fear on Old Kabir's face, there was only disdain and mockery. Just when the stone touched his flesh, there was a sound of stone clashing with metal. This greatly alarmed the boys but before they could do anything else they were smacked by the old man with such great strength that they flew ten feet before smashing into the wall.

The boys sat up with their backs resting on the wall coughing out blood with no intention of trying anything else as they knew they had lost the opportunity. They knew that Old Kabir was very strong but who would have thought that they had still underestimated him. Just how hard was his skin that there was not even a scratch left from their attacks.

"You know that you can't defeat me and yet you resist. I am curious as to where you get your confidence from?"

The old man looked confused but soon his ears twitched as if he had heard something and an enlightened expression appeared on his face.

"So that's your backup. It still won't make a difference."

Old Kabir slowly walked towards the boys completely ignoring the sound of footsteps from above. He arrived in front of the pale skinned boy and looked at him with cold eyes.

"You killed six while your friend killed seven. You lose."

Old Kabir flicked his fingers towards the pale skinned boy. It was a simple flick but the boy had a sensation of mortal danger and this sensation put a lot of pressure on him. He did not want to die but he couldn't resist. The increasing pressure made something inside of him snap and his eyes slowly turned red. He felt the world around him slowing down and saw a thin needle flying towards his heart rapidly.

This was the thing that Old Kabir had flicked towards him. This was the thing that was going to end his life. A simple needle. Although he was able to see things slowly but this put a heavy strain on his mind and he started bleeding from his nose, eyes and ears. Before losing consciousness due to excess strain, the only thing he could do was move slightly so that the needle would miss his heart. Old Kabir didn't see any of this as he had turned towards the dark skinned boy after throwing the needle, completely certain that he had killed the boy. The dark skinned boy had closed his eyes as if he couldn't bear to see his brother die. The old man hit the boy at the back of his head rendering him unconscious and picked him up onto his shoulders.

BANG!!!

"FREEZE. PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM"

Just then the doors of basement burst open and three people in army uniform barged into the room pointing their automatic rifles towards the old man. They were shocked by the scene inside the basement and almost shot the old man out of anger.

Old Kabir just smiled at them and rushed out of the basement knocking out the soldier blocking the door. He was inhumanly fast and the soldiers could only see his afterimage. The soldiers outside who were securing the area were rendered even more useless as they could only watch the old man appearing outside the basement door without warning and then disappearing.

The three soldiers standing inside were shocked for some time.

"Damn it!!!"

Their leader cursed as he threw down his helmet revealing himself to be a robust man around thirty five years old.

"Check for survivors"

He ordered as he rushed out of the basement to follow the old man.

Once he reached outside he was greeted with more bad news that the old man had escaped and while doing so he had also managed to kill the two helpers in the orphanage who had previously been arrested.