Chapter 4. The Unknown Realm of Lost Souls (Part 2)

A few minutes later, the Prime Minister finally spoke after standing there with closed eyes, "Your Majesty. There is something wrong and different inside this soul."

"What is it?" with a troubled expression the Emperor asked.

"It's... It's gray from inside. I have never seen this color before inside any soul, it should be any brighter or darker color but not gray," Svapn uttered.

"Huh? It's gray!? But how is that possible?" The Chief Minister looked at the Emperor, "Does His Majesty know anything about this?"

"Unfortunately I am also unaware as to how this soul could be gray," his Majesty said in a little worried tone. "The color of any soul from inside is always based on their most real nature. The darker the color is the darker the personality will be and the brighter the color is the brighter the personality will be."

"Majesty!" Svapn called.

"Yes, what happened?" the Chief Minister glanced at Svapn who was standing close to the soul.

Svapn opened his eyes, "Your Majesty, I have completed my job. He will open his eyes at any moment."

"So, his memories will come back with his intangible heart and mind?" Sidharth questioned with a frown.

Svapn explained, "They will come as well because memories can control the heart and mind of a person. His memories which were concealed inside of him were awakened by me. His memories will work like a magnet to attract the heart and mind of his, they'll come here no matter wherever they are right now." 

While those three were still discussing the matter the soul abruptly screamed, "Ugh... Argh... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" it was an ear-piercing scream with pain, sorrow, and despair coating it.

Blocking the soul and other's way with a left stretched hand, the Emperor spoke with care, "Stay away from him for now. The soul has finally found his memories and everything else after many years, so everything is just trying to settle down inside of him. Hence, he is in pain, he will be alright in a few seconds. Let's just wait." His Majesty sighed.

The soul was screaming in agony, hands covering his ears tightly and shutting his eyes, the soul was suffering. The other three were just watching him in disquietness and a little fear or alertness in their eyes. They could not do anything to help the soul, so they were just waiting for it to calm down.

"Woah! This soul is fierce. Should we do the soul-calming ceremony, Your Majesty?" watching the soul lose its control, the Chief Minister suggested.

The Emperor shook his head slightly, "No need. We can't, this soul has been through a lot of torture before dying. It was wandering for so many years without any memories of that horrible past and now when those memories have finally returned to him, they are giving him this unbearable pain." 

Uneasiness was all over Sidharth's face as he couldn't bear to watch someone shaking and squeaking in so much pain ahead of him. He clenched his fist when he thought he could do nothing to help. Subconsciously he stepped ahead when the Emperor stopped him from behind by grabbing his shoulder, "Do not move, right now we must not do anything reckless."

Sidharth looked at His Majesty and paused, "Hmm," he nodded.

Even after a while the soul was still squeaking in agony and pain. The vein in his neck and temple popped up as he greeted his teeth. He felt as though thousands of elephants trampled on him then his body was sliced in small pieces. He could hear an ear-deafening sound which was buzzing in his mind. He felt that light struck him and turned him into ashes. The pain was not just intorreble but also unimaginable. 

The tears of the soul were streaming down from his eyes, covering his own ears he screamed again and again. 

And eventually, after some more time, it calmed down. It was sitting unmoved like it was frozen. His eyes were closed yet the tears and sweat were dripping down.

All three of them looked at each other in a bit of confusion before taking their steps closer to the soul, they were hesitating because of the way the soul behaved just a while ago. 

Although, after some thought, they came closer to examine it. Svapn hesitantly held out his hand to touch the forehead of the soul when the soul unexpectedly grabbed his wrist in midair.

The soul clutched the Prime Minister's hand firmly and looked at him with eyes flashing in rage, "Who are you? Who are they? Do not dare to touch me," his tone was rather cold, "Where am I? Tell me before I break your hand in pieces.," His grip tightened.

He didn't let go of the hand he was holding and silently gazed at the three people in front of his eyes. The soul looked quite lost due to being totally unaware of his situation.

Svapn gave a pleasant smile to make him trust them, "Son, do not be scared. We will not hurt you. We are here to help you but first, let go of my hand." 

"No! I will not believe any word that you are saying and what is with "Son" I'm the same age as you or maybe a bit younger than you," he grimaced. His ragging eyes somehow became moist, "I don't… I don't understand anything. Why am I here? Where is this place? Who are you guys? Why-why... was I so in pain a while ago? Ya know, I was just… just dying a few minutes ago. I was on a war ground." 

A drop of tear left his eye slowly when a strange kind of irritation twisted in his heart, "SO WHY THE HELL AM I HERE!? WHY AM I PERFECTLY FINE WHEN I WAS BADLY INJURED A WHILE AGO? and what you bunch of jerks wants from me? Am I in prison?" he couldn't stop the water in his eyes; the unstoppable tears started flowing down like a river. Due to asking so many questions and loosing his attention he unnoticeably let go the hand of Svapn. 

He stood up and grabbed the Emperor's shoulder, completely unknown about who the person was, the soul asked, tears still on his cheeks and eyes, "Hey! You...You seem a bit normal and wise than these two stupid friends of yours. So, can you tell me where I am and where are the other people who were dying in that war zone?" with his full strength the soul clenched the Emperor.

Even more tears started pooling in his unusual blue eyes which in a way seemed dazzling like the ocean.

"Hey, you cannot act this way with His Majesty, apologize to him right now!" Sidharth said to stop the soul from being reckless but the soul only heard what he wanted to. When he heard that the person ahead of him is the Emperor he let go of the shoulders of the man. 

A bright smile showed up on his face when he heard the person was the Emperor. With amusement filled eyes he asked, "You! You! You are the Emperor of here? So...so you are from the royal bloodline, right? Do you know Shwet!?! Shwet is also from the royal family. You know Shwet, don't you?" The soul glowed looking straight in the eyes of His Majesty. Hope and happiness filled in those crying eyes, he thought maybe the person knew something about Shwet's whereabouts. 

He was in bliss just by that. The euphoria was all over his pretty face but it didn't last long when the Emperor finally spoke in a humble voice, "I am very sorry, child. I do not know anyone who is named Shwet and this is not the human world either," the Emperor did not want to tell him the truth but hiding the situation was just useless, he lightly patted on the head of the soul to confront, "Prepare yourself, son, because we have many things to tell you which you might find unbelievable."

The soul's mouth was a little open, his ears were not believing what he heard, "What...what are you saying?" his eyes grew bigger. 

"Duh! What you heard," Sidharth rolled his eyes.

Svapn was listening to everything quietly but when he thought that he should step in the conversation he looked at the Emperor and then Sidharth and gave them a small nod. He grabbed the soul to make him sit down on the near chair and offered him some water with a light smile, "First, Sit down and drink this and hear us very carefully."

"This is the palace of Lost Souls Realm. You can also call this the palace of the Gate of Lost Souls Realm." While putting his palm on his own chest, Svapn added, "I am the Prime Minister of here. My name is Svapn The God of Dreams & Memories." He glanced at the Emperor, "He is the Emperor of this realm, he is Agni the God of Souls and Nightmares and--"

"Let me introduce myself," The chief minister enthusiastically said with pride and happiness on his handsome face. "Pranaam, I'm Sidharth, nice to meet you, kid. I'm the God of Feelings and Emotions." 

The soul pacified a lot after drinking the water and started to listen to what the men ahead of him were saying. Then he smirked and in a sarcastic way replied, "And I am Advik the God of Foolishness. Am I---"

"Oh God! I didn't know the God of foolishness existed. I am glad to meet you, the God of Foolishness!" Sidharth happily said with a big grin on his lips, he believed Advik without any doubt.

Advik stared at Sidharth for a moment  then burst into laughter, "Haha! I think you should be the God of foolishness, not me." He thought the people were really interesting so he even forgot the pain he was feeling a while ago.

It was not that Advik didn't believe in gods that he said that, rather it was because the last memory of his was him bathing in blood and then suddenly he was here. Thus, he felt that there was a huge gap between the time he was on the battlefield and the time he woke up. Although, what should be filled in that gap, he had no clue about. He also wondered if he had ascended to heaven; however, when he looked and scanned the men and their expressions, he felt that gods would not welcome a newly ascended god with those kinds of worried faces. 

"Sidharth, he is just messing with you. There is no God of Foolishness," Svapn said neutrally. 

"Huh! Oh, haha!" The Chief Minister's eyes and voice dropped some inches,  "That was a nice joke, I totally fell for it!" Sidharth laughed at himself. 

"Well, he wasn't joking though. He was undoubtedly being sarcastic with us," Prime Minister thought, "I don't know if Sidharth is too innocent or stupid." 

Svapn sighed heavily.