Satya had lost the only place that had actually treated him well in this bizzare place.
.........
While looking at the vast emptiness where the house had once stood,
Satya started to read the descriptions carved in his mind.
{This is the gift for a person crazy enough as me to venture into [The First Ascension].
Just think of it as an elder's dying hope left to a junior.
[Antar Kavach]
An armor that protects the mind.
It may not provide complete protection against [The Others], but it give even us mere humans the bare minimum to look at them in the eyes.
To use this spell, one has to condense his will to a fog like form, and cover every inch of his inside by it.
[Antar Shuddhi]
A hope of liberation from corruption.
It's but a measure prayer of hope to cure a bit of corruption, through this one can escape even the shackles of corruption.
To use this spell, one has to use the permanence fog of [Antar Kavach] to condense it into a liquid, that thoroughly cleans the corruption and let it spill out the body.}
Ever since arriving at [The First Ascension], Satya has been at the mercy of others, surviving by the gift of others, not even able to look at what hunts him.
This was a sense of powerlessness he had never felt before.
For in both of his lives, Satya has never been at the mercy of others except his parents, yet now receiving gifts without any hope of returned gratitude.
He didn't know how to feel.
But Perhaps that's what humans are.
They may quarrel with even the strongest of bonds, yet in the face of external danger , even strangers form bonds as strong as parents.
"Kindness isn't so bad after all."
Satya said looking at the gifts of knowledge he had received.
"Perhaps it was the world that was unkind to all along, that's why you feel this way."
[The Shadow] had finally spoken in a long while.
Satya could feel its emotions, thus he was finally able to understand that it may be feeling his own emotions.
"Perhaps this is the right place to use this gift"
Saying so Satya looked at the empty space in front of him and chanted the words.
"Antar Kavach"
Ripples were sent through Reality and even though it was his first time using such magic, he found it easy to use.
A formless fog begin to cover his insides, even though the fog looked like anything would pass right through it, yet Satya couldn't look beyond it, even his Shadow sense seems to fail at penetrating it.
Soon Satya stopped using the spell, yet the fog seemed to remain permanently.
Unable to contain his excitement at finally learning a new spell, Satya abruptly decided to check out the second one too.
"Antar Shuddhi"
The fog thickened and turned into a transparent liquid. the liquid seemingly cleansed all of his body, leaving him feeling refreshed.
But soon the liquid started gathering in his mind.
It condensed and condensed to a frightening degree, finally it stopped still in his mind.
With the liquid becoming still, Satya abruptly vomited.
Inside his vomit Satya saw a white thread that seemed to glitch in and out of reality.
Looking at this thread, A memory surfaced in Satya's mind and seeing this memory, Satya realised that inner cleansing doesn't only mean the body but everything connected to it.
Suddenly, the thread twitched and an ominous premonition hit Satya.
Following this feeling, Satya started running.
He felt it.....
[Something] was coming.....
He ran like never before, the houses passed in glimpses around him.
Soon Satya reached a sharp cut and as he slowed down his speed, he saw a kid not more than 5 ,crying and calling for its parents.
He was about to ask the child about what had happened, but soon, as he realized, he couldn't sense the child's shadow, with this realisation, he increased his speed even more.
The child failing in its act, started to chase after him.
Satya looked back only to realize the child was chasing after him with the frightening speed of a train.
As Satya was running he heard the sounds of a door knock, at first, it was just one house,
then two,
then three,
and after a few moments, every house door around him was being knocked.
Not even waiting to listen, Satya increased his speed even more.
Soon, Satya reached another sharp turn, but this time he didn't even slow down.
After Almost falling down, Satya regained his balance by lodging his hand in a house at the corner of the turn, to use as turn pole.
At the end of the alley he had entered, Satya saw a metal gate.
Hope shined in Satya eyes, but his hope was utterly disrupted by the explosion of an house, a small distance from him.
Not even caring to open the gate, Satya just launched himself at it and the iron gate was sent flying.
[If only I could send [Them] flying like this too.]
Satya thought to himself as he finally entered the clearing.
But what awaited him there was an even worse hell.
Human mannequins without any distinct features, were dancing a romantic dance, infront of him,
Spinning other mannequins around in a beautiful play.
But they all abruptly stopped.
sensing the presence of the intruder,
They all turned towards him.
"Uhhh... Hii I guess"
As if offended by his peasantly words, they all started running towards him.
"Here we go again..."
Satya sighed while looking for an escape route.
All around him were thousands of mannequins, he turned back, only to find the child at the end of the alleyway and behind him, white threads reaching out of a door.
Seeing the threads, Satya felt a sharp pain in his eyes just like a insect bite.
"Mannequins it is."
Turning his head, Satya chose his own poison.
Satya started running towards the mannequins, they also ran towards him.
As soon as Satya reached the mass of mannequins, he abruptly dodged two mannequins jumping on him.
The mannequins were moving in an eerie coordination, as if they were dancing and Satya was being invited to dance with them.
But Satya was able to dodge them with his absurd speed.
But the never-ending mannequins were starting to overwhelm him.
But a hope of light came from a tree at the end of his shadow sense.
The tree had a shadow.
And Shadows, they were His only hopes to hide from this absurd world.
Grabbing this ray of hope with all his strength, Satya started smashing through the hordes of mannequins as if they were made of sand.
Soon, Satya reached the tree.
As soon as he steps into its shadow,
His robe starts getting covered by black ink, as if snakes were crawling on it, an ethereal glow ignites in their patterns.
But Satya doesn't even spare a glance at it, seemingly lost in his worries.
He closes his eyes and starts to pray.
{The world chases me,
After a ocean of ignoring.
But the chase of the world,
Is honestly too thrilling for me}