《Bounded Infinity》


 The Quarrel Moon

    It was just an ordinary day in the city of Kristein, people busy with their work, roads trembling by the sounds of tramp trains, shiny tall buildings reflecting the sunlight on the streets, and people begging for money on the expensive roads implicating their presence. Damark was also one of the these working busy people, who worked tirelessly for their companies, and now he was running..


    Damark was late for his work today, he was afraid that if he arrived late, the important meeting will already be over by the time he reached. The sound of his thumping boots attracted the attention of many people who saw him running. Damark was not in the mood to worry about such things, he was constantly looking at his watch, believing that the time would pass slowly by his gaze. But that was not true.


    He took a tram which where pretty common in Kristein. He believed that rather than getting stuck in the traffic, he would take tram over bus despite the cost being high.


    The shrilling sound from the retarding tires of the tram announced the people that they have reached the location. Damark quickly passed over 60 Yos coin over to the conductor, and ran like a lion was about to eat him.


    He entered his office and quickly reported to the attendance record. After passing through a lot of biometric test, he entered the meeting room, only to hear the line -


    "-with this, our meeting is over". Damark was taken aback by hearing this, he quickly stepped back from the main door of the conference room. He was sweating not from running but from the consequences that he will face after this incident. His heart was beating and the blue patterned tie was vibrating with it, he had clenched his hand to maintain his composure.


    ''creak '' The door opened slowly and the guests came out of the door they were still pondering about the things that they had talked about in the meeting. They ignored Damark thinking him as a staff worker and left. While Damark hearing them walking out of the door made his mouth dry.


    Just after a short while, a elder man with specs and round figure wearing a black suit trying to look young, came out from the room. This was Damark''s Boss.


    He saw Damark standing there and his eye under the transparent window of specs turned red with popping veins, he shouted


    "Damark!!... Where were you!? The entire time I had to speak in the place of you just to maintain an image of our prestigious company!"


    "Do you even have any idea what have you done??"


    "This will be recorded as ''demerit'' in your record book!"


    Damark was even scared to utter a single word, he only had a scared look on his face. But hearing his boss''s words about demerits Damark was even more terrified.


    Demerits were a new system that the companies of Kristein had introduced where if an employee is found making mistake, that mistake will be recorded as a demerit and with a particular amount of demerit company can degrade the position as well as the salary of any employee.


    Damark had accumulated 3 demerits points over the span of 4 years of his work, this meant that the company can lower his salary by half of the present salary.


    The boss continued, "Answer to me what was the reason that you are so late!?"


    Damark paused, slowly collecting himself back he said in a low voice "The gate of my home was blocked by government officials saying that they had encountered a special case...", he was talking tremblingly.


    The boss said "Enough of your lies! Go back to work and collect your badge from the conference table", he said in a irritated voice and left.


    Damark was not able to look straight, he was looking down out of shame although he had not committed any mistake deliberately but what can be done. He walked into the conference room. The room was lit up well with small green plants in the corner of this white coloured room. The ceiling was covered with a silvery material having white colour lights randomly blinking through the ceiling. Damark ignore all this and approached the table. He saw that a small round green coloured badge was lying down on the seat next to the President''s seat. This badge was to highlight the person who will be presenting their future ideas. He picked it up and just when he was about to leave the room, he saw something shining out of place behind the plant vase in one of the corner of the room. He looked what was behind it and saw that it was just a shattered mirror, he thought to himself, ''what is a mirror doing here? I remember there was no use of such a mirror in the meeting ''


    He picked it up and inspected it, a line was written on the back of the broken mirror.


    [ A Quarrel Moon]


    Damark found it strange as he had never heard of anything such as this. He thought ''Maybe it''s a part from Lady Rusty''s pocket mirror, and threw it away when she found that if was broken.'', he didn''t worry about it much as he was already late and threw it back into the dust bin. He left the room and starting working as per his ordinary schedule.


    Later that day...Stolen novel; please report.


    Damark saw lady Rusty who was known for her beauty in the office, he approached her and inquired her about the mirror piece, but to his shock, she denied to all his assumptions and rather said that no one threw something like that before or after the meeting. Damark was quite taken aback by this, he bide farewell to her and quickly went back to look for the mirror in the conference room.


    But.. there was no mirror in the dust bin.. Damark didn''t want to believe this, so he looked back behind the vase but still there was nothing to be found. He had chills sound his spin, and wanted to ask the janitor about this but just then the departure bell rang. Damark thought that he would inquire the rest the next day. So, he went back to his home and lied down on his bed to harness the comfort of his life. Actually, he woke up pretty early today but he was interrupted by the loud noises of government officials outside his gate. When he checked what was happening, he found out that there was another case of ''Limbeat''. Limbeat was the new term that described a condition when suddenly a person fell down and he would be almost dead with only alive by his slow pumping heart, this meant that his heart pumping would slow to nearly 1 beat per hour. This may sound crazy at first but even with new technologies, scientists were unable to identify how they were alive. Thus the name was given "Limbeat", which is limited beat. Such people where kept under surveillance or in secret chambers to keep an eye upon their health. This has started only 2 months ago and till now more than 200 people around the world are affected. There is no sign of them changing even a slightly bit. Well, Damark had no idea about this so he was shocked by the sight of this in morning. Now he was searching and reading about it on the internet. Damark lived in a quarter house which was given to him by the company after earning merit points. It was a quarter of 4 rooms with a room for sleeping and working and 1 room for dinning and the other two for kitchen and bathrooms. Damark was somewhat lazy and somewhat discipline, he had arranged his room properly except his working table. It was a mess but it didn''t matter much so he was lazy in that term.


    The bright screen was luminating in room from the computer.


    [A 70-year old man found on road - Limbeat]


    [Is Limbeat a new disease?]


    [14-year old found unconscious in play ground - Limbeat]


    ....


    And what not more, there were hundreds of articles already written about it. He was scrolling through all of it, only when he found.


    [Today, we are annoucing the launch of a new machine - Linker]


    He hovered the pointer to it and clicked it. The company of Weries were releasing a new machine which allowed people to experience sudden relief from all their stressed, their mind would suddenly be free from any sought of thought and they will feel as if they are born just now. Damark was stressed out from today''s day and after experiencing a incident which costed him a demerit point, he was frustrated. He wanted to buy the machine but it was way to costly, "maybe I will too be able to buy it someday... Or... Maybe not..." He was always ambitious from childhood but life has other plans for you, and he was here working for his SunRay company which built futuristic furniture for their customers. He looked at his wallet, it had 900 Yos left with him which he would use to eat and travel to work. The currency was divided into 6 sections from highest to lowest:


    Tris-Dus-Perp-Rumb-Cron-Yos


    400 Yos = 1 Cron


    200 Cron = 1 Rumb


    100 Rumb = 1 Prep


    50 Prep = 1 Dus


    20 Dus = 1 Tris


    Damark''s sky was only upto Prep, beyond that was not under his imagination. Only 3% of the total population had money above Prep. This was because most of the work could easily be handled upto Preps.


    Damark was feeling bored so he decided that he will watch some TV shows or maybe some conspiracy theories. He liked mysteries. The not so very big Tv screen turned on and he lied down on his bed comfortably to watch any new conspiracy.


    [The conspiracy of Black Note]


    [The conspiracy of Quarrel Moon]


    [The conspiracy of Limbeat]


    Damark''s eyes widened when he saw the name ''Quarrel Moon'', this was the line written on the mirror which he encountered today. He played it.


    A man was standing in a very dark room with a torch in his hand and was flashing the torch towards a mirror above him, which reflected the light to lighten him.


    A very eerie vibe can be felt from him, started speaking:


    "So, my dear viewers here you are watching this video with a suprised face. I know why are you surprised and I know why are you not surprised. You have encountered the ''Object'' which was meant for you by fate.", he gave a creepy smile. "I know you all saw the same line on the ''Object'' and here you are clicking this. You want to hear the story of Quarrel Moon?", he lifted one of his eyebrow saying this. "Then, let''s start, once upon a time a lady lived in a cottage house which was located in the middle of nowhere, she lived with her only child who was only 5 year old. She was forced out of her town because she had touched something which she shouldn''t have. She was very happy but also very sad because she could now live alone with her son without worrying about anything but was this true? The son was only 5 year old so, he didn''t annoyed her much but with his age, his curiosity will lead him into the forest and from the forest to the town, where there are majestic beasts in the skin of gentlemen residing. She didn''t want this to happen. So she always scared her son from going out and live in the house.


    Winter passed by and summer came and again winter came, after 6 cycles of winter and summer her son was 11 years old. He was very energetic and would often want to run away into the wilds while his mother had gone for food. But, he had many stories engraved in his mind about the scary monsters in the wild that he threw away such ideas. One day, while his mother didn''t come home after the night he was worried, so he went ahead into the wilds, only to find that a red boulder was shining in the full moon. He went close to it and saw the hands of someone on the boulder, he thought that a person was sleeping here.... But... There was only the hand. He was scared he started running away, but due to his unawareness of his surroundings he lost the way and kept running here and there. He saw a figure on a high ground ahead of him and he ran towards him thinking of asking the way. But little did he know the person was no other than the one who had killed his mother, the man attacked the boy with his only left broken piece of mirror from his pocket watch. The boy tried to run and hide but he was caught. Only to the little knowledge of the man that shouting at night would arouse the wolves... The pack of wolves attacked the man and blood spilled everywhere in the light of the full moon which made the white stainless light of moon to become stained ''Quarrel Moon''. The wolves ate the man and now where looking at the boy..."


    The story teller stopped and looked at the camera, "Will the boy die? Or will he be able to run" he pointed his finger towards the camera. Damark already terrified halfway the story suddenly felted the man''s finger poked his heart. Damark started shouting, he was scared and was screaming out of his lungs.


    He fainted. And after unknown period of time... When he opened his eyes..

 A Crimson Jewel

    The room was gloomy with the light from the tv screen glowing and luminating on the surroundings. A man was unconsciously laying on the bed without uttering a single would like a wooden log.


    Beep beep The omnious silence was broken by the sudden noise of the alarm clock. Damark tried to slowly open his eyes, only to find that he was actually in his room. His eyes were hurting and he still felt a faint pain in his chest. He rose from his laying position, he saw that the TV was still on and the video which he was watching before the incidence had ended. He tried to recall what had happened before him getting unconscious, he remembered that the man in the video pointed finger towards him and he felt that excruciating pain in his chest. He looked up the screen and there was a line displayed at the end of the video. "Find the story in the book if you can" , it was pretty strange considering all the incidents that occured. But he was interrupted from his speculations by the sound of the alarm again. Damark checked the time, and it was:


    [12/10/2043- 07:15 AM]


    His eyes bulged out looking at the time, it was almost time to reach the office. He thought: ''The events that occurred to him as of coincidence and he fainted because of the stress'' and didn''t pondered much about it anymore. He dressed up in the uniform and left of to work.


    It was a busy day again, Kristein city was known for it''s busy days. Any company who started their business here was most likely guaranteed to be successful. Kristein was located in the country of Serel, which was a very big country it had almost 40 states and Kristein was just one small city in one district of any one state. But, despite being it small many people travelled here for earning money because Kristein was known for it''s functionality and business efficiency as being present right in the middle of Serel.


    Damark today took the bus, as he had not been late like yesterday. Just a few minutes late. He saw that the people were busy reading books, he found it strange as normally the people would be sticking to their phones but that was not it. It didn''t think about it much and reached his destination. He paid 20 Yos and entered his office.


    Following the daily routine and rules, he reported his presence and got back to his working desk. He was casually working only to found a strange occurence in his office that most of his colleagues were reading a book while taking a break. "what is wrong with everyone today? Those who never picked up a page for reading, are suddenly reading books?" He thought inwardly. He went to his friend Clark, "Hey Clark? What are you reading, I have never seen you reading?". Clark stopped reading and looked at Damark, "Don''t you know that reading books helps people get some stress relief? Well if you ask me the real reason, I would say that Weries company has announced that anyone who could read all their books in the span of three days will be given the Linker machine for free. And they have already installed "keeping in check - chip" to avoid anyone faking them in their books". Damark found it quite interesting strategy for marketing, "So that''s the reason, why everyone was reading books everywhere. Maybe, I should too buy some books today."


    Clark nodded and Damark got back to work. He worked in an administration company where their work was to keep a record of all the activities that are happening within their company, and also to arrange the data. Their company "Krona - Life Saver" was primarily involved in making oxygen purifiers for polluted countries, and planting ''Specialised Growth'' plants which can grow upto 3 ft in one day, ensuring to increase oxygen levels in some towns. Pollution was a serious issue now, it had already engulfed many states and made it almost inhabitable. Even in Serel, more than 4 states were now almost inhabitable, and the condition in the world was far more worse.


    Suddenly Damark got a call message. It was from his sister who was living far from Kristein. "Hello brother, When will you be returning home? You have been working non-stop for over 3 years now. Mom and Dad are already worried about your health, please reply soon". His parents along with his sister were living in a city which was close to polluted state, thus the government was working to avoid contamination, thus all internet and other supplies were stopped for few days. Damark left a message and completed his shift with a unpleasant smile, he went back home.


    Then suddenly he remembered that today he needed to buy the Weries companies books, he headed off to the Kristein Central Library.


    The library was pretty large for the city, it had thousands of books. It was known for its book collection and it''s beautiful design.


    Damark reached the library, seeing the beautifully dome shaped building with four big pillars supporting it. It had many paintings and colourful mirrors on its exterior walls.


    Today, there was an unknown crowd gathered in the front gate of the library. Almost more than 200 people had gathered here together, Damark found it strange and it moved forward. He listened to the chit chat between the people.


    "Do you know that there is no more Weries book left in the library"


    "This is bad, man. I also wanted to participate in that function"


    "I am stressed!!!! Please let me in"


    There were all sorts of people, Damark went to the front door gently pushing the people that blocked his path. He asked the lady on the front door, "Excuse me Mam, do you know why the gate to the library is closed?".


    The lady in blonde hair replied, "Sorry for your inconvenience, but today the allotment for seats in the library is already filled up and we will not be accepting anymore people."


    Damark was a bit shocked to here as he also wanted the Linker machine. His mood was a bit off so he decided that he will eat food in a hotel today to lift up his mood. He went to a nearby hotel and sat down on a table which was empty. The waiter asked him for the order. Damark ordered a medium priced food, as he also had to save money.


    If was silently waiting for his order when he saw a small book on the corner of his table. He looked around to see if someone had left it, but there was no one in proximity. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    He thought of opening and reading the book''s title and flipped through the pages..


    The first chapter was "Life begins", it mentioned about the writer''s life. He was about to read more, but his order has already came. So, he asked the waiter to tell any person who asked about the book to take it from here. He started eating the food and enjoyed his few moments of happiness.


    While eating he thought,"Yesterday I heard the name of a story "A quarrel moon", what was that about?". He flipped through the book again to check upon the contents, only to see a word, [The Quarrel Moon]. With the reading of the word through his eyes, his body started trembling from fear. "But I remember the back of the mirror said ''A Quarrel Moon'' what is this change in words?". He quickly flipped onto the page where the story was present. It was at page 54. He quickly turned the pages, and he was at 53. He embraced himself, and started reading from page 54 it was all same everything that video talked about was written here. He was shaking and he kept reading. But when he reached the point in the story where the wolves were about to attack the boy, he flipped the page.


    Sshhhh, the page was blurry and his vision started turning hazy. He was again feeling the unbearable pain in his chest. He started shouting and his head fell on the table, closing his eyes. He fainted again.


    Gwahhh Darkness and strange noises


    He only heard and saw two things. It was only for a moment that the environment started to brighten up. The darkness started fading away....


    He was in a very dark creepy forest with somewhat luminating because of the moon. It was dark and he was not able to see things clearly. He turned his face towards right and saw a whole pack of blood thirsty wolves waiting to attack him. The ground was shining red from blood, it was very as if the eye was now seeing the green glass as red grass. Damark was now... in the body of the boy whose story he was reading and hearing. He was sweating and breathing very fastly, in all the possible cases this was impossible. "What is going onn!!?? Why am i suddenly a boy??? Am I going crazy???", there was no time to think. One of the wolf was about to attack, Damark picked up the fragile stick lying near him. He picked it up and dashed it towards the attacking wolf''s eye although even holding a stick in fear is not an easy task, much less for Damark. It didn''t even scratched the furious beast but it gave him time to run. He ran as fast he could, maybe we should call it luck but maximum wolves were busy eating the man who attacked them and only three wolves were chasing Damark. He knew that he couldn''t beat them in chase, so it decided to change his paths many times in his case. But little did he know that wolfs believed more on smell than sight, they didn''t fall for his trick and one of the wolf almost jumped on him and teared his back''s skin from its bottom with its fangs. Damark agnosihed in pain, he shouted from the top of his lungs, crying, falling but still not stopping the legs from pushing the ground. He now knew this was reality but why it turned reality suddenly?. He was bleeding and was about to fall down but he saw a small opening between two big boulders, his eyes lit up with hope and his mustered his energy and ran towards it. With his small body structure, he entered the opening deflecting two of the wolves. But one of them attacked him from the top, by pure reflex Damark dodged it by a mark and due to the vibration between boulders, one of them fell down and crushed the wolf destroying him into pieces. Damark ran down into the underground hole which he saw infront of him to ensure his safety. He was bleeding but he crawled forward in hope to find something. He tore his cloth and tired it around his back to lessen the bleeding. Draggjng his legs slowly and reached a doorway. The room was very dark, it was very hard to see anything only if you went close to the wall you could see few words written on the wall. In the middle of the room there was some light reflecting on two big stone plates which had something on them. Damark in the body of the boy went close to the middle, he saw on the left stone plate there was some scribing done and on the right a piece of transparent diamond shaped crystal was laying. He started reading the scribing in hope of finding some help. It stated :


    "This is the tomb of Quamon, it was created for the lucky one to find it and choose :


    (A) Offer something to the jewel on the right and get reward as per the offering


    (B) Offer something that Quamon liked


    - spreading information about this tomb will destroy your memory and you will forget everything "


    Damark was not in the right mood to think things like this. He just wanted to rest and find a way out. The cloth had peeled off and he fell down on the right stone plate to rest. He led down taking its support, the vision was getting hazy and darker. Suddenly, he heard the two wolves trying to break in throw the boulders, the tomb started shaking. He feared that it would be turned to crumbles. Hate that he was right, the boulder started falling down. One of them fell on his hand and his hand was reduced to pieces. "Ahhhhh!!" He was shouting but his mind was not in its right state. Another boulder fell and his legs were crushed, the redness was not reduced rather it was increased. It didn''t stop here slowly all his body parts were getting crushed, he accepted his death. He saw some words on the wall. [Moon hides the quarrel by only shading light on tranquility], Damark spoke these words aloud as his last words. And closed his eyes.


    Silence.


    There was nothing else. No light no sound.


    He was feeling nothingness, he could only feel his faint existence. Suddenly there was a strange blurry crimson light shining. Damark looked over it, it was a very big ''Crimson Jewel'' with its many faces showing something. It was so big that comparing it with the size of earth will not be an exaggeration. He was suddenly pulled by an imaginary force towards it. He realised that it was the same jewel that was transparent and was present in the stone. It had turned crimson like his blood was filled inside of it. When he saw it from close, his mind was not able to fathom what he had seen. His existence had no body but anyone can feel the ripple of fear that he was experiencing right now. He saw his reflections in the infinite faces of the crimson diamond, not just in one reflection but different reflections of him in different times. In one of the face of jewel, he was sleeping on the table in the hotel, in another he was captured by the government and was in a capsule like thing, in another people were lifting his body and taking it to an ambulance from hotel, in another his family was seeing his body in the capsule, and in the other he saw him watching the conspiracy theory, there was more but he couldn''t see it. He was feeling a sense of non existent, "what are all these things? Are these different timelines from the time when I started watching the TV? Or are these different consequences??" He thought. He was sure that it had something to do with timeline. Suddenly he was pulled by the face of the diamond where he was captured in a capsule like box. He tried to resist it but he was barely able to make any movements. He shouted but he couldn''t do anything. "I can''t let this happen, I will not live as a LimBeat!!", "I have a family to take care of, I don''t care about anything!!!!"


    His sheer resolve made his body just tremble by a ounce and he was shifted towards the time when he was in the hotel.


    Booom


    The crimson face became bigger and bigger and engulfed him. A white light flashed and he found himself lying on the table. He didn''t want to spend a minute here. Although people have started to worry about him but he paid the money and quickly went back. He reached home, and searched for the channel that uploaded the video yesterday.


    There was no video.....


    Channel created : [12/10/2043 - 4:33 PM]


    How was this possible that the account was subscribed by him yesterday and it was created today....

 Moonlight Paper

    People were really concerned about the person lying on the table nonchalantly without moving even a inch. The waiter was about to wake him but suddenly the person laying started moving. It was no other than Damark, He opened his eyes and saw that his head was on the table side-wise. When he lifted his head saw that people were grazing him with pointed views. He grabbed his head by his hand to stabilize it, because the world was spinning. Suddenly, he felt something coming up his mouth, it was very vigorous and he couldn''t control it. He vomitted mindlessly on the floor making the hotel floor dirty. He quickly stood up and went to the washroom and vomitted without stopping. He wanted to cry but his vomiting won''t stop, he wanted to stop but his stomach wanted to contract.


    After some time, it stopped and he splashed water on his face. He looked on his face, it was Damark.


    Damark found that he had returned to where he was, he was a bit worried about what will happen when he will move towards the diamond face which showed this reflection but luckily he had returned. He looked over to his watch, and found that only 1 hr had passed while in that world it was almost 3 hrs till everything happened. He was scared as well as confused, he couldn''t understand whether to accept everything that had happened to him or to feel that he had gone through a terrifying dream.


    "Just what happened to me? Where did I go? I just read the book and suddenly I felt dizziness."


    "....aa..may..be it all started yesterday? Maybe... That man in the video knows what had happened to me....??"


    "I should check it!" He thought with a half hearted smile.


    He opened his phone and scrolled down but couldn''t find anything. It was really strange. "Maybe I should go and check the video in my TV."


    He washed his face with water again, cleaning all the mess and left the hotel as quickly as possible.


    The sunset sky had painted it with red beautiful colour, but to Damark it was bloody red colour. He was terrified and didn''t want to say anything to anyone. He wanted to talk about this to a police or a hospital but he was not sure whether to consider the incident as a dream or reality.


    He wanted to check something first.


    He reached home and quickly turned on his TV, and looked through the channel which uploaded that video the day before.


    "This....?!??"


    "What is going on?"


    "Where did the video go!!!!????"


    His expressions darkened, he wanted to shouted like hell. He staggered behind his bed and was in a dazed state.


    "Was everything true?"


    "Wait!!!"


    He quickly checked the info of the channel to check when did they upload the last video.


    "...Please don''t tell me..."


    The account was created 4 hr before...


    "How is this possible??? I was looking through the video just yesterday!! And many people were watching with me!? Where did they all go!!!!!"


    He checked everywhere but he couldn''t find a single trace about them.


    Just then, he saw a small article saying:


    [Shocking News! 211 people reported to be affected by Limbeat at the same time]


    He frowned and checked over it.


    Today, National Limbeat Healthcare (NLH) of Serel were flooded with 211 people reported with Limbeat. The involved people are investigated to find some clues. Right now, the president had given the statement "Please don''t panic we will take control of the situation and let you now soon". People are scared, and want an explanation. Roads are jammed due to sudden appearance of many families in the neighborhood.


    Damark was even more shocked. He couldn''t understand anything.


    He checked the timing of the publication of the article. It was published 4 hrs before from now. His head was paining and wanted to deny everything.


    But things were falling into the place, him being accustomed to a mirror, him being watching the same video as others and him being transported into the story at the same time as he read the book. But, how could such a thing be true in reality.


    "Okay, let''s calm down and try to think what had happened."


    "I picked up the mirror and saw the line, then I threw it but never found it. Then the same line was said by a person on a video saying that we say that line on the ''Object''. Then he pointed the finger towards the camera and I fainted but nothing happened except for the pain. Then there was sudden occurence of people reading books? Announced by Weries company, which filled the library. But what if the people in the library were not in search of Weries books? But rather for that book."If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Then I found the exact story and I fainted again and was transported to that book, and anyhow I came back."


    He pondered deeply but couldn''t find any reason or link.


    "Was I really transferred to that book? Or I was in a dream, but it was too real to be a dream."


    "And was my heart really beating only 1 beat per hour in that moment?"


    He pressed his hand on his chest to feel his beating of his heart. The throbbing sensation was normal and nothing was out of place.


    "What should I do? I can''t figure out anything "


    He wanted to go to a psychiatrist but as soon as he mentions the word ''Limbeat'', he would be confiscated and will not be allowed by the government to leave until their investigation was done. It was a bit suspicious but the condition was also unknown.


    "Wait?! I have an idea"


    He opened his computer and searched for the book''s name.


    The book was present with the same cover as that in the hotel. He clicked on buy, it was pretty expensive being 120 Yos, but he didn''t bother much for now! He downloaded the softcopy version of the book and opened it. It was empty there was only one thing on the page written in small texts.


    {Print out this white page to read the book}


    Damark was taken aback, "talk about scamming! Printing a white page will give white page! If it weren''t for this condition I would have never paid money for it!"


    He printed the book anyway making a darkened face. The white page printed out slowly, revealing the secret on the page.


    But.. disappointment was on its peak!


    There was nothing on it only the text was present which directed to print the page.


    Damark frowned making an angry face, "How did I fall for such a pety trick". He lied down on his bed looking up his ceiling, it was already night. The moonlight was shining through his window onto the table, making the paper lit up. He was angry, and woke up from his bed. Picking up a pen and wanted to vent off his anger by rubbing it aimlessly on the paper. "This paper made me more angry! I will destroy each and every part of this paper". Suddenly the paper started vibrating and the ink line that he drew started moving on its own. The ink strokes started to align into a more understandable way. Slowly, it changed to letters and then to sentences. Damark''s eyes widened, "oh man! Am I really high today? What is happening again?" The scribings slowly started to come up. The boy was in state of fear from the wolves, he couldn''t move and was killed. The ink strokes again vanished and started appearing as new: the boy started running in search of safety but he tripped over a stone and was killed. "Isn''t this the same story but with different results? Huh!????"


    "No way....."


    The 211 people started all over again. The boy was shocked and fell down unconscious


    "Wait a sec...!? 211? Isn''t that the same number of people who were reported today in the NLH?"


    "..."


    His lips were trembling in fear even thinking about these things.


    "This not right....."


    "So you are saying that the people that were reported for the condition of Limbeat were actually the people who are trapped in the story!??????"


    "But who decided this?" His eyes widened.


    "Why only I am out of that story and not others?"


    "Did I do something different??"


    The paper kept scrambling over and over again. Suddenly it stopped and the sentence changed:


    If you are able to read this, this means that you may have completed the story and avoided the tempting pleasure of the ideal book world. There is no use in sharing this information with others, once you even say them the information they will forget everything you say.


    Stories are our representation of an ideal world.


    The scrambling suddenly stopped and left Damark speechless.


    "What is wrong with this page?"


    "Say more?"


    "What will happen to me? If I completed the story?"


    "Why was I able to do it?"


    "And who is behind this!"


    So many things happened in just one day that Damark was not able to comprehend anything. "I can''t even share this with anyone, they want me to stay silent after experiencing such torture?".


    He wanted to believe that everything happening to him was a dream but sadly the page remained with the same sentences. The ink was decreased, and the bed was messed up.


    "What should I do!?"


    He laid down on the bed again, this was his favourite place to relax after working for whole day in the office.


    Time passed slowly, and his eyes started closing due to the stress that he faced all day. He fell asleep unconsciously.


    He found himself the same dark place that he was before and couldn''t understand what was going on. He loomed around but there was only dark and darkness up to end of his sight.


    Suddenly he started feeling shaking from the ground and the dark place above him broke! It was broken by an needle shaped object. His curiosity piqued and he floated towards the broken dark area towards the needle which was shining a white light.


    He floated towards it slowly, the surroundings was like water but there was no feeling of suffocation only the movements were exactly same like that of inside water.


    When he reached the needle, he realised that it was not actually a needle, it was actually a big portion of a shiny yellow thing which seems like a needle from far.


    He saw a door in the white light which was highlighted by some dark object surrounding it.


    He went forward and opened the door slowly with hesitation. With the door opening the light from inside started increaisng, it was the same white light that was coming from the outside. He went forward and entered the room throught the door. He was flashed by the light and he couldn''t see anything until he saw that the light slowly started fading. The light faded and he was left inside a dim lighted room. The ceiling was beating like a living thing shining light slowly, there were small pipe like things on the ceiling. It was very vast area and the ground was purely back, it was very dim light that you could only see upto few metres. He saw a spherical orb floating in the middle of the room, it was a little big than an average football. He closed the distance between it and him. It was very releasing an enormous amount of light that was very bright for anyone, he wanted to touch it but he feared that he will be faded to nothing. But he couldn''t control himself and he touched the orb. His hands started burning like fire but he couldn''t lift off his hand from the orb, his legs started feeling numb. If was burning but for strange reasons he couldn''t shout, slowly the orb started getting bigger and bigger.


    It slowly became so big that it almost covered him.


    Boomm


    The orb bursted on his face making him flashed by it. He instinctively closed his eyes but when he opened his eyes he saw that the room had became bring unlike earlier. The room had many corner and few things were present on the corners. He started approaching a corner, and saw that a white coloured small podium was present there. The podium had a green coloured button on it, with saying Lie to Truth. He was confused and didn''t know what to do. So he left the corner and started moving towards the other. But as he approached the other, it started getting farther. Suddenly the white room became black and he snapped out of the dream.


    Gasp "what was that?"


    He felt a tingling sensation near his heart when he woke up.


    He brought his hand towards his heart and touched his chest. Suddenly, the tingling sensation started becoming a pain. He gritted his teeths and closed his eyes. As soon as he closed his eyes.

 Restricted Zone

    Damark was not in a conscious state, he tried to maintain sanity. He was attacked by a series of chest pains which made him faint a lot of times. For now, he was awake anyhow and was drinking a glass of water. "What a pain!, wish I could stop the pain. Maybe I should visit a physician today to get at least a sureity that I am not sick from body, I also need to make sure that I don''t mention anything about Limbeat symptoms or else I will be confined." He opened his computer and wrote an email, "Respected Boss, I have been having severe health issue for the past few days, so I will be going for checkup today. Please grant me a one day leave."


    He picks up his coat jacket and wears it. Checking that all the doors annd the windows were closed he left the room.


    It was almost winter and people were wearing sweater or hacker to warm their body. The severity of the pollution had made so that the winter which was not even consider so cold back 20 years ago was now considered very cold. Damark was walking slowly bringing his shoulder and hands close make a compact shape to heat up his body. The snow beneath his shoes were constantly getting pressed, causing the white crystals to change to grey coloured shaped crystals.


    Slowly, he approached the nearby physician for a health checkup.


    It was pretty common in Kristein to have a physician in 5 km of range, so it didn''t cause much of a problem. It was a white building covered with white snow shining like it''s the pinnacle of a mount. He entered the building and saw the green walls with tiled surface. The building from inside was equally big from out. It had two passageways, one on the right and the other on the left and a receptionist in the middle of the passages. He went to the receptionist, "Excuse me? I would like to appoint a meeting with a personal physician". The lady receptionist looked over on Damark, and with a blissful smile, she replied "Welcome to Kristein HealthCare and Supports, Yes we can arrange an appointment with Dr. Lucas in 10 mins. Please wait till then. Thank you". Well the lady actually was an assistant robot developed by Weries to work in the place of receptionists. He didn''t reply and directly went to the nearby waiting room. It was filled with lots of people, he found an empty seat and sat there. The man in blue jacket near him was talking to his friend. "Hey did you know yesterday the 211 people were confined in a locker room and no relative of them are allowed to meet them". His friend replied, "The government is definitely hiding something important from us, otherwise what was the need of suddenly locking all the people? Earlier too there were cases of Limbeat but they were never confined". The man in blue jacket ageed, while Damark was dumbfounded. "What!? They locked the people ?? Why! What happened?".


    Suddenly a robotic voice said," Next patient - Damark Vostol come inside".


    Damark saw his name being called and quickly went inside the cabin. He saw a middle aged man with a doctor''s appron on. His hair was somewhat white and partially black. Damark approached him and sat on the chair near him. The physician said, "So Mr. Vostol, you facing severe pain near your chest and you are also having bad dreams from couple of days. I see that you were thinking that you are having these symptoms due to a stress but it didn''t calm down and today you are here.. Let me check you". The physician pulled up his stethoscope and checked Damark''s chest, "Hmm.... I don''t see anything wrong here but you are still facing chest pains. Follow me to the ''NeuroXon Room''". Damark asked the him, "What''s a NeuroXon Room?". The physician replied, "It''s a room with a scanning device which will scan your whole body and also all the synaptic junctions." Damark followed him to the room, where he saw the big bed like machine with a open space from above. The boundaries were somewhat curves. It looked a bit like a MRI scan but it didn''t cover the whole body rather it was open. The physician instructed him to lie down on the cushion which was covered by the curved boundaries. When the machine turn on, it shined throughout the room and Damark''s whole body was flashed with series of lights. It happened only for 5 seconds but the data and information collected was way too much. Humanity had developed a variety of technologies, this was one of them. The physician was slowly deciphering and concluding the data collected, while Damark was lying down and was thinking "If he found out anything strange then I will be in serious trouble".


    Suddenly the physician said him in an annoyed manner, "Hey, wake up and come".


    Damark didn''t know what he found out but he had no choice but to follow him. The physician sat in his cabin and was holding the picture diagram of the report from the machine, he asked Damark, "Mr. Vostol I have gone through your body reports, but I have not found anything strange just one thing is bothering me that" he pointed his finger towards the back of neck in the printed picture. "Here in this region, I see something one coloured thing I can''t understand what this is? It might be a bone growth or maybe something else. But I suggest you to visit an orthopedic doctor, I will write you a prescription please follow it for now."


    He started writing somethings and he said again, "The government had sent me a lie detector machine and had told everyone to ask one question to every patient after their time is over, so I would like you to co-operate with me." Suddenly he brought out a small black coloured square box with a red button in the middle. "I want you to hold down the red button and answer to my question."


    Damark was a bit nervous as to what question will the physician ask?. He couldn''t resist nor deny or else he would be under suspicion, so he did as the physician said.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    After holding down the red button, the red button started shining. The physician asked, "Have you come across any symptoms related to Limbeat in recent days?", Damark''s eyes widened, he had never expected him to ask such in a question. He didn''t want to say the truth or else he would be in great danger. But he was holding the lie detector, and if he lied he would be arrested in crime of ''Deluded Statement''.


    The physician said frowning, "What happened? Say yes or no?"


    Damark was getting nervous, he closed his eye in fear. And suddenly the pain in his chest increased and he felt like his own thoughts in his mind were getting in an arrangement and wanted to tell him something.


    [Do you ... Want .... Use.... Lie...truth...]


    It was not clear, but he definitely felt some unknown and sudden display of words. He said inwards, "YES!".


    Suddenly, he felt like his mind was going to burst and he was filled with unknown information. He tried to recall what he had just learnt, he found out that he has learnt something as ''Lie to Truth'', he just needed to say ''LT'' in mind after saying his sentence to the person, and that lie would become truth for everyone nearby (including non-living things).


    This all happened in a flash, the physician placed his hand on Damark waking him up.


    Damark said, "Oh, I was just thinking that I had really experienced it or not."


    He added on, "No, I didn''t come across any symptoms of Limbeat recently." He after completing the sentence thought "LT".


    The lie detector machine beeped and displayed "TRUTH". The physician said, "You can leave now."


    Damark quickly left the hospital, as he was not sure what has just happened. He ran as far as he could and finally stopping near a sideway between two buildings.


    "What is this? I remember I saw the same line in my dream and now this has become reality? Even affecting others?"


    He wanted to try it once more. He looked around and saw a security guard which was standing near a barrigate protecting the place from outsiders. He went up to him and asked "Why is the road closed?", the guard in an annoyed manner said, "Leave as quickly as possible, special investigation is going on in this area." Damark was now ready to try his new learnt information, "Hey? Did you forget I also worked here as a guard, the higher ups had told me to go through don''t stop me",


    LT


    The guard frozed and looked at him, with a gentle smile he said, "Oh!! Sorry for stopping you, you can go inside." He waved his hand guiding him inside.


    Damark was now sure to what had happened with him. He didn''t hesitate and went inside the area passing the barrigate. It was a building which was investigated like some crime had occured, Damark avoided going near the building as he just wanted to know that what was happening. He sneakly approached the building and he saw a guard patrolling the area. Damark approached him and asked him, "Answer to me! What is happening here, why is the government officials here??"


    LT


    The guard''s face froze and after a while, he replied in a robotic manner, "This area has been marked as Restricted Zone - Grade C, Presence of Unknown Objects have been found. No one is allowed to enter the area."


    Damark''s curiousity piqued and he inquired, "Grade C? Restricted Zone? What are these things?"


    The guard frowned, "hey!!!! What are you doing here!??"


    Damark noticed that after using the technique once, it worked for 45 seconds and after that it stopped, he immediately verbalised the word


    LT


    The guard again froze and said, "Any area found with unwanted Objects are marked as restriction zone, the grade is given based on the size and power of the Object."


    Damark asked again, "What is this object that you keep saying?"


    LT


    Suddenly, he heard a group of guards around seven were coming in this direction, Damark was scared and he started finding a hiding spot leaving behind the speaking guard which he asked the question to.


    Damark hid near a big drum box which was in shade, he saw the group of guards reaching near the other guard. "Hey? What are you doing ? Why are you speaking to the air about rhe Objects? Do you want to get fired?"


    The guard regained his consciousness and said, "huh? What do you mean? I was just patrolling the area? I was not speaking anything."


    All guard members frowned "huh? Go quickly have a check up with Sir Croser."


    The guard ran as though a serious issue had been arosed. Damark thought, "I think I should leave, I have acquired enough information." He sneakly approached back to the barrigate without anyone noticing him. The guard was still standing there like nothing has changed. Damark approached him and said, "Thank You for your service, I will be leaving" LT.


    The guard didn''t mind him leaving rather he saluted him as if he was his senior.


    Damark smirked and left the area. "I was almost caught today, but anyway I have learnt a lot of things".


    He stalled around reaching near a park, he saw many kids playing in the park smiling. He thought "Maybe I should go and have a rest in the park bench." A wooden bench was present near him which he went close to and sat there.


    "Past few days have been pretty stressful but I have gist of everything now, surely the government have discovered the use this things called ''objects'' and is trying to hide this from the public, that is the reason they are confining anyone found affected with Limbeat. Good thing that I didn''t get caught."


    He heard the bushes bustling near him, he turned his head around to look what was there. Only to see a man wearing a black suit and a black sharp hat covering his face looking at him. Damark felt chills down his spine, he didn''t want to approach him so he stood up and slowly started leaving. The man stalked him with the same speed and gradually increasing his speed occassionally to cover the gap between them. Damark was now nervous as to why was he being stalked suddenly, he surely didn''t mess up something. The man started running towards him now, Damark didn''t know what was happening, his survival instincts kicked in and he started running away to avoid him. He looked behind and saw that no one was running towards him, "finally he left..." Sigh


    A monotonous voice replied, "Where do you think you are going?"


    Damark slowly turned his head covered in sweat, he saw the man standing there nonchalantly.


    "Why are you following me???? What have I done to you?"


    The man instantly turned into fog and became vanished. He suddeny appeared next to Damark, and said, "Not here". He beat Damark into his neck and grabbed him by his hand. He looked straight in a direction and turned into fog.


    Both of them disappeared like they were never here.

 Enhancer

    ".....yo...waa..."


    "You....aa..."


    "Hey!???...."


    Damark slowly opens his eyes from deep slumber, he sees that the ceiling isn''t the one which he is used to. He suddenly realises that he was kidnapped by some man in black suit.


    He tries to get up but was suddenly hit by a transparent layer of glass. "Huh? Where am I?" He looks down on his legs and sees that he is inside a capsule.


    "Hey? You boy? Are you wake now?" Says a lady with specs and white apron on. "Oh yes, you are awake, wait let me call the captain." She left Damark alone in this room. He started looking around and saw that he was inside a room which was type of futuristic, it had grey coloured ceiling and the ground was made up of metal. It was tighted packed like they were trying to hide from something.


    Suddenly the man in the black suit again appeared from one of the gate of the room.


    "So mister Damark Vostol.. how are you feeling now? Do you have any questions for me?


    Oh where are my manners?


    Let me introduce myself, I am the captain of this unit C-3 under the jurisdiction of Kristein Switcher Services, Croser Lucrate. I am responsible for all the issues and decisions in this unit."


    Damark saw him with confused eyes, "unit?, c-3?" He thought inwardly.


    He ignored that and asked, "Why did you kidnap me and bring me here? And why am I inside a capsule?"


    Croser looked at him and with a worried smile he said, "Do you have any idea what have you done in the restricted Zone from earlier? You just asked for the confidential details from a poor soldier. Do you know what would that powers do to you?"


    Damark was shocked to know that Croser had already known what he was doing, "But, how do you know that I was the one who did that?"


    Croser said with a smirk, "We are ''Switchers'', I had my ways to crack down who was behind all this".


    "Well it doesn''t matter now, now we all know who was behind this."


    Damark was panicked and he started resisting to move, "Let me out of here!"


    "I am the boss of this unit!" LT


    Croser''s eyes didn''t flicker a bit and he reply, "Calm down, young man! We will not hurt you, right now you are inside the Beric Capsule, you can''t use any of your powers. Don''t try to act smart."


    Damark was dumbfounded, "Then at least give me a better explanation to why am I here! I want to go back home, I don''t want to get involved in these stuffs!!!"


    Croser looked at him with pitful eyes and he moved his hands behind his back, bringing a paper in his hand, "If you want to leave then you have to sign this paper to mark your loyalty!"


    Damark didn''t understand what was the captain saying, he took the paper and started reading it. The paper said that he would be working for them in secrecy and will not tell anyone about this. His family will be under special care by the government and they will be provided with resources. He will be given with lots of information along with money five times his current salary. Damark was a bit tempted by the offer, but he didn''t know what work does this service do that they are willing to offer such benefits. "I need to see what you all do, to make sure that I don''t regret my decision." Croser said, "I knew this would happen, fine follow me."


    The lady pressed a button near the capsule and the capsule started following the captain. Damark was still trapped inside the capsule but better than nothing.


    He inspected the surroundings while seating in the capsule, it was a sort of military base, they had many reports and supplies going on. But the most strange thing was some people were sleeping but the work beside them was happening on its own. It was as if Damark had entered a new world, were magic was actually real. He wanted to ask Croser but he couldn''t as he was moving very quickly. Suddenly the steps stopped and he looked at a wall. Damark said, "What happened? Why did we stop?"


    Croser didn''t reply, he kept staring at the wall. After some time suddenly the work was sliced into square plates of more than 30 pieces, it started falling down. Damark was shocked, he couldn''t speak a single word. What in the world was this?The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    When all the square plates fell down, the white light that was acting in the place of the wall suddenly disappeared and the real thing started fading in.


    It was a very humongous open filed with lot of trees and junk material thrown here and there. It was as if he had entered a very old and abandoned area which was untouched for more than 20 years, there was algae and moss covering all over the rocks here and there. If someone said that this place represented the condition after human disappeared it would still be an understatement.


    Damark''s Capsule slowly followed Croser, as he moved into the open area. He came close to Damark and said, "Hmm.. here we are in the "Junkyard of Mysticals", this is a place which still entails fear into our mind."


    Damark was curious and he asked,"Why is that so? What does this place have connection to the work that I will be doing".


    Croser glanced at him and then looked away, "Come close, I will show you something". As Damark was about to reach close to Croser, he suddenly disappeared into fog just like the last time. Damark starting looking here and there but he was no where to found.


    "Wasn''t it cool?" A voice came from the left. He looked to the left but there was no one there.


    "This is me Croser, in the state of Enhancement." Again a voice came from the right. This time when Damark looked to the right, Croser pipes up suddenly out of thin air. Damark''s eyes widened as this was really new for him.


    "What did you do ? It was the same thing that you didn''t the last time."


    Croser replied, "This was the same type of power that you have, we have coined it "Enhancer". As it enhanced the potential of a human. I acquired it exactly just like you acquired it through the ''Object''."


    Damark broke the speech by saying, "Wait!! First tell me what is this Object!??".


    Croser said with curious eyes, "You didn''t know? Well, you see the junk materials in this place all of them are Obejcts that we have collected from all around the country. Objects are like normal things, it just have a special engraving on it, having a single glowing line. Anyone who reads it, becomes affected by Limbeat. After one reads the line, the object gets disappeared. Did you find anything strange like this?". Damark fell in thoughts and said, "Oh yes! I found a broken piece of mirror in my office and behind the back of it was written a line. Later when I got home, I saw a video which told me that it was a story and I found the book next day and was subjected to a series of torturous pains."


    Croser rubbed his chin, "I see, so you were the ''Emergent'' from the story. We know that a man suddenly started saying things on the internet and told about Objects, just the next day 211 people were found affected inside the library, reading the same book....".


    Damark was shocked, "So, you mean they didn''t find the object but since they were told about the object they were affected???"


    Croser replied calmly, "No not exactly, some people actually found the object and then they watched the video. What we have seen is that anyone who is told about the Object and if there are multiple objects with the same line then many people can get affected until all the objects get disappeared. "


    Croser continued, "Oh yes, These objects are actually called as "Bounders". They trap the person inside a story. According to our research, almost all bounders have the line saying about the title of a story. The story may or may not be existing before the appearance of engraving and whoever reads the story after learning about the Bounder''s line, they are trapped by it."


    Damark pondered and said, "How did you get the Enhancer? Were you too able to come out of the story?". Croser looked at him and said, "Yes, That''s how everyone working here have been able to gain it."


    Damark eye''s lit up with surprise and composer that he was not the only one who had this condition. "But why are you all collecting the Bounders?"


    Croser looked at one bounder and said, "We have enhacer and we know that we can complete the story but that is not true for random people in the public."


    Damark nodded and Croser continued, "This thing can''t be made public because there are many people who will fight over such things and will try to seize everything. They don''t understand what problems can these enhancers bring."


    Damark frowned and asked,"Problems? What problem could this amazing thing can have?"


    Croser replied, "It may seem amazing but in reality it is a very dangerous thing. One of our member kept on exploiting this power and one day we found that his spinal cord was cut from his neck from the inside without a single scratch. Later we discovered that the power centre lies in the backside of our neck, which powers the ability. Once we use it to the extreme, it starts tearing."


    Damark asked, "But what was he using these powers on?"


    Croser rolled his eyes and said,"We sent him in a story using Bounder and there he had to use Enhancer for over hundred times and he died."


    Damark eye''s showed an expression of grieve and he asked, "But how did you know that this had happened?"


    Croser replied, "Do you think that there are only one type of Enhancer? One of our member has a special Enhancer which allows him to look into the past of the dead boy."


    Damarked was shocked..


    "What is your Enhancer then?"


    Croser said, "Although we are refrained from telling other directing about the Enhancer but I will tell indirectly. It allows me to become one of the particle like the air, I become invisible as well as undetectable."


    Damark wanted to ask more, but Croser waved his hand and started walking.


    He walked over to the end of the open area and pointed his finger into the ground. Suddenly the grass that was covering up the area disappeared and it became into a transparent glass, through it one could see a very big room with over hundred of people lying inside capsules with their eyes closed. Croser looked over them, and said to Damark, "These are the people who are trapped inside the story, they will not die until they don''t give up. We are collecting Bounders to stop the number of people from increasing."


    He looked over to Damark with heroic eyes and said.."Help us in this mission to save the public and make the world a better place."


    Damark got a bit emotional and he was sure that this job was risky as well as worthy, so there was no reason to decline it. "Yes I will!" He said with a smile.


    The capsule that enclosed Damark opened up and he got down. Croser again brought out the paper from his back and told him to sign it. Damark signed it happily and just after signing it, the paper turned into a ring with sharp corners. It was a purple coloured ring with his name engraved on it. The ring automatically tighten to his finger.


    Suddenly, the siren started ringing!


    RING RING


    Both Damark and Croser looked over to the main base. It was a warning that a new Bounder had been found.

 Bad luck

    The white towering building was shining with red lights from inside. The sound of a big siren could be heard if one stood close to it. This was the siren for alerting the soldiers and workers about the discovery of a new Bounder.


    Damark and Croser ran as quickly as possible back to the building, they entered the base and entered the control room. Since Damark was new here he followed Croser to the control room.


    Many people in grey colour suits were panicking, they were shouting and doing some work on the high-tech computers. Damark entered the room with Croser, Croser was already acquaintance with everyone so he just walked up to a person with some stars on his shoulder, maybe signifying that he was one of the high rankings.


    Croser asked him, "Where is the Bounder found?"


    The man replied politely following a formal demeanor, "Sir, It is found just now near the Corporate Building of Thrusts".


    Croser asked, "Assign a team to investigate about this Thrusts company, and quickly assemble a team, we will be leaving soon."


    Croser continued, "Oh yes, this is our new member Damark, he had recently became ''Emergent'', so teach him some techniques."


    Croser looked over to Damark, "This man standing over here is Robin, he is the most strongest person here after me, he worked earlier in army but due to LimBeat he lost his family, now he works here. Get along with him."


    Damark nodded and offered a handshake to Robin saying, "Greetings Sir, I am Damark a new recruit here. I will be in your care."


    Robin shaked his hand and replied with a smile.


    "Ok, follow me"


    Damark bade farewell to Croser and left with Robin. Robin said, "Well maybe it''s not the best time to waste time chatting but if you have got any questions then you can ask."


    Damark eyes lit up, he asked in a curious tone, "How did you know that Bounder was present in this area? Or maybe somewhere else? As for what I know they get disappeared as soon as someone sees it. So how do you all know?". Robin answered him, "Just like you have Enhancer, there are other people who have different type of Enhancer, one of them is ''Detectibility'', they can detect whatever they want, they just need to keep thinking about those things. This job is pretty mind stressing but you know for something to be good we must sacrifice something. That''s how we also detected you, the guard mentioned the incident and we asked the team to detect anyone with Enhancer around and thus we found you."


    Damark''s horizon of knowledge had gone farther away, now he understood how he was tracked.


    Damark again asked, "So why is everyone panicking? Isn''t just getting the Bounder without reading the text easy? Just evacuate everyone from the building and collect it."


    Robin replied with a smirk, "It may seem simple but it isn''t, in reality there are a lot of challenges to acquired it."


    Damark frowned, "Like what?"


    Robin sighed and replied, "Like the Stairs will become infinite if you forget that you were supposed to get the Bounder, you will just want to get out but you will be trapped inside. We don''t understand why this happens, but we have some hypothesis that fate of the person who was supposed to acquire it was actually sealed by us, thus the Bounder doesn''t want someone else to interfere in it''s work."


    Damark was somewhat confused as well as got some idea, but he wanted to see through his own eyes what was the challenges.


    Robin said again, "Don''t think about it much, you will be going on your first mission today. Go dress up quickly"


    Damark was not sure to what was Robin saying. He was just guided towards a room with dim lighting. It seems more like a dressing room but made with some depressing thoughts. Suddenly a bunch of clothes materialise out of nowhere infront of him. It was the same dress that every high ranking or soldier were wearing.


    He didn''t mind having a dress code for this. He quickly dressed up.


    It was a dark green coloured dress with a name plate on the right side of the chest. There was a place for hanging something on the shoulders, maybe stars. It came with a watch, there was two buttons on the watch, one was for dialing up the time, and other was pressable. Damark pressed it and the watch started changing its shape, it became a dark semifluid band lying on his hand. The band suddenly started tightening and He felt like the band was absorbing something from him but just after three seconds it retracted and became normal into a band. He touched it but it was still a band. He thought that it would turn into something cool, like a gun but he was disappointed. Sudden the band changed its shape into a Gun just as he pictured in his mind. He was shocked, then he thought that if it turned into a sword that would also be fine. Suddenly the dark fluid turned into a long dark blade, this shocked Damark. He test a little more, and found out that the fluid can only turn into weapons which he had studied of as a kid, meaning that which ever weapon he learns about, he could turn that band into it. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Then he thought of the watch from before and the fluid turned back into the watch from before.


    He walked out of the room and saw that a whole battalion of soldiers were already gathered here. He just got blended with the crowd and waited for the next orders.


    Many soldiers were in their attention stance so no one riled up a conversation.


    Suddenly a person from the side of the room entered, everyone saluted him. Damark didn''t know the manners and etiquette so he just followed them. It was Croser dressed in the Black Suit with the Sharp Black Hat. He announced the time for departure and everyone got excited as well as scared about what was about to reveal.


    According to the sources, the Bounder was present in the 3rd floor of the second room of the building. They didn''t know what the word ''second room'' signified, was it the room second from the stairs or was it the room second from the main entrance. This was a mystery so they didn''t worry about it much as there were other tools available to decipher this.


    All the soldiers were ordered to enter the big army truck. It almost felt like they were preparing for some sort of war. The environment was very tense, everyone was worried. But Damark didn''t understand why was everyone worried? It''s not like they will lose their lives.. Right..?


    Suddenly, the door to enter the truck opened and everyone entered the truck. It was pretty dark here but presence of people made it less scary.


    It seemed like there was some sort of ranking based on dress colour: soldiers wore deep green coloured suit, their leader wore grey coloured suit and commander wore black coloured suits.


    Suddenly, the truck''s engine turned on and everyone started having conversation like usual. Here eveyone was interested in talking with Damark, as he was the new specimen that just entered their battalion without a notice.


    One of the soldier asked, "Hey I am Alfred, what''s your name? Never seen you here how did you end up here?"


    Damark replied with a smile, "I am Damark, recently I became ''Emergent'' so I was recruited today."


    Alfred replied, "Oh... Bad luck..."


    Damark frowned,"What do you mean bad luck?"


    Alfred said, "You see, having mission to find Bounder on the first day is like the worst first day anyone could ask for."


    Damark didn''t understand why did they mean so?, "Why are you all scared of finding Bounder?? It''s not like you will lose your life."


    Alfred sighed and replied, "It''s worse than losing life, you torment too much if you aren''t lucky enough. Up until now we have been facing a lot of problem while approaching the Bounders, mind would suddenly start playing tricks on us and we would lose our control."


    "We would act like we have seen a monster, I had experienced it once and it felt like I was in hell, if Lieutenant handed woken me up I would have become mentally sick."


    Damark was a little terrified after listening to their experience. But he still wanted to see what would happen, he had seen hundreds of people suffering so it didn''t matter much if he suffered a little for hundreds of people.


    Noises could be heard from outside, it seemed like they had reached the destination. The door slowly opened and everyone prepared to leave. Alfred also didn''t talk much to Damark, they all just left.


    Many people were still evaculating the building, some soldiers helped the citizens to walk out. While other prepared to enter the building.


    Croser was standing infront of the building discuissing with Robin. Damark wanted to approach them but it would concern everyone about his relation with them. He waited for the right moment.


    After arranging and unloading big machines, setting up camps and arranging soldiers into one line it was all ready. Croser was standing on high ground looking like an imposing character. He was different from the time he talked with Damark. He shouted, "Switchers!!! We will be engaging onto the building in the next moment prepfare your Will and don''t falter. You are doing everything for the people of this country don''t let their blessings go down! Some maybe having their first mission" he looked at Damark, "but, you should remember that the building with Bounder is very different from a building with no bounder. All you need to do is always remember why you are here, never forget that !!!"


    He ended the speech with a powerful impact on all the soldiers. Their morale was boosted and they could roll down anything at this moment.


    Slowly, the group of 15 people along with Damark entered the building. It was dark as lights were turned off, every corner involved its own horror in it.


    Robin was actually leading them, he waved the sign that ground floor was safe and they moved to the 1st floor.


    1st floor was nothing special it looked exactly same like the ground floor except for office rooms. They walked in the corridor looking and intercepting their surroundings as they move forward.


    Damark didn''t know what made them so scared but he had gest of what was fearing them. So he followed them with being fully aware.


    They didn''t face any problems in the first floor, it was peaceful.


    They were climbing the stairs to the 2nd floor, but it was really strange they had been climbing for 15 mins but they hadn''t reached the 2nd floor. He tapped on the shoulder of the soldier infront of him, but the soldier didn''t turn. Damark found it strange, so he tapped it again but still there was no reply.


    He didn''t understand what was happening, so he called him "hey!?"


    But they were simply walking, he stopped for a second and looked to the right where the corridor went along the way. Then he looked infront of him, he found that everyone was gone...


    But where?


    He quickly climbed up but there was no one there. Damark started getting a little scared, he called for them but he could only hear one voice and that was his own voice echoed back.


    He walked down the corridor in search of something useful. But there was nothing only chair and table.


    Suddenly, he head started aching ''No! Not now!''


    He tolerated it and moved forward, he believed this was the thing that others were talking about. He kept walking up the stairs but now.. the stairs were rather red and not grey like before.


    He understood that this was the reason that everyone was so scared of it. They actually got lost..

 Beast Unleashed

    Damark slowly and cautiously walked through the halfway, he was still not sure either he has been transferred to somewhere else or he is in a illusion.


    As he walked through the hallway, on the left was window, through which one can see the infinity starry night. While on the right were the office rooms. There was windows which made it possible for anyone to see through the glass of the room. He saw the room had the same seating arrangement and work place like he had at his own office. He could only see these things via his watch working as a torch. He didn''t want to go inside the rooms right now as he too knew that he was no where near the room were the Bounder was present. His footsteps resounded in the hallway, if someone where to listen to his footsteps clearly, they would easily decipher that the footsteps had some kind of hesitation.


    Damark was obviously taking every step with utmost alertness.


    ''Alfred might be right about the experience as horrifying but I doubt him about comparing it with hell.'' he thought.


    He could see the next stairway passage in the near distance at the end of the hallway, but to reach there one has to pass all the rooms and no one knew what would suddenly pop out.


    Yet Damark was determined to not be left out behind, he knew that maybe just like him everyone was trapped in this type of illusion and they being experienced maybe walking straight forward.


    "I remember Croser saying about not forgetting about the goal of this mission even if the situation has become very menacing. Well guess I should stick to that advice." Damark was slowly panicking with the time spent in the darkness so to not lose his composure he tried remembering Croser''s words.


    Suddenly a light flashed from one of the rooms which he had passed, and it grew dim very quickly.


    Damark turned around and saw that the light was faintly present behind the glass of the room. He stood in his place and moved his flashlight toward the direction from which the light was coming.


    There was nothing except for the office bench. But the light was coming from something that was under the table.


    Damark had two options, either to go in and check OR leave the thing and move on considering this as illusion. Damark had already accepted the situation as illusion so why would he bother going to satisfy his curiosity?.


    He let go of the thought and moved on.


    Again a light flashed from one of the room which he was about to cross. He again turned his flashlight towards the room, but to his wonder the light from flashlight even though it flashed inside the room, the room remained Dark.. it was as if something was absorbing all the light, but the only thing visible there was a faint glowly ball in the middle of the room. His hairs stood up and his body contracted, he moved ahead without looking behind. He knew that the illusion was pretty strong.


    "This isn''t real, don''t fall for the trap Damark" he said to himself to solace.


    The steps that were earlier 5 per 10 sec had now turned to 3 per 10 sec, it was pretty astonishing that even though only three more rooms were left but it felt like he had to cross three big valleys with fear of stone falling on him.


    He stepped..


    Again stepped...


    And again stepped....


    Suddenly his flashlight got switched off and it felt like the room had changed its shape. He was now somewhere inside a room where it felt more like a store room with big containers and big shelves. They were filled with boxs, his flashlight was now working.


    "Where am I trapped now!?"


    He walked out of the room only to find that he was transported inside the room which he saw from the hallway earlier where light was glowly beneath the table.


    "This is not real!"


    It was really hard for him to believe this even of someone said this, but it all felt like real, even the touch, sensation, feeling.


    He started walking back to the hallway, slowly turning the flashlight here and there to see for some detail that he might encounter from this room. He approached the same office bench and bent down.


    *Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!*


    As soon as he looked down he was jumpscared by a screaming noise in his years. He fell down in agony and fear, cold sweat dropped down from his face. He checked if anything was there below the bench with care. He didn''t see anything, only the glowing ball was now gone and the room had turned dark again. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He was afraid that he had started to think the situation as real and he might get affected at this rate. He stood up and slowly stepped out of the room, fortunately nothing happened after that.


    Until...


    He saw a carcass of a dead piegon in the hallway, it was present in the location where he had stepped. He gasped and repeat, "THIS IS NOT REAL". He wanted to scream this was not real but actions do speak more than words and what if the actions are actually imagination?? How will you say that the incident is actually real?


    He walked passby the carcass from the side not seeing it.


    He again slowed down his speed. A metal sound resounded this time from the room which he was crossing right now. "Again strange unknown things...."


    He ignored it as it was not very concerning..


    He hearded strange jumping noises from the ceiling, and looked up.


    He turned his flashlight to light up the ceiling.


    *Screachhhhh*


    It was a bat that flew due to being scared of light from flashlight.


    Damark fell back and didn''t expect a bat to be present here.


    "Only if Robin was here, he would have guided me better."


    "I wonder? If this isn''t real that means it''s a lie. So, that means what I am seeing is truth converted to lie to fool people. And I have the ability to turn lie to truth. What if, I counteract it."


    This idea was really astonishing and was maybe only possible for Damark.


    He walked to a room where the metal beating sound was resounding. He touched the room''s glass and said: "The illusion this room is creating on my mind is actually not real, only the real is displayed!"


    LT


    BOOM!


    The room suddenly lit up and everything went back to normal.


    "So it seems like the bounder is protected by an illusion, so that only specific person can reach it."


    *Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!*


    It felt like someone was running at the full speed from far away in the hallway, it was like a wild beast was unleashed just now and it was bloodlusty.


    "Huh?? What is that??"


    Just within a second the sound of the steps changed to dark shadowy figure of a 10 ft big beast which made the buidling shake.


    Damark no longer wanted to test his ability he just worked on his instincts and got inside the room which he turned to normal just now.


    The beast saw this and ran more faster.


    He threw his claws out to grab Damark before him going inside, but it was too late.


    It roared out side of the room like it was afraid to come inside.


    He could now see the beast more clearly from inside the room''s glass. It was like a bear with his face twisted at 60¡ã angle and the only thing visible on his face were his mouth with big sharp teeths. His body was of grey coloured and had scratch marks everywhere. If was really terrifying. But Damark was happy that it didn''t enter the room. He felt somewhat pleasant after entering the room as he was now able to sure that the beast would at not enter the room.


    10 mins later...


    *SWOOSH*


    All of a sudden all the lights got switched off and the beast started roaring and broke the glass!


    Damark hadn''t expected this, he had just now calmed himself down but now this?


    He didn''t understand, he had only one choice.


    "THISSSSS ISSSS NOTTT REALL!!!!!"


    LT


    *FLASH*


    The room again lit up and there was no sign of glass broken, the beast was waiting out just like before.


    Damark understood one thing, "So my Enhancer can work up to 10 mins and then it will stop. And this beast might also be an illusion.


    Damark moved close to the glass and spoke: "The beast is an illusion it is not real, and only real can stay" LT


    The beast started trembling and all its organs burst into pieces, after sometime the only thing that was left was a metal hammer.


    "It seems like the beast was actually a mixture of reality and illusion"


    Damark opened the door and left the room.


    "I wonder how much far can my Enhancer work, will it cover the whole building?"


    "THIS BUILDING IS UNDER AN ILLUSION IT IS NOT REAL, IT WILL CONVERT TO REAL!!!!"


    LT


    *BANG*


    Everything turned white, nothing was visible except the colour white.


    It started slowly fading, and he saw the hallway had became normal with lit up lights but the rooms were still under darkness.


    "Hmm.. this seems my power can work best up to 6-9 metres."


    He started walking towards the stairway like usual but this time without any fear in mind.


    The hallway was painted with white colour but at the end of the hallway where the light was not present it was again dark. He thought, "I guess we all were transported somewhere by the illusion but even after the illusion was lifted others weren''t visible. Lets find out"


    He repeated the same thing on the stairway and reached the 3rd floor.


    It was the floor were the bounder was actually present, now he had to find out the 2nd room in which it will be present.


    Still no one was present here. Up until now everything seems easy and nice.


    He didn''t use his Enhancer as Croser had warned him not to use it too often. He used his flashlight to direct his pathway, there was two pathway present here one on the left and the other on the right.


    He thought of visting the left one first. He didn''t even bother about the first room on the left hallway, he just entered the second room. It a meeting room just like the room Damark had found the mirror piece in. He looked around, it was pretty dark here and there was no strange events happening here till now. This was pretty strange as people told him that as he approached the Bounder closely the more the illusion would increase but it was not likely here.


    He checked all possible corners and even under the table but nothing was found nothing. He was a bit disappointed, so turned around and decided to leave the place. Just when he touched the doorknob and clutched it, the radio on the confrerence table switch on.


    "...zzz...z...."


    "We...ma...y...be..."


    Damark switched it off, he was not accustomed to it as he knew this was all an illusion.


    And again as he clutched the door knob it swtiched on.


    He didn''t want to switch it off again so he stepped out of the room.


    The hallway felt somewhat different from before. He looked down on the ground and saw that small fine tree roots had grown out of nowhere and were growing at an unimaginable rate.


    He understood that the bounder was again trying to stop everyone.


    He jumped over the roots and reached the stairway passing the first room again. This time he was going to go in the right hallway. He didn''t know what awaited him there.


    Also he didn''t have much time left as the roots were not completely an illusion that means that if they did something bad, they could hurt him..

 Real Potential

    It was dark, and the sound of the tree roots growing considerably was high. Damark was walking safely jumping over the gaps in between the tree roots. The roots were getting thick as time passed. He was headed towards the right hallway, he was now somewhat clear that the bounder was in the right corridor. But there was something that was still bothering him, "What if the second room is actually second room which we reach after entering the first room."


    He pondered over it and decided that he would first check the actual second room to find this out.


    He again passed the first room and got near the second room. He pulled down the door knob and entered the dark room, which with the help of his flashlight was lightened up.


    The room had an unknown black fog rolling inside the room, it was pretty eerie and horrifying. Yet he knew that it was not real but not accepting something like this which was not real is hard for any normal person who was working as a job person few days ago. He walked deeper into the room and glanced over the tables, he didn''t found anything amusing except for the chips bag that was left open.


    "So, it really was in the second room of the first room"


    He opened the door to leave but was shocked to see that the root had grown much more that before. It was to the point where the earlier empty corridor was now turned into like a jungle. He quickly left the room without wasting any time and entered the first room, the room was nothing special, it seemed normal as the other, no one coud even guess that this room had dangerous thing like bounder. He went deeper into the room and constantly flashed here and there to see if there was something that would attract his attention. Slowly, he entered the second room in the first room. He saw that it was a sort of meeting room. He checked upon the things repeatedly to find something, but then he noticed that there was nothing special.


    Suddenly on the right top side of the table, there was a handkerchief which had something glowing from inside of it. He was far to not see it, he looked over to his watch and said, "Covering Equalizer"


    The black watch turned into a small goggle, which he wore. It was given to all the members in case they found the bounder, they had to avoid reading the word so to avoid that these words were told to everyone.


    "Hmmm....so this was the thing that they told to wear to avoid looking at it"


    He wore it and moved towards the handkerchief. He was walking close to it but it seemed like the distance kept increasing and he was just imitating to walk on the same position. It felt like the room had become long but he couldn''t reach the handkerchief.


    *Rumble*


    The roots of tree had already reached inside the room. When he saw this, he started running but he was still not able to reach the handkerchief.


    "WHAT!!? IS THIS?"


    "YOU ARE PLAYING MIND TRICKS AGAIN"


    He was screaming at the top of his lungs.


    "THIS IS ALL LIE" ''LT''


    Everything stopped and the room fell silent. But then again


    *Rumble*


    It didn''t stop, it was still rumbling and it seemed as if everything was real...


    Suddenly


    *GRASP*


    A root shoot at him and grabbed Damark by his torso. He started struggling but with more struggling, number of roots kept increasing. They started to capture him and make him into a ball.


    "HELP!! THIS IS ALL LIE!?" ''LT''


    ....


    No reaction


    It was becoming very terrifying as now the roots had started to cover the whole room.


    Damark was still yelling but it was all futile. Slowly his voice got lower and lower as the roots kept getting more and more. Soon, no voice could be heard, it was complete silence.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    ...


    "Da.."


    "Damaa..."


    "..."


    "DAMARK!!!"


    "WAKE UP!!!!"


    "OPEN YOUR EYES"


    Damark''s eyes were closed but slowly and faintly it started opening only to see that there was a person who was shouting at him. He couldn''t understand what he was saying but it felt like he was saying ''wake up?''


    Only now did he understand that he was just now about to find the Bounder and suddenly he was captured by the roots.


    He jerked up and saw that the person that earlier was trying to wake him up was Robin.


    He asked hastly, "Where am I?!?? Where is the bounder"


    He looked around and saw that he was in some sort of office room.


    Robin replied, "As you can see, we are currently inside the same building where we were. Due to your yelling we were somewhat able to find the room and found the bounder. Right now, it is under extraction process."


    Damark asked, "What about the big roots?"


    Robin nodded and replied, "I pulled out my flame thrower and burned it all, they were actually partially illusion which had 60% illusion and 40% reality. It was pretty hard but with the help of others I was successfully able to control it."


    Damark asked, "So? Where did you all vanish to?"


    Robin replied, "Whenever you reach a certain point near the bounder, you are transported to some other dimension where the world is same but is more horrifying. It becomes horrifying depending upon the level of bounder."


    Damark stood up and said, "that means our mission is successful."


    Robin said, "Yeah because of your efforts it had turned out to be successful within 10 days."


    Damark frowned, "10 days?? What do you mean? We were only in this building for 1 and half day"


    Robin shook his head and replied, "The time passed inside the bounder passes faster compared to outer world and the time passed inside the vicinity of bounder passes slowly compared to outer world. That is why 1 day here is equal to 5 days outside and 5 hour inside the bounder is equal to 1 hour outside."


    Damark''s eyes widened and he found it really amusing. ''Time dilation''


    Who wasn''t fascinated by such things?


    He helped everyone carry the big box were the handkerchief was kept inside a translucent glass box. It was kept out from everyone so that no one can see it.


    ***


    Inside the military base, Damark met Croser again here. A total of six people were seating in the roundabout table. They were discussing about what they should do about the bounder.


    Croser said, "so? What do you think about the bounder? Does someone have any idea what the story could be related to?"


    Robin replied, "We had called the necessary enhancer to come and help with the required problem. They will be reaching here in a minute."


    Damark''s curiousity piqued and he couldn''t keep quiet anymore, "What are we talking about?"


    Croser looked at him and smiled, "oh? It''s about finding what the story is about so that we can decide who will be entering the bounder..."


    Damark nodded as he now understood what was this about.


    Suddenly, someone opened the door. It was a person with round specs on, he walked inside the room running and said, "I HAVE FIGURED IT ."


    The face of Croser, Robin and others lit up, they shouted in unison, "YESS!! COME ON SIT DOWN"


    He sat down, drank a glass of water and said, "I have an ability that helps me understand the inside of anything. I looked into the bounder and found out that it was set in a medieval setting. The world is filled with a fantasy styled system, the stories are very complicated. And beyond that I couldn''t understand anything. Ah.. yes also, I found out that a person with an ability to affect illusion should enter it as they should have high mental resistance."


    All of them started to ponder, it was really hard for anyone to survive for long in illusion.


    Croser remembered that Damark was the first one to find the bounder, so he turned towards him, "Damark? How did you manage to reach the room so quickly without much problem?"


    Damark answered, "Oh? I have the ability to turn a lie into truth so I understood that illusion is an lie and a lie could be turned to truth by my ability "


    Robin was shocked, "So you are saying that you didn''t fight any thing and just kept getting forward?"


    Damark replied, "Yes?"


    Everyone in the room were dumbfounded. They had the worst experience in their first mission and Damark seemed to go on a vacation.


    Croser asked, "Can you change non living things to the way you want?"


    Damark said, "well, I never really got time to check?"


    Croser replied with excitement, "Perfect!! Try it now here!"


    He brought a small pencil and told him to try changing it into a pen.


    Damark touched the pencil and mumbled, "This is not a pencil, this is a pen" *LT*


    Suddenly, the pencil started vibrating and a big flash appeared!


    *FLASH*


    Suddenly the pencil transformed into a pen!!!


    *Zoom*


    It maybe not even be 10 sec but suddenly the pen converted back to pencil.


    Everyone was shocked to this majestical power!


    Robin stood up and told, "Damark!!! This shows your potential it can now only be maintained for few seconds but soon!!! It will increase and you should become an important asset!"


    Croser was now more curious, "Hey!? Try using this on your own body!"


    Damark found it really amusing, he mumbled again, "My strength is comparable to an elephant" *LT*


    Suddenly! His biceps started to pump up and he started feeling strong.


    He was feeling like he could smash anything.


    But *ZOOM*


    Everything went back to normal within 10 secs and his hand started paining.


    Croser looked worried, he helped him get up.


    Now only did everyone understood how strong this ability was but it had way to much flaws, it was for a very less time and if used without preparation you could face backlash.


    After discussing, they had finally decided that Damark would be the one who will be entering the bounder to complete it.


    This evening, he had called his family and talked with them.


    He was getting prepared to enter the bounder.


    He was personally trained by Robin during this period.


    Finally the day came...

 Flaws

    Damark was again inside a dream, it was the same dream where he found his powers. Everything was dark except for the ground having grid type lines which where shining, luminating the ceiling. The ceiling was somewhat curved, and the floor was very vast.


    On the left side of him, he saw a plate which was displaying something. He approached it and saw that it was actually a glass plate which have some script written on it. He focused on it in the dim light.


    [Lie to Truth]


    Damark was pretty acquainted with the scenary, he focused more on the line and suddenly the line got vanished. The only thing left was the empty glass pane.


    He started feeling dizzy and he fainted, but he wasn''t unconscious, rather he was not able to hear, see or smell anything. He could feel as if he was feeling the presence of his whole body at once.


    But there was something strange about the body, it was actually empty rather than veins, muscles, bones, it felt empty. Only a small portion of his body had something, it was near the back of his neck just like the place where the physician had told him. It was like a small solid ball was floating there, he found it really weired for a ball to be there.


    It was when he was feeling it and gazing it through his imagination, then the ball''s picture got more clear. It was actually a small neuron with thin dentrites spreading from it like the roots of a tree in different direction. But the dentrites didn''t connect anywhere it was limited to that area.


    He was feeling it and trying to understand it. His eyes held on the middle of the neuron, all the space around the centre seemed filled with something but that centre was empty like the other body parts.


    While looking at the empty void at the centre of the neuron, he felt as if his soul was sucked into the void. He restrained back anyhow and tried to control his soul. He found that the hole was actually minutely getting smalller and smaller with time but it was very slow, it felt like it would take forever for it to fill.


    He was retracted back into his normal state in the dream, he saw that the mirror pane nor displayed something:


    [Lie to Truth:


    Grants the Enhancer of Turning the Visible Truth to Lie as per the desire of the user.


    Flaw : Slowly the Existence of the User gets Faded ]


    Damark frowned after reading the sentence,


    "Visible truth? Existence fade?"


    "What are these things?"


    *RUMBLE*


    The entire place started shaking and a stone plate appeared from the ground just beside the glass pane.


    It was empty and didn''t have anything.


    "Maybe it is for the future."


    The floor''s light started fading and it became extremely dark.


    Damark woke up!


    "What a weird dream, I should ask Croser about it, does Enhancer details really come through dreams."


    He woke up and did all the necessary activities to get ready. As it was the day of his entry into the world of Bounder.


    For the past few weeks, he had been training a lot with Robin for preparation. He had developed somewhat strength and for breaking his own limits he used his Enhancer everytime.


    He wore the uniform given to them and walked out of his room looking like a disciplined soldier.


    While on his way to the control room, he saw Alfred.


    Damark waved at him and said him "Hi!"


    But Alfred made his face like a stranger was waving at him, he approached Damark and said, "Huh? Who are you? By any chance do I know you?"


    Damark was taken aback by this statement, he said hurriedly, "What do you mean? I am Damark who was the new recruit on the last mission few weeks ago!?"


    Alfred''s face froze and he looked straight into one direction as if he was a machine.


    Then after a moment he replied, "Oh hi damark! I felt as I had forgotten you and you never existed in my memory. Really sorry, maybe I didn''t good sleep last night."This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Damark talked a bit with him and left. On his way he thought, "It was really strange? How could someone forget about such a vivid memory and also within just a few weeks. It as if the flaw mentioned in the last dream was working. My existence... Was faded from his memory...."


    "I should be careful next time while using this power, it''s strong but comes with problems"


    He had now reached the control room. It was giving the vibes of a high teh room.


    He entered the room and saw that Croser and Robin were already having a conversation with each other. While at same time some other young people where sorting out the papers.


    When Croser and Robin saw Damark, he gave an emotion of excitement and called him to have a seat.


    Croser asked, "Did you sleep well yesterday?"


    Damark replied, "Yeah I had a good sleep yesterday but there is something I want to ask you?"


    Croser said smilely, "Yes? Do ask."


    Damark let out a sigh and asked, "Everyone who works here have Enhancer. So have everyone here gain it through their dream? Where are thrown into an unknown world?"


    Croser said laughingly, "Oh yeah! I almost forgot to give you the details. Yes that is true, eveyone here have experienced it through their dreams and everyone will have a different experience. But one thing is common that they will be thrown in the "Body Branch", which is the place which connects the whole body starting from the back of the neck. It acts like the main powerhouse, it also defines how much can one use his Enhancer.


    For you, like you saw that day you potential. It will rise once the Body Branch spreads it''s reach. It will differ for everyone, someone will have his body branch spreading to his brain first or someone may have it spreaded to his heart first."


    Damark nodded and listened carefully.


    Robin added, "Also, you don''t have to worry about it now because you haven''t had your awakening till now."


    Damark asked, "How can I have an awakening?"


    Robin replied, "Well.. we still don''t know, it is found that going into the Bounders repeatedly may awaken you."


    Croser replied, "Like my Body Branch is actually connect to three placed which means I can have three different Enhancer and also my main Enhancer''s potential will increase."


    Damark was intrigued, "Who has the highest number of connected body branch till now?"


    Croser said, "It is not officially disclosed but we have an idea that a person in our neighbouring country, ''Dosen'', there is a person with 56 body branches. He had almost completed 78 Bounders. And he is somewhat at the very pinnacle of this world right now. Though he has many flaws."


    Robin said, "Ah.. yes flaws.. in your body branch you may have felt that there are many empty regions. If you let it suck you in, you will be devoured and the effect of your flaw will increase. We don''t have enough research to say how can we fix this flaws but we are trying."


    Damark now understood what had happened before.


    "I really need to be very careful." He thought to himself.


    A young man that was working earlier approached Croser and whispered something in his ears.


    Croser looked at Damark and said, "Should we get started?"


    Damark nodded with excitement and they all left the control room. He was following Croser and Robin to an Underground stairway which led to a room. It was somewhat dark and almost felt like a mine.


    They reached the room and when Croser opened it, they first sight that Damark saw was the big window on the side of the room, it was compact and only had a window with a study table and a chair with a sleeping capsule.


    Croser waited for Damark to enter the room, and said, "Behind this Window is the biggest library of his Country, whatever title of the book you read, you just need to type it down on the keyboard which we will give and the book will automatically come to you. After that read the book and as soon as you start feeling dizzy just close the book and throw it into the window. Rest will be handled by us."


    Damark was somewhat relieved that he had been chosen for this holy act.


    Croser clapped his hands and two young man wearing the same goggles came down the stairs into the room with the big translucent glass box.


    They kept it on the study table and asked Damark to open it.


    He opened it and saw that the handkerchief was still lying there inside the box in between a red cushion. He picked it up with gentle care and kept the box aside.


    Everyone left except for Robin and Croser.


    He flattened the handkerchief and read the line.


    [The Imperial Palace]


    As soon as he read the line, the handkerchief started fading like it was made up of sand that was flowing out of the hand.


    He had the title of the book in his mind, thus when he looked down on the table, he saw that a keyboard was lying there. He started pressing the buttons without thinking much.


    T


    H


    E


    I


    M


    ...


    The clutching of the keyboard where echoing in the room. He pressed the last button, "E"


    Suddenly the window which was closed earlier opened and he saw the biggest Library in his life. There was book shelves all around going upto the very end of the room, it was so deep that it stretched to the point where light couldn''t reach. There was a big pillar which had book shelves covering the whole pillar. It was almost impossible to count all the books. Suddenly one of the book, started flapping and flew towards the window. Damark had never expected just a thing to happen it was as if he was seeing magical world for the first time.


    He picked up the book and opened it.


    [The Imperial Palace]


    [The boy always yearned to be a knight. But he belonged to a family of tailors. The family worked day and night to make cloths for their king. But the king never favoured them inspite he charged them heavy taxes. The boy always bad mouthed them but suddenly one day one of the knight heard him and beaten him to death. The boy swore to become a knight and replace the king. But the fate was something else, the palace was in uproar due to the sudden assassination of the king. One of the knight gave the name of the boy as a possible suspect and he was arrested for treason. He was asked to prove his loyalty through a series of tests. The first test was...] Suddenly the dizziness started coming up and Damark knew that it was time.


    He closed the book and threw it into the library through the window. He held his head trying to control his headache. But it was futile and he was unconscious.


    Robin and Croser knew one thing that this story will take a while to complete, thus they helped unconscious Damark to get into the capsule bed.


    Croser said to Robin, "Let''s hope that he is able to complete this story. I have tried to gain more info about this and found that a man had to go through a lot of mental challenges in the story, though it was considered a philosophical book but the story was pretty tough."


    Robin shook his head hoping that Damark would be able to complete it.

 Tyrant King

    ....


    The light flashed before Damark''s eyes, which seems like the black eye ball was actually turning white with the time passing.


    Slowly, Damark started getting his consciousness back, and he saw that he was actually in a space which was white from the every corner of his vision. He tried to move his body but it was not moving, as if he didn''t have control over it.


    *FLASH*


    The white light became more shiny and Damark closed his eyes.... When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was drifted to a completely new location which he had never seen. He tried to move his body, but noticed that the body was moving on its own.


    "Is this someone else''s body, and is this his memories?"


    The scenary was set in location which was near a deserted area. There were medieval houses made up of purely wood with stone chimney at their top. Rooftop made up of wooden plants, it seemed as if the area had an abundance of wooden supplies. The ground was a little bit reddish in colour, like the soil can be literally called red soil. Dust was flowing everywhere and it was a windy day. Damark wanted to look around more but it seemed as if his was just witnessing the incident with his eyes.


    The body went to a house and shouted, "Mom!? Is the food ready? I am hungry" he said with a grim face. Damark felt as if the mouth made a saddened expression on its own. Suddenly, a middle aged lady wearing a white appron and bun hairstyle emerged from the side of the room. She was not very fat but also not very thin, but the clothes she wore behind the appron were rather torn and old. She replied, "Yes Arvin, it will be ready in just a moment, sit down till then."


    "It''s seems the boy in the story this time is named Arvin" Damark thought.


    The body moved again on its own and the boy sat down on the nearby chair. Only now did Damark look around the house to see how was the condition. The house gave a vibe of an old house with wooden scraps coming out from here and there. There was dust all around and they didn''t have much furniture, it was only some chairs that covered the area in the house. Suddenly, the same lady came out of the room with a plate in her hand. She offered it to Arvin and said, "Eat well my little boy! Today you have to go with your father to the Imperial Palace to give the tailored clothes and also in case your father forgets tell him to pay the taxes."


    Arvin looked over to his mother and said, "Yes mom! But why are we paying the tax when we are making so many good clothes for the king? Shouldn''t it be opposite?"


    The lady replied, "Don''t bother about it, the King is a tyrant many people have revolted against him but every single mouth that revolted has been cut along with their heads."


    A fear rolled over the body and the boy replied, "Mom! I will become strong one day and replace the King!"


    The lady smiled, "Yes yes, but first you should eat well"


    She continued, "Your birthday is coming soon! And you will be 10 years then! We will give you something good!"


    Just as the sentence entered the boy''s ears, the lady started fading into small tiny particles like a dust when fades when is hit by wind.


    Damark''s vision became blurry and the scene suddenly changed. He was now inside the Palace helping his father to offer the clothes to a guard.


    His father shouted, "You should at least pay reasonable amount of money for us to pay you back!!!"


    The money which the king paid for the clothes were less than the actual market value. The guard''s face twisted and he lifted his spear to hit Arvin''s father in the abdomen. He shouted, "Don''t provoke the king! Or else your head will be the next thing to fall!"


    Arvin''s father gritted and left the scene. The boy said to him, "Father.. mom had told me to remind you of the taxes" he said it in a polite manner so that his already hurted mindset doesn''t suffer much.


    His father replied, "Oh Lord! You are right I almost forgot! I should thank Margret after I reach back home. But this king is asking us too much money! I never thought that he would pay so less for the exquisite work that I performed on his clothes!"


    He was irritated but quickly managed to calm down his anger. He looked at Arvin and said, "You can go home, I will come back later .." he said with a smile on his wry face.


    Arvin understood and left .


    Damark was watching everything through the eyes of Arvin and thought, "So I am 9 years old right now and the story is actually about a king... The kingdom seems to be facing its downfall right now. Well I should carry on looking for information."


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    Arvin changed his direction and started walking on the other road, he was jumping and walking like a small kid.


    He wanted to play now, so he went to his the field where his friends were already playing.


    When he saw them, he started running and waved at them, "Heyy! You all are so mean! Starting without me!"


    He reached near his friends, there were a total of 7 kids here. One of the kid replied, "We thought that you won''t be coming today"


    Arvin replied, "Alex, how could you preassume so much! There has not been a single day where I didn''t come."


    All the other kids started laughing and they went to the field to start their game.


    Just like every kids desire, it was a war game. The 7 kids were divided into two groups, there will be a single versus single battle to decide the leader of each group. The person who won the most battle could only choose 2 people as he was already strong and the second person to defeat the most can choose three people, as a result equating them. Damark found it really amusing that these kids had come up with this sort of idea. But later did he found out that it was actual the idea of Arvin. He was impressed by this character.


    All of them stood in a straight line about to run a race. It was said that whosoever were the first would have the first battle with the last, second with last second and so on.


    Arvin ended up being first, it seemed as if he was physically pretty strong. Alex said, "Arvin! You really are very fit! I believe you can easily become the knight of the Empire!"


    Arvin shook his head and replied, "I could be but I don''t want to work under this Tyrant King, I will become the King itself"


    Alex said nothing and only showed a mixed expression.


    The 1v1 battle began, Arvin''s opponent was a dark complexion boy with thin body, he didn''t seemed much strong but he ended up being last which meant that he had less endurance to keep up the speed till the end.


    The boy''s name was Rudan. He was famous for his mischievous activities as he was very cunny.


    Both of them stood infront of them inside a circle which was drawn to define a boundary for considering win and loss.


    They had prepared a sword made up of wood, it was not very refined but it was still applaudable. Both of them grabbed the sword and looked at each other. Then, both of them kneeled down holding the sword and hit the sword into the ground and looked at the ground. They both shouted, "WE BOTH WILL FIGHT WITH OUR PRIDE ON LINE". One of their friend was acting as a referee and he shouted, "YOU CAN STAND UP!!"


    They both stood up and looked as if they were in a real life and death battle. No blink only stare. Suddenly the friend as referee shouted, "BEGIN!"


    Just as the sound wave moved out of the mouth of the referee they moved towards each other as if two big waves of ocean had collided. Damark was taken aback as he was feeling his body moving with the speed that he had never seen.


    *TAK*


    Both the wooden swords collided and held onto each other. Arvin threw another attack at Rudan from the opposite side, it was a strong strike but Rudan tried to block it, being thin he was thrown two steps back. Seeing this Arvin didn''t stop and attacked at him more ferociously and didn''t stop striking. Rudan tried to block many attack but the top of the sword always hitted him causing the pain to slowly build up over time. Suddenly, Arvin stroke in the middle of the gap between his hand and sword. Rudan couldn''t endure more and he was directly hit into his chest, he fell out of the ring and lost the battle securing Arvin one point. Everyone was shocked that Rudan was able to held back so much, they knew that Arvin was very much skilled in swords so his victory was confirmed.


    Alex said to Rudan, "Seems like you have improved a lot."


    Rudan scratching his head replied, "Yeah, I practiced a lot from the last time."


    Everyone smiled and the battles continued.


    Slowly the end came close with Arvin having the most point and person being third in the race being second after him. Now, it was the final deciding match between Arvin and the person being third.


    Everyone was anticipating a lot from this match as this was a match between two skilled kids.


    Arvin was standing infront of him. The other person had pretty good body, he was looking strong. He had black hair and had fair complexion. He was Mark known for his strength in the entire village as a kid.


    Arvin was staring him down like a eagle stares its prey. They followed the ritual and referee announced


    "BEGIN!"


    *BOOM*


    Both the wooden swords stroked each other as if they were made up of stone. They were striking each other without stopping, first a vertical strike slanted left then right with a counter incoming. Horizontal strike from the right with acute sharpness. Mark was in defence up until now. Suddenly, he left his sword in air and grabbed it again with other position, now... He was in.. Offence..


    *TAK*


    Arvin didn''t stop but as soon as Mark changed to offence, his strikes felt as if he was using a sword made up of concrete, it was becoming harder and harder with each strike to counter him. Now Arvin was constantly being hit into his arms, he gritted and decided to give it his all. His speed increased and he forgot that he was in a battle, every attack from Mark was not countered with pure instinct, and Mark was constantly now hit from between the gaps. The tables were turned and Mark started losing balance, Arvin ducked down pulling up an unexpected move and hitted Mark in between the joints of his knee. Mark shouted and fell down, suddenly the sword stopped just an inches away from his neck. He yelled, "I concede!"


    Everyone were staring without blinking for even a second. They started celebrating and clapping. They had only seen such battles between knights.


    Arvin offered a hand to Mark and said, "You fought well!". Mark grabbed his hand and said, "You are incredible my friend! You will definitely become one of the strongest"


    Arvin smiled and didn''t say anything.


    The finally team battle continued and all of them ceased their play.


    At last Arvin''s team ended up winning.


    He was returning home with Alex. He said, "Today my father was hit by the guard because he berated him! I am sure that this king is very bad!"


    He was shouting at the top of his lungs.


    Suddenly, the same guard heard Arvin bad mouthing about him!


    He widened his eye and caught Arvin by his collar. Looking at him with furious eyes, he said, "You think you are someone to bad mouth about me!!"


    Arvin was caught off guard and he didn''t expect the same guard to listen to him.

 Lion Heart Potion

    Damark was observing everything with the eyes of Arvin, this truly was an otherworldly experience where you just experience the memory of someone else, and feel it like its real. Every hand movement, leg movement and every touch felt almost real. There was also an interesting think, that throughout the battle event Damark was experiencing that he was learning something. Like he felt that he was learning all the moves and all the tricks that one could pull up while fighting. Maybe this was one of the powers of the Bounder where the learning of the character was passed down to the user like data transfering.


    Right now, Arvin was going back to his home with Alex. They were talking about their experience and learnings they learnt while fighting with their friends.


    Alex looked over to Arvin smilely, "You were so cool today! You defeated one of the strongest youngster in our village."


    Arvin replied blushingly, "You flatter me, it''s just my luck that my instincts kicked in!"


    Alex couldn''t help but admire his friend,


    "Hey! When will you come play again?"


    Arvin replied, "Maybe a few days later, the king had asked for tailored clothes a few days back, and today we delivered it to the Imperial Palace. Now we need to tailor clothes for selling in the village market to at least earn a living."


    Alex said, "But what happened to the money you got from selling it to the King?"


    Arvin twisted his face and said agressively, "The king is a real Tyrant!! First of all, he paid us so less for the clothes, then he charges so much Tax from us just because we are able to sell products in the market!"


    "This is the reason, I want to become the king, at the very least, I can decrease the tax and enforce more on production!"


    Alex wasn''t sure as to what he should say, so he just shook his head.


    Arvin now was a bit angered, so he started speaking in loud voice!


    "And, you know what!!!!"


    "TODAY!"


    *ZOOM*


    Suddenly, the vision of Damark faded from Arvin''s eyes.


    It was just for a brief moment but sudenly when he blinked back, he saw that he was seeing the blue sky?


    "What??"


    From his vision he was flapping his wings..


    "Wings?.... Am I a bird ?"


    He saw that now the bird was circling and was looking down.


    When Damark concentrated a bit to what was down. He saw two boys walking in the alley, one with fair skin colour and black hair wearing a green coloured shirt and the other in torquoise coloured shirt, black haired and somewhat fairer skin than the other. The boy in torquoise shirt was speaking loudly.


    Now the bird flew a bit down and only now could Damark see that it was Alex in the green coloured shirt. So he figured it out, that the other boy must be Arvin. While flying, he looked in the corner of his vision that a person was coming into the same route as of the boy where walking to. He looked like a guard, and wore the same dress as the one he saw at the main door of the palace. The bird started flying towards a nearby high ground from where the two pathways could be seen, they intersected each other at this point.


    Damark was now able to see the face of the guard, it was the guard from the palace that had pushed Arvin''s father.


    Arvin shouted, "THAT GUARD WAS THE WORST PIECE OF GARBAGE I HAVE EVERY SEEN!!!"


    "He pushed my Dad as if he had committed some crime! We are paying taxes and also working for them on low wages! They don''t have any right to treat us in this way!"


    The guard had heard the Arvin''s voice earlier, so he was hiding behind a wall near the intersection.


    Through the vision of the bird, Damark had seen that the guard had almost sheathed his sword but stopped when he saw Arvin.


    It was like something litnup in his mind.


    Suddenly, he rushed over to Arvin and jumped over him disbalancing Arvin. The guard took hold of Arvin''s hand from the back and twisted it toward his back.


    He shouted, "You little!!.. how dare you bad mouth me!! I am the proud guard of the Palace, Rufendel! If I want I can kill you right here and no one will ever know."


    Alex was dumbfolded, he was shaking in fear.


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    Arvin wasn''t weavering at all, he replied back, "You don''t have any right to act against me in this manner!! I am citizen of Ascendant Kingdom! If you hurt me then that means you are hurting the Law of Ascendant Kingdom!!"


    The guard now tightened his grip and replied, "I can kill you in the name of treason that you tore the flag of our beloved kingdom since you were already angry with our king, why not become a victim of your own anger" he smirked.


    Arvin replied, "Why would I? I don''t hate my kingdom! I don''t like the king! So just leave us alone."


    The guard was about to initiate his plan, just then he looked up and said, "Fine! You will see the effect of your actions soon" he had an evil smile.


    Arvin was a little worry that his family might get in this, then it would be really bad.


    Suddenly again Damark''s vision faded and this time he was again in the body of Arvin looking at the Guard which was leaving.


    Now only did Arvin fell down on the ground and gritted, "Ouch"


    His wrist had the mark of the grip from the guard. "They sure are strong, if he had hold onto my hand for a little longer, my wrist would have been broken."


    He looked at Alex who had a dazed face, "Hey?? Where are you?? Are you alright??"


    Alex fell down unconscious.


    Damark thought, "it feels strange that this Arvin was able to keep his calm in that situation and endured the pain.. Despite him being a youngster."


    Arvin quickly ran towards Alex and grabbed him in his hand, "This boy is really weak.*


    He lifted Alex on his back and started walking towards his home.


    When Arvin was about to reach his small wooden home, he saw that his mother was waiting on the door. He was a bit confused to why was she waiting for him.


    When she saw him, she covered her mouth with her hands and ran towards Arvin and Alex.


    She said, "Arvin!!! Where were you?? Many people were saying that you had gotten into a fight with the guard??"


    "What happened to Alex ?? Why is he fainted??"


    Arvin replied waking up Alex, "It''s nothing to worry about mom, he just asked us some questions and we replied with determination so people thought we got into a fight. As for Alex he was scared because he had never come in proximity with a guard."


    Arvin''s Mom didn''t find it convincing but she said, "Did you get hurt anywhere??"


    "Ah.. i don''t see any wound"


    "Ok, I know you are skipping too many parts, I would like to ask you in detail, so first come enter the house."


    Arvin had covered his wrist with a cloth so that his mom couldn''t see it.


    Alex was now awake, he whispered to Arvin, "Why did you pick a fight with the guard, you are now in bad terms with him."


    "What if he causes some problem with you?"


    Arvin shook his head and replied, "Don''t worry.. The Ascendent Kingdom''s law will always protect us citizens"


    Damark while watching this all thought, "Arvin is really naive, sometimes it is important to understand that to how much degree is the law applicable for someone. Someone with a high post will have to bother less about any law than a person working in a farm."


    Arvin and Alex entered the home.


    Arvin fabricated the whole story and includes some of the truths to make it somewhat believable.


    Alex had no choice but to agree with Arvin.


    They eat lunch together and enjoyed a bit.


    With the sun sipping down into the earth, Alex left.


    Just a few minutes later, Arvin''s Dad came back. He was also told the fabricated story. He parted his son and said, "Great! You didn''t weaver and stayed composed. But remember don''t ever get on the bad side of any knight in this kingdom. It may seem that they can''t do anything but they will play a very big game and you will be trapped in it."


    Arvin only nodded and didn''t say any further.


    Then his mom gave him something green in a glass and said, "Drink this to maintain you health."


    New information started rushing into Damark''s brain. This green liquid was a ''Lion-Heart Potion", it gave effects of strong mindset and bravery. It was given to the tailors as they had to sometimes work with so big projects that they were told to use needles of the size more than a person.


    Damark thought, "What is this information?


    Needles bigger than a person? Why would someone need that? And what would they make using that? But one thing''s clear that this was the reason he didn''t weaver infront of the guard."


    He didn''t get the answer, it seems like Arvin was also unaware of it. Arvin took the glass and drank it whhole.


    He went back to his room, and said to himself, "I really need to work more harder. If I want to become the strongest person in this kingdom, I would need to train like a madman."


    A wooden sword was lying down on the table, he moved towards it and picked it up.


    The word had cracks but he was bearable to use it. He started swinging it in the air. It was a fluid motion, it felt like he had done this for at least a thousand times.


    Time passed and he kept training soaked in sweat.


    *FLASH*


    Damark''s vision faded and he found himself in a white space. "Hmmm.. seems like we are about to get a time skip."


    *WHOOSH*


    The white space disappear and the world slowly started fading in. He saw a wooden ceiling...


    Birds wer chirping and sound of wind blewing could be held.


    This time it seemed that he was able to move his body. He was no more in a vision.


    He sat up and prepared to leave.


    "Now the story will start to get intense, I must prepare myself for the odds"


    He walked out of his home, it was a sunny morning. The silent peaceful morning that could make anyone love it was now showing its presence.


    He stretched his body, and looked at the walls of his house. It was spring season with green leaves covering the ceiling .


    He saw three photo frames on the wall. It was the birthday painting, someone had drawn their moment.


    "This requires a lot of skill, I would who was behind this painting."


    It was written:


    [10th Birthday]


    [11th Birthday]


    [12th Birthday]


    [13th Birthday]


    "Hmm, so now I am 13 years old. My body seems refined now."


    He had developed tight muscles in this while. And had small amount of hairs on his face, which was the typical teen moustache.


    He walked out in the market wishing people Good morning just like Arvin used to do.


    There was a commotion going on near the special board of the village.


    He walked over there and asked a person, "Um, excuse me Uncle, do you know what''s happening here?"


    The middle aged man turned around and saw Arvin, he replied, "Oh Arvin? You already know right that our Kingdom was Attacked by those dirty Polar people. It seems like they have defeated us and they will be taking over the Ascendant Kingdom. And their reign will start from today."


    Damark was shocked, ''attack? Polar? When did this happen? So much have happened in just so less time??''


    He replied, "Oh no! This is really bad"


    The man replied, "Yeah boy, our pride had really fallen down"


    Arvin left the scene and went back home.


    And picked up the wooden sword, prepared a hilt to hold it. He knew something bad was going to happen.


    Suddenly.


    *RUMBLE*


    The ground started shaking.

 Instill Fear

    The wind was blowing and so was the marching horn. The twinkling sound of the saddles from the horse was resounding around, the whole army of people were walking pridefully. They were in a very good mood today, because they had finally won over the Kingdom which was like a sore in the eye. In the middle of the group was a person seating in a carriage pulled by horses. He wore a purple dress which had white coloured outline on its borders. He had a very majestic aura, and was wearing a crown on his head.


    He was the king of Polar Kingdom, today he was going to embody his presence in the very Ascendent Kingdom. The reason why Ascendent Kingdom had lost to them was because of the powers that these people had. They could faintly use magic, in this world magic was not a popularised thing but some people still had a hold of it, due to which it aided them in their physical strength as a result having a upper hand above all. Although they were less in number so they couldn''t just go around and destroy all the kingdoms. This was their first victory, and they didn''t want to miss out this opportunity to display their strength to all and instill a sense of fear among all.


    The King said to his subordinate who was driving the carriage, "Have you prepared all the necessary thing which we had planned before". They driver replied, "Yes Sir, we have prepared everything. We will show those weaklings who holds the power!"


    The King nodded with a smirk, keeping his head on his supporting hand.


    ....


    Damark knew that this was the whole plot of the story but he didn''t know what was about to uncover.


    He attached the wooden sword on the hilt. And didn''t say any word, he just went out on the streets since the rumbling was slowing getting louder.


    RUMBLE


    The horse were now visible from inside the kingdom. Slowly the number of horse increased from one to approximately 40. This was a huge amount.


    "What in the world are they planning to do? Why would someone need 40 horses when you have already won the war?"


    "Leaving that aside, when did this war actually begin? I have no memory of war from Arvin."


    He went up to a man asked how had the Polar Man''s won the war?


    The man looked at him for sometime as he was a little surprised but he replied about their magical powers.


    Only now did Damark understood the reason.


    The soldiers were unpacking everything and the carriage with the large number of horses were walking through the streets to the kingdom.


    Damark''s eyes laid on something strange. It was Rufendel sitting on the horse, holding the flag of Polar Kingdom.


    "This man was actually faking about being loyal. Now he is in the Polar Kingdom this means that he would definitely do something bad to me."


    There eyes met... Rufendel smirk. Damark was right, there was something that Rufendel has already planned out.


    Slowly the big match of the other kingdom ended. And they closed the doors of the Palace, replacing the guards with the new ones.


    Damark sat back infront of his house, as he knew that the plot would unfold it soon.


    *DING DING*


    The large bell on the tower of the palace rang loudly as a announcement was being made.


    A person came out of the palace and starting saying something.


    "EVERY CRIMINAL WILL NOW BE CALLED INSIDE THE PALACE AND THEY WOULD BE GIVEN A CHANCE TO SHOWCASE THEIR PROWNESS AND IF OUR MAJESTY IS PLEASED YOU WILL BE BESTOWED WITH FREEDOM."


    Although he was very far away from the village, yet he voice could be heard all the way down here.


    "So this is the power of their magic"


    Two knights from the palace started walking towards the village. They were continuously asking some people few questions. Damark was looking at these events, suddenly the two knight stared at him and started walking towards him.


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    They approached him and said, "Are you Arvin, the son of the Imperial Tailor?"


    Damark replied, "Yes, I am?"


    The knight didn''t say any further, they became a blur and lifted up Damark like he was a leaf. Their strength was no where comparable to a human.


    He was startled by the sudden change in events, he shouted, "HEY!, Put me down why are you taking me, I haven''t done anything"


    One of the knight replied back, "Don''t resist! We have received orders that you are a criminal who was about to be captured but just then war broke out. So stay still"


    Damark had figured out everything now.


    Just then a sound came, "HEYYY! PUT MY SON DOWN"


    It was Arvin''s Mother who was crying as she had also heard the announcement.


    "Hey isn''t a criminal!


    Right arvin?"


    Damark didn''t know how he should reply.


    The knight replied, "It doesn''t matter whether he is a criminal or he is not, our majesty wants entertainment."


    *BANG*


    A wooden plank was hit on one of the knight''s head. It was Arvin''s Dad this time, "Entertainment huh? Let me show you what entertainment is"


    He hit the knight again with it.


    *BANG*


    The knight was just staring at his Dad. Like he didn''t feel anything.


    He stomped his legs on the ground.


    *BOOM*


    A crafter was made by the force, and Arvin''s Dad fell down on his knee along with Arvin''s mother.


    The knight shouted, "Don''t try to act high, we have spared the whole village from any deaths, be grateful about it"


    He didn''t gave a eye about them and started walking away.


    Damark thought as a son he should reply, "Mom! Dad! Don''t worry I will return back home.


    You prepare a grand feast for me when I come back"


    They couldn''t see their son being accused of crime but they couldn''t do anything.


    The knight reached the gateway holding Arvin in their hands.


    The gate slowly opened, it was for the first time that Arvin was able to see the Palace from this close.


    Damark could now see the palace from inside, it was made up of white marble with golden linings. Many big lamps were hanging on the ceiling, it was truely magnificent.


    But they didn''t stop and went to the back of the palace into a big colosal colloseum. The seats were filled with people wearing the same cloth that everyone was wearing. Maybe they were the soldiers of Polar Kingdom.


    Damark was brought inside a room where many people had already gathered, each one of them had a very malicious aura around them. They had most likely killed more than three people, he was thrown on ground by the knights.


    They said, "Now that everyone is gathered, you will all walk out of this gate made of bars. It will lead you to the battleground in the Colosseum. Once you reach their we will explain the rules."


    They didn''t even wait for anyone, and left.


    Damark looked back at the people with scars and tattos all over their bodies. They were looking extremely dangerous. He decided that it was better to stay away from them.


    The bar jail slowly lifted up and gave the signal that it was now time to leave.


    Up until now Damark had not resisted much because he knew that this was all part of story and he would face difficulty if he resisted.


    Everyone slowly walked out of the room into the field.


    It was a large field so large that it could fit more than 10 big vehicles.


    He saw that other than the people seating in the stadium, a special vacant was made where only 3 people where present. Among them only one was sitting who wore a purple dress with white linings . It was most probably the King of Polar.


    On the other side of the stadium near a lever, a familiar person was standing. It was Rufendel, he was smirking and was looking with a devious intent towards Arvin.


    Suddenly a person emerged from one of the gateway. He waved his hand a big earthen pillar suddenly emerged out of no where. All the criminals along with Damark gasped in awe as they never even heard of such things. The man jumped over to the pillar and started speaking.


    "I am the representative of Polar Kingdom today and is speaking for our majesty, Woer Crimson. Today our king had been very benevolent and have given you all a chance to show your worth. You will be undergoing some big trails and through those trails you will try to entertain the majesty. You may die or you may live but if you fail to entertain him, you will consider die. And you all will get massacred. So don''t act sloppy here."


    He pointed at the lever where Rufendel was standing.


    "One by one you all will go inside the room by pulling the lever and you will have to survive there. Until and unless you have lowered all the levers present inside the room, the room will not open. We will be watching over you from outside by our magical powers."


    He smirked , "There is a magical beast named, "The Serpent King" who will be waiting for your company... Kukuku"


    Everyone''s hair straightened up, as they all knew that Serpent King was considered as one of the most terrifying beast who could spit out poison.


    They didn''t understand what they had to do except for pulling down the lever.


    Damark didn''t understand but he was not feeling fear much.


    The man shouted again, "Rucas Neigh! Come front"


    A man with a muscular figure came out from the crowd of criminals and stayed in a attention posture.


    He walked close to the chamber and stared at the lever. The man shouted again, "PULL THE LEVER QUICKLY"


    Rucas was already sweating even after acting all prideful. He pulled down the lever, and the Chamber''s gate slowly lifted up. It was really dark from inside and one can''t see anything from outside. Rucas walked inside fearfully and just as he stepped inside the Chamber automatic closed. He was startled but looked that the room was now lit up.


    Outside the chamber, a big hologramic screen was projected out from a glass ball. Everyone could see what was happening inside but it was not clear it was only vague.


    ....


    Woer was very impressed by his countrymen as he was given a special projector where the vision was more clear and different from the one that


    everybody was looking at.


    Suddenly, loud noises started coming from the chamber.

 The Serpent King

    It was a clear day but yet the minds of the people were not clear yet. They were worried for their turn to come. Right now, Rucas was taking the dagger given to him by a knight on a red coloured cushion. This dagger was the only weapon given to fight with the serpent king. Rucas entered the room and with a loud bang the shutter of the room''s opening closed.


    On the projected screen, he was visible but not very clearly. Rucas was looking at the big serpent king who twisted in itself and was sleeping. His legs were shaking making him look petrified. Within a few minutes, in the projection people could see that Rucas had started moving as he was looking for something. He tried to sneak behind the serpent king, and he aimed to get behind the serpent to find the lever that he had to pull. It was not visible in the screen but suddenly chilling screams started coming out from behind the room. Everyone tried to focus on the screen as to find out what was happening that he started screaming. They saw that Rucas had awoken the Serpent King and was not being attacked by it. He was jumping left and right but the serpent despite being large in size was much faster them him. Rucas was screaming with his mouth open and was trying to slash the skin of the serpent, but it seemed as if he was only attacking the air as there was not even a scratch.


    *SCREECHH*


    Followed by the sound, everyone saw that the serpent had sprayed poison from its fang. Rucas was covered in the purple coloured semi-fluid liquid, he had a terrified look on him like he wanted to scream to diminish his pain but he could scream as the poison had already filled up his throat. His skin started melting with the drip flowing down onto the ground. It was really gruesome to even watch on the projection. Damark turned his head towards Woer the king. As he has heard the word ¡°entertainment¡± a lot of times, just what kind of person would enjoy watching someone die so miserably. Woer had a smile on his face and not just a normal smile but rather a vicious smile. He looked as if he was enjoying the melting of the skin drop by drop.


    Damark shook his head and understood that this was going to be hard. He might have to suffer a lot. But this time at least he was prepared for the upcoming.


    The projection screen was absorbed back into the glass sphere, as the participant was already dead. All the criminal participants were trembling in fear, they had they widely opened eyes turned down. They didn''t want to see their mate dying but now they didn''t know whose turn was next, and whose death warrant was coming. They didn''t want to face it but they were forced to face it.


    The man on the earthen pillar shouted again, ¡°Next participants come up, Trevor Fundel!!¡±


    Trevor was a man with an average build, he was involved in a four-man robbery but was caught by the patrolling guard. He didn''t expect things to turn out this way. But there was no escape. He stepped front trembling and took the dagger. He didn''t want to enter the room and was looking into the darkness with grief and fear. Rufendel kicked him on his back and shouted, ¡°Enter the room, don''t waste the time.¡± The shutter closed and the screen was again projected. The events carried on just like last time but this time Trevor walked to the corner and just sat down in fear. He didn''t want to fight a monster much less a serpent king. But with passing time, it was like the size of the serpent was growing no one knew why? But it grew so large that the room''s ceiling was getting impacted by his size. It opened its eye and swallowed Trevor as a whole like he was a candy for him. After swallowing Trevor, the serpent grew back to its original size by radiating a light. It was really unknown to most of the people but the knight maybe knew this that''s why they didn''t say anything about time limit.


    Participant after participant died, now there were less than 200 criminals left. Damark thought, ¡°Maybe the whole reason for entertainment was to kill everyone but by giving them a chance.¡± It was then that the man on the pillar again gathered everyone''s attention and said, ¡°Next participant Arvin, come forward!!¡±


    So his turn had finally come. He stepped forward and walked toward the room. Rufendel was holding the plate in which the dagger was given. He smirked and Damark and said, ¡°Go enjoy your death you brat!¡±


    Damark wanted to grab him and beat him right now but it was not possible. He snorted and took the dagger.


    He had a much greater problem right now. From the beginning of the trials, he had been wondering how he could survive the Serpent King. It seemed like he had come to some conclusions after watching so many deaths and tries, ¡°I would have to avoid provoking the Serpent King before it gets to late. And I have to make sure that I avoid any wastage of energy in fighting the serpent.¡± He walked inside the room.


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    *BANG*


    The shutter closed but as soon as the room was closed, a few lights had blown up which were present on the wall. It was not very well lit but at least you could see the serpent. It was approximately 35-40 feet in height and it was so wide that it had almost covered the whole big room. Currently, it''s eyes were shut but he had a big green coloured crystal present on his forehead. It was constantly getting lit up and down. Damark knew he had very little time, so he quickly started looking for the levers in the room.


    As per his vision he had located three of the levers, one was present on the right of the room, one on the left and the third one was on the very top of the room. He didn''t know how he was supposed to pull the lever on the ceiling without waking up the serpent. But he wasn''t able to locate the fourth lever, as it was nowhere to be seen. He started sneaking towards the right most lever, maintaining a steady movement with minimal sound. It seemed like this serpent didn''t have the perception of the environment like snakes do. Otherwise it should have already detected Damark''s presence. It was a lever made up of metal, a thought flashed in his mind, ¡°when I will pull this lever¡­ will it make a sound??? If yes then wouldn''t it wake up the serpent?¡±


    He had thought that the lever must be made up of wood to minimise the sound but he was right that they had made it with metal so that everyone makes a sound and then they are killed by the serpent.


    ¡°I should be prepared for what is about to come.¡±


    But then he felted inside his body that he was more familiar with a sword than a dagger. ¡°Oh no, Arvin had trained with a sword for so many years and now I don''t even know how to use a dagger.. huh?¡±


    ¡°Good thing, I practiced with Sir Robin a lot to improve my skills. Now I am at least somewhat familiar with each and every weapon.¡±


    During the training period, Robin had guessed that a moment would come when he will not use a familiar weapon as per the story character and the chances of death will increase a lot. Thus, he was trained in all sought of weaponry.


    ¡°The essence of dagger is to use in an outward fashion, and the essence of sword is to use in an inward fashion.¡±


    He gripped the dagger in the opposite position with the handle in his hand and the blade backwards facing out.


    ¡°By using the mastery of sword that Arvin had earned I can apply that in dagger just by inverting the skills.¡±


    This was pretty hard for any normal person, but Damark was trained by the second strongest person in their camp.


    Damark sneaked onto the lever and pulled it down.


    *CRACK*


    The pulling sound along with the surface hitting the metal sound vibrated in the room. The serpent king opened his eyes and looked at Damark with a murderous intent, it fixated the position of Damark and attacked him.


    But before the serpent could do anything, Damark had already sneaked close to the skin of the serpent and due to its large size it couldn¡¯t see Damark but it knew where he was. Damark''s speed had already increased and he jumped on the lever on the left corner.


    *CRACK*


    He was able to successfully pull the second lever. But the Serpent had already figured out his location. A purple coloured boiling liquid was enclosing its distance towards Damark, but Damark had seen the serpent fight for over 30 times, he had understood it''s pattern. Maybe the comprehension ability of Arvin was also passed down to Damark or maybe this was his ability he didn''t know, but it had helped him. He rolled over to the right and jumped on the body of the Serpent. He tried to slash it''s skin but it only left a scratch. He jumped over to the back of the serpent¡¯s head as it was a blind spot. The serpent was continuously struggling to attack him because Damark knew its size would increase and with increasing size it''s movement would get hindered. By understanding this, he was able to evade most of the attacks. When he was behind the serpent¡¯s back he saw a golden lever present on the ground.


    ¡®....Who designed this?¡¯


    He wanted to beat the person who had designed this because how was someone supposed to enter between the coils of the serpent and then pull the lever?


    He tried to lure the Serpent here and there but it had already became big. He jumped on its body again and ran over to its head and pulled the lever which was present on the ceiling. The serpent shook his head and Damark was thrown away. He had some scratches and blood was leaking out, but he didn''t weave. He looked at the fangs of the Serpent and had a plan. He started running off in the other direction and jumped on the wall. With the opposite push of the wall he landed on serpent¡¯s body and threw his dagger at the chin of the serpent. It was a common problem with snakes with this type of body structure. They couldn''t see more just below their chin, because their eyes were present on the left and right of the face. The serpent got a little hurt but didn''t get affected. But this little time when it was distracted, Damark had already reached the Serpent''s head, he pulled the dagger which he had tied to his cloth earlier. And stabbed it into the serpent''s eyes. He jumped down and then pulled the golden lever.


    *BOOM*


    The shutter started opening, he saw this and started running but the Serpent had healed from its injury and tried to attack Damark. But Damark was no fool, by now the size of the Serpent had increased a lot and it was again touching the ceiling. Thus slowing it down, Damark was running in a zigzag pattern to avoid the poison. He slide down and came out of the room in a heroic style. The crowd was already in uproar.


    As soon as he stepped out the room was closed but the sound of screaming of the Serpent and its head hitting the room was still audible.


    *BOOM*


    The serpent broke the room and looked at Damark with a evil intent.