Ashborn Primordial

Chapter 293: The Buried Secrets of Praya Parul

The pit disappeared around Vir, darkness enveloping him as he fell.

Vir was no stranger to darkness. That wasnt what bothered him. It was the torrent of prana assaulting him that consumed his attention.

This wasnt Ashen Realm prana, or even Mahdi Outskirts prana. It was prana so thick, so dense, that Vir struggled under pressure he hadnt felt in a very long time. As he fell, he felt the prana pushing past the last vestiges of Prana Armor, worming its way into his body. Into his blood. Stretching and expanding it.

Vir might have taken a moment to appreciate the somewhat discomforting-yet-satisfying pain were he not falling into an abyss.

The ground rushed up at a furious pace. Just moments ago, Vir would have worriedwithout prana, he was barely stronger than a normal demon.

After draining the Ash Beast and consuming the prana that rushed hungrily into his body, his worries had subsided.

Using Light Step, Vir touched softly onto the rocky ground. Looking up, he could see the storm clouds far in the distancethe ever-present lightning flashing brightly against the bleak backdrop.

The perfectly cylindrical tunnel had clearly been dug by handsbut by whose, Vir couldnt say. Nor had Vir heard of any rumors of a powerful font of prana lying under the Chitran capital city.

Which either meant it was new, or itd been triggered by something after the Chitrans left. At least it explained how the beasts there were so powerful.

Good thing I didnt try to outlast its prana reserves With this amount, hed have died of old age before that beastwhich Vir tentatively dubbed The Prana Gorgersuccumbed.

Prana Vision was nearly worthless due to the overwhelming abundance of Ash Prana, so Vir was forced to rely on his eyes and groping around to feel his way around the pitch blackness.

While Leaping out was certainly an option, Vir felt compelled to explore what lay at the source of this mystery. If nothing else, the environment made for ideal training conditions. Itd been so long since Vir had encountered a truly prana-dense environment that he was beginning to fear his prana capacity would never expand again.

Even if only for a few hours, Vir wished to spend as much time soaking the prana as possible. Perhaps, after hed sent back the weapons and armor that were now ripe for the taking, hed return here and spend a few days meditating.

Virs eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, allowing him to spot a darker patch of wallslightly darker than the rest. It was there that the Ash prana density was greatest, so Vir slowly made his way toward it.

What Id give for a Magic Lamp orb right now

If the hole hed fallen through was dark, the tunnel that led to it was pitch black. Not a single mote of light penetrated these depths, forcing Vir to place a hand on a wall to guide him. His only worry was that this wasnt simply a tunnel, but rather an underground network of tunnels like the ones under Daha. If so, he could easily get lost in here.

His worries were put to rest when his fingers brushed up against a cold stone wall.

The end of the passage.

Had Vir only his nonexistent sight to rely on, hed have turned back. Except, even compromised as it was, Prana Vision painted a very different picture. The surging torrent of prana that blinded him originated from here. Behind the wall.

Which made Vir think that maybe this wasnt a wall at all, but a door.

So Vir sunk into the shadows, fully intending to emerge on the other side.

Here, in this place of total darkness, he ought to have had his pick of exits. In fact, he often ran into the opposite problemthere were usually so many exits that it made choosing difficult.

Indeed, there were plenty of exists, but they all lay behind him. Not a single one existed past the door.

Was I wrong? Is there nothing beyond here? Vir wondered, surfacing in front of the door again.

Using both hands, he felt around for anything that might resemble a doorknob.

He found no knob, but he did find a bump along the door. His fingers traced the bump, and he soon realized it was part of a design, flowing and curving.

Thinking it fruitless, Vir was about to stop, but something prevented him. His fingers continued tracing the design until they came to a sharp point.

Heartbeat quickening, Vir traced a new line originating from there. A straight line that went diagonally down to another point. From there, it turned right, before a third line finally connected back to the original.

A triangle. An upside down equilateral triangle.

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Vir felt for the other lines and found them to be circles. Three circles that intersected with the triangle.

He retraced the designthe insigniaseveral times to be sure.

There was no doubt. The lines traced a symbol hed seen his entire life.

The symbol of the Akh Nara.

Without hesitation, Vir surged Ash prana from his fingers into the symbol. As the only being in all the realms capable of doing so, he was certain this was the key.

He became less certain when, after a full minute, the symbol continued to suck his prana, forcing him to cycle Prana Current to draw in more from the surroundings.

Virs body became a conduit, cycling greater and greater amounts of prana.

He could scarcely remember a time when hed last done this. It was dangerous. It stretched his body well past its capacity. It was intoxicating.

So much raw, unbridled power flowed through his body. Enough to match the very best mejai in the Human Realm. And it was all his.

Virs thoughts grew muddy as the surge overwhelmed him.

He caught himself just in time. The calmness of the Godshollow flooded him as he opened his Foundation Chakra, blowing away the fog that had clouded his mind.

In that moment of clarity, Vir understood that this door needed not just prana, but mastery over Chakra as well. For a split-second, he worried he hadnt unlocked the right chakras. That the door would not admit him passage.

Then the torrent of prana suddenly ceased, and Virs world went dark.

Vir didnt black out. Not quite. Hed knowhe had plenty of experience in that area. No, Vir maintained his consciousness, even as his body was transported past the door to the other side.

He was alivehe could feel the beating of his heart and the air of his breathjust that Virs mind was elsewhere. Taken to another place. Another time.

In front of him, a brightly lit room materialized. A laboratory that Vir was intimately familiar with.

Mahdi. Janaks lab.

In the distance, a person in a white coat stood hunched over, though it was somewhat difficult to make out. Parts of the room were foggyall detail lost. Items placed on the many cluttered tables sometimes disappeared, only to reappear moments later.

Vir stood and approached the demon. He too, seemed to flicker. Sometimes freezing in place before suddenly appearing a few paces away. It wasnt the same as when someone used a movement art. No, this looked corrupted. As if whatever memory Vir was experiencing had faded through the ages.

Even with the anomalies, Vir was half-certain of the mans identity, even before he turned around. The head of shiny black hair and the earring in one ear were good hints, as was the locale.

When Janak turned, it was not the proud, bronze-skinned man whod beamed in front of his daughter.

A single glance was all Vir needed to know that this Janak was dead. Not physically, but mentally. Bags lined his eyes, and his skin had gone pale. Wrinkles even shone on his foreheadsomething Vir knew the Imperium had solved ages before their fall.

Janak had the look of a man who hadnt slept in months. Whose reason for existence had been robbed. A soulless, lifeless husk of the person he once was, and it wasnt hard to guess why.

This is a vision from after the fall. So Janak survived?

Either that, or Vir was looking at his replica. The one whod contacted Vir in Valaka Amara in the caverns under Daha.

A million questions went through Virs mind, but Janak interrupted them. In a delirious rage, the demon clutched his head and spun, sweeping the contents off a table and sending them clattering on the ground.

Vir recoiled, despite having never been there. His mind struggled to reconcile the man before him with the wise god whod spoken to him in Valaka Amara.

The distraught Janak didnt seem to notice the clutter hed caused. His eyes were focused with singular intent on a piece of paper on the table.

Curious, Vir edged closer to the table.

Its a map?

Draped across the table was a piece of Well, not quite paper, but its Imperium equivalent. Glowing lines rose from the map, giving it depth normally impossible.

Along it, borders were drawn. Strange borders that Vir didnt recognize.

He did, however, recognize the beam of red light at its very center that shone up, nearly reaching the ceiling of the tall room.

Mahdi. In various locations around the continent were dozens of other dimmer red beams. Red, Vir realized, for destroyed.

It was a map of the realm. The one realm from before the fall. But the state of the cities showed this was clearly a map of after.

He wouldnt have had the ability to chart out the new realms. Hes using old information.

It made Vir question when exactly this scene took place, and what Janak was hoping to achieve here.

Vir was soon able to place terrain features in the Human Realm. To the west lay Jatan Forest near Sonam. The Godshollow. The North and South Legion mountains that divided Rani from the Pagan Order.

To the east, Vir recognized the terrain that corresponded to the Demon Realm.

And in the middle, where Mahdi sat That must be the Ashen Realm!

It was, surprisingly, far smaller than Vir had thought it would be. Just a mere sliver in the shape of a vertical eye, with Mahdi at its very center. At its greatest width, it couldnt have spanned more than half that of the Human Realm.

Yet Vir had spent years there, traveling. Hed known the Ashen Realm was broken in some fundamental way, but seeing the full map like this truly put into perspective its true extent.

Janak played his fingers over a tablet nearby, and several blue beams popped up around the map.

Vir leaned over the table, taking a closer look. They were spread out across the world. Some in the Human Realm. Some in the Demon Realm, and some even in what was now the Ash.

Hang on a minute

Vir found the Gargan Sea and traced west to the mountains that met with the Ash Boundary. From there, he went north

No way!

One of the blue beams corresponded to Praya Parul. Specifically, to the chamber beneath Praya Parul.

Which means the other ones

Vir willed his body to move. While the connection was tenuous at best, it did exist. Slowly, agonizingly, Vir moved his arm to his belt pocket, and retrieved the piece of parchment hed appropriated from a supply Ashva, along with a charcoal pencil.

The action was akin to moving his arm while it was asleep. He couldnt feel it at all, which made the involved task of transcribing a map an incredibly arduous affair.

Vir soon gave up on the details, opting instead to mark the general locations of each of the blue beams, along with a major landmark nearby.

By the time he was done, Vir could feel his body heaving with exertion.

While Vir was busy transcribing the map, Janak moved busily around the table. Almost frantically. A sound in the distance caused both of them to stare. Vir knew the sound well. It was the clawing and scratching of Ash Beasts out for blood.

Janak returned his attention to the table and touched his tablet. The red beams winked out of existence all at once. The blue beams, however, dimmed and disappeared one by one.

By the time the last lightthe light of Praya Paruls chamberfaded, Janak had already gathered his things, stuffing them unceremoniously into a rucksack, and fled to a door on the other side of the room. Rather than afraid, Janak looked worried. Anxious. His eyes rested upon the table at the center of the room for a long moment, before he uttered a garbled command Vir couldnt hear.

The lights turned red. The tables and work stations all began to descend, retracting into the ground. Within moments, no trace of Janaks work remained. Including the table map.

Janak turned and left through the far door. Right as the world went black.