Shambala Sect

"You mean the first Touchless Martial Arts?" Lirzod"s vein on the neck throbbed.

"Hmm, but it"s a beta version of it," the old man gripped the staff a little tighter than usual.

Lirzod shook his head in amazement. Touchless Arts were some of the hardest arts to learn even for Martials. "As expected, G.o.drick"s a beast." There was a rise in his vocal pitch.

The old man"s grip on the staff eased down and he faintly smiled as he glanced towards Lirzod. "With the use of it, Yizzy easily impressed many kings of the world. He was able to stop arrows in midair, put people to sleep, and defeat people without even touching them."

Lirzod"s posture stiffened as heard the old man"s words. He subconsciously crossed his arms across his chest.

"He just traveled to every kingdom and demonstrated his power," the old man lifted one of his arms and gestured in many ways which made it seem like he spoke with his arm, "And in his journey, he became evidently stronger. It took him many years but he managed to combine half of the major kingdoms of the world without a woman getting defiled or a child getting killed."

"What about those isolated kingdoms?" Lirzod asked in an uncertain tone.

"Putting aside the isolated kingdoms, of course," the old man stated in a calm manner. "All that was left were the kingdoms that weren"t his allies in the first World War. Given his current power, they may not act against him in public, but they would definitely look for a way to poison him. Yizzy didn"t want to take the risk. If even one woman or a child dies because of him, his deal with G.o.drick would be nullified. More than anything, he didn"t want that to happen. So he chose to visit the isolated kingdoms.

"By isolated, you mean..." Lirzod gazed with focus.

The old man paused for long before replying, "The Beyonder Kingdoms."

Lirzod had a gut feeling it was them before the old man even replied, but it still took his breath away. It was written in the books that to step foot in one of the Beyonder Kingdoms, one must go beyond oneself. Even to this day, these kingdoms were shrouded in mystery. Too many deaths surrounded these places.

The old man tightened his fist and loosened it. "Yizzy managed to reach one of the Beyonder kingdoms, and nothing but a surprise awaited him. He understood why G.o.drick suggested him to look in their direction."

"Wait..." Lirzod"s voice trembled as he stepped back one, his arms frozen in mid-flight and gaze fixed at the old man. "Was that a land filled with beautiful women?" His heart raced like that of a child"s and began to fill itself with never-before-felt hope. "I knew it!"

The old man emphatically said, "No."

"What?" Lirzod"s body shrank as his shoulders flailed, and it seemed like a significant amount of energy escaped out of his body. "It"s not the kingdom of heaven then."

The old man tapped his foot in midair and a gust of wind that generated around his foot blew in every direction and made Lirzod lose balance. His entire hair curled back and his teeth exposed as his lips contorted in weird ways. A couple of his shirt b.u.t.tons were undone and the lower part of his shirt fluttered like a flag would against the wind. With eyes that were almost closed, Lirzod stared at the old man who coldly said, "Do you want to listen or not?" He lifted the staff, "If not, I"ll send you to the kingdom of h.e.l.l right way."

"Gye"ll!" I will! Lirzod couldn"t even see much less speak properly with all the wind lashing at his face.

The wind died down in a gradual fashion, taking only a second. As silence spread across, Lirzod heaved a sigh and forced out a smile.

The old man turned his attention away from Lirzod, into the distance, and spoke in a slight gripping tone. "The Beyonder Kingdom Yizzy entered was filled with strange energy which at first suffocated him, but eventually it made him feel good, feel stronger. It wasn"t just the air that perplexed him; everything his eyes saw, ears heard, and nose smelled felt freakish. There were floating landma.s.ses, trees that grew upside down, rivers that snaked through the skies, fruits that radiated both like the sun and the moon, waterfalls that slid and slipped down the edges of the floating landma.s.ses, architecture that was purely made of natural elements, hills of complex shapes, giant-size statues bounded by chains, creatures larger than humans — horses with single horns, cats whiter than snow itself and just as whiter forests, Everything his eyes laid on was bigger, stronger and bizarre than he had ever seen or heard of before. What he saw there forced him to come to a realization that everything he had heard about the Beyonder Kingdoms till that moment was fict.i.tious.

"As he explored the region, looking to find people, the energy of the atmosphere around him grew more and more unstable. His desire to meet his mother was so strong that the air in front of him tore, opening up a portal, and charcoal-black fire spewed out from the other side followed by the screams and howls of agony, anger, and desperation.

"Maybe out of intrigue, he raised his arm towards it and got sucked inside. The moment he stepped foot on the other side, he saw with his own eyes, the scariest setting he could ever imagine. Countless souls were being tortured in uncountable ways and indiscernible fashions, by the guards who seemed like humanoid beasts with horns. He discerned the ident.i.ty of the place he entered.

"Thousands of sinners were forced to consume different colors of fire while thousands more got beat down by piercing nails made out of ice and snow. Some souls fought against each other, while some tried to hide in the buildings of desolate streets. Those who hid were being pulled out by the guards. Those who were being tortured and shouted "I give up!" were devoured by the reptiles and vipers that made their entrance out of nowhere by slithering through the never-ending ma.s.ses. A glimpse was enough for Yizzy to a.s.sume that those who got consumed, had ceased to exist."

"What, what do you mean by ceasing to exist?" Cold sweat dripped down from various parts of Lirzod"s body.

The old man"s lips formed a brown line for a moment before he spoke, "Everybody that entered h.e.l.l was given three choices: Repent through a preset birth, or rebirth after retribution, or eternal death."

"If the creatures in that place devour a soul, then that"s..." Lirzod got rooted at the spot.

"You get everything of yours imbibed," The old man said, blowing out a noisy breath. "Your memories, your personality, your strength, everything that"s unique regarding you will become part of those creatures, which also is considered as you ceasing to exist forever."

Lirzod"s breath turned heavier. "So, those who were getting tortured chose the second option, rebirth after retribution? Why most chose that one? If they give up in the middle of it, weren"t they absorbed entirely? The first option sounded a lot safer."

The old man smiled. "If your sins are of lightweight, then it may be the right choice. Otherwise, a repenting life can be the hardest life to lead. You might feel like the entire world is acting against you. No matter what you do, you cannot escape your fate in that life. You might not be able to kill yourself even if that"s what you desire. To the unaware, repenting lives are labyrinthine."

Lirzod"s heart began to beat heavily, as he clenched his fist and stared fixedly at the old man. "Then... If a good person dies at a young age, does that mean they have repented all their sins of the past life?"

"That may be the case, or that may not be as well. As far as I know, none can tell apart a life from a repenting one to one that"s not."

"Afterward, they would be reborn with a free life, right?" Lirzod"s speech quickened a bit.

"Can"t be sure of that either. It"s decided at the Gates of Order whether a soul is eligible for a self-directing rebirth, or for an obscure reincarnation or for a superficial resurrection or for a trip to h.e.l.l or heaven."

"Where are those gates situated at?" Lirzod"s head tilted back and gaze looked up at the old man as he asked in an eager tone, raising his clenched-fists to his chest.

The old man leaned forward a bit and said in a light tone, "n.o.body knows where the gates exist."

Lirzod stayed silent, still clenching his fist.

The old man somewhat parted his lips. "Something wrong?"

Lirzod shook his head and voiced denial, as he relaxed his hands.

The old man stroked his beard for a few moments while Lirzod stared away into the distance with teary eyes.

In time, Lirzod turned to the old man, "What happened afterward?"

"The opening of the portal and the arrival of Yizzy alerted many souls. They all tried to escape out of the punishments they were obligated to experience. It was then Yizzy realized that he was in the Endless Plains... In the h.e.l.l itself."

Lirzod"s shoulders tightened and his eyes appeared damped.

The old man continued, "There was no end to the sight his eyes had witnessed. Every direction offered him a similar picture — devoid of kindness — the most grotesque of all he had ever seen. The heart-wrenching calls of people shook his body and his very soul. Even children were present among the ones being punished as if they were all being made an example in front of his eyes.

"Many souls tried to escape out of that place through the portal, but Yizzy stepped forward and distanced himself from the portal. His eyes kept searching for someone, without even blinking. Maybe he was subconsciously afraid that he"d miss her if he blinked. But the number of souls around him was just too high for him to catch the sight of his mother. So he kept himself close to the portal and watched every soul that tried to escape. Many souls tried to enter his body, but some strange energy that gathered around his body kept him out of harm.

"The beast guards tried to get things under control, but it wasn"t easy for them to control the innumerable souls. After minutes of wait, when tens of thousands of souls had already poured themselves out of that place into the human world, Yizzy finally saw someone that resembled his mother."

Arms raised high and spread out in the air, grabbed by the mouths of beast statues, a black-haired woman who seemed to be in her thirties sweated blood as a pointy whip cut through her dress and the skin under it and exposed the flesh on her back. She bit her lips so hard that it bled, but she didn"t make a single noise with her mouth. The whippings grew in number and reached a hundred, exposing her bones, but she didn"t make a sound.

The guard put the whip aside and the statues let go of her. She fell straight into the large bowl filled with bubbling blood-red liquid. The pepper-mixed liquid entered her wounds and, she who didn"t make a sound until then howled in pain, and she tried to swim out of the bowl. She reached to the edge of it, but the guard pushed her away to the center of it using a wave of his arm. As the liquid in the bowl got vaporized, a fresh liquid was added by the guard. Even though there was a lot of ruckus going on around that guard, he only focused on his subject.

She writhed in pain, screamed as she rolled up and down like a dying fish would on the ground. "Someone, save me! Someone help me! I can"t bear this anymore." Her howls were intense, but they were just one among the many that were experiencing a similar fate. After some time, she managed to swim out of the bowl and poured the buckets of cold wair specifically arranged for her.

Though the burning sensation had died down a bit, her skin began to itch like it never did. She scratched her skin — what"s left of it — so hard, her skin got peeled off, but the itching didn"t stop. She rolled on the dirty ground and rubbed her body to it, but nothing changed. More scratching and more rubbing, but nothing changed. Her hands got gripped again by the mouths of the beasts which pulled her up into the air. The guard got hold of the whip and resumed his treatment, all over again.

n.o.body in h.e.l.l showed love, not even a speck of it. Be it the guards or the creatures, everybody was downright cruel. Their mission was to deal with the d.a.m.ned in the d.a.m.nedest ways possible. There was a saying that what"s priceless in the whole of h.e.l.l was one act of kindness.

The old man resumed his speech, "Seeing his mother being subjected to not only physical misery but mental misery as well, Yizzy"s eyes were pleased."