Author’s Note– I am sorry it took so long to update the next chapter. I have no excuses. I was busy at first but then I was just being lazy and procrastinating writing this chapter, the reasons for which evade me. So as the Holi-day was a holiday (Pun intended. I am doing a lot of word puns these days but unlike my family, you guys cannot shut me up…haha…), I sat down and wrote this super long chapter for you guys. Happy reading….. and also Happy Holi/Dhuleti/ or whatever else you call it at your place. Hope you had a safe and fun filled festival.
Disclaimer- I do not own Nagin 5 and would not particularly care to… but I suspect you knew that (Refer Chapter 1 for full disclaimer.)
Also being posted on Wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com/story/260113386 ) If you find it anywhere else than please report as my work is being copied.
Is anybody reading this on Tellyupdates? or I will completely shift to Wattpad. Posting it at only one place is easier.
Beta reading by Shesha485.
Previously- Veer and Bani fall in Markaat’s trap.
(Link for Chapter 6- https://www.tellyupdates.com/beyond-great-darkness-chapter-6/ )
Beyond Great Darkness
Chapter 7 – Escape
It had been a few hours since Veer and Bani were trapped in the net. They were recovering from their earlier fight and Bani from the burst of power she had used earlier trying to escape.
Even though the net was sucking their powers, their cores were replenishing at a faster rate. So they had the energy, for now. Soon the net’s absorbing would be much faster than their recovery and they would be completely drained of their powers and then their life force.
Veer- “We’ll have to get out of here soon. I don’t know for how much longer we’ll be able to sustain this.”
Bani- “I know. I think I have an idea.”
“What? What is it?”
“We will have to throw a blast of power at the net that is higher than its absorbing capacity. The excess power would probably work against it and hopefully in our favour. We just have to find that breaking point.”
“Wow….that…..that’s a great idea….”
“I know, thanks!”
Veer- “Now can you explain it to me in normal human language. I think you started speaking in some weird language.”
Bani with an annoyed expression, “Very funny Veeranshu. Was I supposed to laugh?? Anyway listen, (as if he had any other option?)
I will explain it to you with an example. Take any electronic device. There is some amount of electric current it requires to work. But if you keep on giving it extra current than necessary, than at some point it will no longer be able to handle that extra current and blast.
Or even in more simple terms, if we add water to a bucket then after the bucket is full, if you keep adding water it will overflow.
Similarly, this net will have a breaking point. We just have to give it so much power that it will not be able to handle the extra power and blast off.”
Veer- “Oh….ohk….okay….Woah…..”
Bani just smirks, “Cat caught your tongue, Veeranshu?? Told you knowledge is power.” (Referring to their earlier conversation)
Veer- “Okay madam, I accept. You win this round. Never thought you would use electricity example for explanation and this idea looks logical enough, but are you sure? Because you already tried it in the beginning and got drained after that.”
Bani- “Yes but I was just testing it do I didn’t use my full power and I have recovered from that drain. If we both do it together than we may be able to overpower the net.”
Veer- “But you know how big risk we are taking with this? If we use all our powers but that is not enough to overpower this net then we will have given this net an extreme power boost at the same time we drain all our own powers and then it will be a death sentence.”
Bani- “I know that. But I think we will have to take that risk otherwise this net will already drain us. Unless you have any better ideas?”
Veer shakes his head in a negative.
“Thought so. And we cannot wait for long. I am already starting to feel the drain.” She extends a hand towards Veer, “We can do this?”
He takes her extended hand in his, “We can do this.”
Singhania Mansion
Balvant- “Has anyone seen Veer.”
Meera- “No Balvant uncle. And Bani is also missing. I think they are together only as the left the house together.”
Balvant- “Tapish, call them.”
Tapish- “Already tried dad. Both their phones are not reachable.”
Ponky- “Veer bhai must have gone off somewhere. What’s the big deal?”
Pavan- “Yes bhaiya, he used to leave house like that earlier also for some impromptu trip, party or something.”
Balvant- “Yes but that has not happened since he got married. And earlier also he used to atleast inform us if we was going for long.”
Pavan comes and keeps a hand on his shoulder, “Bhaiya you worry too much. Veer can take care of himself. And don’t forget Bani is also with him.”
Balvant- “With the situations he gets himself into, who can blame me for worrying? But we will wait a few more hours for him to return before we do anything.
Tilisimi Cave
“We can do this?”
“We can do this.”
Veer and Bani join both their hands with the each other. Both close their eyes and focus on their breathing. Slowly they enter into a meditative trance. Still in the meditative state, they look into their minds and souls, finding a soft golden light coming from somewhere. They go deeper and deeper inside; following their respective golden lights which are growing brighter the further they go. And then they finally found what they were looking for!
Veer finally reaches the center from where the light was coming. It was so bright that he had to shield his eyes for a moment. Slowly he opened his eyes to see the golden light in the shape of an eagle. Not just any random eagle but his own eagle form. There, he had found his magical core.
He slowly reaches to touch his core, it was softly pulsating. It was hot but not a burning kind of hot but that of comfortable and loving kind of warm. He could feel his full power within his reach. The wings of his eagle were wrapped around itself in a protective gesture probably sensing that his soul and body was in trouble.
He could see two strings which were connected to his core, moving out from there. One string was a light golden one and he could feel it was connected to the person next to him, Ahh Bani, his wife and his mate. Eagles mated for life and this string connection was the proof that they were irrevocably bound together, atleast for this life. The string would grow stronger and brighter as their relationship grew.
He wondered if Bani would also be able to see this in her mind. And did snakes also mate for life? He would have to ask her later. For now, he moved towards the other string. It was an angry, dark red string. It connected his magical core with the net. Oh so this is how it is draining our powers. Like electricity passes through a wire, similarly his power were passing via this string to the net.
Bani also reached her magical core in her meditative state. Hers was obviously in the form of a snake. The snake was coiled tightly around itself and ready to strike. She also approached her core. But instead of two, three strings were connected to it.
The first strand was of course connected to Veeranshu. The second one was a very thin barely noticeable string of a mild golden colour which was slowly turning into black. She might have even missed it if she hadn’t been looking so carefully. It looked like the bond had not found the other partner or it had been broken. Who could it be with, she wondered. Oh of course. How silly of her to not recognize it. It is or rather it had been connected to Jai. Her destined mate since eternity and for eternity. But destiny had different plans in this life and so that bond broke and new one with Veeranshu formed.
She moved on towards the third dark red strand which was connected to the net. She used her powers and tried to cut of that strand’s connection to her core. Immediately the string started becoming thinner and she will the drain on her core reduce. Wow this is it. Could it really be that simple?
No of course not. As soon as the drain on her core reduces, the balance energy immediately started draining from Veeranshu. Bani immediately backed off. If supply was cut from one person, the magic of the net balanced it by a very fast drain from the remaining person.
This would not do. By the time one person manages to completely cut of the strand from their own magical core, the other would be completely drained and dead.
Now in any other world, in some alternate dimension, the Aadi Nagin would have done that right away to escape from this blasted net and kill her arch nemesis the cheel prince in the process, but in this world he was her husband and she loved that git too much to let him die this way. Maybe they would have to stick to their original plan only.
While still keeping her eyes closed, she gave a light squeeze to Veeranshu’s hand which she was still holding, signaling him to start the process.
Together both of them started pushing their magic in the net through the red strand that was connected to their cores from where the drain was happening. The strands started getting thicker and brighter as more and more power was put into them. When drain on one person became too much, the other would push some more power and divert the drain to oneself and the first person would again add more power when the drain became too much for the latter. The cycle continued for some time. It was a deadly dance of balance.
Panic began when the net showed no signs of stopping. It was draining power like vampires sucked blood, getting satisfied only when the body is completely drained of blood, similarly net was draining their powers non-stop.
Their energy had dropped down to dangerously low levels. They could feel exhaustions reeking through their bodies. But there was no way to stop now. They might have started this thinking that sending both their power would be enough to overpower the net but now they didn’t have enough energy to stop it.
Maybe Veeranshu was right and their combined powers also would not be enough to overpower the net. Maybe this is how they were supposed to die. But atleast they were together and would pass on to afterlife hand in hand. Oh how she wished to open her eyes at look at her Veeranshu one last time. He would be the last thing she saw before she died, preserving his image in her eyes for eternity. But she didn’t even have that much strength to open her eyes. And not to mention the connection with her core will break if she opened her eyes. Having no other choice, she wished this would get over faster. Death couldn’t arrive soon enough.
Author’s Note– I just love the fantasy genre. Again I could experiment with something new for this chapter as this is a fantasy world. This must feel similar to a written version of the film ‘Inception’ to some and I am sure you have lots of questions, so shoot them. I’ll answer ASAP.
The whole idea behind this was playing around with the concept of meditation. It is said that when you meditation deep enough then you can see your soul or something like that (don’t know exactly how that works as I don’t practice meditation) but I have expanded on that idea.
Vani achieves a higher form of meditation where they are able to see their souls/ magical cores and see the connection with each other and they push power through the red string to short-circuit the net, to put it in simpler terms. I have added an illustration at the end of the chapter for a better understanding. (I know I have done a terrible job editing it, others are welcomed to try better.)
Also all the above is happening in their heads only, there is no physical thread connecting them as such. But to quote Albus Dumbledore, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?
Author’s Note 2 – Am I a terrible, terrible person to leave it here? Yes, I am. But don’t worry I have already started writing the next chapter and it will be up soon.
Author’s Note 3 – With this chapter this story crosses 10K words (Only the story, no A/N or songs included.) and I thank you all for showing so much love and support to Beyond Great Darkness!