Before Rudra could think anything else, he found two huge broken wooden pillars covered in fire, leaning down on the path blocking his way. As soon as Rudra looked at those pillars, he became sure that those two were the pillars used to for the entrance gate to his clan compound.
But the problem was that he couldn't think of any other way, all the other paths to get around them was blocked as well. The only way Rudra spotted was to crawl through the gap between those burning wooden pillars.
He swept his gaze around in haste and found a shield lying on the ground, half hurried by the soil. He knelt down as he grabbed the edge of that shield and pulled it out of the ground. As soon as he pulled the shield out, he saw the emblem of his clan on it.
Rudra snatched up the shield and sprinted towards the burning wooden pillars. Dropping to his knees, he skidded beneath them, raising the shield above his head for protection. The shield crashed into the flaming wooden beams, splintering then apart, clearing his path and protecting him from searing fire.
As soon as Rudra reached the other side, the scene that la6 before his eyes was completely heartbreaking for him. He stood frozen, his eyes burning with a mix of disbelief and sorrow as he gazed upon the wreckage of what was once his clan's mansion.
The ground beneath him seemed to tremble with the echoes of destruction, the once grand structure now reduced to nothing but dust and jagged remnants of its bygone glory. His breath was caught up in his chest as the sight of shattered pillars and torn banners, bearing the symbol of his clan's legacy, filled him with an overwhelming sense of loss.
His mind was flooded by the memories of laughter and celebration, with the warm embrace of his family, the teaching of the elders, all appeared as distant echoes in the vast emptiness that lay before him. The stones beneath his feet were stained with the time he spent with his loved ones, now reduced to nothing more than ashes.
Every step forward felt heavier than the previous one, his heart aching with the realization that everything he had known, everything he had loved, was torn away in an instant. The walls that had sheltered him, that heard the sounds of his laughter and pain, now crumbled to dust. The sheer destruction hit a stark reminder of the brutality of this world.
Rudra clenched his fist, his raw emotions threatening to spill over, but at the end he couldn't do anything right now except of watching his tears mix with the dust at his feet. As this void feeling of unable to do anything surfaced within his heart, he was struck out of those memories, making him realize what he was here for.
Rudra wiped his tears as he looked around, his mind suddenly devoid of thoughts, not being able to understand what to do next. How could he find the hideout that was used by his clan to conceal some of the survivors amid this chaos, and pave their escape.
Rudra looked towards the mansion for any hints, but again he got nothing except of sorrow and grieve as he saw that nothing was left there except of ashes, he couldn't find any hints in ashes which were still surrounded by the dancing flames.
'If you were just here to guide me, Grandpa!' Rudra gritted his teeth. This was when something clicked in his mind, a partially blur vision drifted across his eyes.
***
Vihaan walked through the backyard of the clan mansion, holding the small hand of a young Rudra, who was just a child then. They stopped by the huge towering tree that stood watch over for generations. Vihaan glanced down at Rudra, whose lips curved into an innocent, bright smile the moment their eyes met.
Rudra stared at the massive tree, awestruck. "Can a tree really be this huge?" he whispered, his voice filled with wonder.
Vihaan chuckled softly at little Rudra's wide eyed wonder. "Yeah," he knelt down beside the little Rudra and said
Rudra's pupils expanded as he was shocked, "Really? How did it get so tall and huge?"
"It has grown for decades or even a century, standing here even longer than our oldest of elders. This tree is as old as our clan," Vihaan explained.
"So, is this tree an elder too?", Rudra asked.
Vihaan caressed little Rudra's head. "It is our ancestral tree…." Vihaan took a pause before he said. "Whenever the dark clouds of loom overhead, threatening our very own, you can cling to this ancestor. It will guide you towards the safest path in the harshest of times."
***
Those visions flew out of his eyes, pondering upon what Vihaan said, he haphazardly stood up and ran towards the clan backyard. As soon as he approached there, his heart was again filled with a grief of loss, as the ancestral tree was ruthlessly uprooted and ravaged by a huge chunk of debris that lay a few steps away from it.
Only a few of its roots were in the ground, clinging to protect what was left of the legacy it had guarded for generations. Rudra knelt beside the tree with heavy heart, his eyes were filled with tear as he looked at tree, and the memories of him playing near that tree and even sometimes talking to it surfaced.
However he was disrupted, as he felt a weak strained near his waist. He shifted his glance, only to see his rusty broken dagger that was shivering uncontrollably. Rudra glared at it for few moments before he pulled it out of his waist belt and held it firmly in his hands.
The quivered in his hands violently before, it leaped out of his grip, and flew towards the remaining roots of the ancestral tree. The rusty dagger, embedded itself deep into the ground, cutting one of the remaining roots of the tree.
CLANG
Rudra witnessed all this, followed by a sharp sound of collision from the spot where that rusty dagger hit. His mind was struck by the realization as he thought about it. The rusty dagger was passed on to him by Vihaan. The tree gave him the hint through its remaining roots, and it was further expressed to Rudra by that dagger.
With a renewed determination, Rudra went near those roots and began scraping out all the soil near the spot. Very soon he caught the glimpse of what his dagger had struck so hard, it was a cold and smooth stone that gleamed under the light.
As he pulled aside the last bits of soil, it revealed a round stone plate stuck to the ground, with the rusty dagger clinging to it. Rudra took his dagger as he looked at the plate and thought.
'Maybe, this stone contains magnetic properties. It must have attracted most of the tree's roots towards it with the help of various nutrients present in its surrounding, increasing the density of roots in this spot.
That is why, even after being ravaged so ruthlessly by that debris, a few of its roots survived. Therefore, this dagger was pulled towards it as well.', Rudra figured out all of it in just a few seconds.
He looked at the stone plate and grabbed it tightly with both of his hands. Rudra slowly and calmly tried to lift that stone, but to his surprise, the stone plate barely moved for even an inch, it sat firmly where it was, with an immovable weight.
Rudra used up all of his force, almost every muscle in his body tensed up, his hand nerves began bulging out, gritting his teeth, he pulled the stone plate with all of his might, but it seemed like the stone tablet had been glued to the ground, resisting its movement. After all of these tries, Rudra halted in midst as he remembered Aagam's advice to not to act out of impulse in such situations, be calm and make your way through.
'Could this stone's magnetic effect be a reason for it immovability?
'if that's the case…. Let's just blow the obstacle.', Rudra clenched his fist, his lips flickered as he recited the mantra.
Rudra felt a vortex of energy spinning at the base of his spine, his chakra released a tremendous amount of kundalini than ever before, which surged through his body, causing all of his muscles to strain and his nerves to bulge as his energy channels were under an overwhelming pressure.
Although this was new to him, he somehow directed most of that kundalini towards his fist. Such amount of kundalini surging through the energy channels in his fist with such density, put his bones under a lot of pressure.
Rudra raised his fist and banged it on the stone plate. As soon as his fist landed, all of the energy sprawled out of his hand, shattering the stone plate to time bits as it crumbled down into an empty hole like entrance.
Rudra's eyes widened as he looked at that entrance, marked by a circular iron frame. That frame was the very thing that had kept the stone tablet jammed due to its magnetic effects. Rudra's heart beat in a hurry, pumping blood within his body at an enormous speed.
This caused every bit of Rudra to be excited, but before he could enter through, his eyes spotted a small of fruit that lay on ground, untouched by the destruction around it. Rudra crawled towards it and picked it up. Grabbing it firmly in his hands, he looked at the uprooted ancestral tree. Considering it as a last blessings from his ancestor, he shoved it in his spatial sack bag.
Taking one last glimpse of the ruins of where he spent most of his time till now with his beloved ones, he then looked at the tree. Rudra whispered, his voice filled with gratitude as he leaped into that entrance.
''I thank you for your guidance, ancestor!''