The hall turned silent. It felt like the burning torches were dimmed as the hall was shrouded in darkness now. The currently hot temperature was lowering at a very noticeable pace. Yamraj stood with a mace in his hand looking at the Agrasandhani with a solemn look as if deciding what to do with this anomaly.
"What does it say?" Sensing something wrong in the situation Rudra was cautious as he knew any wrong words from him could move Yamraj to take action. Meanwhile the bead inside Rudra's soul was now rotating at a high speed sending energy to Rudra's soul.
Yamraj waves his hand sending the Agrasandhani towards Rudra for him to look. Agrasandhani stops in front of Rudra, still floating in the air.
"I am not able to read anything, all the pages appear to be blank to me. Is there a special eye-related technique to decipher the text?"
Rudra asks Yamraj in a confused voice as if he had missed something basic in the whole situation. Yamraj observes Rudra for any misgiving but the mannerism of Rudra tells him that Rudra is really clueless about this.
"The pages are blank, there is no record of your life. It is as if you have never lived or existed."
Yamraj contemplates on this situation for a few minutes focusing in a meditative state, when sweat starts to accumulate on his forehead as he remembers something.
"What will happen now? Will I be judged?" Rudra asks curiously as all he had read in ancient texts and the Vedas was, after death you will be judged upon your Karma accumulated in your whole life.
"Usually, a soul is judged based on the karma accumulated by it in its life. Virtue will guide you to a fulfilling rebirth, sins will lead you to punishment in hell. But for you-." A dangerous glint came across Yamraj's eyes as he smashed his mace on Rudra's soul. "Erasing your existence is the option I am choosing."
Looking at the upcoming mace in his face Rudra uses the energy the wheel had sent to him and rolls to the side barely dodging the mace by hairs breadth.
"And I am to comply?." Rudra remained on his knees, the Pasha wrapped tightly around his arms and chest. He pulled against it.
Nothing happens.
The sacred rope tightened further, digging into his translucent form. Rudra lowered his head, for a moment, he remained completely still.
Then—
He slowly spread his arms apart, the Pasha trembled and Yamraj's eyes narrowed.
"Stop." Yamraj shouted at Rudra commanding him to stop his resistance.
Rudra didn't listen to him and continued, his arms continued to move outward, the rope stretched between them, resisting with the strength of something that had bound countless souls before him a faint golden glow appeared beneath Rudra's translucent skin.
Then another.
Tiny streams of golden light began crawling across his soul like cracks spreading through glass and Yamraj's expression changed.
"What...?"
The glow intensified and Rudra finally raised his head, the golden bead within his soul began to rotate.
Om.
A vibration unlike any sound filled Yamlok, the Pasha suddenly began to shake violently, golden light erupted from Rudra's body.
BOOM!
A blinding wave of light exploded outward, the Pasha snapped apart and fragments of the sacred rope scattered through the air before dissolving into nothingness and his arms fell freely to his sides.
For the first time since his death—
Rudra was free.
The golden radiance slowly faded Rudra stood there silently, surrounded by the remnants of the light. Across the hall, Yamraj stared at him.
The God of Death had seen countless souls, he had witnessed rebellion, rage, desperation and even souls that refused to accept death.
But never this.
Never had a mortal soul broken his Pasha. Yamraj's grip tightened around his mace.
"...What exactly are you?"
Yamraj looks at Rudra with a surprised look.
Feeling the anger surging in Yamraj's eyes Rudra starts running towards the exit of the hall. When suddenly four purple hooded figures block his path standing at the exit wielding swords and spears.
"Bring him to me." Yamraj orders the hooded figures. They were the Yamdoots, soldiers of death under the command of the god of death himself. Two Yamdoots carrying swords lunges towards Rudra, slashing furiously.
"There is no escape from death, mortal. The quicker you accept it, the easier it will get." Says one of the Yamdoot while slashing his sword towards Rudra. Yamdoots are the seasoned warriors who clads the energy of death itself. Yamdoots are souls who have wasted or misused their human lives and possess deep familiarity with Naraka (hell). Though they appear fierce and carry out stern duties, they operate strictly under the righteous orders of Yamraj and Chitragupta.
*Swish*
Rudra quickly dodges the upcoming blade as he shifts some of the energy from the wheel to his eyes which makes comprehending everything in his sight very slow as if the time around him had slowed down.
"What is this energy?" Rudra takes a sharp left turn observing the energy flowing within him. The energy was translucent with no particular color but a tinge of gold could be seen from time to time.
"This energy is very similar to the one I encountered in the ruins. Did the wheel do something to me after my death?" Rudra continues to run towards the wall looking into the energy more thoroughly.
"I don't feel any pain using this. Is this due to not being in my body?" As if planned from the start, Rudra coats his whole body in the same energy, feeling no sense of pain this time using the energy.
*Boom*
Rudra runs straight into the wall on the left with the images of souls being tortured. As his body smashes into the wall, they shatters with the release of the energy into the surroundings at the very last second before the collision.
*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*
The Yamdoot chasing Rudra flies backwards due to the blast and starts coughing up blood. Yamdoots lie on the ground as their body made up of souls starts getting transparent. "My lord!!" Yamdoot looks towards Yamraj and cries for help.
But Yamraj was looking somewhere else with shocked expressions on his face. As he did not get how Rudra did all of this in his presence. "Truly an anomaly. As for you, asking for help after failing a simple task of capturing a mortal soul. Hmph…"
*Boom* *Crack*
Yamraj looks at the Yamdoots in disappointment and stamps his foot on the ground with a wave of energy blasting the Yamdoot's souls in the radius into smithereens.
"Hmm, an interesting one, you have bought here this time, my lord."
Yamraj was looking at all the chaos made by a mere mortal's soul when an amused voice came from the entrance of the hall in the castle. A slender man with a smile came walking inside, he was clad in purple and white robes with a gold necklace adorned around his neck and a blackish purple quill hanging around his waist.
"He is different. You had read his Agrasandhani, I believe, Chitragupt." Yamraj addresses the slender man who was now playing with a flock of his hair.
"Yes, my lord, but what made you remove his existence?" Chitragupt asks curiously as he is originally a man with a child-like curiosity. He knew there are cases of souls gaining strength upon touching the higher planes but why did Yamraj be hell bent to kill him.
"Gaining strength is one thing, normally he would have turned into a Yamdoot if that was the only case. But a soul exists without any Karma. This is a whole different matter?" Yamraj replies.
"Why so?" Chitragupt asks.
"Because no matter what you did in your life in the mortal realm, even if you die young. You still incur karma from your past life. You are always under the watch. But him, he is the blank page. No one knows what has happened to him, or what will happen to him. You and I both have our own Karma, but he is an anomaly. Yamraj replies to Chitragupt, who was now in a very deep thought.
"What can a mere soul do, with or without Karma?" After thinking for a long time Chitragupt still found Yamraj's action out of ordinary.
"This had happened once before, and the result was the mortal realm getting nearly destroyed." A cold bead of sweat formed on Yamraj's forehead as if he had remembered something horrifying.
"Wh-"Chitragupt starts asking in a very curious tone when he gets interrupted by Yamraj who was now looking at him with a subtle hint of killing intent.
"Now is not the time, go and fetch that soul, NOW."
Yamraj orders Chitragupt as if hinting him to not complete the sentence he was going to ask and go after Rudra.
Rudra had escaped the clutches of death.
Or perhaps...
Death had simply decided to let him run.
To be continued…