Chapter 57 - Ending The Trail

"I did nothing. I was just reading scrolls with your king's permission. " Ishit said solemnly, eyeing the fierce warrior. "I don't think that's a crime." 

"You have harmed Princess Sia. Amartya, the librarian, is a witness to your crime. So come with us. His majesty will decide your punishment. " replied one of the two warriors as he advanced towards Ishit, who was hovering in the air. 

Ishit knew he couldn't talk his way out of the trouble if even the librarian thought that he had cursed the girl. 

Now there were only two paths left before him. Either he accompanied the guards, and thus handed over his fate in Nirvano's hands or he escaped the city. Of course, it would prove him guilty without a trial. If he got captured his fate would be again in  Nirvano's hands, however, this time he would be more furious than before. Ishit wished Bhadra could help him out. But he had said he would return in two weeks. So he was all alone now. With his splitting heart, and emotions in turmoil, It was hard for Ishit to think properly. Even articulating two or three simple sentences was hard for him. 

Only a person who had ever lost someone, most dear to him, could somewhat understand Ishit's pain, but only a little. 

Because what Ishit was feeling was beyond emotional and physical pain. 

It was the agony that Krishna 1felt when he left Vrindavan, never to return again. It was the loss that Rama 2felt when he didn't find Sita at their makeshift hut in the Panchavati forest. 

It was the rage that Shiva 1felt when Sati had burned herself in the yogic fire. 

Of course, Ishit had never felt the above-mentioned agony, loss, and rage in his 13-year long life, so there was no way he could name his emotional mess. The poor boy was trying hard to pull himself together, trying vainly to shake off the gloomy despair. 

All he wanted was to be alone, to cry his heart out, and to scream until the heaviness of his heart disappeared. 

Alas! 

A blazing sword came for him from behind.Ishit dodged aside reflexively, however, he was still late, and the blazing blade nibbed his right arm. The sharp pain shot in his arm. 

And the rage, he had been suppressing all the while,  flooded his fiery blood. He howled like an injured beast. His eyes glowed blue with a golden hue. And a trident materialized in his right hand subconsciously. The spirit Astra condensed with the blue spirit shone brightly, letting out a faint hum. Fine threads of lightning were crackling around its shaft. 

With a loud scream, Ishit pushed the trident towards the assaulter who would have pierced his heart a moment earlier. 

Kusha rooted to the spot. His face turned ashen white as he watched enraged Astra coming for him. The air around him stilled as if it got frightened too.

Ishit's trident, though condensed with his apprentice-level spirit, was not an ordinary spirit Astra. If someone would have looked into the parchment lying on the wooden table in Ishit's study chamber, they would have found a sketch of a trident named 'Orbit', with its uncanny properties written below.

The humming sound of the trident was a spell to cast an invisible shield around the opponent, making him rooted to the spot. 

"What are you doing?" Alarmed red-cloaked warriors shouted as they ran towards Kusha, throwing attacks at Ishit. Kusha was the son of Arch-druid Nanda. 

However, before they could reach ashen-faced Kusha, they felt the course of gravity change. Now the ceiling was the floor and the floor was the ceiling.  The boy flew upward so did the trident.

Though the city guards had never been to the battlefield, they had gotten rigorous training to win their apprenticeship.

So they soon realised the trickery of the seemingly simple attack. The gravity manipulation was not new to them. 

They destroyed the invisible domain, the gravity turned normal; However, this short delay gave enough time to Orbit. It pierced Kusha's chest, bringing out his heart-wrenching scream.

Ishit had no time to take a look at the howling apprentice.  Because the guards' attacks had sent him flying. He was still a late beginner. Though he had mastered all the basic paths, his spirit was inferior to an apprentice. 

So there was no way he could take on all these attacks. If the guards hadn't wanted to kill him, he would have turned into ashes. 

His shield shocked violently as cracks like a spiderweb spread all over it. Ishit crashed into the wall behind, tomes and scrolls fell down on him. His fiery blood trickled down his face. The impact had wounded his head.  Ishit hurridly condensed lightning bolts, ignoring his splitting head. and attacked the approaching warrior. The warrior sneered, as he flicked his hand and lightning dissolved into the air. 

Ishit face turned grim as he realised the power gap. However, it wouldn't change his fate if they got him.

So He again changed the course of gravity. Now the gate was the floor, and the stone wall behind was the sky. 

Everything happened in a breath of time.

Ishit threw himself towards the unguarded gate. The red warrior was ready for his sly trick. A crackling whip came behind Ishit. It caught his leg and threw him in the air. Ishit grimaced with the sharp pain; the assault had scorched his calf. He hurriedly threw his soul attack that once threw off Izidor. 

The attack didn't disappoint him, it rattled the warrior for a moment. That was enough for Ishit. 

Ishit swiftly cast a shield between him and the enraged warriors. He scurried out like a mouse chased by a fierce cat. 

The shield that he left behind had his new insights about the Astras. 

The warrior with a fiery whip didn't sense anything, he flew out to chase the escaping culprit. However, as soon as he stepped in the air. The wind tensed up and before he could make out anything, he was trapped into a strange net, seemingly made of the frozen air. 

The other warrior didn't help him, for they couldn't let the person escape whom the king wanted. 

Othe warrior summoned his golden bow, and a half-filled quiver materialised on his shoulder. He took a glowing arrow and shot at the fleeing boy. 

Arrow hummed as it chased its target. 

Ishit didn't have to look back to see the frightening arrow, for the ripples had told him what it was. It was the arrow shot by the Ashwina bow, a one-star divine Astra. 

There was no way he could take a divine Astra head-on. At least not without a divine shield. There was no way he could condense a divine shield with his weak spirit. 

As for dodging a divine Astra, it was also a foolish dream. Because the target of a divine Astra had only two choices---either he destroyed the Astra with a counter-attack or took it head-on. 

Neither of the two options was feasible for Ishit. As he didn't have any powerful divine Astra on him to destroy the arrow, nor did he have the strength to withstand its assault. 

While flying at his full speed, Ishit racked his brain where he should go, sweeping his spirit sense around, casting shield after shield behind him, and along with the cobbled stones using his telekinesis. The arrow penetrated all his shield as if it was made of paper. As of cobblestone, they turned to ashes. 

Suddenly, he sensed an attack out of thin air. He tried to dodge but the assaulter had caught him by surprise. It seemed he was lying in ambush. Horrified, Ishit cast a shield, as a War-hammer ( not a divine Astra or Ishit would have sensed its aura long before) came down, crashing on him. It had sheer brute force, without any magic or spirit. The assault sent Ishit flying like a rag ball. 

A giant man appeared in the air grinning foolishly, in his hand was the crude Warhammer. Surprisingly, there was no ripple around him. He seemed like a commoner with no magic and spirit in his blood. 

The force was so great that Ishit couldn't stabilize himself until his body smashed into the next house. Had his bone not been forged with Osric's tear, his rib cage would have caved in again. The stone wall collapsed, and it was a storehouse of flour mill. The earthen pot filled with flour got shattered. 

Ishit let out a moan as his body buried into the flour and broken pottery. 

His whole body was aching. Ishit could hear shouts of the city guards. Soon, they would be here. Ishit closed his eyes as he searched for the emblem on his chest. He had enough of this trial. He couldn't wait for Bhadra to come and save his neck. 

He cursed Bhadra for leaving him here alone. Ever since he had stepped on this cursed land, all he got was thrashing from different hands.  Everyone was ringing him like a shrine bell.

He could fight with an apprentice or a late apprentice, how he was supposed to battle with a fully trained druid. 

He dipped a drop on the half-opened eye and waited for getting teleported away, but nothing happened. The arrow had tracked him down again.

Ishit's heart sank as he hurriedly examined the black medallion. The blood had dyed the mysterious eye, giving it an evil look, and nothing else.

The arrow was just a few inches away, the guards had surrounded the rubble of the store-house 

Nether-Iron was supposed to have sentience. As soon as the thought struck his mind, Ishit poured his spiritual sense inside the eye. Simultaneously, he summoned his strongest attack devised using all his understanding of destructions laws, so far. Ishit had designed this attack in the library and named it --Martyudutam,(messenger of death) for it had his understandings about the death., 

Air quivered, as a tiny ball appeared in the air. The darkness and light were trying to devour each other. The darkness was Adi and the bluish light was Adya. The polar opposite forces were having a battle in the tiny ball. The pressure shattered the surrounding building. The arrow struck the tiny ball, causing an earth-shattering explosion. 

The surrounding building blasted apart into pieces, and the giant with the Warhammer and the two warriors sent flying into the air. 

However, the attack had sucked Ishit dry, buried in the rubble, he watched the arrow coming for him again. Its arrow had dimmed a lot. 

Ishit closed his eyes as he waited for the arrow to pierce his chest. How it didn't come. 

In the next moment, Ishit didn't know how, but the arrow bounced back as if hit by some invisible hand. To his surprise, the stairs that had brought him here once again appeared in the air. Ishit didn't waste any moment as he dragged his body.  And as soon as he stepped on the first worn-out step. Everything around him disappeared. 

What he didn't notice the eye carved on the medallion had blinked again.

Dear Reader 

I know this chapter is a little disappointing, but I couldn't do much it was how it happened. Ishit was so weak and couldn't fight back in this trial. But it didn't mean the trial was uncalled for, the reason will be disclosed soon. The thing that happened in this trial would go down in the history of Mazia. As for the strange encounter with princess Sia, it will amaze you in the end. Astras will be flashed out in the coming chapte