Chapter 4 When a Father Snaps

Rudranath still couldn't fully process. His fist clenched behind his back.

"What are you accusing my daughter of?"

Sekhar smiled.

"Of her sins, Mr. Bhattacharyay"

Rudranath's arms almost clenched Sekhar's collar before he controlled himself. Sekhar's designation made him hold back. His jaw tightened.

"Where is Aarohi?"

Sekhar turned back and started walking out of the ward.

"Follow me..."

Rudranath looked at Saanvi. His fingers brushed through her hair, slipping a whisper free from his lips.

"Don't worry. I will protect both of you no matter the cost."

Sekhar and Rudra came out of Ward 715. The door closed behind them, and Sekhar turned towards the left of the ward. Rudranath glanced to the right of the corridor. The stone room was just behind the white-tiled wall. A long breath escaped him, then he followed Sekhar down the corridor toward the elevator at the end.

When they stepped inside, the B2 button was already lit on the elevator panel. Sekhar pressed the button B1. The steel door slid shut as the elevator carried them upwards. Rudranath's breath was caught. He kept looking at Sekhar with a sidelong gaze. The young man seemed to have zero tension in his life. He was leaning over the back wall of the elevator, whistling, as if all this supernatural talk were a regular day-to-day occurrence for him.

The moment the steel doors slid open, Sekhar pushed off the wall with a smile.

"Let's go see your daughter..."

This floor—Basement 1—was a totally different scenario. There was neither any scent of medicine nor any wards. Instead, glass rooms lined both sides of the corridor, each holding people inside. Every single one of them was tightly strapped to chairs by white ribbons from head to toe. Sanskrit inscriptions ran along their straps, glowing in gold. Each of them sat in their rooms like a mummy.

It felt like he was walking through a museum of the dead. The whole floor was filled with eerie silence. Their own footsteps were the only sound shattering that silence as cell after cell moved past them. Rudranath swallowed.

"What is this floor...?"

Sekhar kept walking forward. Without glancing back, he threw the words out.

"A residence for anomalies."

Rudranath stopped before a glass cell. The girl inside it was completely still. He could barely understand she was a girl because her hair was visible atop the white cocoon of inscribed silk. His stomach twisted: Residence? How is this residence? How long are they here in that state? His voice was muffled.

"Is Aarohi here?"

Sekhar didn't respond at all. When he stopped, the glass cells were gone. A giant steel vault came into view, plunged inside the wall ahead. Sanskrit inscriptions ran along the framework and the wheel. Sekhar dialled a number on the panel beside the wheel and turned it twice clockwise. With a silent moan, the steel door swung outward.

They stepped inside the vault. At last, Sekhar turned back and looked at Rudranath. He was frozen like a statue. His face turned pale.

Aarohi was sitting in a transparent chair at the centre of the vault. Her arms and legs were stretched wide by four strands of white clothes from four corners of the vault. Her eyes were completely covered by the same kind of cloth. Sanskrit inscriptions were crawling across the clothes' surface like walking ants and sleeping through her skin. Her body leaned forward from the chair; her head remained lowered. Saliva was dripping from the corners of her open lips. The tiny frame of the six-year-old shuddered as the letters sank into her.

Rudranath couldn't hold back anymore. His veins bulged under his skin. Before he knew it, his left hand had already grabbed Sekhar by his shoulder. His right shoulder shot forward with a hook at Sekhar's face.

Sekhar's eyes widened for a moment before he spun on his toes and ducked in the nick of time. The punch hissed through the air above his head. Rudranath's words rang inside the vault.

"What are you doing to my daughter?"

Sekhar stepped back a little, gaining distance from Rudra.

"Sir, we are doing what is necessary to stop the apocalypse."

Rudra looked back at his little girl strapped to the chair. Her tiny fingers were still trembling beneath the inscriptions. His wife was motionless just a floor below. His child was being punished for a sin that even he, as an adult, couldn’t understand yet. And the man who may have put his baby girl in there stood before him, speaking utter nonsense. His eyes hardened as he lunged forward.

"She is only six! And that’s how you treat her?"

With a clean step, he closed in on Sekhar. His torso coiled back, pivoting on that step. Before Sekhar could blink, an uppercut came charging at his chin.

Thud!

It was too precise and fast for Sekhar. The fist kissed his chin as his body was hurled backward. He rolled twice on the floor before stopping. A thin layer of white energy radiated from Rudranath’s entire frame.

“Release my daughter, Sekhar, else I would have to forget you are a government investigator!”

Sekhar pushed the floor with his arms. His eyes remained locked with Rudra. He rolled up his sleeves and loosened his shoulders.

“Mr. Bhattacharyay, I understand your feelings as a father, but…”

His eyes flickered in an emerald flash. A green energy seeped out of his skin and drifted upward like strands of smoke.

“…If you want to aid a potential anomaly…”

He became a blur. Rudranath’s eyelids halted mid-blink. A sidekick landed on his chest, throwing him toward the vault’s door. As he flew backwards, Sekhar’s words rang in his ears.

“…You have to do it over my dead body.”

Klaang!

Rudranath’s back slammed against the steel door. The entire vault trembled on the impact. His jaw opened wide, coughing out blood. Pain lit up through his spine like lights on a Christmas tree as he slid down. Yet he forced himself up. Blood dripped from the corner of his lips.

The system screen flashed before his eyes. The robotic voice kept ringing in his head.

[User has confronted a soul essence user.]

[Activating skill lists…]

Rudranath looked at the interface. Four skills were labelled on it. He had no idea what they were. He had no idea how they worked. He had no idea what soul essence meant. Yet a smile appeared on his lips.

“If that’s your resolve, Sekhar…”

He could feel the white energy coursing through his veins and seeping out through his pores. Within a heartbeat, White energy covered his frame like coiling flames. Sparks of green and white collided in the vault’s air. He rolled his shoulders.

“I will show you the resolve of a father.”

Sekhar loosened his tie.

“I have already given you a last warning about violence. But if you really cherish death that much…”

His emerald eyes narrowed.

“…then bring it, Mr. Bhattacharyay.”