"Who the hell was that??"
Aaryan turned around when he heard the panicked voice. Rishi burst through the door.
"He seemed to be invincible. I haven't even learned to sense energy yet, and even I felt like I was being burned to ashes just because of being in the same space as him."
Rishi slammed his fist on the table, shattering the table into pieces.
"You knew what would happen once I broke that crystal, didn't you?"
Aaryan took a deep breath and placed his book aside.
"Adyant, I and every one of us, we all conceal and hide our energy at all the moments to not get detected by him. He can sense us, but not enough to find us. But the moment you broke that crystal, the energy surged into the air and temporarily disabled. I assume he did not take more than a few seconds to appear, did he?"
Aaryan asked Rishi, his expression blank.
"No, he was right there, immediately. He was Agastya Verma, right?" Rishi asked.
Aaryan nodded "Agastya Verma, also known as The Anomaly. The last time his power level was measured, it was 1200. But it was measured 800 years ago, 800 years is a very long time to get stronger for anyone. I assume he has to be somewhere between 2000 and 2500 as of now."
Rishi's eyes widened, he took a few steps back "How the hell am I supposed to face someone like that? It seems he wanted to go after Aditya."
Aaryan nodded and continued "Aditya and Agastya have an ancient dispute that has escalated to the point where both would kill each other on sight. Aditya used to be the dominant one, though I doubt he'll ever hold his own now."
Rishi calmed himself down by taking a deep breath. When he felt cool enough, he demanded "Tell me about all of them! Aditya, Agastya, Sultan, Achyu-"
"YOU DO NOT SAY THAT NAME!"
Rishi flinched at Aaryan's outburst.
Aaryan calmed himself down and continued "Achyut Shivanam! That's his name. He was the founder of X-Graders, our organization. That's all you need to know. He's long dead now."
Rishi looked at Aaryan, Aaryan looked dead serious. Rishi understood this was not a topic for open discussion. He then looked at Aaryan and asked "Why did you want to kill Adyant?"
Aaryan pushed his hand into his jacket's pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and displayed it to Rishi. It had a photo inside it. The photo of a young man, almost the same age as Rishi. Rishi's eyes narrowed as he asked "Do I know him?"
Aaryan nodded and took a deep breath "My son! He was an acquaintance of yours. Adyant was the one who caused my son's death. Only if the bastard knew that innocent by was my son, but that doesn't matter. Adyant killed people without any consideration, so he got what he deserved."
Rishi took a deep breath, looked Aaryan straight in the eye and asked "Why didn't you summon Agastya yourself?"
Aaryan looked back at him and answered "Had I done that, I wouldn't have made out of there either. Agastya doesn't wait for you to express your thoughts about the past events. If you are X Graders, you die!"
"He did not kill me though!" Rishi responded "And I am an X Grader!" He shrugged his shoulders.
"I won't lie, I did not expect you to come back!" Aaryan asserted
"How does that make you any different from Adyant?" Rishi looked him dead in the eye and asked.
"Adyant killed for fun, I sacrificed for a noble cause. Anyway, that does not matter now. You held up your end of the bargain, so I'll hold mine!" Aaryan grabbed the hand of the drawer, the handle glowed for a second, indicating the magical lock was gone. He pulled it open and pulled out the vial. As he held it out to Rishi, he said "Drink it, you will slowly start having your memories back. Over the course of 24 hours, your entire life will come back to you!"
Rishi held the vial in his hand, his heart was beating like crazy. This moment was so difficult to believe in. He looked at Aaryan and asked "What about the people that knew me? Did they ever try to find me?"
Aaryan sighed and paused. Rishi's eyes narrowed. It was as if Aaryan was wondering if Rishi was ready to hear the entire truth or not. He finally spoke "Yours wasn't the only memory I altered. I erased you from them, specifically you. They currently live under imperfect memories, programmed not to question them."
It took a second, a second to grasp it all, a second to understand what it meant, a second to realize the reality.
"You son of a...." Rishi charged forward, his hands going straight for Aaryan's throat. Aaryan's eye started glowing, Rishi's throat hardened from inside, his breath got caught, his lungs froze. He tried to scream but couldn't as he fell to his knees.
Suddenly, the wall broke apart, causing rocks and debris to fly through the room, knocking both Rishi and Aaryan down, sending them flying away. From behind the broken wall, one man emerged. He looked slightly older than Rishi, quite muscular and very serious.
Aaryan's eyes widened as he gazed at that man. The man looked at Rishi first, his eyes narrowed as he studied him. Then he turned to Aaryan, his expression turned to one of pure rage. Aaryan finally pushed himself to his feet and uttered one word "Aditya! You're awake! That means it was Adyant!"
Aditya nodded and he climbed down from the pile of debris, and stepped onto the dirty floor. He looked right at Aaryan and spoke "You entered my organization as traitor, to avenge your son's life. But when I learned about it, you even got some random wizard out there to curse me with eternal sleep. Anyway, it was thanks to you that my people learned about that wizard's existence and finally wiped the wizards out of this world for good. But that doesn't mean you are excused. Who would have thought that the key to my curse, was Adyant's life. No one would have guessed it, I almost respect that smarts here."
He instantly travelled across the room and grabbed Aaryan by the throat. Aaryan's eye started glowing. Aditya looked a bit discomforted but did not care much. Rishi suddenly remembered and started looking around the room for the vial. Suddenly, his eyes landed on the shattered glass and the liquid around it. He narrowed his eyes in utter rage as he turned around to look at Aditya holding Aaryan up.
Aditya started to choke Aaryan to death but got grabbed from the shoulder and pushed back. Rishi grabbed Aditya, catching him by surprise and went pushing him through another wall and shattering it. Both of them landed in the middle of the forest. Aditya stood up, slightly wiping his face with his hands out of utter annoyance. Rishi stood straight up, staring holes through Aditya.
Aditya looked at Rishi and mocked "Someone seems to wish for an early death today!"
Rishi shot right back "I couldn't agree more. It's fine, I'll fulfill your wish!"