The face of brahmin sage was framed by a long white beard and moustache. His eyebrow hair reached all the way down to his beard, and his face bore countless wrinkles. On his forehead, a white ribbon was tied, dyed crimson at the centre.

His body was rotting with festering wounds, oozing pus and blood. It was a miracle that he was still alive in such a state.

"Who are you, old man?" Rudra demanded, turning his focus to the sage. "How did you suppress our powers!?"

"It does not matter who I am," the sage said, his voice cracked with age.

He slowly rose to his feet with the help of a stick and declared, "You will not destroy anything further."

"Why am I meeting so many arrogant people today!?" Rudra barked, rushing toward the sage.

The old sage, who had kept his eyes closed until now, slowly opened them and stared at Rudra.

The moment his gaze landed on him, a sudden energy distortion occurred around Rudra's body, and he collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony for several moments.

"M-my mana... I can't use mana."

"As punishment for not heeding my warning, I sealed your Soulforce for the next seven days."

"Now get out of here."

With a wave of the sage's hand, both Saya and Rudra vanished into thin air.

"Huh!? Where did they go—"

"You do not belong here," the sage said, standing directly before me.

"When did he come here!?" I gasped inwardly before replying with a gulp, "I will immediately leave the city, respected Sage."

"I do not mean this place," the old man whispered, each word laced with agony.

"Respected Sage, you seem to be in lot of pain. My brother will be coming soon. You may come with us to the hospital."

"My suffering cannot be ended by medicines, child," the sage replied with a faint smile on his agonised face.

He slowly moved his trembling hand toward me and touched my head.

A warm energy flowed into my body from his palm, and all my injuries were instantly cured.

"Th-this old man is the real deal," I gasped inwardly, my eyes widening.

"Thank you for the help, Sage," I said, joining my hands in respect.

For the next couple of seconds, the sage continuously stared at me and then asked, "Why did you come here?"

"Umm… to visit Pandeshwar Temple," I replied, rising to my feet.

"Again, I do not mean this place. Why did you come to Prithvi?"

"Pr-Prithvi? Oh! You mean Earth? Well, that's something only my parents can tell," I chuckled awkwardly.

"Hmm, you do not know yourself," the sage sighed, taking out a prayer bead from around his neck. He turned and slowly moved toward the city, prayer beads in one hand and a stick in the other.

"Om Namah Shivay… Om Namah Shivay…"

His fingers slid from one bead to the next on the prayer beads, each movement marked by a repetition of the mantra.

"Sage, may you tell me what you meant when you said I don't know myself?" I asked, holding his arm to support him while walking.

"You are asking that question to the wrong person, child."

"Then whom should I ask?"

After a brief pause, the sage answered, touching my chest, "Ask yourself!"

He removed my hand from his arm and moved forward, while I remained frozen in thought.

"Sage, please answer one more question of mine. How did you know that this energy inside us is called Soulforce when everyone else calls it mana?"

"This isn't the first time Prithvi has been blessed with Soulforce," the sage replied. "I have lost count, but about five thousand years ago, Prithvi was blessed with abundant Soulforce. However, after Lord Krishna's departure, the Soulforce also abandoned Prithvi."

"F-five thousand years ago?" I exclaimed, completely shocked by this sudden revelation.

Taking a big gulp, I asked nervously, "Sa-sage, may you tell me your name?"

"..."

"Sage?"

The strange sage was nowhere to be seen. Just as he had appeared out of nowhere, he also disappeared without making any sound.

"Vivi, can you locate that sage?"

"Scanning the target…"

"Error! The target is out of Vivi's detection range!"

"How could he suddenly vanish after revealing something so mind-boggling!?" I shouted in frustration.

"Vivi, I touched his arm, so you must have analyzed his realm back then, right?"

"The target was at Level 9 Demi-God Realm."

"Demi-God!!!!???" Another shocked gasp escaped my lips. "Who could that sage be, and why did he say I do not know myself?"

While I was contemplating the sage's words, a familiar voice came from behind.

"Raj!"

Aryan called out, bolting toward me in a rush. His face was laced with immense nervousness.

"Are you alright!?" he asked, quickly scanning me with his hands.

"Don't worry, brother. I'm fine."

"How could you be fine!? Look how much blood you lost!?" he said, his gaze fixed on my white pants and tattered shirt, now turned crimson.

"That's not my blood, brother," I replied with a chuckle. "Oh right, we should check on Jasmine. She's been unconscious for a while."

When we reached the sliced car, several hundred people had gathered around the area. Some were armed Awakeners, while others were normal people drawn by the chaos.

"Guildmaster, this is a declaration of war!" one of the Awakeners shouted. "Not only did they attack our guild manager, they also dared to attack your younger brother!"

"Yes, Guildmaster! We won't stay idle this time!"

"We want revenge!"

"We want revenge!"

"We want revenge!"

The Awakeners roared, continuously striking the ground with their weapons.

Aryan's brown eyes turned crimson, and a red mist began flowing out of his body.

"Both Jasmine and Raj are safe," Aryan muttered, suppressing the raw fury inside him. "Return to the guild first."

We walked toward the roadside, where over a hundred cars were parked in a line.

The regular people who had gathered continuously shot videos and took photos as we moved toward the cars.

Aryan had clearly come with the intention of an all-out war but held back only after seeing that I was uninjured.

The moment we entered the Rubicon that Aryan had come in, he instantly hugged me and murmured in a low voice, "If anything had happened to you today, I would have never forgiven myself. All of this happened because of the feud between me and Rudra. It had nothing to do with you."

"What are you saying, geezer?" I scoffed. "You are my brother, so all of your problems have everything to do with me!"

After staying like that for a dozen seconds, he finally parted and declared, his eyes bloodshot red, "That bastard will pay for laying his hands on you!"

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