1 Prologue

Krishna was bored as he looked blankly at the door deep in his fantasy when he felt a jolt. It was a jolt from one of the softest hands in the class. Nandini his girlfriend was the beauty of the class. A goddess that would be the envy of every eye, fuel for any man's greed and lust. He had been with her since the high-school days and knew her for what she was. In those days she would wear braces and be generally not well groomed. Studying was her focus. Every single person that used to move their eyes without noticing her would now pause in their way and regret for not seeing through in the past.

How could Krishna's imagination hold him back from such a woman, a woman he respected for her dedication. It was one of their most boring classes in the medical school. It wasn't because of the subject being boring or teacher having less knowledge, sometimes you just aren't good at teaching. Nandini yawned and leaned her head over at her boyfriend's shoulder and said in a soft mellow voice "I love you."

Right at that moment fantasy became reality as someone broke through the door, however Krishna wasn't ready like he would be in a fantasy. Still his eyes reacted fast enough to take a glimpse of two men entering. They were clad in armour, one gold and another black. The back armoured one had his head fully covered in black hood but the man in gold turned his face and their eyes met each other. One forming a crooked grin and Krishna dropping his jaw in shock. The man in golden armour clenched his fist and went for the sword on his other side. It was over in an instant.

7years later…

Sun was at high noon in desert and wind was on a high dial. The heat in the wind burned his skin as he held onto his life like gripping the sand. His body naked and so were his wounds. He could taste the sand in his mouth. He clenched his fist from pain, a pain more excruciating than what those mortal wounds could give him. His eyes became blurry but the tears won't flow in the heat as they evaporated the moment they came out. The blood loss was getting more and more severe and tears stopped. He started losing consciousness but the pain never decreased until he could no longer feel anything but darkness.

His eyes opened in a hospital room. He could sense the familiarity in the room but it was different than he remembered. Surely it was his college hospital. A man in black suit entered the room with one of his colleagues. Age difference didn't seem to be too much between those two but you could tell just in one look who was the senior and who was the amateur. The senior took his goggles off and sat with a stern face near the bed. He raised his hand and his junior handed his over the file.

"I see that you have woken up. Krishna Joshi, am I correct?"

Krishna made the effort and sat with an inclination adjusting the pillows at his back. His body was covered in bandages yet it exuded strength. A normal person would not dare to challenge him even in this state. He looked at the gentleman man in suit and nodded his head in agreement.

"You disappeared seven years ago. Exactly after the first anomaly gate appeared. Since then there has been no sign of you, clean slate. Care to explain?"

Krishna's eyes widened a bit and his muscles tensed up. He exhaled his surprise and relaxed again

"I see, so it has been seven years."

"look, I understand it was a hard time. People do stupid things when faced with such a trauma. The incident nearly wiped away your whole college back then. Some people never regain sanity after such an event."

Krishna was confused at this moment. He knew he hadn't run away or was lost.

"what do you mean by that? Were you looking for me?"

"Well not us, we had our hands full with the appearance of wave gates. But your parents never stopped the search for you." He sighed as he closed the file and looked down "I don't know if I should be the one telling you this but they died in the mumbai wave 5 years ago." He clenched his fist and krishna could feel the pull on the bed covers. "the damn demons will pay for it."

Krishna could feel his heart palpating when he heard the news. He held his chest and grinded his teeth with pain. He felt another burden fall over his shoulders. Another guilt for his actions.

Maybe if he had died that day nothing would have happened. She would not have died and his parents wouldn't go out looking for him and they might have survived. He pieced together some part of what was happening but there was much to be asked. Questions which he now didn't care about anymore. He could still remember her final words, those sounds would haunt him for his whole life he thought. After fighting for 7000 years in the demon world he had returned home to stop fighting and live in peace. But the world was too cruel for it. The more he fought the more he had lost but the fight never ended. He had taken a vow in his mind to never fight again.

The man in black stood up and put his hand in the inside pocket of his coat. He took out a card and kept it on the table "call me if you need anything. Your parents are by far the biggest benefactor of this University. They left all their money to the fight against evil. The least I can do is help their only son." He turned back and suddenly he felt a chill for a moment, his heartbeat rose, his feet and hands felt cold. It was only for a moment but the feeling terrified him. What could have been the source of it, he thought. His junior asked him "Sir? Are you ok? Should we not check for his affinity points?"

"Ah...yes...go ahead."

The junior produced a black box with a dark purple crystal handle on it. He gave it to Krishna and asked him to hold it by the handle. He took out his phone and opened the app and waited for the readings to come.

"It's an F, sir."

"Fine, let's get moving."

His junior took the equipment and left but he stood there still partially recovering from that chill. He dismissed it as something odd which he could not understand and walked to the door.

"Krishna, I hope you haven't forgotten your medical knowledge, we always need more doctors."

He left after saying that and Krishna looked at the card left on the table which said 'Ram Rathod' the Vice chairman of Raiders University of Ahmedabad.

Ram was still thinking about that feeling but he wasn't able to explain anything. He asked his junior who was chatting on his phone to give him the phone as he wanted to see the readings. The junior reluctantly gave the phone as he thought 'the one time a girl wants to chat with me and he needs the phone.'

Ram look at the readings and narrowed his eyes "that's unusual."

"What's so unusual about F rating, that's the most common one."

"No, it's not the rating, it's the points. I have seen as low as 15 but this man has zero rating."

"There is a first time for everything."

"No, no." he said rubbing his chin. "Zero is never seen, the lowest recorded rating was 5."

"Maybe he is just too weak and the number is in decimals or probably some error, this rating meter isn't exactly the best nor is it anything to brag about in its own category. It has an error range of plus or minus 25."

Ram thought about it a little bit and let it go but still wondered about that chill inducing feeling while his junior kept looking with disdain thinking 'at least give me back my phone.'