Moksha

Moksha or Salvation came from a Vedic philosophy called Purushartha, where Purusha (means 'Man' as a Human, regardless of gender) and Artha (means 'purpose or objective'). As such, Purushartha can be translated as 'Purpose of Human'.

Moksha means to liberate our soul from the eternal cycle of birth and rebirth, to realize our true nature and where we truly belong. It is viewed as the ultimate aim of human life according to ancient Hindu scriptures.

Before his death, Theo was enlightened with the true potential of humans. He realized that in the end, human is just a mass of energy trapped in a corporeal body, which ultimately trapped in an eternal cycle of life and death.

Hence, Theo affirmed the question which he had asked before -

"Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home ?"

The very existence of human is a trial in itself, a trial to conquer the cycle of birth and rebirth and to free our self from the corporeal world.

And so was the goal burning within his heart, Theo aimed to cease every afterlife he would've live under the enslavement of his desires and to cease every death which would've decide the conditions of his birth. Theo aimed to break free from this miserable cycle of life and death.

Theo knew 2 things -

1- We are trapped in this cycle for eternity, our every lives as sentient were spent under the enslavement of petty desires and emotions, then our death unfairly chooses the conditions of our next life and we don't left with any choices but to accept it in the name of fate.

2- Forgetfulness is the greatest gift humanity had ever received.

The magical world in which Theo woke up, could be really tempting for anyone, but he knew better, that in this eternal cycle of suffering, no matter where or what one woke up with, in the end his desires would reign over him which would turn his momentary life into slavery.

Theo was already devoid of fundamental attachments and desires which one needed to live but he didn't wished for death either, for it would only bring his next life of ignorance. Theo was not ignorant toward his life anymore, he had a purpose to fulfill.

' I must attain Moksha. It's good that my memories didn't wiped out. '

Theo was grateful that his memories were intact, otherwise surely he would've aimed to become the strongest or whatnot cliche. Although he wasn't sure about why he was transmigrated into the novel but considering the knowledge which he had about his novel, Theo was aware about a deathly storm which was heading into his direction.

'Kelnar hmmm . . . it'll be his debut'

Standing in the balcony Theo was lost in his thoughts when a wintry breeze washed over his face which whispered through his ears and ruffled his hair. Upon raising his head, he saw a group of mystical birds.

Their blue mystical body like made of ice and 4 large wings like made of clouds, their whole body left a trail of thick white smoke which turned into snow fall after few seconds.

With an indifferent face, Theo watched them leaving a trail of snow fall passing through the city and at far horizon he saw mountains so tall that they penetrated through the clouds unseen where they ended. It was a mystical sight and Theo was ready to dive into that magical world with his new identity.

*******

Val came back into his room, sat on the study desk and tried to remember the important plots of novel. After some speculations, he was left with 2 major problems. The first was related to the beginning of the novel and the second was where he abandoned it.

Main plot of his novel began after a tragic event that took place in Kelnar which was Kelnar's doomsday. Kelnar's tragedy served as a spark for the novel's plot, that was why he only mentioned about Kelnar as a hot topic in the initial part of his novel while ignoring any other details.

like - "Did you hear about Kelnar ?", "Kelnar fell!!", "Kelnar this", "Kelnar that" etc.

Well, it didn't really mattered. Kelnar's name was enough for Theo to decide his next course of action. Also thanks to the memories of Val, the information about the city was filled for him, which saved Theo from flying blind.

According to the date, Kelnar was one year away from its demise and the person behind it was the main antagonist of the novel, Aramis the fallen god.

' I need to leave Kelnar as soon as possible.'

Thought Val as he got reminded of the character of Aramis. According to Theo's writing, Aramis was not some kind of second rated villain, he was a god, a cruelest one at that.

Aramis was terrifying, so much so that his name was enough to make Val's legs move before his brain. Aramis was the first child of Aurora and he held great pride in his godly identity. He was fearless and extraordinary powerful among others.

In divine realm, as he slayed monsters much stronger than him, many songs were written after his name. As he saved lesser gods from catastrophe, many stories were told as his tales. He gained many blessings from Auroras for his courage and actions. But as much as his good features shined, so did his bad ones made shadows.

Behind the mask of a chivalrous god, Aramis held unfathomable darkness in his heart for seedless people, so pitch blacked that it could consume the sun itself.

Auroras were simply wanted to keep peace at lower realm, they didn't discriminat between seed bearers and seedless. But Aramis didn't agreed with Auroras intentions, he considered lower realm as a playground of children, he wanted lower realm to be more than just a peaceful world.

The darkness bloomed further which later corrupted his mind and he strove to make lower realm a world without seedless people, a world where only divine beings would allow to exist no matter the cost.

To achieve his goal, Aramis secretly gathered many lesser gods to walk with him, pursuing the same goal while mercilessly killing those who stood against him. That was how a small rift rose on Divine Realm.

Later, the rebellion became big enough to reach the ears of Auroras. So, Auroras took the matter in their hands, to handle a conflict that they once thought of as a children's quarrel. They disbanded the rebellious group and punished Aramis for his wicked actions by exiling him to the Lower Realm.

But that didn't stopped him. Instead, it fueled his maniacs even more. For decades, Aramis hide himself in shadows, waited for things to settle down on divine realm.

' Unknowingly, the words which I had weaved into sentences will take the life of millions. '

Thought Val, aware but still indifferent toward the destruction which was yet to come. Theo had already locked his emotions deep inside of him which was necessary for his goal.

( It will be explain in the upcoming chapters )

Val didn't care about the storyline of novel, the only thing which was important to him was his purpose and for that his top priority was his safety.

' It is obvious that Aramis will come and when he'll arrive, given the circumstances of Val, I'll be the first one to loose my head before anyone else. So, the best course of action for me is to not get involve with the original storyline.'

thought Val as he was thinking about variables. He got reminded of the second problem which was related to where he left the novel.

The last thing Theo mentioned in his novel was about a ruin. A ruin which main protagonist of the novel was exploring, looking for answers and that ruin was located behind Kelnar, far deep inside the mountain range.

That ruin had some sort of connection with Aramis. To be more clear, something was hidden in that ruin that might help main protagonist to defeat Aramis. Theo didn't know what laid in that ruin because he dropped the novel before clarifying it.

' I need to leave Kelnar and find that ruined place. If it is possible, I should obtain whatever hidden inside it, only then I can walk toward my goal without worrying about my safety. Knowledge from the novel is quite limited and it will only serve me for few years but if I utilize it correctly then whatever comes after it will be manageable.'

Thought Val as he decided to look for that ruined place. There were 3 reasons behind his decision. First was of course his safety, Val was powerless in the world of gods. He needed a safety measure and for that he chose that ruin because whatever hidden inside it was capable of hurting a god.

Second, Val didn't wanted to get involve with the novel storyline. So, he needed to know that variable, to predict how the storyline would progress which would made it easy for him to stay away from the important events.

Third, because he was simply curious by a question

" With what? those pages were filled which he had left blank. "

' But it will not be easy to reach there. '

Thought Val as he knew before anything else, the journey toward that ruined place would not be easy in itself. Before leaving Kelnar, he needed to prepare for that atrocious journey.

******

The world outside was dangerous beyond comprehension and Val would die without knowing the cause, if he'd set a foot outside Kelnar in his current situation. So, he started to analyze what his new body was capable of.

In Lower Realm, everyone was capable of using magic by accumulating mana into their heart. Everyone used basic household magic in their daily life but everyone had different mana reservoir.

A clerical ranking system established on lower realm which recognized by everyone and everywhere regardless of race, called as Temple Orders. Everyone was addressed according to their temple ranks and it also signified their strength.

There were 4 holy ranks in temple, which were [ Deacon > Priest > Bishop > Supreme Leader ]. Those holy ranks were further split into 5 sub-ranks which were [ Apprentice > High > Grand > Arch > Cardinal ]. Collectively made a total of 20 temple ranks.

The holy rank of Supreme Leader was unattainable because it was only granted by a sacred trial of gods and it was reserved for the members of divine family.

Majority of the Seedless people fell in the rank of deacon and die under that rank. In terms of strength and mana reservoir, consider an apprentice deacon was only capable of destroying 2 motorbikes with his mana capacity. Ascending each sub-rank increased the capacity by 2 folds.

From the rank of Priest, things were considered in accordance with seed bearers. Ascending a holy rank was totally different from sub-ranks, as an Apprentice Priest was capable of destroying a plane, an Apprentice Bishop was capable of destroying an aircraft carrier and the strongest rank among all, an Apprentice Supreme Leader was as equally destructive as a nuke.

There were also some rare among seedless who born with larger mana reservoir. As they aimed to prove their devotion to god or to serve under the divine family, they chose to become paladin.

To follow the path of paladin was a difficult choice but the honor that came with the paladin title for devotees held more importance than their life. For majority of paladin, it took their whole life struggles to climb up to the rank of Arch-Priest but to remind the fairness of world exceptions existed, as there were few Paladins in Lower Realm who climbed all the way up to the rank of Bishop.

Title of Paladin was reserved for seedless people because seed bearers were obvious clerics, as they held divinity within their heart.

Seed bearers were born under the rank of priest as they had much larger mana reservoir than of a seedless. Inside the heart of a Seed Bearer existed a golden seed of divinity which was the additional reservoir for divinity. Upon mixing divinity with mana while performing magic, it exponentially boosted the magical capabilities and magic output.

That was why seedless could not hold a candle against seed bearers, but divinity was not the only reason for seed bearer's strength. Divinity reservoir was not the only usage of divine seed, the seed also held the true potential of seed bearers.

A question might arise in someone's mind, that if divinity didn't existed in lower realm, then how seed bearers regenerated their divinity reservoir ? The answer was at night.

(I know, logically, it should be for 12hrs but for the sake of fiction and simplicity, it is restricted)

At night, the radiance of Divine Realm showered divinity upon Lower Realm, which helped seed bearer to regenerate their divinity reservoir. It was also the reason that the houses of seed bearers built with a magical glass ceiling, so they could regenerate their divinity even while sleeping.

Getting back to the capabilities of his new body, Theo had a good news. Even though Val was born without a divinity seed but thanks to his divine blood, he was gifted with much larger mana reservoir which placed him into the temple rank of an Apprentice-Priest, but obviously he never used it to its full potential.

Original Val never really had any interest in exploring his potential so his memory didn't really helped Theo with any knowledge of advanced magic but Theo got the fundamentals down, like feeling mana in nature, collecting it into the heart and convert it into magic by imagining and stating his will.

Val sat on the bed with closed eyes in lotus position and concentrated on mana around him. By imagining each 4 elements, he conjured 4 palm size ball of each - air, fire, water and earth, and left them to float over his head, then he released mana out of his body and lifted furniture in the air including the bed that he was sat on and after few moments, everything was seen levitating in mid air.

' It feels like I can do this for weeks without any break. This world is full of monsters anyway and I'm just a small fish in the sea . . or maybe not. '

Thought Val as he remembered something from the novel but shrugged it off because practicing it was almost suicidal. He canceled the magic and everything slowly came back to the floor. After removing the bandages Val checked his injuries and found them healed completely only leaving the scars behind.

Divine blood carried innate healing abilities, Val also had a healing ability thanks to his divine blood but it was too weak compared to the others in divine family. Val had given healing bandages to treat his injuries because it was by his mother's order which prohibited the saints to use healing magic on him.

'Hmm . . I need to prepare a lot before leaving this city but first I need do something about that punk Zion, these everyday spar will be bothersome.'

Thought Val with little annoyance, although there were several hurdles which he needed to overcome while his stay in Kelnar but Zion, his new elder brother was the first in that list. He didn't wanted to wake up everyday with an injured body.

dongg, dongg, dongg

Sound of the bell resonated equally in the whole city as it brought the first rays of dawn. City started buzzing and that liveliness felt like music to ears. Val took a deep breath to fill his lungs with fresh morning air and flopped over in bed.

After 20 secs . . .

Knock Knock Knock