31 Shiva

"How did you know your brother is not dead after all these years?" Feng was sitting at the back with Raizan reading his manuals.

"My brother's gave a part of his magic circuits to me in order to kickstart the magic in me. If he ever died, that magic circuits will disappear along with him." Mailee had her hands at the door's armrest and viewed the endless ocean of sand as Sen was driving in it.

"Magic Circuits are similar to the concept of Gate concept of your plane. Different planes, different concepts." Nes explained as she sits on the jeep's dashboard.

"What was your brother's name?" Feng asked again.

"Malik. We do not have a last name because we were orphans." Mailee sighed a little as if she remembered a piece of forgotten memory.

There were small talks in the jeep like how Sen and the others were foreigners from the desert. To encounter the Agni men kidnapping their cousins, Mailee felt outraged by the cover story Raizan created. She now understood why they have such advanced equipment or wield magic she did not see before.

Meanwhile, Mailee explained and described the clan of Agni and Shiva along the other main clans in the Mehar Desert. She described how the ancient gods suddenly abandoned them. The once vast lush forests and green lands were decimated into deserts and monsters mutated became a larger threat in their lives.

Unfortunately, there were a few gods who stayed and felt that the humankind was worth fighting for. Agni and Shiva were considered as the few which followers started to devoutly following them after their acts of protection. The clans in majority wished to vote for Clan Shiva as Shiva was the defender of evil, the god lady of justice against the various hordes of monsters.

Shiva herself denied vehemently of the position as all she wants for her clan to solely concentrate on being the protector of mankind. Clan Agni took the leader position as Agni was the second favourite among the clans.

Clan Agni did well to maintain the leader position and popularity as the leading main clan. They were very partial in their dealings and because of that, the logistics in coordinating sparse resources were left for them with no one in check.

Subsequently, such absolute trust from other clans brought greed and incompetence to Clan Agni. The Fire God Agni had a side of him where he believed the resources should be rightfully belong to him as well after all the good deeds done.

The other clans eventually noticed and their gods decided to collaborate to betray and kill Agni. Yet the remaining gods did not let Shiva in the known as they knew she was too righteous to let such a matter past.

Agni was betrayed and killed which lead the downfall of the Fire Clan of Agni. Shiva found out of the betrayal and did not took up the leadership mantle among the gods. From that downfall came the thirst for revenge, Clan Agni started plotting the revival of Agni and obtained their resources for the ritual via illegal prohibited means.

"Lady Shiva was aware of what Clan Agni was doing but the priests say that protecting the entirety of mankind was her duty." Mailee concluded.

Sen nodded and changed the topic. "Do you have any idea who is Ken? He was part of the group that kidnapped our cousins." Sen turned his wheel a little to avoid the dune slope.

"Ken of Agni? He was the last chosen champion of Agni. Rumours had it that before Agni died, Agni transferred some of his consciousness to Ken. This caused Ken to become berserk and he alone went on a killing spree. Whenever he go, he annihilated everyone in the flames of the Agni."

"Flames of Agni?"

"Yes, the flames of Agni was different from regular fire magic. The flames were light purplish blue in colour as compared to the standard yellowish orange and they continue to burn until all the people's sin had perished. My people said that this was the divine flame that were used by Agni to kill monsters and demons too."

"Then who stopped him?"

"Shiva herself and her chosen champions, the priests said that she weeped ice for the humans that died during that village. Those ice tears itself became a pool of water to extinguish the ever burning divine flame that plagued the villages and washed the sins of the humans killed. She hope that those humans will reborn into a clean slate."

"Shiva regretfully banished the last consciousness of Agni from Ken's body and she branded him an Exile of the Mehar Desert. Due to the banishment, most of his magic circuits were fried and a bare minimum of magic circuitry was left for him to fend himself in the ruthless desert. If the Fire Clan of Agni got hold of him, they seem more desperate than I thought." Mailee commented.

Sen sneered and as he looked at his minimap. "Perhaps, you can ask him for yourself?" Sen pushed the pedal down and from the windscreen there were silhouettes of cloaked men riding tired bison. Among the cloaked mages, there was a one who stand out from the crowd.

Ken the Bandaged Exile.

"Lets see some pretty fireworks." Raizan smirked a little as he used the gauntlets to remotely control the missile attachment on the machine gun turret. With a touch of a button, two missiles were screamed out of the attachment and went flying towards the pack of bison mages.

Ken looked back to see two bolts of metal with fire bursting out of its end. With a palm raised up, he immediately set up a magic shield large enough to protect the pack. An invisible wall immediately appeared with no incantations cast and the bison mages were relieved that their once chosen champion were protecting them.

Yet, as soon as the two missiles came in contact the wall, the metal bolts did not dissipate. Instead, it pierced through the wall of shield with sheer speed and power and exploded within the wall.

Several of the bison mages were smart enough to put a personal magic barrier up even though they knew there was a barrier wall protecting them but that did not stop the missiles from hurting them.

The entire pack stopped in their tracks and multiple bison mages were dead instantly. Those alive incurred both minor and severe injuries and that included Ken. His bandages were burned and the attack revealed a body full of scars. Fibrous tissues were messily entangled on his skin giving him a distorted and disfigured figure.

Still breathing, Ken pointed at the jeep as he slowly tried to stand up. An explosion suddenly burst out from the ground, large enough to kill a Sand Scorpion immediately. Sen managed to notice the subtle forming of a spell circle so he steered away in time before the Jeep received a direct hit.

Avoiding the direct hit dodged death for the entire party in the jeep but the impact was still strong enough to overturn the jeep. Sen reacted by casting an extensive Shroud Fog in hopes that Ken does not invoke such a direct blast again or they will really die. The jeep overturned a few times and the party managed to braced themselves from the shock. Hidden within the shroud fog, Sen shook his head a little as he recover himself from the blast and kicked the broken windscreen away. As he crawled out of it, he heard another explosion tens of metres away.

Ken was coming over to them with haste. He initially did not want to kill the foreigners that were with the prophesied children in order to save his magical energy for the portal spell. Right now, he does not need to hold back nor stop. His enemies want blood, they will get some.