Doomed from the Beginning

17. The Time-Space Labyrinth

Both Sansara and the old woman looked at him in utter shock as he said the word.

So this is why he has been like this all the way! But then, if it’s his sister, then that means, she is…..

“Queen Zaharia, she is my older sister. Go and tell her Vin is here to see her,” Vinasaka said once again.

A lot of questions were hurdling up Sansara’s mind one after the other and he didn’t know which one to ask first. Questions like ‘Zaharia is indeed his sister, but wasn’t that a long time ago? How is she still alive? An angel or a demon can’t be a queen!’ “Wait...is she really a demon?” Sansara didn’t realise that he actually blurted out those words loud unlike he had thought. However Vinasaka replied, “No, she is not.” Now this made things even more difficult. 

The woman carefully observed Vinasaka and said word by word very slowly, almost whispering near his ears, “Are ...you...the ...demon king?”

It was actually more surprising for them to see her saying the name without a fear when even angels and demons are no exception from it.

“I am, and may I know who you are?”

“Ohmy...thank goodness, thank goodness you are here. Please save the queen. She’s battling all by herself. Her highness has told me about you before. You are exactly like she had mentioned,” she made a very pained expression but suddenly went strict again as she resumed, “But this is no time for introduction. As you can see, everyone has been killed. Only the queen and both of us are alive somehow, though her highness has suffered innumerable damages and currently her state is very critical.”

“Both of us?” Sansara enquired.

“Ah, yes! There’s another servant beside me who survived. While her highness used her magic to save me, the other servant actually knows a bit of wizardry, so he survived as well. Right now he is busy supporting her majesty with everything he can. Her majesty is barely holding on though. They have been doing this for days. I don’t know how long this will last. Please save her, my lords. Please!” At the end, the old woman had almost folded her arms to join her hands in front of them as a gesture of pleading with tears welling up as if she had finally given in to their despair and the hard times.

Vinasaka was almost about to rush inside followed closely by Sansara when he stopped suddenly and looked back at the old woman. He bent down to meet her gaze and gulped before asking, once again his eyes as scary and red as Sansara had once seen them before. It sent a shiver down the spine of the old woman, who probably thought it to be the end of her though she didn’t know why.

“The palace guards, the army with all high class techniques didn’t survive...and you are telling us that the servant did?”

Just the question,.... and a scream was heard from inside which made all the three of them rush inside without thinking twice. Looked like the woman really never thought about this...how naive! And no wonder, soon all of them were entangled in a maze of time.

It was their carelessness, mainly Vinasaka’s. He knew very well that Zaharia’s time magic has allowed her to persist till now and thus very naturally, she would also use her time magic to heal herself. What was strange was the entire palace was consumed by a time spell turning the place into a dangerous highway of all time and space which attacked anyone and everyone who stepped inside, dragging them all into their maze of boundless memories regardless of the timeframe.

“Dammit, I should have warned Sansara!...Please be okay!” Vinasaka could very easily come out from the spell since it was familiar to him, but Sansara was nowhere to be found neither was her highness. Vinasaka walked through the lane of memories which played in front of him so realistically that if he wasn’t aware of the kind of magic her highness used, he would have probably been trapped as well. However, he had something to do, and he couldn’t afford to be late. 

“As badly as I want him to remember everything, it’ll still probably be too much for him at once. I dare not...”

Just as he had expected, Sansara had too much going on in front of him, none of which he could relate. One time, he found himself walking in front of a palace gate and there were huge merry making inside with lots of people and decorations. He watched from outside when suddenly a hand playfully slapped him at his shoulders. He turned to find that it was a guy around his physique in his memory and it looked like they were close. “Let’s go inside,” he almost dragged him inside and just as they both stepped across the threshold, he again found himself in the middle of the woods. The other guy was no longer there and it looked like he was smaller in height and in age than before. He was running with his robe covering him but he had no idea why. Some people were chasing him. He didn’t stop though.

“Looks like guards!” he thought but soon he wasn’t running alone any more, when he, once again, was surprised by the change of his surroundings and this time he was almost dragged by someone in front of him. Not in a bad way though, he felt the presence in front of him to be similar as his own, similar ages, similar heights and they were probably running together. It was then when he was taken aback with the words that came from the very person who was running in front of him.

“Faster Mir, they are catching up!”

After listening to the other guy in front of him screaming the same name for quite a while, he increased his pace so that  he could get some answers, but just as he caught up and was finally about to see the face of the one in front of him, he found himself on the floor of a dark room.

He held his head instantly with his two hands and crouched down, sweating profusely.

Somebody stop this. Please!

As much as he was curious about his own memories, all of this was too much for him. His head felt like it could burst when all of a sudden, he felt a strange sensation as somebody leaned against him in the dark room. Holding his breath tight, he turned beside to see the most unexpected sight. Beside him, was Vinasaka, comparatively younger- around teenage, but still tall and quite similar to what he looks now. He found himself to be looking somewhat similar as well. For a second there, he thought they must have been back to normal again, so he shook him hard only to find his company completely wasted and murmuring something like, “Mir,.... please…. don’t a-avoid me ...anymore…”

Again! Again that same name!

As he held up his head and looked straight ahead, even if everything was quite dark around him, he saw something he didn’t understand. His reflection on the mirror, the one which lay right opposite to where he sat, was not his own. It was different, a different person altogether. On reflex he began to observe and feel his own hands and face, but it wasn’t him.

“Then is this...does this body belong to ….Mir?”

That’s the only way all of it would make sense!

“Then that means, all of these memories,...are all his!”

But he couldn’t understand why. Why was he in Mir’s body? What exactly was going on?

Before he could even stop his questions, he found the situation had changed yet again but this time, it might not be like the rest.

Everything around him, everything that he could see was on fire. The sound of the clashing swords, unleashing of spells, was everywhere and he was in the middle of the pool of blood. Dead bodies after dead bodies piled up no matter where he would look. He frantically looked around him, just people fighting or running away. Closing his ears shut tight, he suddenly felt a swish from behind and thanks to his quick reflexive cations, he was able to dodge it and swing the sword in his hand efficiently enough to slice the man in front of him. 

Too close! Wait where did his sword appear from?...

He ran again to find one clue. He hoped this scene would end as soon as possible like the rest he had seen before but he kept running and there was no end to it. No matter where he went, there was only blood and fire.

“MIR!!!” Sansara turned around at the sudden voice even if it wasn’t his own name and only realised it later when he found that he was just saved by none other than Vinasaka. “What are you thinking at such a time? Fight!” Vinasaka said quite roughly as he tackled another attacker in front of them.

“But...this...all this…,” Sansara didn’t know what to tell him exactly. If these are all just memories of Mir, then Vinasaka probably wouldn’t know Sansara. That was the most helpless Mir that Vinasaka had ever seen, so he couldn’t help but stop and turn to him. Vinasaka’s gaze softened and he touched Mir’s face with one of his hands and stroked it gently before he asked, “What’s wrong?” Sansara seemed to have quite taken aback at the gesture but before he could react, he saw Vinasaka’s eye becoming wider and in a moment, he was pulled back behind him which led the very sword originally aimed at Mir to pierce right through Vinasaka.

“IMAY!!!”