'Is this it? I didn't even get to properly experience this world...' Rudra thought as he could feel his life slipping away by the seconds. To him, it didn't even feel real as he could neither feel the pain nor was he able to move; all he could do was silently stare at the spike that protruded from his chest. Blood gushed out of Rudra's body like a river; the entire floor was covered in his blood in just a few seconds. As the Rudra kept losing his blood, one such drop of blood slowly rolled down to the tip of the spike, and the drop directly fell on top of the glass ball that Rudra was inspecting earlier.
"NOOOOO How could you do this....." Maria shrieked, though the spikes still pinned her, she was still able to feel Rudra's lifeforce. That was the reason she was instantly able to tell that Rudra was in serious trouble. To help Rudra, who was dying, she had forgotten about her surroundings as she started charging right towards him right after she freed herself.
"AGGGHHHHHH" Maria winced in pain, as she was once again on the ground. The masked man had launched another barrage of attack, this time it was aimed just at Maria. Maria, however, wasn't in her best of condition as she was more focused on the bell tower, so she didn't even dodge the attack.
"Give me what I want, and I will let you help the boy. Think carefully, you don't have much time. The boy might just survive for a couple of minutes." Masked man said as he appeared above Maria and placed his foot on top of her neck, making her completely immobile. However, Maria had lost all of her composure till now and was squirming under the masked man's foot, trying to escape.
"Please don't kill my child, I beg of you. I will give you everything that you want. I will give you the tear of lumina that we have here in the orphanage. Just let me save my child." Maria begged as she knelt in front of the masked man, even offering the item that she was tasked to protect at the cost of her life. This showed just how desperate she was; this was not only because Maria raised the children in the orphanage, it was because she thought of herself as the mother of every single child in the orphanage.
"Well, first give me the tear. I will think about saving lives after I get my hands on that thin...." Mid sentence, Masked man just froze, he wasn't the only one that froze though. Everyone, or rather everything, seemed to have come to a halt. Suddenly, the entire city seemed as if time had stopped moving for them.
.....
A little while earlier,
'I don't want to die, I don't want to die....' Rudra prayed as he was starting to lose consciousness. He was just barely holding on, even after losing so much of his blood. Even though he had no power to real power to speak of in this world, his willpower, on the other hand, was very strong. Despite his injuries making him slowly losing his consciousness, he was just holding on, trying not to close his eyes. Deep down, he knew if he dared to close his eyes now, he might not be able to open them later.
"Boy, do you wish to survive? Do you wish for power?" Rudra heard a whisper as he was suddenly starting to lose his consciousness.
'Is the end really near? Why am I hearing voices? Is this what happens when a person dies?' Rudra questioned his own sanity as he couldn't believe he was hearing some mysterious voice in his head. However, despite thinking it was just his imagination, the voice repeated itself once again.
"Ye...yess." It took every ounce of strength Rudra had in his body just to mutter the word. Right after he muttered his reply, Rudra lost his consciousness. Just when he lost his consciousness, the glass ball started glowing; however, the more strongly it glowed, the more dark the room turned. Soon, the entire room was engulfed by darkness.
'Ugghhh... What happened? I just lost my consciousness after I said yes.' Rudra questioned himself as soon as he regained his consciousness. He was so focused on his condition after he woke up that he didn't even realize that he was not in the bell tower anymore. By the looks of it, it seemed like he was suddenly transported to a cave. At least that's what it seemed like from the first impression.
"Wa… wait, what the hell is this? Where is the hole in my chest? Who healed me?" Rudra screeched as he jumped up in shock. After looking at his condition, he suddenly started to question if whatever had happened today was even real or if it was just a dream. However, the gaping hole in the shirt he was wearing was proof of it all, that it was, in fact, the reality.
"Boy, you do not have much time. If you continue wasting your time sitting there, you are destined to die. Come follow the light." A spoke to Rudra, this time too the voice was directly speaking in his mind, the same voice that asked if he wanted to survive.
This time, without any hesitation, Rudra started to follow the light that suddenly appeared in front of him. Rudra no longer had a reason not to trust the voice, as he was saved by her. However, even if he didn't trust the voice, he wouldn't have any other choice but to follow the light; even so, following the light, Rudra arrived at a door.
The door didn't have any hinges or a lock; however, the design of the door was plain. By the looks of it, they seemed to have been very old.
"Open the door, boy," said the voice. Hearing her, Rudra tried pushing the door. However, the door was just too heavy; he wasn't even able to move the door by an inch for some reason.
"That won't work, child. Feel the spiritual power pattern engraved in the door, and then touch the spot where you feel the power is tagged the most. Once you find the tangled mess, you just need to use your Spiritual power to push it." Following the instructions, Rudra activated his eyes that were able to see through spiritual power.
Rudra found the spot that the voice was telling him about after using his eyes. From what he could see, there were many ancient patterns drawn on the door. He had never seen these sorts of patterns anywhere before, but he had some knowledge about what they were. From what he had learned, he knew that some of the people in this world studied the art of formation and talisman crafting. Just like in wuxia novels, there were people in this world who used spiritual power to craft mysterious items and spaces.
However, Rudra didn't have any knowledge in regards to the patterns themselves; he had no idea how the formation worked or what its function was. Watching the patterns closely, Rudra discovered that all of the different patterns were interconnected and all of them met at one singular point. Rudra figured that must be the spot the voice is talking about.