With bits and pieces of leaves flying all over the place and sticking to Rudra’s skin, dense shrubs were sliced away like weeds encountering a weed whacker. Under Rudra’s spear, a path opened up in no time, and with everyone’s efforts, despite the uneven terrain, the truck moved swiftly through the dense, savanna-like environment.
Yet Rudra refused to trade precision for haste. His senses were always alert, with his nerves constantly tense and his muscles like a tightened spring, drawn tight as a bowstring waiting to snap.
He wondered why no sound came from the rear. He’d expected Pranay’s group to catch up by now. Despite moving quickly, they were still pulling a truck through the savanna, which was definitely slower than people walking on foot. But the thought didn’t distract him for long. He kept moving.
Fortunately, his alertness paid off.
(Rustle, Rustle)
Rudra’s head turned towards the sound at such a speed that any normal person would have felt dizzy. His eyes narrowed, and the instant he felt a shadow lunge at him, his muscles exploded with a forward thrust.
(Swish)
In a single, deadly and precise strike, he pierced the shadow.
"Kreee kreee kre kre kre!"
Rudra heard a high-pitched scream and identified the sound in a heartbeat.
He pulled the spear back, and sure enough, it was the mutated rat. He noticed that the spear had pierced through its shoulder, but it was still frantically trying to free itself, letting out continuous, annoying screams.
In fear of attracting something else, Rudra showed no mercy. He slammed the rat into the ground and, without a moment’s pause, stomped on its head, pressing it into the ground with his entire weight.
Its screams abruptly stopped.
Looking at the rat’s corpse, Rudra had a fierce struggle in his heart. A part of him said that it was a crucial source of food, food filled with Aayu no less, while another part said eating rats was disgusting and inhumane.
He couldn’t make up his mind for a moment, but remembering the malnourished appearance of the people inside the supermarket tipped the scale. Then, considering the way he had lived before, eating fish and consuming nearly 10 kg of food every day, followed by taking the most disgusting dump every time, completely broke the balance.
He called for Lingaraj in a low voice and motioned. "Load this on the truck."
Lingaraj looked at him weirdly but didn’t say anything. However, Prabhu and Laila looked visibly disturbed, and Laila even gagged a few times while covering her mouth.
Rudra’s face was devoid of emotion.
"If both of you want to eat over 10 kg of junk every day, along with excreting the most disgusting turd, be my guest."
His words turned their faces pale.
"Besides, it has that mysterious energy, remember?"
An awkward silence fell, and he felt obligated to speak.
"But don’t worry. The Chinese eat rats; it shouldn’t be too bad."
As far as whether his words had a positive effect as he expected, only Prabhu and Laila could tell.
The rustling sound was heard for the second time since they entered the savanna-like environment. This time, it was coming from behind.
Rudra, Laila, and Prabhu looked back with expectation. Sure enough, it was Pranay and his group.
However, seeing only six people, his expression turned strange, and he looked at Pranay with a questioning gaze.
Pranay felt embarrassed and briefly explained what happened.
Getting the answer, Rudra looked towards the buildings in the distance with concern.
He knew it was a dead end for them, and the chances of them surviving were slim to none, but given that there were only a handful of people surviving from a town with a population of 10,000 people, he felt annoyed at the deaths that could have been avoided.
For a moment, the impulse to run back and drag everyone with him came to mind, but it was cut short by the rumbling from above.
A massive, suffocating darkness swept across the sky, dragging a thick canopy of storm clouds behind it.
"Not good," Rudra exclaimed and, in a split second, passed several instructions.
"Hey, Lingaraj, push out a dozen cylinders and make space for more people." With danger literally right above him, he was no longer soft-spoken and roared the order. He then looked towards Kavya steering the truck and motioned for her to get down.
"Go inside and help your father," he said.
However, remembering that the rain might directly melt the gas cylinders, and it could lead to more complications with the gas getting out. He looked under the truck and passed another order.
"Balram, take the spare tarpaulin, spread it under the truck, and cover the discarded cylinders with it. Don’t let them get wet."
He looked towards Pranay and pointed at his people.
"Running back to the building will be too late. Have those four people get into the truck. We have made it waterproof."
Pranay gave a sigh of relief and immediately motioned the two middle-aged men and the two older men towards the truck.
"Cut down the grass around the truck. It will make our movements easier." Rudra said and took the lead.
Rudra looked around at the surrounding grass and started relentlessly slashing at it.
Despite his group having four rain survivors, Pranay took the lead in deciding most things, so he was a little unaccustomed to being ordered around by Rudra. However, looking at his towering stature radiating strength and the urgency of the situation, he did not even try to get a word in.
Besides, the instructions were logical, so he did not hesitate and started pulling out the weeds one after another.
Rudra noticed this from the corner of his eye, and his brows furrowed. The man was actually doing it manually with his hands. Then he remembered that Pranay and his group didn’t use bone weapons, so he looked at Prabhu, who was closest to the truck’s windshield.
"Get them the spear and the axe."
Prabhu jumped into the truck and called out to Pranay and Ranga.
They both looked towards the voice with confusion, but when they saw two objects flying towards them, they caught them and saw what they were.
Their eyes lit up. Obviously, they had seen the weapons used by Rudra and his companions, and had an idea of where they came from. They wanted to make one for themselves, but like wound-up toys, they kept moving without a moment’s rest to do anything else.
Pranay’s speed of clearing out the area around the wheels suddenly increased, and Ranga spun around like a top, chopping up the weeds in no time.
With the help of five rain survivors, nearly four feet around the truck had been cleared, and Rudra even had time to place the bone spikes he had made at the border of the clearing.
Rudra got on the truck and cautiously inspected the surroundings for any dangers that might come looking for them.
A raindrop touched his forehead, and his expression turned solemn. The viscosity was heavier than before. It was almost as if it was not water that was raining down, but oil.
He felt lightheaded for a split second before recovering as if nothing had happened, but he felt more energetic than before, and he could feel the Aayu within his body rioting and constantly increasing.
However, this did not make him happy. The savanna around them started to grow. Although the growth rate was slow, it was visible to the naked eye, and the grass they had cut down started to grow as well.
However, looking towards the town, he understood that the growing grass was the least of his worries.
Because...
"Shiva!" he exclaimed, his mouth agape.
His mind was numb from the shock, and he was stunned into silence.
In the distance, from where he had observed the tower of blood, a crimson light shot into the sky like a pillar connecting heaven and earth, accompanied by a sound no less powerful than a rocket taking off.
However, it was not alone.
To the distant east, the second column ripped into the sky, and further south, two parallel ladders to heaven rose to join it.
His breath caught in his throat as a red mist engulfed the destroyed town, and the beams began to incline and merge into one entity at a central point.
For a moment, Rudra’s eyes were blinded by the radiance emitted by the point of convergence, but by the time he recovered, he was flabbergasted to see a gigantic circle with various squiggly patterns and symbols, almost as if it were a language, hovering over the entire town.