Astral Realms

#10: Gregorious Yezkov

After the mission in Servetrix, the injured were taken in Hospital and the dead manifested bodies of Mr Doloi and Divya got reduced to nothingness. Viraj, Sahil and Dilip-Sensei were asked to visit the health camp for checkup of their Spiritual energy depletion side effects.

Sahil went to hospital to his father. Dilip Sensei and Viraj returned to their home. Dilip sensei said, "Your 1st mission had unexpected turns, its good you have seen the dangers of this world, now take rest for a while, next time we may not be in same team, the office will draft you in missions, battles or extractions almost every other day, you can always choose not to respond... But I suggest you should join as much missions as you can, farewell for now."

Dilip sensei hugged Viraj and patted his back. They went their separate ways.
Viraj's material body was studying as merged his astral form. He got the memories of the 2 hours of his absence. He was tired and sad, and also a lot confused. He scrolled his old pictures, there he saw the pics of their trip. He friends Nishiket, Karan, Kritika, Gaurab everyone were so happy... One event change his and Karan's life.... Karannnn.... The voice of the Mask Man.... It was similar to Karan.... He took out a video of Karan in Karan's Facebook post. He was almost sure it was Karan... He forwarded the Video to Dilip-sensei.

After few minutes Dilip sensei called Viraj and said, "Can he be Karan? Viraj...."
Viraj replied, "Yes sensei, even I think he is our Mask man."

**********

In the past, after Karan died, his soul was thrown into a pit along with numerous other souls. Whoever can rise this pit, they can get the chance to serve the Malefic Queen Lyasa.

Karan was one the few who escaped the pit. The others were sucked into the dark realms slowly untill their life energy was sucked into to fuel like for the expansion of the dark domains.

Karan had grudge that his life was never happy, that grudge kept him going even after his death. He rose into the ranks of Lyasa's henchmen. She had an Army of such souls who had the power to manifest their body into any dimension and world. Karan was conferred the power of teleportation after he slaughter a village in Tarea.

After the encounter with Viraj, Karan reported everything to Lyasa. She was furious that one of her sacrifice fall into the hands of Divine Astral Knights. She was planning to get his soul but she was not reckless. She wanted to gather information on the people who were in gaurd for him, specially Dilip Sinha.

*******

Viraj got his next mission, so he was asked to visit the Astral Office. At the office Miss Molina gave him his rank letter, it was a letter from the Headquaters signed by a Marshall congratulating and praising on the success of 1st mission and he was conferred the rank of Astral Knight D-rank. The letter had words for encouragement that made Viraj a little better. Miss Molina gave him the bank account details and documents which was created by the office for him. All his earnings from the Office will be in that bank. They gave him a separate phone where they will text the details from next time. He was asked not mix the two phones. He said he will be careful.

Then Miss Molina briefed him on the next mission. It was an assault mission in a world named Yezkov. According to the intel a species of flying insect evolved and got intelligence but now they were destroying the planet and its inhabitants. The astral users of Yezkov were not able to handle this situation alone so a brigade of 10000 E-Ranked, 2000 D-ranked, 400 C ranked, 10 B-ranked and 2 A-ranked Astral Knights were drafted. They have to reach the juction 16-B by 8 pm.

Viraj accepted the mission and a confirmation message came to his phone. Miss Molina gave him the news that Mr Ahmed was out of danger, Sahil was granted leave for taking care of his father for some time. Mr Dilip didn't cared much so he didn't responded to any of the office calls. Anwesha has  decided to retire after that incident. So he was the only one of that team who was going on for the mission Yezkov. He was excited as well nervous as it would be his first encounter with Mr Dilip. He called Mr Dilip and told him about his mission. Mr Dilip gave him best wishes and asked him to be careful. He said, a lot of such huge strike team never returns but he should said Mr Dilip adamantly. Mr Dilip felt a bad letting Viraj go alone in this mission but he knows he can't always protect him. He have to learn to fight alone or he will die anyway.

Viraj read the information sent on his office phone. The day and night in Yezkov was of 15 hours each. One day in Yezkov was 36 minutes on Earth. The water in Yezkov tend to contain high selenium, so advise to use the filtration bottle in the Bag that will be given by the Astral Divinity Military Corps. The soldiers are advise to eat after scanning the food with the scanners. Special goggles, radio earpiece and weapons of choice will be provided to the soldiers. Yezkov have lower gravity than earth so the digestion might be effected by it.

Viraj was ready, he left his physical body and went to the office where he was showed to the lift. The operator then typed his destination on a device. He reached Junction 16B. Viraj went out of the lift. There were tables with with ranks banners. He went to the D-rank table where a guy was seated. He asked Viraj's name and asked him to show his ID. He scanned and gave him his bag and a sword, a  knife and a hand gun with 12 bullets.
The guy instructed him, "Don't use the gun recklessly it will drain 5 RSP every time you fire as a bullet."

It was also mentioned that if a wielder got there RSP below 1000 they might face severe side effects or even may die. That's why Assault rifles were only diven to B-rank and A-ranked Knights. Viraj was asked to get into a giant hyperloop named Spencer-5000A. He went into it and sat on the seat he was assigned.

He could see users from different areas,  Foreigners as well as Indians. In an instant they reached Yezkov. They got out of the hyperloop and were asked to report to the team leader they are assigned. Viraj was assigned under Fred Watson, a B-ranked Knight from USA. Viraj reported to him and he was asked to join his team mates who were seating on the ground. Each B-ranked Knight was assigned with a 1000 E-rankers, 200 D-rankers, 40 C-rankers. After a few minutes, everyone assigned under Fred had gathered. Fred addressed them and said that they will be in the vanguard drom the East frontier. The regiment forwarded towards its contact point with enemy. Nearer they got to the battle point, it was more stinky and smelly due to the carcases of the insects. Viraj was nervous but he wanted to do his best in his battle though it might be his last battle.