The realization struck me like a lightning bolt and ironically, it manifested as exactly that a physical hit. My knees buckled as an immense weight crashed down upon my entire body. The crushing force that had once been confined to the ring now distributed itself throughout my frame, as if the entire mass of that one-eyed walker had settled into my shoulders, seeped into my bones, and woven itself through every fiber of muscle.
"The beads..." I gasped, struggling to remain upright. Each word felt like lifting a mountain. "They didn't just devour the walker they transferred its weight... its entire mass... to me."
Jaipa's expression shifted from confusion to dawning horror. "You're telling me that thing's entire body weight is now "
"On me... Yes !." I gritted my teeth, feeling crushed by an invisible boulder. "Every pound of that monster is now mine to carry."
The three beads, having completed their bizarre feast, began shrinking back to their original fist-sized forms. They resumed their eternal rotation around the ring above my head with casual indifference, as if nothing extraordinary had happened. Their return to normalcy felt almost mocking to me..
A long pause stretched between us before Jaipa broke the silence.
"Well," he said, his voice carrying that familiar note of sarcasm despite the gravity of our situation, "and here I thought my emotional baggage was heavy."
I shot him a withering glare. This wasn't the time for his jokes especially when he looked disturbingly amused by my predicament.
"How much did that thing weigh?" I asked, trying to calculate the mathematics of my misery.
Jaipa scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Considering its size... a few hundred kilograms, easily. Those things are dense with muscle, and that exoskeleton didn't looked lightweight either."
"A few hundred kilograms." The number repeated in my mind like a death sentence. I was carrying hundreds of additional pounds distributed across my entire body. Every step felt like wading through thick mud, and I could already feel my stamina draining away.
"The question is," I forced myself to take a step forward an action that required significantly more effort than it should have "is this permanent?"
"How should I know?" Jaipa threw his hands up, walking with an exaggerated swagger as if he were posing for a photoshoot. "Your magical mystery beads just devoured a walker and transferred its mass to you like some twisted physics experiment."
I had to admit he had a point. The beads had never exhibited behavior like this before. For an entire month, they had been content to orbit the ring in silent, seemingly inactive meditation. What had changed? What had triggered this transformation?
"Maybe..." I said slowly, working through the logic while leaning against a nearby tree. "Wait ! How did I miss this?"
The pieces suddenly clicked into place. Until now, the beads had never reacted to anything during the entire month of their existence. But there was one crucial difference today for the first time, I had slain a walker rather than ordinary creatures.
"The beads only react to walkers," I gasped
Jaipa's voice cracked slightly. "You mean... that's their purpose? How did we not think of that before?"
Despite everything, I almost smiled. " Almost." The crushing weight made actual humor impossible. I stood there, leaning heavily against the tree, feeling the aftermath of our discovery. The forest had grown eerily quiet around us. If I had to guess, other creatures had fled when the Rhasura appeared and hadn't yet returned. Smart of them. The lingering aura of death and strangeness probably made this entire area feel cursed.
"We need to move," I said, though the thought of walking any significant distance filled me with dread. "Staying here isn't safe."
"Move?" Jaipa stared at me incredulously. "You can barely stand! How are you going to"
I took another step, then another. Each movement was agony, but it was manageable. Barely manageable, but possible nonetheless. This felt familiar like the additional gravity training Master Edhir had subjected me to. The principle was the same, even if the source was different. Most importantly, I didn't have a choice. In this cursed life of mine, I never seemed to have a choice.
" Damn my luck ! "
"This is insane," Jaipa muttered, but he fell into step beside me, considerably slowing his pace to match mine. "You know you're going to die out here, right? If another walker shows up while you're carrying the weight of a small building, you're finished."
"You're here, aren't you?"
My words hung in the air, creating a long, unspoken understanding between us.
As we made our slow, painful progress through the forest, a troubling thought occurred to me. "Jaipa, what if this isn't the only thing they can do?"
"What do you mean?"
"The beads. What if devouring walkers and transferring their weight is just... the beginning? What if they have other abilities I don't know about?"
The question sparked another realization one that made me angry with myself. After gaining my second key's ability, I had never properly explored its potential. I'd never had the time or opportunity to test what my power could accomplish when used to its full extent, but in truth, it was never my fault. I hadn't been granted a single favorable situation throughout this entire ordeal. Every circumstance led to the same inevitable conclusion hardship. Always hardship.
" Every damn time. "
Just when I thought I might catch a break, when I dared to hope for even a moment of respite, some new crisis would emerge and cling to me like a parasite, poisoning any chance of peace.
" Was I born to struggle? Was suffering my only destiny? "
Taking a deep breath, I straightened and raised my hand toward the ring floating above my head. The solution had always been so simple just a touch of my fingers and a moment of focused concentration was all it required to activate my ability. Yet I, foolish creature that I was, had never bothered to explore it properly.
The realization made me angry with myself. How could I have neglected something so fundamental? I should have devoted time to understanding what I possessed, should have explored the depths of my own power. But there had never been time. Every night when I tried to sleep, the same thoughts circled endlessly through my mind, always returning to that one word that single designation that defined my existence.
" Slave "
That word alone was enough to drive me forward through any blood-soaked battlefield, enough motivation to take another step into the darkness that seemed to follow me everywhere.
The word repeated in my mind like a war cry, a reminder of what I had to overcome.
With focused concentration, I began gaining the information I sought. However, along with the relevant data came an overwhelming flood of unnecessary details about the ring. I knew this was dangerous my mind could collapse from information overload, and in the worst case, it could kill me. But somehow, I managed to maintain control.
At least, I thought I did.
"Why... why is the world spinning around me?"
Everything around me began rotating like a tornado, like the forest was blurring around me
"What did you do? Why are you bleeding?" Jaipa grabbed my shoulder, his voice was ringing in my still i could fell his concern in it
"My..." My own voice ringing in my head repeatedly, creating an endless loop. "Oh, my eyes... why do they feel blurry? Jaipa, look—"
"Idiot! What did you do?"
The sound of my body hitting the ground was the last thing I heard before darkness got me.
---
Rudra was meant to fall. He had just absorbed a massive amount of information that his brain couldn't handle. Whether this would lead to something beneficial or disastrous remained to be seen but then again, he had always found himself in the worst possible situations to begin with...