Max could not sleep, work or feel a moment's peace for two straight days after his confrontation with Rudra.
He was agonising internally and felt a thousand times worse than what he felt when his ex-girlfriend Sophie cheated and broke up with him in his past life.
He could not stop thinking about what happened, he revisited the conversation again and again and performed a lot of introspection about his choice of words and his attitude.
He regretted some of the things he said and felt gravely mistaken to have suggested that Rudra did not care about Junior the same way that he cared about Jake and Amy.
Yes Rudra was harsh, he wasn't the ' kindest ' individual in the universe, however, there was no question about his dedication to the family.
He had always looked out for everyone, and there was no question that without him the Rajput's would be constantly harassed by the rest of the universe.
What happened to Junior was an unfortunate accident and the emotional turmoil he felt from seeing his son suffer such a loss made him lash out at his brother which in the end made him feel even worse.
From the start, Max only wanted to convey the message that it was the seeds that were clouding his better judgement and he never intended to accuse Rudra personally, however, in a lapse of judgement he said things he did not truly mean and hurt his brother's feelings.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHowever, if there was one thing he wasn't sorry for it was his demand that Rudra give up the seeds as he had no question in his mind that his brother was better off without them even if he did not acknowledge that fact himself.
' I'll rip those seeds off you brother, not to kill you, but to save you. That much I promise you ' Max thought as he kept tossing and turning in anxiety and despair.
The atmosphere of the entire family had turned sombre after the brothers fought as it was the kids and women who were affected the most from the brawl.
The Rajput family was a tight unit, with Ruby and Anna being real sisters just like himself and Max while the kids shared a close bond with the elders.
The two brothers fighting was extremely hard on them and especially Kartikeya who felt like this was all his fault.
The usually mischievous and full of life kid had not spoken once in two days and would not make eye-contact with Max even when he tried to console him.
Although he had not heard the boy say those words himself, apparently he told Asiva that he felt like he should have just died rather than selfishly trying to live as at least then the family would have avoided this mess.
Just listening to those words being spoken made Max feel like his heart broke into a million pieces as he felt worse about confronting Rudra in his angered state of mind.
' Fuck it- I'm going out to kill Ulrich ' Max thought as he decided to blow off the steam of family issues by performing his duty as vampire king as no matter how much he regretted his actions, there was no changing them now.
On the bright side, doctors and specialist healers said that although Juniors mind had regressed to that of a four year old, he was going to mature mentally at twice the speed of a normal child going forward and had not suffered any permanent losses.
After four years, he would regain his mental age of 12 and about four years after that his mental age would catch up with his physical age as a twenty year old.
This meant that the setback that he had suffered was not permanent and his brother's timely effort to save his soul resulted in Kremeth surviving certain death.
It was a great relief to both Max and Asiva that Junior was going to be fine in the long run, however, it only made Max's guilt about hastily confronting Rudra even worse.
Heading out alone, Max completely disregarded his initial plan to lead a full army and liberate planet Zika, as he instead decided to go-in solo and relieve some of the frustrations that he felt.
*********
( Meanwhile Rudra )
" Give me the void seed " Rudra said as Odin tried to desperately talk Rudra out of his hasty choice.
" Just a week ago, supreme lord, you seemed to understand that you need more time to master the seeds.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmJust consuming them won't work. You need to also be able to control them " Odin warned as he could not understand why Rudra was behaving as foolishly as he did today.
Uptil now, he had always behaved like a reasonable man, however, the man Odin saw today seemed to have an intense desire to self -destruct as if he was filled upto the brim with self disgust.
" The universe is no longer hospitable to me, it's best if I move on…. It can't be helped, I've decided to accelerate the time-line of my ascension.
I'm going to consume one seed now and the time seed soon thereafter. That's my final decision " Rudra said as Odin helplessly waved his hands around and said " If it's about your nephew, Supreme Lord, he's fine! He will recover, please don't punish yourself for something that's temporary "
Rudra glared at Odin, the last thing he wanted was moral lessons on what he could or could not do as he unsheathed grim reaper and pointed it towards Odin.
" Choose wisely, soulmancer, the seed or your head " Rudra said threateningly as Odin swallowed back a mouthful of saliva.
Uptil a few days ago, his plan was working perfectly.
Rudra was growing as a genuine contender against the perfect warrior while Max was also budding nicely.
If only things were not messed up by the perfect warrior himself, Odin was sure he was onto something special with the two brothers.
Reluctantly handing over the seed, Odin hoped for the best but knew in his heart that Rudra was not ready to handle the backlash.