Chapter 2 (The monastery)

Zeya followed the Farmer’s instructions, hid inside a wooden box, and watched outside through a small hole.

Soon, what arrived before the house were people wearing white robes, asking for alms in a deep voice,

“Nga Yaw and Mi Nauk? Do ye have good alms?”

The farmer couple knelt before them, positioned their hands in a lotus posture, and bowed.

“Take, Venerables,”

They gave these white-robed persons most of the crops they harvested that day. The white ones put the alms (crops) in a bag and asked,

“Too little!!! Aren’t ye afraid of hell?”

The wife replied, “Lords, our crops failed this season, that’s why…”

“Shut up! Donate a little and get a little. Never will you escape this life of misery, not even in your next lives!” The white-robed shouted and hit the old lady. Zeya was furious and tried to get up from the box and beat those rude white robbers. But suddenly, the Farmer sat on the box he was in, restricting Zeya to stand up.

Then, the white-robbed alms receivers left and the couple got him outside the box.

“Boy, reduce thy anger,” said the farmer. Zeya said,

“But uncle, which monastery do these savages come from and which authorities are they given to receive alms like robbers? I am going to deal it with their head monk of the monastery,”

“It’s not a normal monk but an ascetic, my son,” said the lady.

“Ascetic should live in woods. Also, why did ye hide me?” He asked and the farmer replied,

“Boy, we admire thee as our son. Because of thy hair, they may accuse ye as a spy. Mg (Pronounce as Maung) Aung, the only son of ours, was furious just like ye and punched these white robes. The next day, surely due to the ascetic’s curse, he vanished without a trace. Till now, we haven’t found him. This ascetic monk is no ordinary. He’s the king’s revered alchemist, U Agga,”

Zeya felt a sense of distress from their words. The people of rural areas believed in such things as alchemy for sure. But how was the king part of it?

“How far have ye gone to not know about U Agga?” The farmer questioned and Zeya answered,

“Our playgroup has been to foreign lands of Ming (China). Now, since it is broken, I’ll go back to Ava to find my parents,”

The wife muttered in an annoyed tone, “I’m not sure whether ye will meet thy family. Most families have moved from Ava to the newly founded Taungoo. The situation in the capital is getting worse. At any time, either the Mo Hyin Shan tribes or the Taungoo could attack it. It was our cling of birthplace that kept us staying in this Popa region. If the conditions got worse, we will evade to Taungoo too,”

Zeya knew the “cling of birthplace” was not the only reason why the couple did not move. They might be afraid that if they moved, their son couldn’t have found them. Anyway, he thanked them for their dinner and left the hut.

Then he tracked the white-robed and followed. These white robes-wearing alm receivers went inside wealthy houses and did the same “Alms receiving” thing. At one mansion, they took a bit longer time. Suddenly, cries appeared from the house and the alms receivers walked out, taking a young lady with them.

This made Zeya so angry that when they reached a deserted spot, Zeya used his psychic power and controlled them, stopping them at the spot. All of their senses shut down for a minute. During this, Zeya released the girl, told her to keep it a secret, and tried to kill the white-robed ones at first. But then he still needed to know their location and decided to spare them.

The white-robed didn’t know what happened to them at first. After noticing the girl has escaped,

“That little bitch is a witch. She enchanted us to escape!!!” one of them barked.

“Ahh, leave her for now! We have to get to the monastery before it gets darker. Let’s burn that bitch’s house tomorrow,” Another said. And they muttered to each other for a moment and then kept walking. When they reached their so-called monastery, Zeya was amazed.

On the outskirts of the town, it lay. More than ten acres, it spent on the area. Surrounded by a wall, it had many buildings in the compound. There stood a place-like five-story main building at the center with pointed roofs and wooden decorations. The main building and the mini surroundings differed from any buildings in Ava. It was similar to the royal place and perhaps even more grand and fancy than the place itself. The materials of the walls were also alien in Zeya’s eye, having lapis lazuli texture. At the front gate of the monastery stood a large rock inscription, writing down the names of the king, Narapati, and other donors from royal and upper-class families. Similar to the palace, it was heavily guarded by white-robed ones for unknown reasons.

Zeya felt sick by the king’s idea of building a large monastery for an ascetic monk while the country was heavily damaged by wars and rebels. He observed the conditions from a tree outside. Then,

“With no ordinary courage, you could sneak into this place,” a whisper appeared. The ruling and gentle whisper of a young lady. He felt a touch from his back. Shocked, he looked around. He could feel his hair go stun for a while. He could find no one except the movement of leaves.

“Who?” He asked and no replies came back.

Zeya at first thought of raiding the monastery as he had done in the Taterian base. But then, due to the gentle whisper, he decided to go sneaking secretly. So, he jumped inside the compound quietly.

Being a former spy, sneaking was not difficult for Zeya. Despite the guards, he managed to get to the main building, the five-storied one, which itself spanned two times the space of a normal monastery.

On the inside, he saw ancient spears, swords, and lenses, that didn’t belong to a monastery, placed on the walls like a showcase. These weapons were old, fragile, and useless. Zeya couldn’t guess the usage except for the show. The interior of the walls also got stranger and reminded Zeya of the spaceships he had been to. He heard sounds of metal steppings from afar. He felt a bit strange as he found that all the rooms were bright in the evening. As he looked above, he saw an LED-like lighting system connected in each room. Zeya was then sure that the so-called ascetic monk was no ordinary man. Either he was an alien or a scientist.

When he arrived at a room, the view shocked him. The shape-shifting mutant he took from the Taterian base was sealed in a glass container in its liquid form. He had realized that he was in great danger as no one except him could contain the mutant. The person who did that would surely be stronger than him, he supposed.

Zeya didn’t care about attention anymore and flew directly to the mutant container, attacking the guards. Using his power, he controlled the guards and hit them with the walls. But as he approached the container, a strong electromagnetic wave pushed him backward, securing the container.

Zeya quickly got up and used his might to figure out the source of the wave. But then,

“Jee…Jee,” Soft metallic noise appeared, and he moved aside, escaping death within a second. A gigantic robot of human height, green in color, hit the place he stood with a giant sledgehammer. Zeya hadn’t found any robot like that when he came in. After moving away, Zeya punched the green robot in its face. But, as his fist arrived, the robot disappeared like a hologram. Zeya’s fist only hit the air.

In front of him, there appeared another robot, golden in color, having feminine features, armed with two swords. With her swords, she attacked Zeya. Zeya dodged her swords and kicked her waist. Just like the green robot, she disappeared before the kick arrived. She appeared again at Zeya’s back and tried to stab him. Zeya could hardly dodge and fall. As Zeya was on the ground, she aimed at him with her swords and tried to stab him again. Zeya controlled the swords with his power and made them stab the robot. But as the sword was near, she disappeared again. Those two robots were like phantoms.

“Jee…Jee,”

Both the green and female robots appeared near him and attacked him with their weapons.

“Bang!” a loud noise appeared as their weapons hit in midair while attacking Zeya.

“Bam…Bam” Loud footsteps appeared. Zeya saw cyborgs coming into their room. These cyborgs had metal parts and weapons such as swords and guns implanted in their bodies. Their appearances were male and all had machines implanted in their heads. Zeya used his power to control them and made their weapons frail and bent. Then the two phantom-like robots appeared again and attacked him. Then, with all the dodging, Zeya couldn’t concentrate and lost his control over the cyborgs.

Still, he used all his might to control again and destroyed most of the robots. But suddenly,

“Bong!!” The green robot hit his back hard. Due to the aching pain, Zeya lost all his control over the cyborgs.

Then, with all the pain, cyborgs, and phantom robots, Zeya felt stuck and realized he couldn’t win. He broke the ceilings of all apartments and retreated from the monastery.

Thank you for reading.

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The pics are AI generated pics of phantom robots