Finally Rudra glanced at his children.
The first one he noticed was Amy, the cute little girl with twin ponytails looked like a spitting image of Naomi.
She held on tightly to Ruby's dress as she gawked at the stone figures carved near the ceiling of the town hall.
' Cute '
That was all Rudra could think as he looked at his lovely daughter as he felt a true sense of hopelessness at not being able to go and give her a hug.
He wondered how soft and comforting it would feel to hug that little soul, how wonderful it would be to hear her call him 'Papa', but that desire would need to be tamed until he killed Lucifer and was ready to spend a life of isolation with them.
Rudra then looked at Jake, the boy who had absolutely no interest in the architecture and was busy troubling the little dwarf by silently pulling strands of his hair.
There was an intelligent glint in the eyes of that boy, which was innocent yet oddly smart.
Looking at him Rudra had a feeling that he was the mischievous brat that was the mother's darling, just like Max was when he was a kid.
Finally, Rudra looked at Kartikeya and finally felt like he was suffering a breakdown.
Ruby was still pregnant when Rudra had died, and he never had the opportunity to see his son being born.
Kartikeya had blue eyes just like his and although he was wearing loose clothes to hide the wings, Rudra could instantly make out that he was born a part angel.
Although the little boy was almost 3 and quite capable of walking around himself, he was being carried in the arms of the vampire girl that Max was so fond of.
A stream of tears dripped from the eyes of the mighty guildmaster of the elites as he realised that he had missed the birth of his third son and much of his golden childhood.
Despite all the power he had accumulated, despite everything he had achieved, in the end he could not even be there for his wife in a time where she would have needed him the most.
In the end he could not even hold his newborn child even though he was right in front of him.
Even with all that power, in the end he was powerless.
Rudra sobbed, he sobbed inconsolably for a full five minutes until his family was finally out of his view, probably having continued on their tour of the city.
It was only then that the gears in his brain began to turn and he started to devise a strategy to get close to his family.
Warping out of Dombivli, Rudra headed for planet Radiance. His goal being to buy a giant stuffed toy to attract the kid's attention.
*********
( Current time, in the carnival stall )
Rudra as the bald old human sat in front of a giant panda as he opened a small stall in the carnival, waiting for the touring party to come.
Seeing the massive price behind him, he was often approached by some vampire parents and kids, but he turned them all down saying that the stall was currently closed.
After a few minutes, he saw Max's group enter the carnival as a soft smile spread on his lips.
Without making eye contact, he waited for the group to approach him of their own volition and approach they did once the eyes of the kids were drawn to the giant panda.
" Uncle Max! I want it! I want that panda! " Amy said as she jumped up and down in excitement.
Max looked at the stall owner and raised an eyebrow, panda's were a famous toy from Earth, but they were not something one would expect to see in a stall in Dombivli.
He inspected the old man and found that he was just a tier1 old human who was most likely from Earth as his vigilance of the man dropped.
" How can we win that price old man? " Sebastian the dwarf asked Rudra as Rudra slowly got to his feet, struggling deliberately as he did so by putting hands over his knees for support like old people usually did.
" It's 1 silver coin to play- " Rudra said as Sebastian instantly flicked him a gold coin and said " Keep the change "
Rudra kissed the gold coin before putting it against his forehead and then in his pocket as he seemed to be extremely appreciative of the gesture.
" The game is simple. I will stomp my right foot to the ground, and all you need to do to win the prize is to make it budge by even a centimetre.
If you manage to shake my leg off even a little, you win " Rudra said as he explained the rules of the game listening to which Sebastian could not help but let out a small chuckle.
He was looking down on the old man as he studied the weak frame and then the frail legs of the old man and then imagined a scene of him falling flat on his butt as someone like Jake applied the slightest bit of force.
" I will do it! I will win it for Amy! " Jake said as he tried to be the cool big brother.
Sebastian looked towards Naomi for confirmation as if he should let Jake try or not and once Naomi nodded, Sebastian stepped aside to let him try.
" Come on Jake, you can do it! " Ruby said as she clapped for Jake
" Jake, do it! " The little Kartikeya said as he clapped as well while everyone else looked on in anticipation.
Rudra pretended to struggle with his hips before planting his right foot firmly to the ground as he began to quite enjoy this ongoing charade now.
" Come " he said as he signalled for Jake to give it his best shot.
The little kid came upto Rudra with full confidence as he bent his little frame and held onto Rudra's feet firmly.
' May God bless you my child ' Rudra thought as he showered his heartfelt blessings on Jake as he tried to put his full back behind making Rudra's feet budge.
Jake made cute grunting noises as he tried and tried, but was unable to lift Rudra's feet off the floor.
Once that failed, Jake began kicking his shins and tried to push his thighs back but little did the kid know that the thighs he was trying to push back belonged to the God King himself, it was something he would not be able to budge even if he was much older and stronger than he currently was, hence naturally his attempt ended in a failure.
Once his failure was declared, he seemed deflated as he looked at Rudra with small bits of water in his eyes that made Rudra almost chuckle out loud.
" Old man is strong " Jake said as he accepted his failure and walked back with his head hung low.
" Awww, good try buddy " Naomi said trying to cheer him on as she ruffled his hair, but Jake was having none of it, he seemed genuinely pissed.
" Don't worry Jake, let big sister take care of this instead of you! " Anna said as she volunteered to win this challenge for Amy in his stead.
" Is it okay if I try? " Anna asked Rudra, not sure if it was okay for her to participate, but Rudra only smiled a wrinkled smile and said " Sure, you may try "
Things were truly getting interesting now!
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/// A/N - This bonus sponsored by patron MagNum932, please thank him in the comments for this one ///