The cave trembled.
Deep within Bhouldera Cave, a chamber sealed for centuries had become the battlefield of legends. Red runes etched into the walls pulsed with a sinister glow, casting a crimson hue over the ancient stone. Sharp crystals protruded from the ceiling like fangs, and the ground below was cracked and bleeding heat. The scent of ash and magic filled the air. Every breath was heavy, every heartbeat louder than the last.
The war was already halfway lost.
Gautam stood at the center, surrounded by the broken bodies of his own generals, yet not a scratch marked his skin. His black cloak flowed unnaturally, fused with a dark aura that shimmered with forbidden energy. In his chest, embedded like a cursed gem, pulsed the Dravillian Stone — the source of his terrifying might.
"You defeated my generals," he said with a mocking smirk. His voice echoed across the cavern like the whisper of death. "And now you think you can defeat me?"
Blood dripped from the lips of the heroes. Zoya knelt beside Radha, shielding her with a trembling arm. Sahil stood barely upright, one arm shattered and hanging limp. Harun gritted his teeth, his own wounds painting his face and chest in crimson streaks.
Sahil stepped forward, his voice dry but defiant. "We didn't come here to die, Gautam."
Gautam's smirk widened. "Then you should have stayed home."
He raised his hand, and in an instant, a shimmering barrier of dark energy enveloped his body. It clung to him like a second skin, rippling with ancient symbols that moved like liquid metal.
"This barrier," he said, "nullifies all forms of magic. Elemental, spiritual, divine — it doesn't matter. Nothing can touch me now."
Harun clenched his fist.
"Void Punch!"
He launched forward, his violet-glowing fist carving a trail through the air like a comet. As it collided with the barrier, the light was swallowed whole. No explosion. No impact. Just silence.
The attack had vanished — nullified without a trace.
Sahil grunted in frustration. "Tornado Spiral!"
Wind tore through the chamber as a cyclone formed in his palm and spiraled toward Gautam. Radha joined in with her Serpent Vines, thick green whips slithering across the floor. Zoya followed, forming a glacial spear with a single motion and firing it toward Gautam's head.
The three attacks struck together — an elemental storm of wind, earth, and ice.
And yet, the moment they touched the barrier, they disintegrated.
"Nullified," Gautam said again, calmly.
His smirk didn't fade. It grew colder.
"You brought the Guardian Trinity," he said, eyes shifting to Radha. "The Ice Queen," he added, nodding toward Zoya. "And I see you've powered up… but tell me — can you survive this?"
Gautam raised his palm to the air.
"Trillion Forces."
A gravitational shockwave burst outward. Invisible and overwhelming, it pressed down on every body in the cave. The weight was unbearable. Radha fell to her knees, vines withering. Zoya's breath left her lungs in a gasp as blood trickled from her mouth. Even Harun's body bent under the pressure, his bones creaking under the force.
Sahil screamed. "We can't… move..."
Harun's vision blurred. His thoughts fractured. But somewhere within, a voice whispered.
Not today.
He forced his hand up, trembling. His lips moved.
"Bhramm of Vision…"
A flash of violet light exploded from his mind, a psychic attack meant to shatter perception. A trick of the mind, designed to overwhelm and blind.
But Gautam didn't even blink.
He simply raised a finger. And the light died.
"Null," he said flatly. "Don't you get it, Harun? This isn't just power. This is absolute control."
Harun's heart pounded harder. For a moment, fear crept in — not of death, but of being completely helpless.
He roared and launched himself again. Blow after blow. Abyssal Core. Meteor Punch. Black Hole Kick. Void Gate.
Every technique.
Every ounce of strength.
All nullified.
And then, Gautam moved.
One step. One motion.
A slap — open-handed.
But the force…
Harun flew across the cave like a ragdoll. His mouth burst open with blood. A tooth snapped. His nose cracked sideways. He crashed against the wall, dust raining down as stone shattered behind him.
Sahil cried out, "Harun!"
But Harun didn't respond.
Gautam turned to them all. "Still alive? Pathetic."
Sahil clenched his fist — or tried to. His other hand was already useless. Now, even this one trembled with damage. He stepped forward anyway.
"I remember everything," he said quietly. "From my past life. I was there. You were weak then, too."
Harun's eyes blinked open through blood and haze. "Still calling me weak…?"
"Help me stop him," Sahil growled. "We lose now, the world dies."
Harun spit blood and smiled — a savage, cracked smile.
"Then let's kill him together."
Zoya stood up. "Don't forget us."
Radha wiped the blood from her forehead. "We're still alive."
The team reformed.
Radha summoned Tendrils from the earth, trapping Gautam's legs. Zoya fired a volley of ice projectiles. Sahil unleashed a compressed Gust that bent the cave walls. Harun blurred into motion — Violet Dash ignited around him as he reappeared above Gautam.
The attacks hit together.
But again, the barrier held.
Gautam laughed.
"You think this is enough to beat me?"
He raised his hand again. "Track Punch."
He drove his fist into Radha's face.
Blood exploded from her nose and lips.
"Nuclear Kick."
Zoya took the hit full-force. She collapsed unconscious.
"Bang Punch."
Sahil's second arm snapped. He cried out in agony.
Then came Harun.
"CoatBelt…"
Gautam's fists rained down like hammers.
One. Two. Three. Dozens.
By the time it stopped, Harun's body was twisted and limp. One hundred six of his bones had broken.
He hit the ground.
Unconscious.
And Gautam stood tall.
"These fools thought they could defeat me."
He turned his back.
"It's time to release Master Azaldera."
Silence fell inside Bhouldera Cave. The echoes of Gautam's blows still bounced off the jagged walls, fading slowly like the dying heartbeat of a collapsing world.
Zoya lay motionless near the fallen crystal basin. Blood trickled from her temple. Radha was pinned beneath a slab of stone, gasping for air. Sahil knelt alone, arms hanging like broken ropes, unable to move them, unable to lift even a finger.
And Harun... Harun wasn't moving at all.
Gautam stood in the crimson-lit chamber, calm, confident, as if he hadn't even broken a sweat. He turned and walked toward the ancient pedestal that once sealed the nightmare entity known as Azaldera.
"We're done here," he muttered.
From the shadows behind him emerged a hooded warrior — one of the last remaining cultists. His eyes were glazed in madness, and a deep scar stretched across his throat, as if prepared for what was coming.
Gautam nodded.
"It's time."
The cultist stepped forward and unsheathed a thin ritual blade. Without hesitation, he slit his own throat, letting his blood spray across the floor like ink. His body collapsed as the blood pooled unnaturally — forming into a glowing red sigil carved like a twisted star.
The symbols on the walls began to respond.
They burned brighter.
And the air shifted.
A low rumble vibrated the floor — not from Gautam this time, but from something older... something darker. A pressure filled the cavern that was unlike anything felt before. It wasn't energy. It was presence. A consciousness vast and ancient, waking from endless slumber.
Sahil, despite the pain, forced himself to rise.
Even with both arms shattered.
Even with blood dripping from his mouth.
He stood.
"I won't let this happen," he said, more to himself than to Gautam.
"You can barely walk," Gautam said without turning. "You think you'll stop me?"
Sahil gritted his teeth. "I'll try."
He lifted his foot and summoned the last remnants of his internal energy.
"Cold Wind."
A ghostly gust rushed from his mouth, slicing toward Gautam like an icy blade. But Gautam merely turned his head.
"Triple Bond Kick."
His leg moved like a whip, smashing into Sahil's jaw. The sound was sickening. Sahil hit the wall and crumpled, dazed, barely conscious.
But he rose again.
Wobbling.
Shaking.
Mouth dripping blood.
"I'm still breathing," he gasped. "That's all I need."
Gautam's expression faltered slightly — not in fear, but in surprise. There was something maddening about someone who couldn't be broken, no matter how shattered they were.
"You're wasting your time," Gautam said. "You couldn't even save your brother back then. And now, you'll fail again."
Sahil blinked — flashes of another life rushing through his mind. The screams of a dying sibling. The blood. The helplessness.
"No," he whispered. "Not this time."
Gautam raised his leg again.
"Ritz Trickled Kick."
But as the attack came down, it stopped.
It froze mid-air.
An invisible force — a ripple in the fabric of reality — had intercepted it.
Gautam's eyes widened slightly. "What...?"
Sahil didn't look behind him. He just grinned faintly.
"Took you long enough."
From the edge of the fallen stones, a figure stood once again.
Harun.
His face was bloodied. His clothes torn. His body covered in bruises and cuts. But his eyes — they were burning.
"I was unconscious," Harun said hoarsely, "because 106 of my bones were shattered. But pain... pain doesn't matter anymore."
Sahil turned to him. "You sure you're awake this time?"
Harun smirked. "Only because you kept talking."
"You gonna stand there or fight?"
"I'll fight," Harun said, stepping forward. "And I'll win."
Gautam rolled his eyes. "You're both half-dead."
But Harun's aura had changed.
He activated something without speaking it aloud — something ancient, something psychological.
Bhramm of Shape.
The cave didn't see it. Gautam didn't feel it. But Harun's mind had been rewritten. Every wound, every crack, every break — in his mind, they no longer existed. His brain refused to register damage. Instead, it converted the pain into power. A delusion so deep that it had become real.
And power began to rise.
It leaked from him in waves — black and violet arcs surging across the broken floor. The very air around him shimmered.
But still... Gautam didn't flinch.
"Even now, you're nothing."
Harun raised his hand.
"COULVILD BEAM."
A linear blast erupted from his palm, so dense that the cave shook. It struck Gautam's barrier with a noise like thunder compressed into a single second.
Dust exploded. Rocks fell.
But when the mist cleared — Gautam still stood.
No damage. Not even a crack.
"I told you to stop wasting my time," he said calmly. "You're not even scratching me. You're not warriors. You're time-wasters."
He raised both hands.
"This ends now."
From the darkness around him, shadows twisted and warped.
"Thousand of Slices."
His form blurred as he moved at near-invisible speed, launching violet-draken strikes in all directions.
Each slice tore the ground apart.
Harun, Sahil, Radha, and even Zoya barely conscious — were flung back like dolls in a tornado. The cave walls splintered. A ceiling chunk fell down.
Everyone lay silent.
Broken.
Until...
Harun's fingers twitched.
He rose again.
One foot first. Then the other.
"I won't let you kill anyone else."
He screamed.
A burst of raw energy exploded from his chest, and stone debris rose around him, orbiting his body like armor. The debris condensed, solidifying into a dark metallic suit with pulsating veins of violet energy.
Debris Armor.
He glared at Gautam.
"This armor is fused with Dravillian energy. Your barrier won't be enough now."
Gautam charged. "Let's test that."
He slammed into Harun with a violet dash punch. The impact was like a meteor strike. Cracks ran across the debris armor.
Then it shattered.
Harun screamed in pain, knees buckling. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
"What... the hell are you?" he gasped.
But then — movement.
Zoya.
Radha.
Sahil.
All stood again.
Bleeding. Broken.
But not done.
Zoya raised her hand. "We're with you, Harun."
She summoned a storm of ice.
Radha conjured divine vines from the cave's roots.
Sahil called forth a spiraling wind tower.
Harun raised his fist again.
Violet Realm.
The four attacks merged.
A single, unified strike.
It hit Gautam head-on.
The cave trembled again.
And for the first time...
A scratch appeared on Gautam's cheek.
Harun stared.
"It worked…"
He turned to the others.
"We can win... if we strike together."
The scratch on Gautam's cheek shimmered under the red glow of the runes.
He slowly brought his fingers to it, touching the warm line of blood. It wasn't deep. Barely even a wound. But it had been made.
And for the first time since he had claimed the Dravillian Stone, he bled.
Gautam smiled.
Not in pain. Not in anger.
In pure thrill.
"So," he whispered, eyes glinting like a predator's. "You finally managed to scratch me."
The cave trembled slightly under his presence. A new kind of pressure began to rise — something deeper, darker than before. Gautam raised his arms slowly, as if pulling something from the void around him.
"You've seen my vision once before, Harun. But this is not the illusion I used earlier. This is something much... deeper."
The runes across his barrier began to spin.
His voice darkened.
"This is the perfected form of my Bhramm — one that traps not only the eyes... but the soul."
Harun's eyes widened.
"No—"
"Nayantara."
The word echoed across the cavern like the tolling of a cursed bell.
A wave of black and violet light exploded outward, sweeping across the room. No time to dodge. No time to react.
All four were caught in it.
And the world vanished.
Silence.
A dreamlike haze.
Then, light.
But not the cave.
Not the crystals.
Not the blood.
Each of them — Harun, Zoya, Sahil, Radha — found themselves alone.
In a world that looked real.
Too real.
Harun's Illusion
He stood on a grassy hill beneath a warm sky. Birds flew above. The wind was gentle.
And beside him… she stood.
A girl with soft eyes. The one he had loved.
The one he had failed to save.
She smiled. "You came back."
Harun's voice cracked. "This… this isn't real."
She laughed softly. "Does it matter? You can rest now."
His hands trembled. "No. You're… dead. I saw you die. I couldn't save you."
"You don't have to save anyone anymore," she whispered. "Just stay. Be happy."
He fell to his knees.
For a moment, he wanted to.
But then...
He remembered the blood in the cave.
His friends.
Zoya. Sahil. Radha.
And his eyes burned again.
"No..."
The illusion shimmered.
"No, I can't stay here."
He screamed — and the dream cracked like broken glass.
Zoya's Illusion
She stood in a blizzard, alone.
Ahead of her — Harun lay dying, impaled through the chest. His eyes fading.
She crawled toward him.
"Don't die. Please."
He looked at her. "You're… the Ice Queen. But even you couldn't stop this."
"NO!" she cried, ice forming uncontrollably around her arms. "I can fix this!"
"You were always too cold," Harun said softly. "Even to yourself."
The snow thickened, burying her.
She wept.
Until a voice echoed from inside her.
"He's not gone."
Her heart flared with warmth.
And the illusion cracked.
Sahil's Illusion
He was on a battlefield.
His elder brother stood before him, back turned, bleeding heavily.
"Why didn't you save me?"
"I tried!" Sahil screamed. "I wasn't strong enough!"
His brother turned. Face burned. Eyes hollow.
"You abandoned me. And now you'll abandon them too."
Sahil collapsed to his knees.
But then, he saw them — Harun, Zoya, Radha — still fighting.
Still breathing.
"I won't run again."
He stood.
The battlefield dissolved.
Radha's Illusion
A home.
Quiet. Peaceful.
Her husband stood there, smiling. Alive.
He reached for her hand.
"Stay with me."
Her lip trembled. "But… you're gone. I know you are."
"Doesn't this feel better?"
She looked into his eyes.
Then turned her gaze to the ground.
"I already said goodbye."
And she let go.
The house collapsed into smoke.
Back in the cave...
Gautam stood at the center of the crimson sigil. His eyes glowing.
"All of them... trapped. Lost in trauma. They'll die in their own pain."
He glanced at the runes above.
Only five minutes until Azaldera's release.
"Perfect timing."
Then something happened.
A pulse.
From the far end of the room.
Black and violet light began to gather again — but it was different now.
Sharper. Louder. Wilder.
A banshee scream of raw energy.
Harun's body lifted slowly from the ground, eyes closed, fists clenched.
But the bhramma around him howled like a storm through steel.
Then he opened his eyes.
And his gaze broke through the illusion.
He stood.
Back in the real cave.
Gautam's eyes widened.
"You escaped…?"
Harun didn't answer.
He moved.
In an instant, he was inches from Gautam's face.
He threw a punch — not charged, not magical. Just a normal, clean, perfect punch.
Gautam dodged at the last second, a deep instinct kicking in.
But his expression shifted.
Harun had escaped Nayantara.
Without external help.
He landed on the ground, breathing slowly.
"That illusion..." Gautam began.
Harun cut him off.
"Was nothing."
Then, like a glitch in space, he moved again.
Left, right, above — his movements skipped, warped, left afterimages in the air. Every time he blinked, he seemed to appear in a different place.
Gautam blocked — barely.
Harun landed a punch.
A second.
A third.
Then
"Knuckle Drive."
A deep hook caught Gautam in the jaw — and two of his teeth shattered.
Blood flew from his mouth.
Gautam staggered.
The cave fell silent.
Then Harun whispered, low and dark.
"I'm not just going to defeat you... I'm taking your Dravillian Stone too."
And Gautam — for the first time — looked afraid.
Gautam stumbled back, blood dripping from his mouth, eyes wide with disbelief. Harun's fists were no longer just weapons ,they were breaking through his barrier, his rhythm, and even his control.
"You... you've changed," Gautam hissed.
Harun didn't answer.
Behind him, Sahil, Radha, and Zoya were slowly rising to their feet — the illusion broken for all of them. Their bodies were still battered, their clothes torn, faces bloodied — but their eyes burned with purpose.
Zoya raised her palm. "Let's finish this."
Harun nodded. "Together."
But before another step could be taken...
A sound cut through the tension like a scream in a silent cathedral.
The final rune cracked.
The ancient sigil beneath Gautam's feet flared to life, glowing white-hot — then shifted to black, then crimson.
From the other side of the chamber, near the blood-soaked pedestal, the ritual was complete.
The warrior who had offered his blood had already perished, his corpse nothing more than a hollow husk. But the mark he left behind… was perfect.
A glowing five-pointed blood star began to sink into the floor.
And from beneath it...
Something was rising.
The very cave shook — not from an earthquake, but as if the world itself recoiled in fear.
A gust of decayed wind blew outward as a dark claw rose first, clawing out of the blood-star seal. It was massive — long, slender, and armored with plates of black stone and rotting muscle.
Then a second claw.
Then came the shape of a beast — tall as the cave's ceiling, skeletal in form but rippling with monstrous veins of energy.
Eyes opened across its chest. Dozens. Each one blinked — not at once, but slowly, unnervingly — like they were waking from eons of sleep.
Then came its voice.
Not heard through ears.
But felt inside bone.
"...at last... I return…"
Gautam fell to his knees.
"Master Azaldera."
The monster stepped forward fully, shedding the blood seal like a discarded robe. Its body was impossible to fully comprehend — shadows shifted around it as if it existed in multiple planes of reality at once.
Azaldera turned toward Gautam.
Gautam bowed his head low.
"Drink my blood, my lord. Take my life if it gives you strength."
Harun's eyes widened.
"No!"
He dashed forward in a violet burst, but Azaldera was already in motion.
He vanished from the ritual site — and appeared directly behind Gautam.
One claw wrapped around his shoulder.
One sharp fang sank into his neck.
Gautam's scream was short-lived.
In seconds, his body was drained of all blood — shriveled like dried paper.
And the Dravillian Stone?
Azaldera reached down, plucked it from Gautam's chest like plucking a pearl from sand, and crushed it between his fingers.
The stone exploded into shards.
Yet instead of scattering... the shards flowed into his mouth.
He swallowed them whole.
His form grew larger.
More stable.
Stronger.
Then he turned.
And laughed.
A laugh that cracked the walls.
A laugh that triggered tremors.
A laugh that sounded like it came from a hundred mouths speaking in unison.
"Aaaaah... this world still smells of fear."
Azaldera raised one clawed finger and pointed it toward the battlefield.
Fifteen thousand souls — the cult's army, hidden in the outer tunnels — began to march toward him.
Without hesitation, Azaldera opened his mouth.
And drank their blood from across the distance.
Not with fangs.
But with sheer will.
Their bodies exploded into red mist, pulled across the cave into his open jaws like a howling red hurricane. Their screams didn't echo — they were devoured before they even escaped their throats.
Within moments, Azaldera had consumed them all.
Harun's knees buckled.
Zoya covered her mouth in shock.
Radha whispered, "He just... erased them."
Sahil's voice was dry. "He hasn't even used magic yet."
And still — the monster stood, now fully awakened, fully reborn.
Azaldera tilted his head.
His many chest-eyes all blinked and locked onto one point: Harun.
"You... you carry her scent."
Harun frowned. "What?"
Azaldera took a step forward. The stone beneath him melted with each step.
"There is a girl… the one with the arrow mark on her hand. She's alive. I can smell her blood... even from here."
Everyone froze.
Harun remembered it now.
That child.
The girl they once saved from the war-zone.
The one who was marked.
Azaldera's voice lowered.
"She is the one I need. She is the vessel."
He began walking forward.
Buildings — ancient structures inside the cave — began to collapse just from his spiritual weight.
Sahil shouted, "We have to stop him!"
"No!" Harun yelled.
He leapt forward and slammed his hand onto the ground.
"Abyssal Crystal Barrier."
Violet-black crystal erupted from the floor, forming shields over Zoya, Sahil, Radha — and himself.
Azaldera raised one finger.
And flicked.
A ripple of energy surged across the battlefield — not visible, but tangible.
Every ceiling stone above them collapsed.
The entire chamber roared as Bhouldera Cave itself crumbled.
But the barriers held.
Dust filled the air.
And in the aftermath... Azaldera was gone.
He had vanished.
Somewhere in the outside world... now hunting.
And beneath the rubble — beneath the ruins — four glowing violet barriers stood untouched.
Inside them, unconscious but protected...
Harun. Sahil. Zoya. Radha.
They had survived.
But the world had changed forever.
Azaldera was free.
And he was looking for the girl with the arrow mark.