The world seemed to pause.
The chanting faded.
The red glow below flickered like a dying heartbeat.
Aarohi's silver eyes stared into Veer's soul—eyes that held a thousand memories, thousands of years old.
And her hand…
Still reaching out.
Still waiting.
Desai stood trembling, his rosary clutched tightly.
"Veer," he gasped. "You know what you have to do. Kill her. End this. The Hollow God cannot rise again."
Veer's hand shook around the bone dagger.
His fingers burned from its power.
He looked at Aarohi… and for a moment, saw the girl he had married.
Laughing in the kitchen. Crying at their vows.
That first night in Hollowridge… when everything still felt human.
But now…
This was not the same woman.
And yet, it was.
Aarohi stepped closer, her voice soft.
"I don't want to destroy the world, Veer.
But I can't return to who I was either."
The red chasm pulsed under her feet.
"All I know is—without you—I'll be lost."
She offered her hand again.
"Come with me. Not to serve the god. But to control it."
The cultists gasped.
Desai screamed, "Don't listen! It's lying! That's not your wife—it's the gate speaking through her!"
Veer turned toward him, eyes glazed.
"She's in there," he said. "I know she is."
The dagger felt like it weighed a thousand tons.
Veer raised it—
Desai braced—
The cult waited—
And Veer dropped it.
The bone blade clattered onto the stone floor, rolling to Desai's feet.
Veer reached out…
…and took Aarohi's hand.
The instant their fingers touched, the ground split.
The red light surged upward.
Wind roared through the temple, ripping symbols from the walls.
Cultists dropped to their knees, weeping and chanting:
"She is the Gate. He is the Key.
Together, they wake the god beneath the sea."
Aarohi's body glowed with silver fire.
Veer's eyes turned black.
Their hands rose, palms outstretched—
—and the chasm responded.
A roar.
Deafening.
Like a thousand voices crying from beneath the world.
And then…
A face.
Rising from the red depths.
Faceless.
Massive.
Burning.
The Hollow God.
Desai cried, "NO! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!"
He lunged for the dagger—
But the floor exploded beneath him, sending him flying into the wall.
Veer and Aarohi floated above the broken altar, entwined in light and shadow.
And the Hollow God stared up at them…
…not as prey…
…but as its children.
Veer looked down at the face of the world's buried nightmare.
And whispered, "You don't control us."
Aarohi's voice followed his:
"We control you."
The Hollow God screamed.
The world shook.
But the couple stood strong—man and woman, husband and wife, mortal and divine—refusing to bow.
And in that moment…
The red light vanished.
The chasm closed.
The earth stilled.
The cultists collapsed, unconscious.
The air cleared.
Only Desai remained, watching from the rubble, his eyes filled with horror.
"You've changed everything," he whispered.
Veer helped Aarohi down to the stone floor.
She leaned against him.
Smiled.
Softly.
Sadly.
"I don't know what I am anymore," she said.
Veer kissed her forehead.
"Then we'll find out. Together."
But far, far below…
In a sealed crypt beneath Hollowridge—
a second heartbeat started.
Not Aarohi's.
Not the god's.
But something that had watched all along.
Something older.
Hungrier.
And waiting.