Vaakyamaala moved like a nightmare unbound.
Its form writhed between solid and intangible—its limbs extending into tangled lines of divine script, bleeding black ink and cracking the temple walls with each flicker.
Its voice came in fragments.
"REVOKED—EXILE—FALSE-PRAYER—KNEEL—KNEEL—KNEEL."
But Astha wasn't listening.
His sword, Ashvaanta, hovered in front of him, burning with summoned flame, while Smritidhaara coiled and uncoiled like a living chain-snake of fire, tethered to the past. Behind him, Luv's silver armor crackled, and Naira's Garuda-winged blade pulsed with a humming resonance.
"Luv," Astha said, never taking his eyes off the creature,
"Split the arena. Don't let it escape."
"On it."
Luv slammed his palms to the glass floor. Divine lightning surged outward in a ring, forming a crackling dome of thunder-bound scripture, sealing the chamber.
The Word-Eater turned its eyeless face toward the sigil-barrier and screeched.
"UNSPEAKABLE. THIS SCRIPT… WAS FORGOTTEN."
"And I brought it back," Luv grinned.
"I'm full of surprises."
--
Vaakyamaala struck.
It launched ribbons of sharpened mantra, spears of syllables designed to erase, not kill. One slash narrowly missed Naira's throat, scraping her shoulder and carving a glyph into her armor. She staggered.
"It's trying to write us into nothing!" she shouted.
"Let it try," Astha snarled.
He lunged. Ashvaanta clashed with the creature's shifting limbs, which hardened into obsidian claws as it defended. Sparks of forgotten languages flew with every strike.
Then came the scream—
a soundless pulse that hit like divine vertigo.
Astha was thrown back, blood leaking from his nose, visions of his homeland burning flashing behind his eyes.
Luv caught him mid-air and tossed him back onto his feet.
"You're slipping."
"I'm remembering," Astha muttered.
---
Smritidhaara Awakens
The chain pulsed.
Flames erupted not from Smritidhaara's metal, but from memory—each ember whispered a name, each link a face.
Astha stood and rotated his wrist. The chain circled him in a halo of fire.
"This one," he said,
"has eaten too many truths."
Smritidhaara pierced through the Word-Eater's chest, wrapping around it with divine intention. The creature screeched in a broken dialect, trying to rewrite the chain.
It failed.
The chain held fast—Smritidhaara was not forged from scripture.
It was forged from forgotten souls.
"This is for every voice you erased," Astha said.
And then he twisted the chain.
The creature began to unravel.
---
As Vaakyamaala flailed, Luv and Naira moved as one.
She darted forward, Garuda blade slicing through one arm—her strikes pure, surgical, heart-driven. Luv followed with a burst of divine lightning, blasting apart the symbols forming its core.
The temple trembled.
Vaakyamaala collapsed onto its knees, its voice disintegrating into ashes of broken sentences.
Astha walked forward, placing his palm over its formless face.
"The silence you forced on others," he said softly.
"Will now be yours."
Smritidhaara lit the chamber in flame—
—and the Word-Eater was no more.
---
Aftermath :
The room dimmed. The Divine Shard, now fully exposed, hovered in place, calm and humming.
Astha reached for it once more.
It didn't resist.
Instead, it sank into his chest, embedding itself behind his heart. Ashvaanta flared for a moment, then cooled—its blade now tinged with ethereal blue-white streaks. His aura shifted.
Something changed.
A new tier of strength, a new depth of memory.
"You okay?" Luv asked.
"I remember more than I want to," Astha said.
"But do you feel stronger?"
"No," he said, clenching his fist.
"I feel responsible."
---
As they prepared to leave, Naira paused.
"We're not alone."
In the shadows, a crack opened in the floor. From it, a cloaked figure emerged—small, childlike, wearing no crown or armor. Its face was blank, featureless… but familiar.
"Another guardian?" Luv asked.
"No," Naira whispered.
"This one's not divine."
"Then what is it?"
Astha narrowed his eyes.
"A message. From something older than the gods."
The child-figure opened its mouth—and screamed without sound. The walls cracked. The ceiling groaned.
And above them, the Heavenly Citadel of Swarnalok stirred awake.