Kartik appeared back in the place he had come from, and he looked completely shocked.
As the weight of everything he had witnessed pressed down on him, Kartik's expression remained frozen—his eyes wide, his breath unsteady—as if his mind was struggling to return to the present moment.
Ira walked closer to him with a soft, worried frown. Her steps were cautious, almost hesitant, as if she feared he might shatter at the slightest touch.
"Kartik… Kartik… where were you lost? What were you thinking?" she called out gently.
Kartik snapped back to reality, realizing Ira was calling him.
A subtle wave of clarity washed over Kartik as he blinked, his surroundings slowly sharpening into focus. He turned toward Ira, the echo of her voice pulling him out of the haze that had consumed him moments ago.
Then in the next scene Ira said, "Kartik, where do you keep getting lost again and again? You think so much, yaar!"
Before Kartik could respond, he said, "Actually, I was think… thinking about Chaa… Chaaya…"
But before he could finish, Kartik's eyes slowly closed, and at that point he completely lost his consciousness and fainted.
He could still barely hear Ira shouting behind him, "Kartik! Kartik! What happened? Get up, Kartik! Rayan! Lyra…!"
Kartik heard only that much, and then everything turned dark before his eyes.
In the next scene, Kartik found himself inside a dream — a completely new realm where nothing existed. Kartik was floating, surrounded on all sides by pure white light.
Just then, Kartik faintly heard a voice saying,
"Kartik ale… my child, what happened? Don't trouble your mother."
Kartik slowly turned around, and the moment he looked back, the entire realm shifted.
It changed into a room inside a grand palace, where a small baby lay in a cradle while his mother lovingly caressed him. Everything was still blurry, and Kartik couldn't understand anything. He couldn't even move on his own — all he could do was watch whatever appeared in front of him.
As Kartik observed this strange scene, the blurred edges of the room shimmered softly, and a gentle warmth filled the air, making the whole place feel unreal yet strangely peaceful.
Everything was still blurry.
Meanwhile, the baby's mother gently picked him up and said,
"Come, my child… it's time for your bath."
The scene shifted again. Now the baby and his mother were in a large, elegant room—perhaps part of a royal household. The mother gently dressed the child in fine clothes and said,
"Come on, wear this quickly. You know today is your birthday, right?"
Her voice carried a soft excitement, as if the whole room was preparing to celebrate that special day.
Then the scene changed once again. Now it felt as if the entire kingdom was celebrating—people everywhere were filled with joy, the whole land seemed to be rejoicing, and a grand festive atmosphere surrounded everything.
As the celebration spread across the kingdom, colorful banners fluttered in the air, music echoed through the streets, and people danced with unrestrained happiness. The entire land seemed alive with joy, as if every corner of the realm was honoring a moment too important to ignore.
In the next scene, just as the baby's mother (Kartik's mother) was about to lift him from the cradle, everything suddenly changed.
Where there had been celebration moments ago, there was now complete silence.
Everyone stood frozen, staring at the sky, where something strange had appeared. It wasn't anything ordinary—those were the same portals Kartik had seen before, the very ones he had come through.
Seeing this, Kartik was utterly shocked.
How is this even possible? These are the exact same portals I entered through… but here, there are so many of them. And one more thing—I don't understand why everything is so blurry, yet these portals look perfectly clear to me.
In the same scene, countless terrifying monsters began emerging from the portals. Chaos erupted everywhere as people started running in every direction, screaming for their lives.
Then, from one of the largest portals, a figure stepped out—no one could tell what it was. A demon, a devil, a monster… it was impossible to understand.
Even from far away, sitting in that separate realm, Kartik could feel its overwhelming energy—despite the fact that this realm had nothing to do with the reality unfolding before him.
The creature's presence was so terrifying that even the kingdom's strongest guards and soldiers couldn't move from their positions. They were frozen in fear.
In the next scene, the baby's mother had the child in her arms. She was trembling with fear and was just about to run when suddenly a sharp slash echoed through the air — a blazing ray struck her, cutting her hand clean off.
That slash came from the creature itself. It had moved toward her with such terrifying speed that she barely saw it approaching.
It had come with the intention to kill the baby — but it couldn't touch him.
In the final 0.1 seconds, the mother reacted instinctively, shielding her child with her own body. While protecting the baby, she sacrificed her own hand.
As the creature's attack sliced through the air, time seemed to slow around them. The mother staggered back, blood dripping from where her hand had been, yet she held the baby tightly against her chest. Despite the agony, she didn't loosen her grip for even a moment. Her instinct to protect her child was stronger than the fear or the pain, and Kartik, watching helplessly from the distant realm, felt his heart clench as the scene unfolded before him.
In the next moment, the creature stood directly before them. It happened so abruptly that the baby's mother truly believed it had teleported, but in reality, it was only its raw, unbelievable speed. The air around it shuddered, the ground beneath its feet cracked slightly, and a chilling silence swept through the room—as if even the world itself couldn't keep up with how fast it had moved.
In the next scene, the moment the creature stood before them, it released its energy.
For the creature, it was barely anything—just a faint ripple of its true power—but for anyone else, that amount was something no mortal could ever hope to reach.
The air around it trembled, the ground vibrated slightly, and a low hum spread through the surroundings as the energy expanded outward.
Even that tiny surge was so intense that it crossed through the collapsing reality and reached all the way to Kartik's real body in the other realm, brushing against him like a shockwave he could neither block nor escape.
And then…
And then, Kartik suddenly jolted upright from his bed, breathing heavily and completely shocked.
But as the room settled around him, he slowly realized… maybe it had all just been a bad dream.
Still trembling, Kartik ran a hand across his face, trying to calm his racing heartbeat. The familiar darkness of his room wrapped around him, the silence almost comforting after what he had just witnessed. A heavy breath escaped his lips as the thought settled in his mind — maybe… maybe it was nothing more than a bad dream.
Meanwhile, Ira, who had been in the same room with him, rushed toward Kartik and said,
"Kartik, Kartik… what happened? Are you okay? It looks like you had a bad dream."