Arya did not wake to pain.
Pain had become familiar—an old companion that no longer announced itself. What woke him was absence.
The Sovereign's Burden, ever-present like a weight on his soul, felt… distant. Not gone. Never gone. But muted, as if something stood between it and him.
That frightened him more than agony ever could.
---
> [Status Update]
> Consciousness: Restored
> Sovereign's Burden: Temporarily Suppressed
> External Stabilizing Influence: Detected
> Warning:
> This state is not sustainable
Arya opened his eyes.
He was no longer in the healer's hall.
---
He lay beneath an open sky, stars scattered like indifferent witnesses. The ground beneath him was cool stone, untouched by blood or ash. No screams echoed here. No fires burned.
This place did not exist.
Yet it felt ancient.
"Dream?" Arya whispered.
"No," a voice replied. "Conversation."
Arya sat up sharply.
Krishna stood a few steps away, hands clasped behind his back, gaze lifted toward the stars. No chariot. No flute. No divine radiance.
Just a man.
Which somehow made him more dangerous.
---
"You intervened," Arya said, voice tight. "You stopped my Dominion. You bent arrows. You watched people die afterward."
Krishna smiled faintly.
"You noticed."
Arya clenched his fists.
"Why?"
Krishna turned.
"Because," he said gently, "you're asking the wrong question."
---
The world shifted.
Not visually—but emotionally.
Arya felt Mahismati again. The burning districts. The cries of the wounded. Karna shouting orders hoarse with desperation.
The pain rushed back—
And stopped.
Held at bay.
---
> [Stabilization Field Active]
> Duration: Limited
Arya glared. "You're keeping me alive just long enough to lecture me?"
Krishna laughed softly. "No. I'm keeping you alive so you can listen."
"To what?"
"To the lie you're telling yourself."
---
Arya stood.
The act alone sent cracks of agony through him, but he refused to show it.
"I chose Dharma," he said. "I refused Dominion. I paid the price."
Krishna nodded. "You did."
"Then speak plainly," Arya demanded. "What lie?"
Krishna's eyes finally hardened.
"That choosing Dharma makes you righteous."
The words landed like a blade.
---
Arya felt anger surge—not explosive, but cold.
"Is this where you tell me Dharma is flexible?" he asked. "That ends justify means?"
Krishna shook his head.
"No," he said. "This is where I tell you Dharma is cruel."
---
The stars dimmed.
Around them, scenes unfolded like reflections on water.
A king ordering a massacre to prevent rebellion.
A mother abandoning a child to protect her lineage.
A warrior killing a friend because duty demanded it.
Mahabharata.
Not as a story.
As reality.
---
"Dharma," Krishna continued, "is not goodness. It is balance. And balance does not care who bleeds."
Arya watched.
His jaw tightened.
"Then what was the point of my choice?" he asked quietly. "If refusing to kill one boy led to hundreds more dying?"
Krishna's gaze softened—but only slightly.
"The point," he said, "was that you *felt* it."
---
Arya turned on him.
"You think feeling absolves me?"
"No," Krishna replied calmly. "I think feeling damns you."
---
Silence stretched.
Arya's breath came hard.
"So what would you have done?" he asked.
Krishna did not answer immediately.
Instead, he picked up a small stone from the ground and weighed it in his palm.
"I would have let the boy die," he said.
The words were simple.
Final.
---
Arya recoiled.
"Then you're no better than—"
"—Than you would have been," Krishna interrupted gently, "if you chose Dominion."
Arya froze.
Krishna met his gaze fully now.
"You see," Krishna said, "you think your path is about mercy. It isn't."
"Then what is it about?"
Krishna smiled.
"Suffering."
---
The system stirred uneasily.
---
> [Narrative Conflict – Extreme]
> Host Perspective Divergence Detected
Arya's voice dropped.
"You're saying my choice was wrong."
Krishna shook his head.
"No," he said. "I'm saying it was incomplete."
---
He gestured, and the visions changed.
Arya saw the future.
Not clearly.
But enough.
Mahismati standing—but diminished.
Karna kneeling beside a body that would never rise again.
Arya himself, older, weaker, carrying a weight that bent him forward.
And beyond that—
War.
Kurukshetra.
Unimaginable loss.
---
"You will save many," Krishna said softly. "And you will damn many more. Not because you are cruel—but because you insist on being just."
Arya swallowed.
"Then why give me the system at all?" he demanded. "Why burden me with choice?"
Krishna's smile returned.
Because Shiva had not given him that answer.
---
"Because," Krishna said, "the world already has enough weapons."
He stepped closer.
"What it lacks," he continued, "is someone willing to suffer without believing that suffering makes them holy."
---
The Sovereign's Burden surged violently.
Arya dropped to one knee.
Pain ripped through him, raw and unfiltered.
---
> [Sovereign's Burden – Reactivation]
> Stabilization Ending
> Host Integrity: Compromised
Krishna crouched before him.
"You will be tested again," he said quietly. "Soon."
Arya forced himself to look up.
"What kind of test?"
Krishna's expression grew serious.
"One where Karna does not agree with you."
The words struck deeper than any wound.
---
The world began to dissolve.
"Wait," Arya said through clenched teeth. "Tell me one thing."
Krishna paused.
"When the time comes," Arya asked, "will you stand against me?"
Krishna considered him for a long moment.
Then—
He smiled sadly.
"I already am."
---
Arya gasped.
And woke.
---
The healer's hall snapped back into place.
Pain roared.
Smoke hung heavy in the air.
Karna stood over him, eyes bloodshot.
"You're back," Karna said, relief and anger tangled in his voice. "Don't ever do that again."
Arya tried to speak.
Only a rasp came out.
---
> [Emergency Report]
> Mahismati Status: Critical
> Eastern District: Lost
> Casualties: Severe
> New Alert:
> Internal Dissent Detected
Arya's eyes sharpened despite the pain.
"Dissent?" he croaked.
Karna hesitated.
"Some generals," he said slowly, "are saying… maybe the boy should have died."
---
The Sovereign's Burden tightened.
Not from compassion this time.
From something colder.
Lonelier.
---
Arya closed his eyes.
Faith.
In Dharma.
In people.
In gods.
All of it felt… thinner.
---
The system delivered its final line.
---
> [Core Truth Unlocked]
> Justice Does Not Unite
> It Divides Those Who Can Endure It
> From Those Who Cannot
Arya opened his eyes again.
This time—
There was no hesitation in them.
---
End of Chapter 23