The darkness wrapped around Bhairava like a shroud. He stood frozen, unable to see beyond the thick veil of shadow. Every breath echoed in his ears, every heartbeat louder than the last.
His chest tightened. Fear clawed at him. "What is happening here?" he whispered, trying to anchor himself.
Then, slicing through the silence, he heard murmurs.
Wind howling and water rushing sound. Whispers in languages he couldn't understand. Groans. Echoes. Sounds that didn't belong to any world he knew yet they pulsed inside his head like memories.
He panicked, eyes darting around the darkness.
Something moved behind him.
He spun around, nothing.
Again, a whisper of motion. He turned. Still nothing.
Then, his eyes widened in shock. The white raven flew in and hovered before him. Its feathers glowed faintly, but its eyes… its eyes were red. Piercing. Unnatural.
Bhairava stumbled back, breath ragged, heart pounding. "It's a dream… it's a dream…" he repeated, voice trembling.
With shaking fingers, he pinched his own arm.
Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock.
The raven tilted its head, watching him with eerie stillness. Then, in a voice that echoed through the void, it spoke:
"Let's begin."
The ground beneath him vanished.
Darkness swallowed him, and he screamed, and Bhairava's scream echoed into the void. He plummeted into darkness, the fall endless, uncontrollable. His body twisted in the air, and his voice cracked with fear.
Suddenly light.
A flash of brilliance passed him, then darkness again. Then light. Then dark. The cycle repeated, faster and faster, until it felt like the universe itself was pulsing around him. He shouted harder, his breath ragged, until everything stopped.
Then silence.
He opened his eyes slowly. Nothing but black.
Then—a speck of light. A single glimmer appeared in the distance—a tiny, glow, like a star being born. It pulsed softly, growing brighter. Bhairava reached toward it, whispering, "What is this?"
Suddenly, the particle exploded.
A wave of force blasted outward, throwing him back. More particles burst from the core, scattering like stars across the void. Bhairava floated, stunned, surrounded by glowing dots and cosmic chaos.
"No way…" he breathed, eyes wide.
Planets clashed around him fiery, icy, metallic. He was in space, suspended in the middle of a galactic storm. Everything moved fast, spinning, colliding, reshaping.
He floated helplessly, watching the universe unfold around him.
Then everything stopped.
Bhairava hovered in the void, staring down at Earth—but it wasn't the Earth he knew. It was aged, lifeless, the forests were gone, its oceans faded to dust. The moon hung fractured, Shattered, its pieces drifting like ghosts.
"What the hell…" he whispered, stunned.
A comet streaked past, smashing into a nearby planet. Debris flew. Something hit him a small shard. He turned and saw a massive meteor heading toward Earth.
He watched in horror as it collided, tearing through the crust, igniting a wave of destruction. The planet cracked open, glowing with ruin. Destruction.
Then he felt a pull. Heat surged around him. He turned and froze.
The sun.
It was approaching, impossibly close, its surface boiling with fury. The heat slammed into him. He rubbed his arms, tried to shield himself, but it was useless. His clothes caught fire. He screamed, his body burning, but he didn't wake up.
He didn't die.
He just burned and trapped in the blaze, the sun's core erupting in violent flares. His skin scorched, his voice raw, and in that unbearable moment, and in that moment, he felt it—not just pain, but the terrifying wish to escape it.
The thought crept in: "I want this to end."
Then silence.
The searing fire vanished, but Bhairava remained suspended in darkness, his body trembling. The flames were gone, yet the heat lingered in his skin like a memory that refused to fade. He looked down—his body was whole, but the sensation of burning still pulsed through him.
In the stillness, a single spark appeared.
A tiny, glowing light shimmered before him. Then another. And another. Soon, the void around him bloomed with radiant specks—each one glowing a different color, like stars being born. They pulsed gently, as if breathing.
Bhairava, still shaking, reached out with a trembling hand to touch one.
The moment his fingers brushed the light and Everything changed.
A violent force yanked him backward.
He was flung through space at unimaginable speed. Stars blurred past him. Planets twisted and vanished. The universe itself seemed to stretch and warp around him.
With effort, he turned his head and saw it.
A massive black hole, swirling like a cosmic eye, pulling everything into its core.
He was being dragged toward it.
His body stretched unnaturally, pulled in every direction. He screamed, the sound lost in the vacuum. The closer he got, the more it felt like his body was being crushed and torn apart at once compressed and unraveled.
He clutched his head, screaming in agony. It felt like his very essence was being dismantled. Every nerve, every thought, every memory screaming.
Then everything went still.
A beam of light, sharp and sudden, pierced through Bhairava's chest like a laser. He gasped and looked down, there was a hole and blood was flowing freely. Pain surged through him, raw and unbearable. He screamed.
Before he could even process it, another light burst into existence and exploded. The force hurled him backward like a ragdoll, and as he flew through the black sky, he saw a massive face forming in the void. Its mouth opened wide, impossibly wide, and swallowed him whole.
He closed his eyes and screamed.
Then silence.
He opened his eyes again and found himself standing on a peaceful grassland. The air was soft. Birds sang gently. A butterfly fluttered past his face. His heart was still racing, but the calm around him felt unreal. "Is it over?" he wondered, reaching out to touch the butterfly.
But the moment his fingers moved, the world shifted.
He was suddenly in a desert dry, vast, endless. Then the scene changed again. He stood atop a hill, the sky painted in deep purples, distant planets glowing on the horizon. Then stone lands. Then dense forest.
He stood before a tree, confused. "What is happening?" he whispered.
He touched the tree.
The world changed again.
Now he stood on white sand, facing a massive, ancient tree. Nothing else surrounded him. Then wind. A sandstorm roared in, blinding him. He shielded his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was on a seashore. The sand was white, the waves calm until a monstrous tsunami rose from the horizon.
His eyes widened in terror.
The wave crashed into him, and suddenly he was standing on ice. The surface cracked beneath him. He fell through.
Then in an instant he was falling from a collapsing building. All around him, towers crumbled, glass shattered, concrete split.
Bhairava slammed into the ground with a thud, gasping for breath. Above him, a blazing meteor tore through the sky, growing larger by the second. He scrambled to his feet, but the rain had already begun—cold at first, then burning.
It wasn't water. It was acid.
Each drop seared his skin, and he screamed as his body blistered. Then the storm shifted sharp needles fell from the sky, piercing his flesh. Thunder cracked in surreal colors, painting the sky in violet, crimson, and green.
Before he could recover, the world changed again.
He stood before an erupting volcano, lava pouring in every direction. The ground trembled. He slipped falling into molten fire, only to crash into water below. He gasped underwater, but from the depths, a massive shark emerged and swallowed him whole.
Then—he was standing again.
All around him, dinosaurs roamed towering, flying, roaring. One charged at him, jaws wide. He turned to run, but the world shifted again. Fire rained from the sky. Dragons flew overhead, spitting flames. One blast struck him, sending him crashing to the ground.
He heard human voices.
Bhairava opened his eyes to chaos, he was in the middle of a war zone. Explosions lit up the sky, soldiers screamed, and missiles tore through buildings. He ran, dodging fire and debris, heart pounding, breath ragged.
Then another blast.
He was thrown to the ground. He opened his eyes and saw a face hovering above him. It wasn't human. It wasn't anything he recognized. The creature stared at him, eyes glowing.
Bhairava gasped and scrambled to his feet.
More of them appeared, surrounding him with weapons that pulsed with strange energy. He backed away, terrified.
Suddenly, he was on a ship which is under attack. Alarms blaring, the deck shaking beneath him. Another ship loomed in the distance, firing. Explosions rocked the deck. He stumbled, trying to find cover. He was teleported again. And again. Each place more chaotic, more terrifying.
He couldn't take it anymore. His body trembled.
He dropped to his knees, hands over his ears, screaming.
The visions kept flashing, each scenario reflecting in his eyes like shards of a broken mirror. He was being pulled through realities, each more intense than the last.
Then Everything went dark.
No sound. No motion. Just a vast, empty void surrounding him. He was trembling, heart racing, breath shallow. The silence was deafening, the stillness unnatural.
It felt like his consciousness had traveled far and finally returned. But he was scared. Shaken.
He looked around, eyes wide with fear.
Then, from the shadows, the white raven emerged.
Its feathers glowed faintly, its red eyes piercing through the dark. It stepped closer, silent and deliberate.
Bhairava stumbled back, collapsing to the ground. He sat there, frozen, watching the raven approach.
It stopped just in front of him.
And then, in a voice that echoed not through the air, but through his mind, it spoke:
"You are not ready yet."
Bhairava jolted awake.
He was back in his room. The ceiling above him. The walls familiar. Birds sing. Morning sun kisses and windblown. But Bhairava was drenched in sweat, panting heavily, his heart racing. He sat up, eyes wide, trying to catch his breath.
The dream was over.