The battlefield burned with fury and desperation.
Kartik's breath came ragged, every muscle screaming in revolt. His chest glowed where the divine eye blazed — no longer a steady light, but a frantic, pulsing flare barely clinging to life.
Opposite him, Varunaas loomed like a living nightmare, black flames dancing across his shoulders, eyes smoldering with ancient malice.
Varunaas moved first, his black sphere sweeping down in a crushing arc.
Kartik twisted aside, boots skidding across shattered stone, then thrust his own trident upward. Metal clashed; shockwaves ripped
outward, tossing rubble like paper. Kartik felt his bones tremble under the impact, but he refused to yield.
Not yet… I can't fall yet…
Varunaas snarled, twisting his weapon, black fire spiraling up the shaft. He brought it around for another swing, faster than before.
Kartik ducked low, divine energy bleeding from his veins as the trident's edge scraped his shoulder, sending agony lancing through him.
"You cling to light you don't understand!" Varunaas roared. "But darkness is eternal!"
Kartik's vision blurred, but rage kept his legs steady.
Then let my light burn, even if just for one
moment. Far beyond the village's cursed perimeter, the rescue team surged forward.
Cloaks snapped in the wind as the ancient trees parted, revealing Trinetra's once-hallowed walls, now blackened and scarred.
Bhairav, his face red with sweat, slowed for a heartbeat, chest tightening. The air... it tastes of ruin and hate.
Beside him, Meghna narrowed her eyes, the prayer beads at her waist humming faintly. So much corruption… Lord Shiva, protect us.
Revati clenched her fists, heart pounding. Kartik… you better be alive, idiot.
Devansh, jaw set, ran a hand over the burn mark on his bracer. A cursed presence this heavy… even Master Bhairav looks grim.
Aranya's beast companion — a great black hawk with spectral white fur — tossed its head, sensing the darkness.
Aranya placed a calming hand on its flank. Easy, old friend… whatever awaits, we face it together.
And Veer — his heart beating faster than it had since childhood — clenched the blade at his side.
Kartik… please still be standing. The team rounded the final bend.
And there, framed in dust and dying firelight, they saw him.
Kartik, back scorched and bloodied, divine eye on his chest blazing like a furious sun, faced Varunaas — the black-flamed giant whose mere presence warped the air.
The rescue team stopped dead, breath caught in shared disbelief.
"By Shiva…" Bhairav whispered. "The boy… what has he become?"
Meghna felt awe prick her chest. He shouldn't be able to manifest that level of power. Not yet…
Revati swallowed hard. Is that really Kartik? Even in the blur of battle, she saw the exhaustion on his face, the stubborn refusal to yield.
Aranya glanced at her stag, who pawed nervously at the ground. We're witnessing something we weren't meant to see.
Veer's chest burned with pride and dread. He's fighting beyond his limit… Kartik, don't die on me.
Varunaas lunged forward, black trident stabbing like a serpent. Kartik batted it aside, sparks showering
the cracked earth. Pain roared through his battered body, but something deeper — an ember of unbreakable will — burned hotter.
"You stand alone!" Varunaas spat, stepping in, black fire wreathing his arm. "Fall into shadow!"
Kartik sucked in a trembling breath. "Then I'll fall… fighting!"
He surged forward, divine light erupting from the eye on his chest, the glow painting cracks across his skin like molten gold.
The trident swung upward, catching Varunaas's descending strike and pushing
back.
For a heartbeat, the battlefield froze: black fire coiling around Kartik's light, neither yielding.
Then Kartik roared, every vein blazing, and drove the trident forward. The blow crashed into Varunaas's chest, black flames ripping apart under the weight of divine will.
A shockwave burst outward, tossing stones and dust skyward and Varunaas get thrown little far on the ground.
Varunaas staggered, black flames sputtering.
Kartik fell to one knee, trident digging into the ground to hold him up. His vision swam, but he forced his eyes to focus on the towering enemy.
Varunaas breathed raggedly, looking down at the scorch mark burned into his armor by Kartik's blow.
Behind Kartik, the rescue team began to run forward, hope rising in their chests.
"He did it…!" Revati gasped, disbelief mixing with joy.
Bhairav's lips pressed into a grim line. "Not yet. Watch carefully."
Meghna's prayer beads hummed louder. Lord Shiva… let this end.
Slowly, Varunaas raised his gaze, black eyes burning. The battlefield fell silent, ash drifting in the dying wind.
"You… you've lost," Kartik rasped, voice hoarse. "Never come back."
The rescue team closed in, forming a loose semicircle around Kartik, weapons ready, breaths held.
Varunaas's cracked lips twisted into a chilling grin. "Who said I lost?"
Before anyone could react, his form
dissolved into drifting black embers, vanishing into the wind.
In that same breath, Agastyan, heart pounding, turned sharply. An icy dread crawled across his skin.
The sacred chamber… something's wrong…
He sprinted toward the temple ruins, sandals slapping over scorched stones.
The prayer inscriptions carved into ancient walls shimmered weakly, as though dimming.
Bursting into the sacred chamber, Agastyan's eyes swept across the cracked floor — and froze.
The pedestal stood empty. The sacred artifact — an ancient relic of divine power — was gone.
Agastyan's breath caught in his throat. "No… who—?"
From the corner of the chamber, a single dying illusion rune shimmered and faded. Cold realization struck him like lightning.
Maayak… The master of illusions had slipped past them all.
Agastyan's fingers tightened around his prayer beads until his knuckles went white. "We've been deceived…"
Back in the courtyard, the enemy forces — scattered and battered — dissolved into shadows, their retreat covered by the swirl of cursed smoke left behind by Varunaas's vanishing.
Kartik, chest heaving, trident slipping from his weakening grip, took a shaky step forward — then collapsed.
"Kartik!" Veer shouted, lunging forward. Bhairav and Devansh were beside him in a blink, catching Kartik before his body falls.