Silence fell like a shroud over Merchant's Town.
The last echoes of screaming had dissipated into the night, the final tremors of explosions swallowed by the wind. The air, thick with smoke and memory, carried only one sound now: the relentless whisper of cold wind threading through shattered buildings.
Richard lay motionless, his breath shallow beneath a wound that had stolen his consciousness. Alex had dragged himself to the edge of the square before his body betrayed him completely. But Rudra—Rudra's world had ended the moment he'd seen Lumi's body crumpled in the dust.
Now he stood in the ruins of his mind, a ghost haunting his own thoughts. The knowledge of his parents' murder, the fresh agony of Lumi's death, the weight of every failure—all of it had hollowed him out until nothing remained but echoes and regret.
And the chained Rudra knew.
The other half of himself watched from the shadows of his consciousness, fingers hooked into every scar, every wound, every memory that still bled.
"After witnessing it again..." The chains rattled with each word, a sound like bones grinding together in the dark. "...do you still believe your existence had nothing to do with their deaths?"
Rudra's head bowed, shoulders trembling not from cold but from the crushing weight of words he'd refused to speak aloud.
"I don't know anymore." His voice scraped like gravel. "I don't want to know anymore."
The void pressed closer. "The only thing I know is that I'm a pathetic loser." A bitter laugh tore from his throat. "I couldn't save my parents." His fists clenched until knuckles whitened. "I couldn't save my friends." His voice cracked. "I forgot them once... and now I have to carry that burden all over again."
Mother's smile. Father's final words. Lumi's lifeless body. Uncle Alex's broken form. Father Richard's vacant eyes. Each memory a fresh dagger in the darkness.
"This time it's Uncle Alex..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "...Father Richard..." Another pause. "...and Lumi."
The silence that followed was absolute, suffocating.
"So you're running away again."
Rudra's gaze remained fixed on the endless black. "I'm not running away."
"Then what?" The chains tightened. "Even if you stay... what can you possibly do?" His voice rose with frustration. "No matter which path I choose, it leads to the same place. A dead end."
"You still don't understand." Crimson eyes flared to life in the darkness. "You're only feeling a fraction of it. You can't possibly comprehend the despair. The hatred. The loneliness."
A faint smile touched the chained Rudra's lips. "And you know what irritated me the most?"
Rudra slowly lifted his head.
"The time." The smile vanished. "The flow of time here." Chains rattled ominously. "For you, it was only a few years. For me..." The darkness deepened around them. "...it was decades."
Rudra froze. "What did you just say?"
The chains pulled taut. "Time moves differently here. Nearly a hundred times slower than the real world."
A spark ignited in Rudra's soul. Tiny. Fragile. But burning bright.
"That means..." He shot to his feet, hope warring with desperation. "That means I haven't been here for long!"
His heartbeat thundered in his ears. "I can still save them."
The chained Rudra laughed, the sound echoing from every direction at once. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
He took a step forward. "You are weak." Another step. "Cowardly." Another. "Useless." Each word a fresh blow. "What exactly can you do?"
Rudra lowered his head. Silence stretched, thick with tension. Then—he met those crimson eyes head-on.
"Nothing." The admission hung in the air, shocking in its honesty. "I know I'm not strong enough. Not right now." His gaze burned with conviction. "But I know someone who can save them."
The chains stilled. "...who?"
Rudra pointed directly at him. "You."
For a heartbeat, absolute silence. Then laughter erupted—wild, insane, echoing from the very foundations of their shared consciousness.
"You're betting on me?"
The chained Rudra studied him, crimson eyes narrowing to dangerous slits. "And what do you know about me? I'm just another half of yourself."
"Betting everything on me..." The chains rattled like a thousand tiny promises. "Are you really sure you'll get out of this mess with my help?"
Rudra met his gaze without flinching. "No."
The chained Rudra stilled. "No?"
"I'm weak." The words came easily, without shame. "But I'm not blind." He glanced toward the endless darkness beyond their prison. "Even if we share the same face... you're nothing like me. In fact... you're a far bigger monster than the one waiting outside."
The laughter died. Only the chains remained, groaning softly in the sudden quiet.
"There's no chance I'm helping you."
Rudra didn't blink. "I knew you would say something like that." He stepped closer, the distance between them suddenly charged with something ancient and dangerous. "But let me remind you of something."
The chained Rudra's smile vanished. "This is my body."
"If I die..." A pause that stretched into eternity. "...both of us die."
Silence. The chains groaned under the weight of unspoken futures.
"So it's better if you help me now."
Rudra's voice dropped to a whisper that carried absolute conviction. "And I promise... I'll find a way to free you from these chains."
For the first time, the chained Rudra hesitated. Just slightly. Then he shook his head. "You're betting on the wrong person."
His crimson eyes burned with terrible knowledge. "And if I help you... I'm not sure you'll be able to live the same life you're living now."
"I don't care." The answer came instantly, without hesitation. "Right now only one thing matters. Saving them." His fists clenched, silver light beginning to pulse beneath his skin. "For them... I'll risk everything. Everything. Even my life."
The chains went still. "I won't do it."
Cold hate radiated from him. "I'd rather die than help a coward like you."
Rudra closed his eyes. When he spoke again, his voice carried the weight of ages. "Maybe you're right." The chains fell silent. "Maybe I was wrong all this time. And maybe you have every reason to hate me." His eyes snapped open, burning with an intensity that made the darkness itself seem to recoil. "But if we die here... it's over. We'll never find the people who murdered our parents. We'll never make them pay." He took another step forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "So tell me. Are you really willing to let those bastards walk free... just because you hate me?"
The reaction was instantaneous. Crimson light exploded from the chained Rudra's eyes, bathing the void in terrifying fury. Chains rattled violently, the sound of a thousand broken promises. Pressure built until it felt like the darkness itself was about to tear apart.
"I..." His fists clenched so tightly that blood began to well up beneath his fingernails. "...can't allow that." The chains groaned as if in agony. His gaze burned with hatred—not at Rudra, but at someone else. Someone long dead. Finally, he exhaled, the sound like wind through a graveyard. "This is the first... and the last time I'm helping you not because I fear death, but because I hate them more than I hate you."
He held out a hand, silver light gathering around his fingertips like captured starlight. "I can't share my power. But I can share some of my Astral Energy."
The light intensified. "It will awaken your Kundalini."
Rudra stared at the glowing energy, his mind racing to understand. "I don't understand any of that."
"But if it gives you even the smallest chance..." His eyes hardened with resolve. "I'll handle the rest."
The chained Rudra pointed to the ground. "Come here."
Rudra obeyed, the cold black floor sending shivers through his exhausted body as he sat cross-legged before him. The chains groaned as the other half of himself raised his hand.
"Stay still."
Rudra nodded.
Then—a single finger touched his forehead.
Instantly, silver light erupted throughout the darkness, fracturing the void into a thousand shards. Rudra's eyes widened as heat surged through every part of his body, his veins feeling as though they were filled with liquid fire.
"My body..." He looked down in shock as silver light poured from beneath his skin. "It's glowing."
The chained Rudra's voice echoed around him, seeming to come from everywhere at once. "Every living being possesses Astral Energy. It moves through the pathways of the Kundalini. And I'm forcing yours to awaken."
Pain. Heat. Power. All three collided at once, threatening to tear him apart.
Rudra gritted his teeth against the onslaught. "But how do I use it?" His voice trembled with strain. "I'm not familiar with any of this."
The darkness around them began to crack apart, the void collapsing like a house of cards. The chained Rudra's figure started to fade.
"When you wake up..." The voice was distant now, fading with the darkness. "...stop listening to your fear."
The void continued to shatter around them.
"This time..." A faint smile crossed the chained Rudra's face, something like pride visible for the first time. "...listen to your heart."
The darkness shattered completely.
And Rudra opened his eyes once again.