The divine pool shimmered again—its silver surface thrashing like an ocean in panic. The crystalline stasis chamber holding Saphthya dimmed as the second fragment's coordinates began to manifest in her mind. Her voice was steadier now, but hollow.
"The next fragment... lies within the Echo of the Oracle. The moment I dared question the future written by the gods. They didn't answer with truth—they answered with torment."
Astha said nothing. He stepped forward and placed his hand in the basin again.
The world around him collapsed once more.
---
[ Realm of Echoes — Oracle's Grave]
They emerged in a space unlike before. There were no ashes here—only mirrors. Dozens. Hundreds. Each suspended in the air, each showing a different version of the same future—a world burning, mortals begging, gods smiling.
And at the center was a raised platform, where a woman knelt, screaming endlessly.
Her mouth was open wide, but no sound came out.
"That's the Oracle," Naira whispered. "Her scream was stripped from her... so it would echo forever."
A glyph hovered above her—Saphthya's divine mark, distorted and broken.
Luv winced.
"I hate this place already."
---
The trio began moving toward the Oracle's platform.
But the mirrors turned.
Each reflected version of themselves—but altered.
Astha saw himself clad in golden divine robes… a god among gods, laughing as he burned villages.
Luv's mirror showed him seated on a throne of stormclouds, striking down cities for worship.
Naira saw herself robed in black, wearing the bones of fallen rebels.
"Ignore it," Astha said through gritted teeth. "Just illusions."
But when they stepped forward—
The reflections stepped out.
Solid. Real. Armed.
---
Mirror-Astha launched first, swinging a divine blade wreathed in blue flame. Real Astha caught it with his bare palm. Sparks exploded across the platform.
"I'd never become this," he spat. "Even if they offered me eternity."
He headbutted the Mirror-Astha, then summoned his new mid-range curved blade—the black-forged "Vaayutal"—with a flick of his wrist. Its reach danced like wind and wire. He severed the mirror version's legs, then impaled him through the back with Smritidhaara, wrapping the flaming chain around its throat.
"I remember every crime you'd commit."
Luv, meanwhile, clashed with his reflection—both moving at light-speed now. Thunder clashed, flashes lit up the mirror halls.
But real Luv gritted his teeth.
"I'm no tyrant."
He hurled a storm-spear through his doppelgänger's chest and shattered the storm throne behind it.
Naira fought in eerie silence—shadow-clones vs. mirror versions of herself. She danced across reflections, slicing each down in silence.
---
As the last illusion died, the Oracle's scream finally broke free—a wave of psychic pressure that cracked every remaining mirror and dropped the trio to one knee.
In the center of it all, a floating crystal hovered toward them. Another fragment.
Saphthya's voice, stronger now, echoed through the mirror ruins:
"You've returned my courage."
But something else stirred.
---
From the ruins of the platform, a god's eye opened—a floating sphere of searing divine law. It pulsed with judgment.
"Unauthorized restoration detected," it hissed.
"Violation of Swarnalok protocols. Elimination required."
It fired a beam of divine law, searing across the echo.
Astha caught it with his bare arm—his new outfit's layered dark robes resisting the impact. But the beam kept pushing.
He gritted his teeth.
"Luv—overload it."
Luv summoned three thunder seals across his body, then struck the eye simultaneously from three angles, disrupting its rotation.
Astha lunged forward, embedding Vaayutal into its core.
The blade absorbed its final scream.
The Eye shattered.
---
Back in Reality
Their bodies returned to the temple chamber.
Saphthya stood now—barefoot on the marble, no longer encased. Her robes shimmered with translucent threads of power.
"Two fragments remain," she said. "But you've already done more than I dreamed possible."
She turned to Astha directly.
"You resist divinity. You should not exist. That's why the gods fear you."