Three Days After the Awakening of Kanchipuram
Location: Somewhere between Reality and the Void
Aarav sat by a fire that gave no warmth.
Not because it lacked heat—but because the place they now camped in had no concept of warmth. Or cold. Or time.
He glanced at Nyra, who sat cross-legged, meditating beneath a canopy of stars that were wrong. They didn't move. They didn't flicker. They just stared back like watching gods.
> "You're sure about this?" he asked for the fourth time. "There's a reason it was called the Regalia That Shouldn't Exist."
Nyra opened her eyes, the gold shimmer in her pupils now duller than before. "I'm sure. The fifth Regalia wasn't sealed or destroyed. It was never meant to be made. But someone made it anyway… and they buried it outside the Cycle."
Aarav frowned. "Meaning?"
> "It lies in a place where death, birth, time, and even divinity… are irrelevant."
Aarav sighed, staring at the Wheel of Dharma now embedded with four blazing arcs. The fifth—its space still dark—called to him like a missing limb.
> "Then let's go where gods fear to tread."
---
The Forgotten Path
They walked through a gorge carved by memory, where the walls were made of unfinished stories—sentences suspended in midair, hanging like roots, whispering fragments:
"…if only she had lived…"
"…the war ended before it began…"
"…I chose the blade, not the burden…"
Each whisper tried to latch onto Aarav's mind, tugging him into could-have-beens. But the Wheel in his palm pulsed with steady warmth, anchoring him to himself.
Nyra led them to the edge of a chasm where gravity had given up.
Above was below. Below was sky. The chasm wasn't a place—it was an error.
> "This is the tear in the Yugas," she said. "The gods buried their mistake here. The Regalia That Shouldn't Exist."
"How do we reach it?"
She answered by stepping forward—and falling upward.
Aarav cursed and followed.
---
The Hollow World
They landed not with a thud, but with a question.
Because the land below was shaped like a temple—but inverted. Walls stood sideways. Staircases curled into themselves. Trees hung from the sky and dripped molten leaves.
Time here was broken. The sun blinked on and off like an uncertain light bulb.
> "This is where the fifth Regalia sleeps," Nyra whispered. "But we're not alone."
The moment she spoke, the air screamed.
Dozens of figures emerged—guardians of paradox, beings who weren't alive or dead. Their bodies flickered between forms: child and elder, man and woman, serpent and flame.
They were called Vaipras—keepers of cosmic mistakes.
One stepped forward, face shifting endlessly.
> "You are unworthy. The Fifth Regalia will not be touched."
Aarav stepped forward, the Wheel glowing with authority. "I've passed the Trials of Flame, Time, Sky, and Soul. I've bled through cycles. I am the Bearer."
The Vaipra stared at him and hissed, "And that is why you should be most afraid."
---
Trial of Paradox
Without warning, the Vaipras lunged.
But their attack wasn't physical—it was conceptual.
Aarav blinked and suddenly stood at the gates of Eldara, facing Ashvra again.
> "You killed Diya," Ashvra said, smiling. "You were too weak to protect her."
He blinked again—now he stood before Diya herself, alive, smiling, reaching for his hand.
> "You can stay, Aarav. Forget the Regalia. Be with me."
Blink.
Now he stood in an empty world. All alone.
Blink.
Now he was a god.
Blink.
Now he was a child again, in his father's arms, before the fire took everything.
> "Choose," the Vaipras whispered. "Which version of yourself will you accept? Because none of them can hold the Fifth Regalia."
But Aarav did something they didn't expect.
He chose all of them.
"I am the sum of every mistake, every failure, every possibility. I won't deny my contradictions. I carry them."
And in that moment, the illusions shattered.
---
The Regalia That Shouldn't Be
In the center of the inverted temple stood a pedestal made of unwritten law.
Atop it floated a black gem—simple, small, unassuming. Yet its power was endless.
> The Fifth Regalia: The Lawbreaker's Heart
Forged by a forgotten god who challenged the Cycle itself, it was never meant to be wielded. It allowed the bearer to rewrite causality—to undo, redo, or unmake events, no matter how fundamental.
Nyra's voice trembled. "If you take that… you could undo Diya's death. But you could also erase the sun."
Aarav reached forward.
The Wheel in his hand shook violently, rejecting it.
But his heart—his pain—overpowered it.
> "I don't want power," he whispered. "I want the choice."
His fingers wrapped around the Lawbreaker's Heart.
---
The Wheel Breaks
The moment he touched it, the Wheel cracked.
The five arcs flared, then splintered. Reality itself screamed as something ancient awoke.
> Not from outside the world.
But from inside Aarav.
Nyra shouted his name, but he couldn't hear her anymore.
He was standing before a mirror that wasn't made of glass—but of history.
And in that reflection, he saw not himself…
…but the being who created the Regalia.
And it looked exactly like him.
> "So… you finally returned."
---
Elsewhere… The Dominion Palace
Ashvra watched the stars flicker and vanish.
He stood from his throne and turned to his advisor. "The fifth has awakened."
The advisor, trembling, asked, "Does that mean the Bearer won?"
Ashvra smiled.
> "No. It means the Bearer has become… the one who doomed us all before."
---
To Be Continued...