Snow howled like a thousand drums. The ridge beneath Dilli cracked with ice. His limbs had long since betrayed him legs twisted, body battered, skin frozen stiff. Every breath clawed at his lungs, every heartbeat thundered with the threat of ending.
He lay sprawled on the forbidden slope of Mount Kailash, the sacred and untouchable peak. His consciousness flickered like a dying lamp.
But deep within him, something refused to extinguish.
The Declaration
His lips, cracked and bleeding, parted in a whisper that grew into a roar against the storm:
"Even if my sweetheart gives up on me, I will not let go of her. I will hold on until the day she accepts me."
"Even if my parents cannot clear their burdens, I will take them upon my shoulders. I will guide them to a shore of health and happiness."
"If You, Shiva, will not support me—then I will carve my own path. I will become a lord on my own."
The storm raged louder, but his voice refused to break.
"If I live and survive this night, I will rewrite my past. I will change my destiny. I will cherish my love, my life, and my faith."
Then, softer, with tears freezing on his cheeks:
"Shiva… even if You abandon me, You will remain my mentor forever and ever."
The Collapse
With those words, his strength left him. His body crumbled against the snow. Darkness swallowed his vision. Yet in that final instant, a spark ignited deep inside him—a flame of will that refused to die.
From his heart, a faint halo of light bloomed, golden and pure. It expanded slowly, pulsing against the storm, defying the mountain's silence.
What Dilli did not see was this: far above the peak, Shiva and Parvati watched.
Shiva, ash-smeared and still, lifted his trident. Parvati's eyes glistened with compassion. Together, they whispered blessings that fell upon Dilli like invisible rain.
The Vision
Then came the unearthly moment. His soul tore free from the limits of his body, swept into a river of stars.
He drifted through infinite timelines, each looping into the next like serpents of light. Cosmic wormholes opened—spiraling tunnels where past, present, and future collapsed into one.
He saw himself as a child, as a man, as something beyond both. He felt every heartbeat he had ever lived echo all at once.
One wormhole pulled him with irresistible force—back, back, spinning through collapsing suns and galaxies until he landed in a year bathed in soft light.
2004.
The Return
There he stood, barefoot, watching a boy of ten sitting by a dusty road in Hyderabad, clutching his schoolbag. It was himself—Dilli, unscarred, unburdened, yet carrying the seeds of all he would become.
The older Dilli's soul reached out, whispering across time:
"This time, I will not waste you. I will rewrite you. I will make you stronger, braver, kinder. I will make you worthy of love, worthy of faith, worthy of destiny."
The boy looked up suddenly, as if he had heard something carried on the wind. For an instant, their gazes met across the veil of time.
And then—everything dissolved into pure white light.
The Infinite Loop
As his consciousness faded completely, one truth resonated in Dilli's being:
That life, love, and faith were not chains but circles—endless, eternal, looping across ages.
And in the silence beyond silence, a voice—neither thunder nor whisper—echoed:
"You are mine, Dilli. Even when you doubt me, even when you defy me… you are mine."
It was Shiva's voice.
And with that, Dilli drifted into timeless sleep, blessed, reborn, his halo burning brighter in the infinite dark.