The tunnel swallowed all light.
Dust drifted in slow motion, like the air itself was tired. Kashyap's breath echoed off the metal walls, the sound strangely delayed—as if time was thinking before responding.
Mandakini steadied herself, gripping his arm.
"You okay?"she whispered.
Kashyap nodded, but his mind was spinning.
The Void-Seeker.
Another version of him.
A destroyer of worlds.
Mandakini sensed his thoughts.
"Kashyap…you aren't him."
"I could be," he muttered.
"That's what scares me."
Before Mandakini could respond, a low growl vibrated through the tunnel—metal flexing like something enormous was shifting above them.
A faint blue glow lit the darkness.
The younger Mandakini slid down a ladder they hadn't noticed, landing silently in front of them. Sweat streaked her face. She looked drained, but determined.
"Move.They're burrowing."
Mandakini blinked. "Burrowing? Through steel?!"
"They don't break reality,"the girl said flatly. "They eat it."
Kashyap tensed. "Then we don't have much time."
The girl tossed a broken device at his chest.
"This is yours.Or his. Whatever."
Kashyap caught it—
a half-shattered multiversal stabilizer.
Wires flickered.
Symbols pulsed in a shifting sequence.
Mandakini studied it.
"A key?"
The girl shook her head.
"A map."
Kashyap frowned. "A map… to where?"
"To him," she whispered.
"To the Void-Seeker."
Mandakini's grip tightened around Kashyap's hand.
"Why are you helping us?"
The girl hesitated.
Her voice softened,losing its harsh edge.
"Because he wasn't always a monster."
She looked at Kashyap with a mix of resentment and longing.
"He saved my life.More than once."
Kashyap's chest tightened.
A different version of him… protecting her.
Mandakini stepped closer to her younger self, gentle but firm.
"What changed him?"
The girl's expression darkened.
"You did."
Mandakini went still.
"But not you-now," the girl added quickly. "You-later. You beyond this timeline. You who carried something the multiverse couldn't heal."
"Carried what…?" Mandakini whispered.
The girl sighed.
"You were the reason he touched the Pulse.The reason he tore the first Gate."
Kashyap felt the weight of her words like a punch.
Mandakini's eyes flickered—fear, regret, disbelief all crashing together.
Before she could speak, the tunnel walls trembled violently.
The ground cracked.
A fractal limb—razor-edged and glass-like—pushed through the metal floor.
The girl yanked them forward.
"They've locked on to your signature.If you stay near me, it slows them down."
"Why?" Kashyap asked.
"I already belong to this broken world," she said bitterly.
"They don't care about me anymore."
They ran through the twisting tunnel until they reached a massive, circular chamber.
The ceiling had collapsed years ago.
Moonlight poured in through jagged gaps,illuminating a floor carved with ancient glyphs.
Kashyap recognized them instantly.
"The Pulse inscriptions,"he whispered.
"But older…"
Mandakini stepped beside him.
"These weren't made by your version of me.Or you."
The girl nodded.
"No.They're from the ones who came before any of you."
Her eyes darted around the ruins nervously.
"The Pulse Builders.The first beings who understood the Gates."
Kashyap knelt, brushing dust from one of the symbols.
A spiral.
A heartbeat pattern.
A doorway diagram.
Mandakini traced the outer ring. "This isn't a portal. It's a warning."
The girl answered:
"It's both."
A sudden hum filled the chamber.
The stabilizer Kashyap held flickered faster—
the symbols aligning.
Mandakini took a step back. "It's activating."
"No," the girl said softly.
"He'sactivating it."
Kashyap's blood froze.
A voice—calm, quiet, terrifyingly familiar—echoed gently through the chamber.
"You found the first mark.Good."
Mandakini whipped around.
Kashyap stood perfectly still,breath shaking.
The voice came again—
not from a direction,
not from the air,
but from inside the space between seconds.
"Kashyap…
Mandakini…
I've been waiting."
A silhouette appeared at the edge of the collapsed ceiling.
A tall figure draped in a cloak woven with living shadows.
A mask of cracked glass covering half a face.
Darkness swirling behind him like a tame storm.
The girl dropped to her knees, trembling.
Mandakini gasped.
Kashyap whispered:
"…That's me."
The Void-Seeker stepped forward
—moving like gravity obeyed him,
like time adjusted itself to make room.
He smiled behind the broken mask.
"Finally."
"We meet."