Location: Rudra's Mansion, Mumbai
Time: January 1, 2025 | 12:15 PM
Morning had painfully dragged into the afternoon, but the raging fire inside Rudra showed no signs of calming down. Inside his luxurious bedroom, the air conditioner was blasting at a freezing sixteen degrees, yet his oversized dark hoodie was entirely drenched in cold sweat. He sat on the bed with his knees pulled to his chest, his trembling fingers obsessively twisting and untwisting the drawstrings. His brain felt like an engine on the verge of overheating.
"Dolo 650... that fixes a fever, right?" he muttered to himself. His voice was cracked, heavy with pain and a suffocating loneliness.
When his mother was alive, even a mild fever would send the entire house into a state of panic. She wouldn't leave his side. Today, he was burning alive from the inside out, but there was no one left to put a cold cloth on his forehead, no one to even hand him a glass of water.
With stumbling, heavy steps, he forced himself up and dragged his body to the first-aid cabinet in the bathroom. He pushed two paracetamol tablets out of the foil and swallowed them dry. But deep down, he already knew the truth. No ordinary medicine could extinguish the mystical fire that the glowing stone had ignited inside him last night.
As he looked in the mirror, his eyes fell on the left side of his neck. The 'Blue and Red Flames' mark didn't look like a simple ink tattoo anymore. It was subtly throbbing, pulsing in perfect rhythm with his racing heartbeat. With every beat, a strange, burning sensation radiated from it. It wasn't a painful burn... it felt more like a terrifying, raw energy desperately trying to tear its way out of his body.
Location: Mansion's Living Room
Time: 12:45 PM
Half an hour passed, but the pills did absolutely nothing to drop his core temperature. Exhausted and feeling weaker by the minute, he stumbled downstairs into the living room. The silence of the massive house felt even more haunting now. He switched on the large LED TV in the hall. Every single news channel had a glaring red logo blinking on the screen—'BREAKING NEWS'.
The footage playing was terrifying. The usual traffic on the streets of Mumbai had vanished, replaced by heavy, armored military trucks patrolling the roads. The news anchor's voice was shaking, and the genuine terror on her face made it obvious that the reality outside was far worse than the script on her teleprompter.
"Section 144 and an unannounced curfew have been imposed across several major cities, including Mumbai," the anchor reported breathlessly. In the background of her footage, a plume of thick black smoke was rising from a building in Parel. "Following last night's 'Sky Glitch,' bizarre and horrifying changes have been observed in ordinary citizens. Some individuals are flipping cars with their bare hands, while others are scaling twenty-foot walls with ease. The government has issued shoot-on-sight orders for violently 'Mutated' individuals. We appeal to all citizens to lock themselves inside their homes. Police emergency lines are completely overloaded; please only call if your life is in immediate danger."
Rudra muted the TV. Immediate danger. The world was literally falling apart. The government itself had no idea how to handle these 'Awakened' people. A bitter, irritable frustration bubbled up inside him. Other people were getting superhuman physical strength, and what did he get? A deadly, invisible fever and a glowing tattoo that was burning him alive.
He collapsed onto the large sofa, squeezing his eyes shut. He hoped that if he could just force himself to sleep, the agonizing heat might fade away.
Location: Mansion's Main Compound
Time: 01:10 PM
THUD!
A deafening, violent crash jolted him wide awake. The sound had come from his front compound.
Rudra's breath hitched in his throat. He froze, straining his ears in the dead silence. Then came another heavy, metallic screech—the sound of solid iron dragging against concrete.
His sheer exhaustion instantly melted into pure, cold terror. He slowly pushed himself off the sofa, keeping his back pressed against the wall, and crept toward the large front window. With a trembling hand, he slightly parted the thick curtains and peeked outside.
The massive, heavy iron gates of his mansion—gates sturdy enough to withstand a car crash—were half torn off their hinges.
Three men were standing inside his compound. Their clothes were filthy, but their faces held a deeply disturbing, crazed hunger.
Rudra's eyes locked onto the man standing in the center. The man's eyes were bloodshot, and thick, angry veins were violently bulging out of his forehead and thick arms. This man had just snapped the heavy lock of the iron gate with his bare hands. He was staring directly at the main wooden door of the house with a horrifying, predatory smile.
"This is the richest, biggest mansion in the area," one of the other men grinned, tightly gripping a heavy iron rod. "It'll be packed with expensive food, top-shelf liquor, and pure cash. The cops are too busy saving their own skins right now anyway. Break the door down!"
Rudra's heart began hammering against his ribs so hard it hurt. He instantly pulled out his phone and dialed 100.
'The number you are calling is currently busy...'
He was entirely alone. No police car was coming to save him with blaring sirens. These three men—one of whom was clearly an 'Awakened' monster with terrifying super-strength—were here to loot his home and most likely kill him. This house was the very last memory of his parents, his only sanctuary, and now it was under attack.
Rudra took a slow step back from the window. The heat inside his body had now reached its absolute peak. Unbeknownst to him, the 'Blue and Red Flames' tattoo on his neck had begun to emit a faint, eerie glow.
Amidst the paralyzing fear, the suffocating loneliness, and the blinding fever, something deep within his broken soul snapped. A primal survival instinct ignited. He was not going to die today. And he was certainly not going to die at the hands of these street thugs.
He frantically looked around the room. Resting near the TV console was a solid, heavy bronze baseball bat. It was a decorative showpiece his father had gifted him on his fifteenth birthday.
Breathing heavily, Rudra walked over and gripped the cold bronze handle tightly with his burning hands.
The first violent kick landed on the front door. BAM!
On this terrifying first day of a new era, an isolated, grief-stricken eighteen-year-old boy was gearing up for the first, and most dangerous, fight of his life.
Chapter Summary
Date: 1 January 2025
Month: January
Year: 2025
Time: 12:15 PM to 01:10 PM
Location: Rudra's Mansion, Mumbai
Summary: By afternoon, Rudra's internal mystical fever reaches its extreme. He attempts to cure it with ordinary paracetamol, but it proves useless against the mysterious heat. The TV news confirms that Mumbai is under military lockdown and Section 144, with police lines dead due to the violent chaos caused by 'Mutated/Awakened' individuals. The situation spirals out of control when a group of three looters—one of whom possesses newly awakened super-strength—breaks the heavy iron gates and enters Rudra's compound. Realizing he is entirely on his own with no police help, Rudra fights past his severe fever and fear, arming himself with a heavy bronze showpiece baseball bat. Unnoticed by him, his flame tattoo begins to emit a faint glow, hinting that his dormant powers are about to erupt in the impending fight.