As the explosions ripped through the central core, the sky turned a visceral shade of crimson. Aryan dragged Arisa toward the helicopter with brute force. Arisa kept looking back, where she had last seen Abir Khan standing calmly amidst the rising inferno.
"Don't leave him, Aryan! He'll die! Please!" Arisa sobbed, her voice breaking.
"This was his choice, Arisa," Aryan replied coldly. "He's destroying himself along with his empire. We have to survive!"
Just as the helicopter lifted off, the glass palace collapsed with a deafening roar. A pillar of fire shot hundreds of feet into the air. Arisa lost consciousness, collapsing into Aryan's arms. She felt as though a part of her heart had burned to ash along with that island.
**Three days later...**
Arisa woke up in a small cottage near an unnamed coast. No mountains, no blue oceans. Outside the window lay endless green fields. Aryan sat by her side.
"We're safe, Arisa. Abir Khan's reign is over. The police reports say no one survived on that island."
Arisa remained silent. A single tear rolled down her cheek. She reached for her neck—the sapphire necklace was still there. Abir's final gift.
But that night, something happened. Someone slipped a small note under her door. There was no name, only a sketch of a motorcycle—the **H2R**. And beneath it, a single sentence:
*"Darkness never ends, Arisa; it only changes form. I am coming."*
The note slipped from Arisa's trembling hands. A cold shiver ran through her body. She knew that handwriting. Abir Khan wasn't dead. He was emerging from the ashes to reclaim his queen. And this time, he wouldn't return as a merciful king, but as a devastating force of vengeance.
---