The area was surrounded by over a thousand warriors.
They stood on every rooftop, every balcony, every patch of open ground. Some wore black masks. Others wore white. A few wore the faces of wolves, crows, serpents. They did not speak. They did not move. They simply watched.
The wind carried the smell of dust and blood and the faint trace of cigarette smoke from ACP Rohit Sharma's trembling hand.
Adhira Pratap stood at the center of the encirclement. His long white hair moved slowly in the breeze. His eyes were dead. Empty. Like a man who had seen too much and stopped being surprised by anything.
Veda stood before him. Smiling. His hospital gown torn. His bandages unraveling. His white eyes bright against the grey morning sky. His hair moved with the wind.
Behind them, Arjuna stood frozen for a moment. Then his face twisted.
"You bastard."
His voice was low. Then it rose.
"You killed my son. You ruined everything I built. Years of my life. My soul. My blood. I poured everything into that boy. And you wore his face. You stood there and called me father."
He laughed. A broken sound.
"I am not your father. You are a fake. A fraud. A parasite wearing my son's skin."
His hand gripped his sword. The blade began to glow.
"And now you stand here. In front of everyone. Telling the world you have become a Celestial Contractor?"
His voice cracked.
"And you dared to use that name. That filthy, cursed name."
Energy exploded from his body. Golden and violent. The ground cracked beneath his feet.
"RAJ!"
He screamed the word like poison.
"That name belongs to the family that threw me away. That watched my mother die and did nothing. That laughed while I begged for help. I burned that name. I erased it from my existence. And you... you parasite... you stand there and call yourself VEDA RAJ DAS?"
He raised his sword.
"HOW DARE YOU WEAR THAT NAME! HOW DARE YOU BRING THAT FILTH INTO MY PRESENCE!"
ACP Rohit Sharma's eyes went wide. His mind raced.
Fuck. I hate this. A family drama in the middle of a crisis. I just wanted a normal day.
The black clad warriors watched. Silent. Unmoving.
Arjuna stepped forward. His sword pointed at Veda's chest.
"Your existence is a wound carved into my past. And you carry the name of my enemies."
Priya screamed.
"ARJUNA! STOP! DON'T DO THIS!"
She ran toward Veda. Her arms reached out.
Arjuna's hand shot toward her. Chains erupted from the ground. Black iron wrapped around Priya's legs, her waist, her arms. She fell to her knees.
"SHUT UP!" Arjuna roared. "HE IS NOT YOUR SON!"
Veda watched. His smile did not fade. His eyes stayed calm.
He stepped closer to Arjuna.
"Is this the power you are so proud of? Is this the choice you want to make, Father?"
Arjuna's face contorted.
"Do not call me that. You are not my son. You are a stranger wearing his face and his dead family's cursed name."
Veda stepped closer.
"I carry your blood. Whether you accept it or not. You cannot change that."
Arjuna's jaw clenched. His eyes burned.
"Then I shall be the one to erase that blood from this world. If my blood flows within you, I will destroy it with my own hands. And I will burn that name off your tongue before you die."
He swung his sword.
The blade cut the air. A shockwave followed. The pressure cracked the ground.
The sword stopped. Inches from Veda's neck.
Veda did not flinch. He smiled. His hunter eyes locked onto Arjuna's.
Arjuna screamed. "He is not what you think!"
The sword did not move.
Because a hand had caught it.
Adhira Pratap's fingers wrapped around the sharp blade. Blood dripped from his palm. He did not seem to notice.
"Move," Adhira said.
Arjuna's voice cracked. "He is a fake soul. An Asura. A bastard in my son's body wearing the Raj name!"
"I said move."
"I lost my son! I lost everything I built! I will erase this fake existence and that cursed name with it!"
Adhira's eyes narrowed.
"I am the one who decides that."
Arjuna pulled against the blade. It did not move.
"LET ME GO! I WILL KILL HIM!"
Adhira's hand moved.
Smack.
The sound echoed across the silent battlefield.
Arjuna's head snapped sideways. His cheek turned red. He stood frozen, stunned.
Adhira wiped his hand on his coat.
"Shut your mouth, kiddo."
Behind him, one of the black clad warriors, a blonde haired girl, burst out laughing. She clamped her hands over her mouth.
"Ay, stop," her friend whispered.
"Fufufufu... I cannot..."
Arjuna touched his face. His eyes were wide. Then they narrowed.
"HOW DARE YOU SLAP ME IN FRONT OF THESE PEOPLE! I AM THE ONE WHO CARES THE MOST ABOUT THIS! I AM SERIOUS!"
Adhira sighed. He covered his face with his hand.
Arjuna kept yelling.
Adhira stepped close. Their eyes met. Arjuna's teeth ground together.
"YOU DEAD HEAD!"
Adhira's fist moved.
The punch connected with Arjuna's chest. The air blast threw everyone backward. Black clad warriors flew through the air. ACP Rohit Sharma slammed into a broken wall. Veda crashed into a pile of rubble. The ground shook. The building groaned.
Arjuna disappeared over the edge of the broken floor.
Somewhere in the distance, a warrior in a fox mask sighed.
"There he goes again."
His friend nodded. "Yes. But when he comes back, he will take all his anger out on us."
The fox mask laughed sadly. "You are right."
Veda pushed himself up. Blood dripped from his nose. He wiped it with the back of his hand and looked at Adhira's broad back.
Such power. He did not even use a single drop of soul energy. And he sent a Commander level warrior flying miles away.
Veda smiled. He laughed softly.
"He is like a living dynamite."
He stood up.
"Sir..."
Adhira turned.
"You are so strong."
Their eyes met.
The atmosphere changed.
The ground shook. The walls trembled. Outside, reporters fell to their knees. Some ran. Some kept filming, their hands shaking. The sky darkened. Clouds gathered as if summoned.
Adhira's soul energy erupted.
It did not burst outward like an explosion. It pressed downward. Like a mountain being placed on top of the entire area.
Veda's body slammed into the ground. He lay flat. His arms strained. He tried to push himself up, but the pressure forced him down.
So strong.
He looked up at Adhira. His face was still smiling, but the weakness showed. Blood dripped from his nose onto the cracked floor.
Adhira spoke. His voice was calm.
"When I was a child, I loved watching action movies. The hero was weak. The villain was strong. Then the hero got a power boost for no reason and killed the villain. Lame. Pathetic. But I still watched."
He pressed his foot down. The ground cracked deeper.
"I watched the side characters train for years. They built themselves to defend against the villain. They bled. They broke. They sacrificed everything."
He leaned closer.
"And in the end, the villain was killed by a man who had never touched a sword in his life."
Veda gasped. "That is so cringe. Unfair."
Adhira's eyes hardened.
"Unfair? You call that unfair?"
He pushed Veda's hand into the concrete. The ground split.
"Unfair is for those who cheat. For those who make honest workers look weak. But that was not unfair. That was a movie. Written from the start. The villain was written to lose. The hero was written to win. Every death, every sacrifice, every tear, all of it was written before the first scene."
He grabbed Veda's collar and pulled him up.
"So tell me, boy. Do you think you are the hero? Do you think you have the plot armor that will protect you? That the name Raj will save you?"
He slammed Veda back down.
Veda's hands sank into the concrete. His body was pressed flat. But he pushed. He slammed his palms against the ground and forced himself upward.
His voice came out raw. Struggling.
"When I was a child, I wondered why only birds could fly. Cats could not. Dogs could not. Humans could not."
Adhira's eyes flickered.
"I even practiced with my friends. We jumped off walls. We flapped our arms. We fell. Again and again."
Veda's arms shook.
"Then one day, I saw an airplane. And I learned that humans can reach the sky."
He looked up at Adhira. His smile returned.
"You know what I learned from that?"
Adhira tilted his head. "What?"
"Nothing. I was just a stupid child dreaming of big things that did not make sense. How can a human fly without equipment?"
Veda laughed. Blood dripped from his mouth.
"That day, I beat up my friend and went home."
Adhira stared at him. Confused.
"Did you not get it, old man? Let me say it clearly."
Veda's eyes burned.
"Your story is boring. Heroes and villains written from the start? That is a drama. Not reality. In reality, no one cares about your script. The boy who was never supposed to win sometimes wins anyway. And the name Raj? It is just a name. It has no power over me. I chose to use it because it is mine now. Not my father's. Not my grandfather's. Mine."
The crowd gasped. The black clad warriors exchanged glances. ACP Rohit's mouth hung open.
We are dead. I will never see my Jennifer again.
Priya screamed from her chains. "VEDA! IS THIS HOW YOU SPEAK TO YOUR ELDERS? SAY SORRY!"
Veda laughed.
Blood dripped from his mouth onto the cracked floor.
Adhira Pratap watched him for a moment.
His eyes searched Veda's face. His expression unreadable.
Then he laughed.
Not a chuckle. Not a smirk.
He laughed. Hard. Loud. A sound that did not belong to a human being. It split the air like a blade. It traveled through the walls, through the floors, through the broken ceiling and out into the open sky. The reporters outside stumbled. Windows cracked. Birds scattered from every rooftop for miles in every direction.
Everyone inside went completely still.
Not one person spoke. Not one warrior moved. ACP Rohit Sharma forgot he was breathing.
The laughter filled the entire broken building like thunder trapped in a jar.
Then Veda started laughing too.
Hard. Uncontrollable. Blood still dripping from his nose, body still pinned, bones still grinding under pressure, and he laughed like the whole thing was the funniest moment of his life.
Adhira stopped.
He looked down at Veda.
Veda kept laughing. Loud. Shameless. Tears at the corners of his eyes.
Adhira stared at him.
Then he turned his head slightly toward the back.
"Hey."
A warrior stepped forward. Black uniform. One long cut running diagonal across his face like a scar that had never fully decided to heal.
"Sir."
"Did you clear the area? Civilians. All of them."
"Yes sir. Every last one. Perimeter is sealed."
Adhira turned back.
He crouched down slowly. Right in front of Veda. Their eyes met at the same level.
The laughter faded.
The silence that replaced it was heavier than anything that had come before.
Adhira spoke quietly.
"Like father. Like son."
Veda met his gaze. His smile did not leave.
"I am more than my father ever was."
Adhira tilted his head. Something shifted in his eyes. Something old. Something almost fond.
"How cute."
His fist moved.
The sound was not an explosion. It was something worse. A single compressed impact that folded the air itself. The shockwave did not spread outward. It went through Veda like a door being kicked off its hinges.
The wall behind Veda ceased to exist.
He flew.
Not stumbled. Not fell. Flew. Through the first wall. Through the open air between buildings. Through the second wall. The third. Each impact a fresh crack of thunder that the reporters outside felt in their chests before they heard it.
Fourth building.
Fifth.
He crashed through the far wall of the fifth floor of a crumbling structure and disappeared into the dark.
Inside the ruin of that fifth floor, dust settled slowly.
Veda lay in the concrete. Face up. The ceiling above him had partially collapsed. Moonlight fell through a jagged hole.
Child.
The voice came from inside him. Calm. Ancient. Unbothered.
I told you.
Veda stared at the ceiling. He blinked once. Slowly.
I warned you. I said do not provoke him. I said he is beyond what you can handle right now. And yet.
Veda moved his fingers. They responded. Barely.
"I still feel it," he said out loud. His voice was raw. "The punch. His soul energy is still moving through my body like a current. Like it does not know it already hit me."
He tried to sit up.
Three separate places in his chest argued against it.
"Three ribs," he said quietly. "Cracked. At minimum."
He lay back down.
"My own soul energy could not stop it. Not even slow it. It passed through my defenses like they were not there."
He stared at the ceiling.
"That strong. And he used almost nothing."
Correct.
"Like a drop in an ocean," Veda said. "He gave me one drop. And three bones cracked."
He was quiet for a moment.
Then he laughed softly. It hurt. He laughed anyway.
"I need to get stronger."
He turned his head. Looked at the hole in the wall he had come through. Through the gaps and broken floors he could see the path he had traveled. Five buildings. The line of destruction went all the way back.
"Stronger than this. Stronger than anyone standing right now."
He pushed himself up.
His arms shook. His body screamed. He stood anyway. Slowly. Like something assembling itself from rubble.
He walked to the broken wall. Leaned against the edge. Looked out.
Adhira Pratap stood in the open air between buildings.
Not standing on anything. Just standing. The way a mountain stands. Like gravity had agreed to accommodate him.
His coat moved in the wind. His white hair was still. His dead eyes found Veda across the distance without effort.
He spoke. His voice carried perfectly, as if the wind had been waiting to deliver it.
"Tell me, boy."
A pause.
"Did you enjoy your flight?"
Veda looked at him. Blood on his chin. Dust in his hair. Three cracked ribs pressing against his lungs with every breath.
He smiled.
Then he coughed. Blood hit his palm.
He looked at it. Then back at Adhira.
"Sir."
His voice was quiet. Clear. No performance in it.
"In this life..."
He straightened. Not fully. His body would not allow that yet. But enough.
"I will show everyone what true power actually looks like."
Behind Adhira, in the far distance, the tower rose against the grey sky. Its upper floors caught the early light. It burned faintly, like an ember that had been waiting to become a fire.
Veda looked at it.
"No matter what it costs. No matter what stands in the way."
He met Adhira's eyes one last time.
"I will become something that even the gods have to look up to see."
He laughed once more. Short. Genuine.
"Sir. I genuinely enjoyed the flight."
Then his legs gave out.
He fell backward into the concrete. His eyes stayed open for one more second, staring up at the sky through the collapsed ceiling.
Just you wait, he thought. The voice inside him went quiet.
Heavens.
His eyes closed.
I am the one who is going to turn your paradise into ash.
The dust settled.
The tower burned quietly in the distance.
Somewhere in a hidden temple, a floating palace that existed between clouds and memory, a pale skinned figure sat on a throne of cracked stone. His eyes had been closed for centuries.
They opened.
Time is running out.