The hospital corridor was silent.
Then —
A flicker.
A low, unnatural growl.
Parth stood still,no trace of fear on his body language. The pale fluorescent lights above buzzed again, the sterile white walls reflecting something that did not belong to this world.
Outside the ICU glass, they emerged.
Danavas.
Twisted, sinewy shadows. Teeth like broken glass. Limbs contorted, shifting in impossible angles. Eyes — glowing green, searing.
Parth didn't flinch.
His fingers tightened into fists.
> "This is not your ground," he muttered. "Not tonight."
The nearest danava lunged.
Parth moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
He ducked beneath its claws, spun, and elbowed it across the jaw with a crack that echoed. The creature shrieked, crashing into the steel IV stand and shattering the wall clock behind it.
03:07 AM.
The others hissed. They had numbers. Parth had no weapons.
But he didn't need any.
---
Room 312's door burst open.It was the closest room to the ICU.
A nurse peeked out in panic — saw the monsters — screamed.
Parth twisted and kicked a danava back with such force that it slammed into the opposite wall and convulsed, twitching. Then he yelled over his shoulder:
> "Lock that door. Tell no one to come out."
His voice — no longer just Parth's. It carried command, the kind that once rallied armies on the plains of Kurukshetra.He had lived as Arjuna twice after all.
The nurse obeyed, heart pounding.
---
Three danavas leapt at once.
Parth stepped between them, hands bare, stance wide.
> "This body remembers," he whispered.
"You think I forgot how to fight without a bow?"
One claw nearly grazed his cheek.
Parth ducked low, swept its legs out from under it, and launched himself upward to slam his palm into another's chest.
Its ribs exploded inward.
But he didn't pause.
He grabbed a nearby wheelchair, spun it, and hurled it like a discus — straight through a danava's torso.
Bloodless. Smoky. But they screamed in agony.
---
Somewhere down the hallway, another door creaked open.
Parth turned just in time to see a small child wandering out, rubbing his eyes.
A danava turned.
> "NO!" Parth bellowed.
He ran — faster than the eye could follow.
The monster was two feet away.
Parth leapt, caught the child in his arms, and used his own back to crash into the marble floor.
He hissed at the impact. The child cried.
But he was safe.
Parth stood, blood dripping from his elbow, and placed the boy inside a utility closet.
> "Don't come out until someone in a white coat says it's okay, okay?"
The boy nodded, eyes wide. Parth smiled.
Then turned.
The monsters had regrouped.
---
They circled him.
No backup.
No Gandiva.
No Krishna at his side.
Just Parth.
And yet—
He smirked.
> "You're not the first darkness I've faced."
"You won't be the last."
His body moved like muscle memory forged in another lifetime. He remembered the wars. The screams. The mud of Kurukshetra. The silence that followed every victory.
And now… here he was again.
He dashed forward, slammed one into a window, grabbed another by the throat and smashed it through a crash cart. He picked up the metal IV pole — twisted — and used it like a staff, taking down three more in a cyclone of speed and fury.
---
At one point, one of the danavas — larger than the others — screeched something in a dead tongue.
Parth didn't understand the words.
But he understood the intent.
He took a breath.
> "Come. All of you."
> "If you want blood…"
"Then come to take mine. Not theirs."
---
And just when the last of the danavas lunged — ready to bite —
A blinding white pulse of energy burst from Parth's body.
For a moment — it looked like he stood in divine armor, glowing with celestial fire.
His eyes — gold.
His stance — unshakable.
The monsters stopped mid-air.
And began to retreat.
Hissing. Burning. Vanishing.
---
By the time the doctors came running, everything was gone.
Parth stood in the middle of the blood-smeared corridor, chest rising and falling. No fatal wounds. No dead bodies.
Just… quiet.
---
A single nurse, who had witnessed it all from a cracked door, whispered later to another staff:
> "He… wasn't human."
"He protected everyone. Without a single weapon."
"He looked like… something out of a myth."
---
Far away, watching from the rooftop of a distant building, Ashwatthama stood silently.
He smiled.
> "You didn't lose it, Parth."
"Still Dhananjaya… even without Gandiva."
---