The jungle of Bhouldera was not meant for the living.
Twisted trees loomed overhead like frozen giants, their branches clawing at the sky. Fog coiled low across the moss-covered ground, and no birds sang. The silence wasn't peace — it was fear, hanging like a whisper on every leaf.
Harun stepped forward, his boots sinking slightly into the wet earth. Behind him, Zoya, Sahil, and Radha followed without a word.
The deeper they walked, the heavier the air became — as if the jungle itself wanted them gone.
> "It's exactly like before," Zoya whispered, voice barely audible. "Same silence… same scent of blood in the wind."
Suddenly, the silence broke.
From the treetops — a snarl.
Dozens of Varkhal beasts launched themselves downward — mutated wolves with bone-plated skulls, jagged claws, and eyeless sockets that screamed.
But—
Zoya didn't move.
She raised one hand, calm as a frozen lake.
A ring of light expanded from her fingers — bright, silent, and absolute.
"Bhramm of Vision."
The ring swept through the Varkhals mid-air. Their bodies froze mid-leap, jaws slack.
Then—
POP.
In perfect synchronicity, every Varkhal's skull collapsed inward. Their bodies hit the ground like discarded puppets.
Stillness returned.
Sahil clicked his tongue. "Hmph. Clean kill."
He stepped forward, cracking his neck. "Now… allow me to stretch a little."
His Dravillian Stone pulsed green.
"Unleash: Carbon Tower."
The air shifted. Wind howled — not around them, but above, rising into the shape of a translucent vertical spiral.
Sahil's feet left the ground. His hands glowed as pressure condensed around him like a storm forced into human shape.
He whispered a count.
"One. Two. Three. Four…"
His voice sped up.
"FiveSixSevenEightNineTen."
A shockwave tore outward.
In a blur of slicing wind, the Varkhal commanders were obliterated — bones shredded, armor ripped to pieces. Blood rained down in slow motion.
Sahil landed softly. "Warming up."
Harun's eyes narrowed.
"Let's move. The gate isn't far."
The deeper they walked, the colder it grew.
Now the trees gave way to stone. The jungle choked into a mountain pass — and beyond it, the Cave of Bones.
Crystals glowed faintly along the jagged interior, casting eerie purple light. The ground was lined with sigils scorched into the stone.
At the center of the cave stood a throne of fused bones and steel — grotesque, pulsating with energy. Upon it sat Gautam, draped in a robe that flickered between cloth and shadow.
His eyes gleamed, reflecting nothing but madness.
"So," he said, voice low and gravel-thick,
"You finally arrived."
He stood slowly, arms spreading like a preacher before his altar.
"I told them… I told them tonight was the night. The seal breaks tonight. The master awakens tonight. And you four… came right on time."
His voice cracked into laughter. Not loud — but broken, crawling.
Behind him, the cavern lit up.
15,000 cultists.
Five generals.
Each cloaked in dark Bhramm energy, their bodies marked with forbidden sigils.
And yet—
Harun smiled.
"Fifteen thousand?" he said. "That's it?"
Zoya grinned beside him.
Radha's vines began to twitch at her fingertips.
Sahil pulled back his sleeves.
A moment of silence passed. Even the enemy paused.
Harun cracked his knuckles.
"Let's thin the crowd."
Gautam's voice roared:
"KILL THEM!"
The cavern erupted into chaos.
The sound hit first.
Fifteen thousand voices — chanting, snarling, screaming.
Swords drawn. Chains dragged. Claws bared. Their war cry rose like a tidal wave of madness.
But Harun's squad didn't flinch.
Instead, they smiled.
"Let's begin the count," Sahil muttered.
He took one slow step forward.
Then—
BOOM.
A storm erupted around him as his Carbon Tower spiraled into the air. Pillars of wind exploded upward, spinning faster than the eye could follow.
"Carbon Tower – Cyclone Divide!"
The wind bent space. His arms blurred. Every movement a cut. Every gesture a command.
He moved through the cultists like a whisper of death.
100. 200. 400. 600.
By the time the wind settled, a carpet of broken bodies lay behind him.
Sahil exhaled, completely calm.
Radha stepped up.
The ground under her feet turned green — glowing with veins of life.
"Vipe String."
Hair-thin vines shot out invisibly, threading through necks, arms, hearts.
There was no time to scream.
550 cultists dropped, their heads rolling before their weapons hit the floor.
"Break String."
A second wave pulsed.
The frozen bodies shattered.
The silence that followed was cold, sharp.
Radha didn't even blink.
Zoya closed her eyes.
Her Dravillian Stone glowed like a frozen star.
"Bhramm of Ice… ICE BLOW."
She raised her hand — and with it came winter.
A wave of cold blue air burst from her palm, sweeping across the enemy lines.
Those caught in its path screamed as their skin crystallized. Their bones froze. Their breath turned to frost mid-scream.
1792 warriors, turned to living statues.
Zoya whispered: "Radha."
"Already on it."
Radha flicked her fingers. Snap.
Shatter.
Every frozen enemy cracked into shards — a snowfall of blood and frost.
---
Harun, meanwhile, moved like a shadow at the edge of the storm.
His aura flickered — pure black with hints of violet.
"Void Punch."
He slammed his fist into the ground.
The stone fractured into an abyss — a gravitational hole that tore the earth apart.
567 cultists were dragged screaming into the darkness, swallowed by the void, never to be seen again.
The battlefield shook with silence.
In less than four minutes… nearly 5,000 enemies lay dead.
And still — the army kept coming.
Harun narrowed his eyes.
"I need more."
Gautam's laughter rang like broken bells.
He stepped forward, raising his arm.
"Enough."
His Dravillian Stone pulsed — and the air fractured.
"Bhramm of Vision: Advanced Form – NAYANTRA."
The cave twisted. The light bent. The sound warped.
The battlefield was gone.
Each warrior was pulled into their own nightmare.
Sahil stood inside a collapsing house. Flames licked at the walls. A girl's voice screamed from behind a locked door.
He ran.
But the hallway stretched.
The door never came closer.
"What… what is this?"
His knees buckled.
Then—
His Bhramm surged.
"Divyapran!!"
A spiritual shockwave burst from him. All around the battlefield — enemies gasped, clutching their throats.
Their airways closed.
They choked on nothing.
Collapsed in waves.
Over 3,000 dead in the wake of Sahil's awakening.
But still — Nayantra didn't break.
Everyone remained trapped… except one.
Harun.
He stood still in the real world, breathing deeply.
"If Veil hadn't broken my mind before… I'd be gone by now."
He touched the crystal embedded in his chest.
"But I've changed."
"No more mercy."
"Abyssal Chaos."
Black tendrils exploded from his chest, swirling into dozens of miniature creatures — eyes red, bodies formed of pure void.
They darted across the battlefield, slashing, devouring, tearing souls apart.
7500 soldiers fell.
The shadows climbed their bodies, dragging them into oblivion.
Screams turned to silence.
And then—
"DIVINE FLAME!"
A voice roared across the battlefield.
From the rear, Raj, Gautam's strongest general, stepped forward.
A lotus of fire spun above his hand. One wave — and the Chaos creatures evaporated in a sunburst of golden flame.
Zoya screamed.
She dashed into the fight, her body dripping blood, her heart racing.
"Bhramm of Shape!
I am not weak. I am not wounded.
I believe I can win."
She vanished.
And then — reappeared behind Gautam.
SLASH!
A direct strike to his back.
But he turned. Smiling.
"Weak."
"Track Punch."
A guided strike — unmissable, unshakable.
It connected with Zoya's ribs — a brutal explosion of force.
She hit the ground hard, blood coughing from her lips.
Harun saw red.
Everything stopped.
"Zoya…"
His voice dropped, dark and heavy.
"I told you."
"NO ONE DIES!!"
He slammed his palms together.
"Abyssal Universal Coree!!"
His aura flared like a collapsing star. The ground shattered under his feet.
An invisible pulse blasted outward — dozens of enemies crushed instantly, flung back like dolls.
Sahil yelled from the side:
"Oyy! Gonna hog all the kills alone?!"
He stepped forward — and his body shimmered.
"Wind Transformation!"
He vanished.
Then—
Head after head dropped like fruit from a dying tree.
Screams echoed — but no one saw him move.
Over 10,000 cultists were now gone.
Radha placed her hand on the ground.
"Let nature take you."
"Divine Tree."
A massive tree erupted from the stone — pure white, glowing. Its leaves began to fall.
Soft. Beautiful.
Deadly.
Anyone they touched froze, then crumbled.
Their souls pulled into the tree's bark like sap.
Another 1500 lives ended.
---
Only 1000 cultists remained.
And Gautam's five generals.
The battlefield was littered with corpses.
Smoke. Ash. Blood.
Zoya stirred.
Her hand trembled as she pushed herself up.
"I'm not letting Harun fight alone again."
Her Dravillian Stone blazed with icy light.
"Ice Queen – Ascend."
The cavern's temperature plummeted instantly.
A breath left everyone's lips — frozen midair.
Zoya rose slowly, each step echoing like the toll of a frozen bell.
Her Dravillian Stone pulsed with brilliant azure light — sharp, pure, and deadly.
A deep hum filled the chamber as the atoms around her began to slow, freeze, crystalize.
Her body shimmered and shifted.
Dark battle armor formed — not metal, but living ice, etched with ancient runes that glowed with ethereal frost.
The armor clung to her form, sculpted like the fiercest goddess of winter.
A flowing cape of ice crystals trailed behind her, refracting light into shards of frozen fire.
Her eyes blazed — two sapphires ignited by the coldest flames.
Her hair floated like a frozen waterfall, cascading in slow motion with sparkling ice shards caught in every strand.
She lifted her hand.
Around her fingertips, tiny ice particles swirled, spinning faster and faster.
The air vibrated with power.
"I am no longer the girl who feared the cold..."
Her voice was calm, yet a storm raged beneath it.
"I am the Ice Queen — the sovereign of frost and silence."
A blast of icy wind erupted from her palm.
The remaining cultists gasped as the cold wrapped around them like a living prison.
Fingers of frost crept up their arms, legs, and torsos, solidifying flesh into crystal.
The ground cracked under the sheer chill.
---
Around her, the chamber froze solid — walls, floors, even the air itself crystallizing in an instant.
Time seemed to slow, the only movement the subtle shimmer of ice fracturing in a slow, endless dance.
She moved forward, a predator gliding on a frozen lake.
Every step left a crackling echo.
---
"Feel the cold... feel the end."
With a graceful flick, Zoya unleashed a storm of ice shards — razor-sharp and glowing with icy blue light.
They flew through the air like shooting stars, each one tearing through the remaining cultists.
Screams turned to shattering crystals as men and women froze mid-action, trapped in the queen's eternal winter.
---
Harun watched, awe and pride mixing in his eyes.
"Zoya… you truly are unique."
---
Suddenly, a deep, commanding voice echoed through the frozen air.
---
Gautam's Command
> "Generals! Enough playing!"
> "Crush them. Leave nothing."
The five generals stepped forward, their eyes blazing with malevolent power.
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
The final battle was about to explode.
---