(A/N):
Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.
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Rain continued pouring over the scrapyard.
The burning wreckage of the helicopter had already been reduced to steaming twisted metal, while water flowed through the streets carrying away ash and blood alike.
In the middle of that ruined battlefield, two groups silently faced one another.
On one side stood Rudra's group.
Rudra remained at the center, his crimson-gold spear resting casually against his shoulder as though destroying a helicopter moments earlier had been an everyday occurrence.
To his left stood Mohan Bhargav, rolling his shoulders while a faint golden aura resembling a mighty vanara flickered behind him.
On Rudra's right stood Junoo, whose playful smile had completely disappeared. The usual carefree woman was gone, replaced by someone whose eyes calmly studied every movement of the enemy before her.
Beside her stood Amirtha.
The rain surrounding the entire battlefield continued falling only because she willed it to.
Not a single unnecessary movement escaped her attention.
Opposite them—
Yuca and the remaining followers of Mahabir Lama stood frozen.
The confidence they had arrived with had completely disappeared.
None of them dared to make the first move.
Meanwhile, several meters away, Vedha, Mapu, Sebastian, and Vibya stood together.
All four were staring at Rudra's group.
Mapu swallowed hard.
"So..."
He looked toward Vibya.
"...these are your friends?"
Vibya never took her eyes off Rudra.
"They're Astra users."
Then she quietly added,
"The kind you pray never become your enemies."
Vedha remained silent.
He couldn't understand why.
But the man standing with the spear somehow made the entire battlefield feel... smaller.
As if everything revolved around him despite him doing absolutely nothing.
Rudra calmly swept his gaze across Yuca and the surviving followers.
He neither threatened them nor displayed any killing intent.
He merely looked at them.
Yet that alone made several of Mahabir's men instinctively step backward.
Yuca noticed it immediately.
She clenched her jaw.
This mission is over.
They had already lost the advantage.
The helicopter was destroyed.
Their objective had escaped.
And now Rudra himself had appeared.
Continuing the battle would achieve nothing.
Without taking her eyes off Rudra, she quietly spoke.
"We're leaving."
The followers understood immediately.
One by one they slowly began retreating.
Nobody questioned the order.
But before they could take more than a few steps—
A blur shot forward.
BOOM!
The road beneath them cracked apart.
Standing directly before their escape route—
Was Mohan Bhargav.
He landed in a crouched position before slowly standing with a grin spreading across his face.
"You came all the way here."
"And now you want to leave without saying goodbye?"
Golden Astra energy erupted around him.
Behind him appeared the faint illusion of a gigantic celestial Vanara roaring toward the heavens.
"Vanarastra."
The next second—
Chaos erupted.
Mohan disappeared.
Not because he was invisible.
Because he was simply too fast.
He moved with the unpredictable agility of a monkey swinging through a dense forest.
One moment he was before them.
The next—
Above them.
Then behind them.
Then underneath a strike before launching upward again.
BAM!
One follower flew into a parked car.
CRACK!
Another spun through the air before crashing through a brick wall.
Someone tried grabbing him from behind.
Mohan simply planted both hands on the ground, flipped completely over the man's shoulders, kicked him square in the chest and landed perfectly on his feet.
"What..."
One follower gasped.
"...what kind of fighting style is this?!"
It wasn't elegant.
It wasn't refined.
It wasn't predictable.
It was wild.
Explosive.
Completely impossible to read.
Exactly like a monkey.
Every attack seemed random.
Yet every movement flowed perfectly into the next.
The more they tried predicting him—
The more impossible he became to catch.
Even Vedha couldn't help staring.
"I've... never seen anyone fight like that."
Mapu nodded slowly.
"I don't think anyone has."
Within less than a minute, more than half of Mahabir's followers were already lying unconscious across the street.
Yuca clicked her tongue.
"Enough."
She drew both of her twin blades.
A surge of Astra energy surrounded them.
She dashed toward Mohan.
But suddenly—
The entire world changed.
The scrapyard disappeared.
The rain vanished.
The city ceased to exist.
Yuca found herself standing alone.
In the middle of an endless desert.
The blazing sun scorched the sky overhead.
Hot winds howled endlessly across endless dunes.
"What..."
She looked around.
"No..."
She immediately understood.
"An illusion."
She tried taking a step.
Her foot wouldn't move.
Looking down—
Her eyes widened.
Quicksand.
Her legs were already sinking.
She immediately tried pulling herself free.
Nothing happened.
The more strength she used—
The deeper she sank.
"No!"
She slashed wildly with both blades.
The sand remained untouched.
She jumped.
She struggled. She screamed.
Nothing changed.
Outside the illusion—
Yuca hadn't moved an inch.
She stood perfectly still in the middle of the street.
Her eyes were open.
Yet completely unfocused.
Her body trembled slightly while sweat rolled down her forehead despite the cold rain.
Standing several meters away—
Junoo slowly lowered one hand.
A crimson mist-like aura flowed around her body, wrapping around her like living smoke.
The air itself seemed to distort around her.
"The Maya Astra."
Her voice remained calm.
"If your mind accepts the illusion..."
She looked at the motionless Yuca.
"...then your body forgets reality."
Vedha stared at the scene in complete disbelief.
"So..."
"She's not actually in a desert?"
Junoo smiled faintly without looking at him.
"No."
"She's standing exactly where she was."
A brief pause.
"But to her..."
She looked toward Yuca's terrified face.
"...that desert is more real than this world."
The rain continued pouring over the scrapyard, washing away the smoke and blood that had stained the broken concrete only moments ago.
Behind them, Mohan Bhargav was still dealing with the remaining followers of Mahabir Lama. Every few seconds another unfortunate man was sent flying through the air before crashing into a pile of scrap metal or landing face-first in a puddle.
Not far away, Yuca remained standing perfectly still.
Her eyes were wide open, yet completely unfocused.
To everyone else she appeared frozen like a statue.
Only Junoo knew the battle she was currently fighting.
The crimson mist surrounding Junoo slowly flowed around her body like living smoke as she maintained the illusion effortlessly.
Inside Yuca's mind—
She was still desperately struggling to escape the endless quicksand swallowing her inch by inch.
Junoo smiled faintly.
"...She'll be occupied for a while."
Unlike the others, Rudra didn't even spare Yuca another glance.
He had already judged the situation.
Junoo had complete control.
There was no need for him to interfere.
Instead, he rested the crimson-gold spear upon his shoulder and calmly began walking toward the small group standing near the scrapyard entrance.
Amirtha walked beside him.
The rain falling from the sky somehow avoided the two of them entirely, splitting around them before reaching the ground.
It was a strange sight.
Almost as though nature itself refused to disturb them.
The closer they came, the more nervous Mapu and Sebastian became.
Neither of them knew who these people truly were.
But they had witnessed enough tonight.
A spear that destroyed a helicopter.
A woman who summoned rain.
Another who trapped people inside illusions.
And a man fighting like a celestial monkey.
Normal had long since disappeared.
Vibya, however, reacted completely differently.
The moment Rudra and Amirtha stopped before them, she immediately brought her palms together before bowing respectfully.
"Lord Rudra."
Then she turned toward Amirtha and bowed once more.
"Lady Amirtha."
Her voice carried genuine respect.
Not fear.
Respect earned through countless stories passed down among Astra users.
She knew exactly who stood before her.
The man who defeated Dev.
The chosen bearer of the Brahmastra.
And beside him...
The woman who had stood against Dev before Rudra himself arrived.
Even if history remembered Rudra as the one who ended the war, Astra users never forgot Amirtha's sacrifice.
She had fought when others had already lost hope.
She had bought time with her own life on the line.
That alone had earned her everlasting respect throughout the hidden Astra world.
Amirtha smiled gently.
"There is no need to be so formal."
But Vibya simply shook her head.
"It would be disrespectful if I wasn't."
Junoo, watching from behind, whispered toward Mohan,
"See?"
"I keep telling him people treat him like some legendary hero."
Mohan chuckled.
"Because to Astra users..."
"...he is."
Rudra merely sighed.
"I've told you before."
"I don't need titles."
Junoo grinned.
"Unfortunately for you..."
"You don't get to decide that anymore."
Rudra simply gave up arguing.
Instead, he looked toward Vibya with a small smile.
"So..."
"You're Vibya?"
She immediately nodded.
"Yes."
"I am."
Rudra studied her for a brief moment before nodding in return.
"So Guru Arvind was right."
"You really have been searching everywhere."
Vibya gave a tired smile.
"It took longer than I expected."
Only then did Rudra shift his attention toward the three men standing behind her.
His gaze slowly swept across Sebastian.
Then Mapu.
Finally—
It stopped on the young man standing between them.
A ponytail.
Several fresh bruises.
Cuts across his face.
Torn clothes.
And despite clearly being exhausted...
He was still standing.
Rudra's lips curved into a faint smile.
"So..."
"You're Vedha."
The young man blinked.
"...Yes."
For a few seconds, Rudra simply observed him.
Then his eyes drifted toward the bruises covering Vedha's arms and face.
He let out a quiet chuckle.
"...Looks like she gave you quite the beating."
He tilted his head slightly toward Yuca, who still stood motionless under Junoo's illusion.
Vedha instinctively rubbed the side of his face where one of Yuca's kicks had landed.
"You could say that."
Mapu snorted.
"'Could say'?"
"You got turned into a punching bag."
Sebastian nodded in complete agreement.
"I've honestly never seen you lose that badly."
Vedha shot both of them an annoyed glare.
"Very supportive."
"Thank you."
Even Rudra couldn't help smiling.
"You did better than most would have."
Vedha looked surprised.
"You mean that?"
Rudra nodded.
"She wasn't an ordinary opponent."
"She's a trained Astra user."
He looked back toward the illusion-bound Yuca.
"And judging from her control..."
"...she has years of combat experience."
He returned his gaze to Vedha.
"You survived against someone like that."
"That's not something many people can claim."
Vedha remained silent.
He had thought he simply wasn't strong enough.
But hearing those words from the man standing before him somehow eased the frustration lingering in his heart.
Behind them, Junoo glanced toward the motionless Yuca before speaking casually.
"Don't worry."
"I've adjusted the illusion."
"She can struggle for another thirty minutes before realizing she's still standing exactly where she started."
Mapu slowly looked at the frozen Yuca.
Then back at Junoo.
"...I'm officially terrified of you."
Junoo flashed him a bright smile.
"Good."
"It means the illusion is working."
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Guys My New Fic name is:
-->Karuppan: King of Openings.
Check it out... I hope you will like it
Whats your thought's guys.
Thanks for reading the chapter!
Please give a review!!! And power stone too!!!
Guys it will motivate me more?