Water swallowed Abhi whole.
For a heartbeat, he felt nothing—no sound, no sensation, no direction. Just cold blue swallowing all sense of up or down. Panic clawed up his chest before the staircase of light beneath his feet flared again, anchoring him.
His breath returned.
Okay… okay. I'm not dead. Good start.
The glowing steps guided him deeper until the darkness peeled away, revealing a massive underwater corridor made of stone and coral. The ancient palace of Vayushmaar stretched forward endlessly, pillars wrapped in kelp, runes carved into the walls like frozen waves.
Abhi took a cautious step.
He didn't float.
He didn't drown.
He was breathing underwater.
He touched his throat. No gills. No air bubble. Just… breathing.
"Bro… this is sick," he whispered, voice echoing strangely in the water.
Then the platform behind him dissolved into blue dust.
No turning back.
As soon as his foot landed fully inside the hall, the entire structure trembled.
Lights rippled across the runes—soft at first, then brighter, brighter, until the palace hummed alive.
A low, thunderous voice rolled through the water:
"Abhi. The storm-breaker's heart will be tested.
Courage is not found in strength… but in vulnerability.
Face what you fear most."
Abhi's pulse spiked.
"Oh hell no. Why is mine emotional?"
The walls shifted with a rumbling groan. The corridor split into three twisting paths ahead of him—left, right, and center—each pitch black.
A soft whisper brushed past his ear.
Not a supernatural whisper.
Not ancient.
A memory.
"Beta… don't go too far. Stay close."
His mother's voice.
Abhi froze.
Another voice echoed—his father's.
"You have to be stronger, Abhi. Stop hesitating."
His chest tightened.
Childhood fears.
Expectations.
Pressure.
All swirling inside the drowned palace.
"Okay," he muttered. "So that's how it's gonna be."
He stepped forward.
As soon as he entered the central path, the water around him thickened.
Heavy.
Dense.
He tried to move—and felt resistance like pushing through wet cement.
"Bro… seriously?"
He strained, muscles burning. Every step felt like lifting a truck. The deeper he walked, the worse the pressure became—crushing, suffocating, threatening to fold his ribs inward.
A glowing orb drifted beside him.
A child-like silhouette formed inside it.
A younger Abhi.
Tiny.
Afraid.
The orb spoke in his own childhood voice:
"You're going to fail. They always expect too much. You can't do all this."
Abhi clenched his jaw.
"Not now, man…"
But the illusion continued.
"You slow people down. You're the weak one. Aryan and Ahaan… they don't need you."
Abhi's steps faltered.
Pressure closed in.
The palace groaned, walls tightening.
He shook his head violently.
"No. No, that's not true."
"You're scared. You always have been."
Abhi roared, forcing his leg forward, shattering the orb with a punch. Light burst out like shards of glass.
The pressure instantly withdrew.
The corridor opened into a vast chamber.
A circular arena stood at the center, surrounded by spiraling pillars of water. At the far end, floating above a pedestal, was a spherical object sealed inside a halo of liquid light.
The artifact.
A heartbeat of awe passed—until the water around him rippled and twisted into a shape.
A perfect copy of Abhi.
Except its eyes were pitch black, and its form made entirely from swirling water.
The copy spoke:
"You defeated pressure. But can you defeat yourself?"
Abhi's stomach flipped.
"Oh come on—I'm fighting a water version of me?"
The reflection lunged.
Faster than human.
A sharp blade of water extended from its arm.
Abhi dodged just in time, the blade slicing a pillar behind him cleanly in half.
"Okay… so you're not friendly."
He swung at it, but his fist passed through the watery chest, slowing him down. The clone reformed instantly, slamming him backward with a tidal-force punch.
He skidded across the arena, coughing.
"Shit—so how do you fight water?!"
The reflection charged again.
Abhi braced—then remembered something Aryan said while descending the mountain.
"The artifacts test what you lack."
And what did Abhi lack?
He always rushed.
Always panicked.
Always moved without thinking.
If water was fast and fluid…
Then maybe stillness was the answer.
He inhaled.
Centered himself.
Slowed his heartbeat.
Slowed his thoughts.
The clone hesitated, its shape flickering.
Abhi whispered, "Got you."
As the clone attacked, Abhi stepped sideways—not quickly, but calmly—letting its strike pass through his previous position. For a brief moment, its form lost cohesion.
Abhi struck its core—
not with force,
but with stability.
A pulse of calm energy rippled outward.
The reflection shattered like spilled water.
Silence fell.
The pedestal glowed, releasing the object trapped within.
The spherical artifact drifted into Abhi's hands—cold, smooth, shining with faint swirling currents inside.
It didn't speak.
Didn't vibrate.
Didn't glow dramatically.
It's simply… accepted him.
Abhi stared at it, breath trembling.
"Dude… I did it."
CRACK.
The chamber shook violently.
"Oh no—NOT AGAIN!"
The pillars split, the arena floor fractured, and the ceiling began to collapse in massive chunks. Water surged from every direction.
Abhi turned and sprinted.
A tidal wave chased him as the palace disintegrated.
Debris rained down.
Columns crashed.
He leapt toward the exit as the light staircase reappeared, pulling him upward with a forceful current.
The last thing he saw was the entire palace crumbling into a whirlpool of dust and bubbles—
Before he burst out of the lake's surface in an explosion of water.
Aryan and Ahaan jumped back as Abhi shot out of the water like a rocket, landing flat on the lakeside.
He lay there, gasping, drenched from head to toe.
Ahaan poked him. "Alive?"
Abhi raised a trembling hand, revealing the glowing sphere.
Aryan smiled. "He did it."
Abhi coughed water, shaking. "Next time… one of you… goes to the underwater palace. I will retire."
Ahaan laughed. "Bro, yours hasn't even started glowing yet."
Abhi groaned. "Don't… even…"