Ear-splitting roars and violent tremors violently shook the earth, threatening to tear the very landscape apart. The air was thick with the wails of the dying and the deafening crash of crumbling architecture. "Save us! Please, save us!" The agonized cries of the people dissolved into the wind, carrying the heavy, metallic stench of blood.
Standing on the grand balcony of the palace, the Empress's eyes blazed with fury. "Silence that wretched howling!" she barked, her voice dripping with venom. "Where are the warriors we chose? Are they going to wait until the entire kingdom is reduced to ashes?"
Behind her, the Prime Minister masked his mounting panic. "Calm yourself, My Queen... They have already departed. They are more than ready to hunt down that beast," he assured her, taking a steadying breath before adding, "They have just reached the Epicenter of the battlefield."
A haughty smirk crept onto the Empress's face. "Of course they will. They are my chosen, after all." Swelling with pride, she basked in the hope of her empire. "They are the very symbol of my absolute power... the pinnacle of valor!" Her words oozed with arrogance. "Let the world watch as they obliterate this monster and return victorious!" Her commanding voice echoed majestically into the night.
But at the Epicenter of the battlefield, reality was starkly different.
"Run! There's no escape! He's a demon!" The infantrymen ran for their lives, their faces pale with sheer terror. "Everyone is dead... we're next..." muttered one soldier, teetering on the edge of absolute despair.
Suddenly, a fleeing soldier skidded to a halt. "Stop! Look over there! Through the dust..." he shouted, pointing a trembling finger. Piercing through the thick clouds of debris, a quartet of figures marched forward. "It's them...! They are here!" the desperate soldiers began to cheer, a sudden surge of adrenaline washing over them. "The Empress's 'Saviors' have arrived! It's the end of the line for that monster!" The shadow of death on their faces was instantly replaced by a spark of sudden hope.
As the dust fully settled, the majestic and imposing sight of the four warriors—Agan, Kathir, Harish, and Kuzhali—captivated everyone's eyes. Amidst the apocalyptic ruin, they stood tall and unyielding, like a mountain of solid iron.
Tightening his grip on his weapons, Kathir sneered at the retreating soldiers. "Cowards... running for your miserable lives. How pathetic!" he mocked.
"Leave them be, Kathir. Once that beast trembles at the very sight of us... they'll know exactly who we are," chimed in another.
Agan, however, sensed the true gravity of the situation and remained strictly composed. "No. That monster annihilated our empire in a mere ten minutes," he warned, his eyes scanning the devastation. "We have no idea what his true strength is. We cannot afford to underestimate him."
Refusing to listen, Kathir brushed him off. "Stop it, Agan! Don't act like a frightened child. Let's finish what we came here for," he declared, marching forward.
And then, the cataclysm struck.
KRRRR-BOOOM!! The earth fractured with a terrifying quake. Bursting through the colossal mounds of rubble ahead of them, a gargantuan silhouette slowly began to rise. The monster's shadow crept forward, eventually swallowing all four of them in utter darkness. Staring up at the towering monolith of a being, the Saviors froze, paralyzed by its sheer magnitude.
The very beast they had come to slaughter unleashed an aura of absolute malice that crashed into them like a tidal wave. The bodies of the four warriors began to tremble uncontrollably. The heavy iron hammers slipped from Kathir's lifeless grip and clattered to the ground. Agan summoned every ounce of his willpower, trying to use his sword as a crutch to stay upright, but his knees violently buckled.
A single exhale.
Unable to withstand even the mere gaze and the breath of the beast, the eyes of the four "Saviors" rolled back. Their stances broke, and they collapsed unconscious to the shattered earth. Not a single drop of blood was shed; not a single clash of steel occurred. The supposedly legendary warriors now lay motionless on the battlefield, swept away like mere dust. "What is this power... I can't..." Harish and Kuzhali murmured weakly before their breaths hitched and they faded into the dark.
The soldiers, who had just turned around with renewed hope, were now infected with a fear exponentially worse than before. Witnessing their empire's final ray of hope extinguished in the blink of an eye, they broke down in hysterical despair. Throwing their weapons aside like madmen, they shrieked, "It's over! The Saviors have fallen! Run!! Run for your lives!!" and sprinted blindly into the abyss.
Watching this from the distant palace balcony, the Empress's heart skipped a beat. "My... my Saviors... in a single second..." she whispered, frozen to the bone.
Suddenly, amidst a swirl of phantom flames behind her, a figure materialized, floating in the air. "My Queen... be careful! What in the world is that?!" the Prime Minister panicked.
It was a Phantom—a Vedhalam. Adorned with multiple limbs and terrifying, unblinking eyes, it spoke in a raspy, mocking tone: "My humble greetings to the arrogant Empress... Do not look so surprised, Your Majesty. What you just witnessed... was merely 10 percent of his wrath."
Rolling its gruesome eyes with a sinister chuckle, it continued, "You have deeply angered the King of our realm, Lord Dheeran. What you see below is but a trivial consequence."
The Phantom's expression then darkened. "However, it is not our King's custom to wage war without a formal declaration. He has halted the destruction for now." Raising its voice like a death sentence, it proclaimed, "Exactly 15 days from now... on the night of the full moon, the war will resume. Prepare for your absolute annihilation!"
With those chilling words, it vanished into thin air.
The Empress's legs gave way. Collapsing to her knees on the cold marble, she muttered through violent tremors: "Just... ten percent...? Such overwhelming, god-like power..." She was engulfed by a suffocating storm of confusion and unanswered despair.
How did he exist in this world without our knowledge? Who is he? Where did he come from? These haunting questions were all that remained, as the night silently declared that the official countdown to the empire's eradication had begun.