Ravi stood at the center of Bhadrakaal, his gaze fixed on the ground where the corrupted monk had dissolved into silence. The black veins remained — pulsing, twisting beneath the dirt like roots of some ancient, hungry tree.
"We need to dig," he said quietly.
Meera hesitated. "That's not just soil. It feels… wrong."
Ravi nodded. "That's exactly why."
Together, they moved to the temple ruin. Its once-carved pillars now bore claw marks and burned inscriptions. As Kiran cleared rubble from what used to be the altar, a low hum began to rise from below. It wasn't sound — it was pressure, like gravity deepening.
Then, a click — stone shifting. A hidden stairwell revealed itself beneath the altar, descending into cold shadow.
Kiran drew both blades. "Why is it always stairs into darkness?"
Ravi smirked faintly. "Because the light doesn't keep secrets."
They descended.
The air below was thick with dust and memory. Ancient murals lined the walls — not of gods, but of limbs. Ten of them. Each glowing with a different aura — Fire, Stone, Wind, Flesh, Blood, Void, Mind, Echo, Bone… and one that had been scratched out entirely.
At the bottom of the stairwell lay a shrine unlike anything Ravi had seen — built not of stone, but of bones and blackened gold. At its center hovered a sphere — shifting between solidity and smoke, pulsing in rhythm with the black veins above.
"Is that... a Devaang?" Meera whispered.
"No," Ravi said. "It's something older. Something broken."
Suddenly, the sphere flashed.
And Ravi was no longer there.
Vision
He stood on a battlefield of the past. The sky was blood-red, and ten warriors faced each other — each wielding a different limb of divine power. In the center stood a chained being — half-human, half-god — screaming against bonds woven from stars and death.
One of the warriors, cloaked in ash, looked directly at Ravi.
"You carry his curse," the man said. "You awaken the Tenth. You carry the forgotten limb."
Back in the Shrine
Ravi gasped, stumbling backward. The shrine was cracking. The sphere shattered into a pulse of energy that surged up through the stairs.
Above, Bhadrakaal shook.
Kiran helped steady him. "What did you see?"
Ravi's voice trembled. "A limb that shouldn't exist. One even the gods tried to bury."
Outside, the earth had opened.
Black roots now snaked across the land, spreading toward the horizon.
Meera closed her eyes. "This… this isn't just about corrupted monks or warlords anymore."
"No," Ravi whispered."This is a god trying to wake up. And I'm the key."