The journey to Jodhpur took them seven days. They moved by foot, cart, and once even hitched a ride with a post-collapse solar rickshaw gang trading dried mushrooms for tech scraps. The desert stretched wide and cracked under them. What had once been highways was now sand-buried relic paths.
By the sixth night, they saw the Tower.
It rose from the dunes like a wound in the sky, flame coiling along its body like a serpent. Red light throbbed from its base, pulsing in sync with something unseen, something alive. Every few hours, it gave off a low moan, a hum so deep it rattled Meena's bones and gave Dhruv migraines.
Proximity Alert: Relic Signal Lock Confirmed.
Tower of Agni — Containment Status: Failing.
Relic Entity Awakening in 48 hours.
They found shelter in the broken remains of an old dharmashala. The air smelled of scorched metal and dried incense. There were signs of pilgrims who had come and gone, chalk lines, old mantras, and a prayer wheel still spinning slowly in the wind.
Dhruv traced the graffiti on the wall: "Agni burns lies. Agni burns truths. He burns what you love most."
The next morning, they were met by someone unexpected.
A boy, maybe ten, barefoot and draped in smoke-stained cloth, walked up to their camp and bowed low.
"The God in the Tower wants to meet you."
Meena squinted. "And who are you?"
"No one," the boy said. "I died two years ago. The Tower sings my bones to sleep each night."
Dhruv stood. "Lead the way."
They followed the child into the shadow of the Tower. The heat was unbearable, yet the boy walked barefoot. As they entered the lowest ring of the temple ruins surrounding the tower's base, a vast open plaza revealed itself. Dozens of figures knelt in meditation.
Some were people, sadhus, ex-soldiers, nomads.
Others... weren't. Spirit shells in human form, silent watchers with flames flickering in their eyes.
At the center was a throne made of ash and charred stone.
Seated upon it was a man with no face.
Smoke wrapped around him like a shawl. Seven points of flame floated above his head. And his voice, when it came, felt like fire across skin.
"You who have taken the Axe. You who walk with vision. Why do you seek the flame that does not wish to be wielded?"
Dhruv stepped forward. "Because I was chosen. Because I seek the truth. And because every relic I find brings me closer to what broke this world."
The faceless figure stood.
"Then prepare, wielder. You will not face a beast. You will not face wrath. You will face yourself, stripped of name, story, and soul."
Relic Trial Initiated: Flame of Bharadwaja.
Trial Type: Inner Reversal.
Environment: Flame-Dreamscape
Warning: Failure may result in karmic inversion.
The flames consumed him.
He stood in a dream. Not his.
A battlefield, centuries ago. Armored warriors riding elephants with chakras carved into their foreheads. Flying machines spiraled above. The air was thick with smoke and hymns of war.
At the center stood Bharadwaja, a sage with fire in his eyes and a bleeding wound across his chest. He held no weapon. Only a single mudra, raised.
"The fire cleanses all. Even the innocent. That is my sin. That is your inheritance."
Dhruv moved forward, but the battlefield shifted. He was now a soldier. Then a traitor. Then a king. Each shift brought new guilt, new choices, old karma.
Then he was back in the present.
His body, tied to a pyre.
The smoke choked him.
"You carry the karma of a thousand lifetimes. You ask for power, but you have not yet asked for forgiveness."
"Then I ask now."
Silence.
Then fire.
But this time, it did not burn. It wrapped him, swirled through him, and became him.
Trial Complete: Flame Integrated.
Relic Acquired: Flame of Bharadwaja (3/7).
Ability Unlocked: Karma Echo – Summon a vision of your past self to aid once per trial.
New Pathway Opened: Memory Tower (North). Access Key Fragment Obtained.
Dhruv gasped as he returned to the real world.
The throne was empty.
The boy was gone.
The other figures were watching.
Meena rushed forward. "You vanished for hours! What happened?"
"I... lived a dozen lives. Burned for all of them."
She helped him to his feet. "But you came back."
"No," Dhruv said, voice hoarse. "I was sent back. There's more. Something locked. A tower to the north. A memory sealed."
Fragment Path Added: Memory Tower — Associated with Sage Vishwamitra.
A wind rose, blowing sand in spirals around them. From the tower's top came a sound, not a roar, not a scream.
A song.
Low. Endless. Pulling.
Dhruv turned to Meena.
"We're not done yet."
She nodded. "Then let's keep walking."