The temple's stone floor felt strangely warm beneath Aryan's bare feet. His breathing was ragged, and his muscles trembled, but he remained standing. Something had changed. He could feel it—not just in his body, but in his soul.
The seal glowing faintly on his chest pulsed like a second heartbeat.
"Where... am I?" he whispered.
His voice echoed across the vast stone chamber. Towering golden murals lined the walls—each depicting scenes of the **Three Gods** wielding cosmic forces, battling beasts of shadow, raising mountains, and tearing open the skies.
He walked slowly, drawn toward a staircase spiraling upward. An inscription hovered above the steps in glowing Brahmi script:
**"Only those who endure pain shall ascend."**
Without hesitation, Aryan placed a foot on the first stair.
The air changed instantly.
A burning pressure crushed down on his shoulders. It felt like the sky itself had grown heavy, threatening to flatten him where he stood. His knees buckled.
*"This... This is the test?"*
Every step forward was agony. His skin seared. His vision blurred. Blood dripped from his nose and ears. His body screamed at him to stop.
But his heart said otherwise.
"I've been weak… mocked… broken. Not anymore. Not now."
---
By the time he reached the first floor of the temple, he collapsed.
The chamber above was quiet. Peaceful. A soft breeze blew through, carrying a scent like lotus and lightning. In the center floated a massive crystalline lotus, slowly spinning, surrounded by motes of gold light.
Aryan forced himself to crawl closer.
As he touched it, visions exploded in his mind.
—A vast battlefield drenched in crimson.
—A monstrous figure cloaked in black lightning, its eyes glowing with madness.
—The death of thousands.
—A hand reaching toward him… his own hand, older, stronger, divine.
Then darkness.
---
When Aryan opened his eyes again, he wasn't alone.
Before him stood a figure—a projection of light, cloaked in golden robes, eyes deep as the cosmos.
**"You have touched the path of Brahma,"** the figure spoke, its voice like thunder wrapped in silk. **"You carry a fragment of divine destiny. But power without will is ruin. Rise, child."**
The figure raised its hand, and energy surged into Aryan's body.
New understanding dawned. He could now sense **Spiritual Qi**—not just around him, but the way it moved, how it twisted, danced, flowed.
And more than that… he could see *glimpses*—tiny flickers of moments just seconds before they happened.
*"A fraction of future sight…"* he murmured.
---
But the temple was not his to claim.
Not fully.
As he tried to climb the next stair to the **Second Floor**, an invisible force pushed him back. A voice whispered into his mind:
**"You are not yet worthy."**
Aryan fell again, panting. But this time, there was no despair in him.
He looked up at the vast interior of the first floor, then at his hands—cracked, bleeding, yet glowing faintly with divine energy.
"I will become worthy. I swear it."
---
Far away, back in **Sector 5**, news of his disappearance spread. The palace guards whispered of wild beasts. His siblings remained silent. His father gave no order to search.
Only **Dev**, his friend, wept beneath the willow tree.
And elsewhere—deep in the **forbidden southern lands**, within a fortress drenched in shadow—a monstrous figure stood watching a glowing orb.
It showed Aryan kneeling before the lotus.
The figure grinned. Its mouth stretched too wide, teeth jagged like broken glass.
"So… the heir of Brahma awakens."
A cruel laugh echoed
in the darkness.
"Let him climb. I will be waiting at the peak."
---
**To Be Continued..