"Testing, one, two, three. Can you hear me, sewer rats?"
Sera's smooth, sarcastic voice crackled clearly in Karma's right ear. The Core Four were standing in a dark, damp access tunnel beneath Bhairav's fight club. They were no longer wearing their ruined, muddy academy uniforms. Sera had provided them with sleek, black, waterproof tactical jackets and high-tech earpieces.
Kanha tapped his earpiece, frowning. "Loud and clear, snake lady. Try not to blow out my eardrums."
"Just focus on the mission, big boy," Sera replied from her comfortable VIP lounge. "I have hacked into the city's old power grid. I will guide you through the maze. But remember, once you reach the temple's underground perimeter, my signal might drop. You will be on your own."
Bhairav Singh stood by a heavy, rusted iron hatch in the floor. He grabbed the wheel and spun it with his massive, scarred hands, pulling the heavy door open. A horrible, acidic smell immediately filled the room.
"This is the old industrial drainage pipe," Bhairav said, his one good eye looking at Karma seriously. "It connects straight to the cavern under the Indra-Sabha. But be careful. The temple has been dumping their failed 'Red Pill' experiments down there for years. The water is toxic, and whatever lives down there is no longer human."
Karma nodded, his face hardened with absolute resolve. He drew the Lightning Sword, the faint blue glow illuminating the dark hole. "Thank you, Bhairav. We won't forget this."
One by one, the Core Four climbed down the long metal ladder into the absolute darkness of the poisonous tunnels.
The Poisonous Tunnels
The moment their boots hit the ground, they realized Bhairav wasn't joking.
The tunnel was massive, built with ancient stone bricks, but it didn't look like a normal sewer. The water flowing in the center of the tunnel wasn't brown; it was a sickly, glowing, neon purple. A thick, yellowish fog hung in the air, smelling strongly of rotten flesh and burning chemicals.
" alert," Sambhab whispered, covering his mouth with his sleeve. "The air toxicity levels here are extremely high. Breathing this fog for more than ten minutes will cause severe lung damage and hallucinations."
Daizy immediately stepped forward, her hands glowing with pure, warm emerald light. "Goddess Bloom: Purifying Aura."
A thin, glowing green bubble expanded from Daizy's body, wrapping around the four of them like a protective shield. The moment the green light touched the yellow fog, the air inside the bubble turned fresh and clean.
"Thanks, daizy ," Kanha sighed in relief, taking a deep breath of the clean air. "I owe you a giant pizza after this."
"Keep your voices down," Karma ordered in a harsh whisper, his kinetic vision scanning the dark fog ahead. "We don't know what is waiting for us."
They walked silently through the thick sludge for about fifteen minutes, following the directions Sera gave them through the earpieces. The only sound was the sloshing of their boots in the toxic water.
Suddenly, Karma stopped dead in his tracks. He held up a fist. The team instantly froze behind him.
Splash... Splash...
Something was moving in the purple water ahead of them.
Sambhab slowly raised his hand, summoning a tiny, dim ball of blue fire to push the yellow fog back.
As the light illuminated the tunnel, Daizy let out a muffled gasp, covering her mouth in pure horror.
Blocking their path were five terrifying creatures. They looked like humans, but their skin was completely pale and covered in bulging, glowing black veins. Their jaws were unhinged, hanging open to reveal rows of sharp, jagged teeth. Their eyes were pitch black, leaking a dark, oily substance.
"What are those things?" Kanha whispered, his grip tightening on his iron staff.
"The Temple's failures," Sambhab deduced, his voice completely cold. "These were probably innocent people or sick patients who couldn't handle the dark energy of the Red Pills. The High Priest turned them into mindless Shadow Beasts and flushed them down here like garbage."
The creatures slowly turned their heads. Their pitch-black eyes locked onto Daizy's glowing green aura. They let out a horrifying, gurgling screech and charged forward on all fours, splashing violently through the toxic water.
"We can't use big attacks!" Karma warned quickly. "If we make too much noise, we will alert the temple guards above! Silent takedowns only!"
Kanha gritted his teeth. He hated fighting quietly, but he understood. As the first mutated beast leaped at him, Kanha didn't swing his staff. Instead, he activated Absolute Density in his fist, side-stepped the monster's claws, and delivered a highly concentrated, brutally fast punch straight to the back of the creature's neck.
CRACK. The beast dropped to the water instantly, completely knocked out without a single sound wave echoing in the tunnel.
Another beast lunged at Daizy. She didn't panic. She gracefully spun around, sending out two thick, thorny vines that tightly wrapped around the monster's mouth and arms, completely binding it like a mummy before it could even scream.
Sambhab was perfectly efficient. He formed a tiny, razor-thin blade of Black Hell Fire in his hand. He stepped past a charging beast and cleanly sliced the back of its knees, dropping it to the ground, before knocking it unconscious with the heavy hilt of a tactical knife.
The last two beasts charged at Karma.
Karma didn't even use his lightning. He didn't want the bright blue flashes to give away their position. Relying purely on his raw physical speed and his father's incredible swordsmanship, Karma dashed forward like a ghost. He used the flat side of his heavy blade to strike the first beast in the chest, knocking the air out of its lungs, and then spun around, using the pommel of the sword to smash the second beast squarely on the forehead.
In less than thirty seconds, all five monsters were floating unconscious in the toxic water. Not a single loud explosion or flash of light was used.
"Perfect execution," Sambhab whispered, adjusting his glasses. "Let's keep moving. The lab entrance is close."
The Priest's Eye
While the Core Four were fighting in the toxic darkness, the atmosphere in the Inner Temple above was completely peaceful and pure.
The High Priest was sitting in his luxurious, gold-trimmed private office. He was sipping a cup of expensive herbal tea, reading a holy scripture, and enjoying the absolute devotion of the thousands of people outside his window.
Suddenly, a small, beautiful crystal lotus sitting on his desk began to glow with a deep, blood-red light. A tiny crack appeared on one of its glass petals.
The High Priest slowly lowered his teacup. The sweet, grandfatherly smile on his face instantly vanished, replaced by an expression of cold, calculated evil.
"The perimeter wards in the old drainage tunnels have been breached," he murmured to himself.
The heavy wooden doors of his office opened, and the Captain of the Holy Guards walked in, bowing deeply. "Baba, we have searched the city. The heretic boy and his friends have completely vanished. Should we double the guard patrols outside?"
"There is no need," the High Priest said softly, standing up and walking to his window. He looked out at the beautiful Youth Devotion Camp below. "The boy is a fool. He is arrogant, emotional, and driven by a desperate need to play the hero. He didn't run away. He went underground."
The Captain looked surprised. "He is trying to infiltrate the lower laboratory? But Baba, the toxic fumes... the discarded husks..."
"He has the blood of the Lightning Lord," the High Priest sneered with disgust. "A little poison will not stop him. He is coming here to find proof of our operations. He wants to save his little sister."
The High Priest turned around, his eyes flashing with a terrifying, dark Pran energy. He wasn't panicked at all. In fact, he looked thrilled. This was the perfect opportunity to crush Karma's spirit forever.
"Let us give the boy exactly what he wants," the High Priest smiled wickedly. "Captain, go to the Youth Camp. Find the noisy little girl named Swati. Tell her she has been chosen for a 'special blessing'."
The Captain hesitated. "And then, Baba?"
"Take her down to the main extraction laboratory," the High Priest ordered, his voice dripping with cruelty. "Strap her into the Master Siphon Chair. When Karma breaks into the lab, I want the first thing he sees to be his precious little sister, screaming as her life force is drained to create my Red Pills. If he tries to attack me, the machine will kill her."
The Captain bowed deeply. "Your will is absolute, Baba."
As the Captain left, the High Priest looked at his own reflection in the window. "You shattered my mirror, Karma. But let us see if you can shatter your own heart."
The Lab Reveal
Back in the tunnels, Karma violently kicked open a heavy, rusted iron grate.
The Core Four stepped out of the toxic drainage pipe and found themselves standing on a metal catwalk high above the ground.
They looked down, and their breath caught in their throats.
It was massive. The underground cavern was the size of a football stadium, completely hidden beneath the holy temple. But it wasn't a place of worship. It was a terrifying, highly advanced, and incredibly dark factory.
There were dozens of massive glass tanks filled with bubbling red liquid. Hundreds of white-robed priests were walking around with clipboards, operating terrifying machines that pulsed with dark Shadow Cult energy. Tubes ran from the ceiling directly into the vats, slowly dripping pure, glowing white Pran energy—the stolen life force of the meditating children above.
"Oh my god," Daizy whispered, tears filling her eyes as she looked at the sheer scale of the evil operation. "They are literally drinking the life out of innocent kids."
Kanha's fists shook with absolute rage. "I'm going to break every single bone in that fake Baba's body."
Suddenly, Sera's voice crackled frantically in their earpieces, full of static.
"Guys! Do you read me?! The signal is dropping!" Sera yelled, completely dropping her cool, sarcastic tone. "I just hacked their internal security cameras! The High Priest knows you are there! It's a trap!"
Karma's heart stopped. He pressed his earpiece. "Sera! What are you talking about?!"
"Look at the center of the lab!" Sera shouted through the static. "They just brought her down! They have your sister!"
Karma snapped his head toward the center of the massive factory. There, sitting on a raised metal platform, was a terrifying, throne-like mechanical chair covered in needles and wires.
And strapped to that chair, struggling and crying for her mother, was Swati.
The High Priest was standing right next to her, looking directly up at the dark catwalk where Karma was hiding, smiling a perfectly evil, welcoming smile.
Bzzzt. The earpiece signal completely died.
Karma stood frozen, staring at his crying sister. The trap was set, and they had walked right into it.
The massive underground laboratory was terrifyingly quiet. The only sounds were the bubbling of the toxic Red Pill vats and the soft, terrified crying of little Swati, who was tightly strapped into the mechanical siphon chair.
Karma stood on the high metal catwalk, his heart pounding in his chest. His kinetic vision analyzed every possible angle, every possible attack route. But Sambhab's cold logic echoed in his mind: There is no way to attack the High Priest without the machine hurting Swati first.
The High Priest looked up at Karma and smiled a warm, perfectly evil smile. "Come down, my son. Or the machine will start extracting her energy."
Karma closed his eyes. A single tear escaped, rolling down his dirty cheek. The High Priest had won. He couldn't risk his sister's life, not even for a second.
"Karma, don't!" Kanha whispered, gripping his staff tightly. Daizy grabbed his arm, shaking her head.
But Karma had already made his choice. He slowly reached behind his back and unbuckled the heavy leather strap. He pulled out the Lightning Sword and let it drop.
CLANG. The ancient sword hit the metal floor, its blue sparks fading away.
Karma raised both his hands in the air and slowly walked down the metal stairs toward the laboratory floor. Instantly, dozens of Holy Guards rushed forward. They aggressively grabbed Karma's arms, forcing him to his knees, and wrapped heavy, thick iron chains around his wrists.
"Bhaiya!" Swati cried out, struggling against her metal restraints.
"Don't worry, Swati," Karma said, forcing a brave smile for his sister. "I am right here."
The High Priest chuckled softly. He didn't just want to capture Karma; he wanted to destroy his image completely. He snapped his fingers, and massive projector screens hanging from the cavern ceiling flickered to life. The screens were connected directly to the main courtyard of the temple above, where thousands of devotees were watching.
Through the cameras, the terrible machine Swati was strapped to looked like a beautiful, glowing golden throne.
The High Priest turned to the cameras and activated his powerful 3rd Chakra. Instantly, a massive, breathtaking illusion of Lord Indra appeared behind him, glowing with blinding holy light.
"My dear devotees!" the High Priest's voice echoed through the temple above and the lab below. "Behold the glory of the gods! We have the ultimate blessings of Lord Indra! This young girl, Swati, is not being harmed. She has been chosen to receive the ultimate divine blessing. She will become a vessel of pure light!"
Up in the main courtyard, the massive crowd of fifty thousand people began to clap wildly, chanting the High Priest's name. They completely believed the illusion.
Standing in the front row of the crowd was Karma's mother, Aarti. She had her hands folded in prayer, standing perfectly silent. Because of the High Priest's sweet words and the holy illusion, she believed the Baba was truly blessing her daughter. But deep inside, her motherly instincts were twisting her stomach. Her heart was beating fast, and her eyes were full of silent worry for Swati. Please let my children be safe, she prayed silently.
Scene Shift: The VIP Lounge (Sector 9)
Miles away, in the luxurious underground fight club, Sera was watching the hacked security footage on her laptop. She saw Karma drop his sword and get chained up.
"These idiots," Sera sighed, rubbing her temples. "They walked right into the spider's web."
She quickly picked up a highly encrypted, expensive black smartphone. She dialed a private number that only a few people in the world had.
Ring... Ring...
"Hello ?" Sera said, her usual arrogant tone dropping into a slightly more respectful voice. "Yeah, I need a little help. The Indra-Sabha priest has gone completely crazy. He captured Daizy and her friends."
Far away, in the floating headquarters of the 7 Pranist Council, a man made entirely of beautiful, dark green bark and glowing vines answered the phone. This was The Plant King, one of the seven strongest Pranists in the entire world. And surprisingly, he was the biological father of both the dark, cunning Sera and the sweet, healing Daizy!
The Plant King's voice was deep, calm, and soothing like a quiet forest. "Do not worry, my daughter. I saw the news. I have already made arrangements. Two men are arriving there right now."
Sera smirked. She quickly pressed a button on her computer to override the jamming signal in the Core Four's earpieces.
Down in the dark laboratory, Kanha, Daizy, and Sambhab suddenly heard Sera's voice crackle in their ears.
"Relax, kids," Sera said confidently. "Keep your heads down. Help is on the way. Two guys are coming to get you out."
Kanha frowned, accidentally speaking out loud. "Two guys? Just two guys are coming to save us?"
The Holy Guards and the priests standing nearby heard Kanha. They looked at the three teenagers on the catwalk and burst into loud, arrogant laughter.
"Did you hear that?" a priest mocked, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. "Two men are coming! What are two men going to do against our entire army of elite Holy Guards? The High Priest is invincible!"
But their laughter didn't last long.
Suddenly, the massive metal doors of the underground laboratory violently blew off their hinges.
A badly wounded Holy Guard stumbled into the room, his white armor completely scorched and frozen at the same time. He collapsed onto the floor, trembling in pure terror.
"High Priest!" the guard screamed, pointing at the dark hallway. "They... they broke through the front gates! They destroyed the entire outer perimeter!"
The High Priest's illusion flickered. He frowned in annoyance. "Who? Did the military send an army?"
"No!" the guard cried out, his voice cracking with fear. "It's just two men... The Destruction Duo have arrived!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the entire atmosphere inside the massive underground cavern instantly changed.
The air turned impossibly, unnaturally cold. A terrifying, freezing white aura swept across the floor. Crackle! Snap! Thick, jagged spikes of solid blue ice began to grow rapidly across the metal floor.
The ice shot straight toward the center of the room. Before the High Priest could even react, the freezing temperature hit Swati's mechanical siphon chair. The thick iron and advanced machinery instantly froze solid. With a loud CRASH, the brittle, frozen metal shattered into a thousand pieces, completely freeing Swati without leaving a single scratch on her!
Swati blinked in confusion, suddenly sitting on a pile of broken ice.
But the terrifying display of power wasn't over.
Suddenly, the cavern began to shake. The solid rock ceiling above them began to glow bright orange, then red, then blindingly white. The rock actually began to melt like butter.
BOOOOOOOOM!
A massive, roaring fireball, as large as a meteor, crashed right through the ceiling. It hovered in the air like a miniature sun, lighting up the entire dark factory with blinding, intense heat.
The devotees watching through the cameras screamed in terror. The priests in the lab fell to their knees, unable to handle the suffocating, crushing pressure of the two auras clashing in the room—absolute zero ice and absolute burning fire.
The High Priest's fake Indra illusion completely shattered under the sheer weight of their presence.
Scene Shift: The 7 Pranist Council Room
High up in the floating Council room, the Fortune Queen was gracefully shuffling her glowing tarot cards. She watched the news broadcast of the massive explosion at the Indra-Sabha temple.
She turned to the Plant King, an amused smile on her face. "Well, your rescue team certainly knows how to make an entrance. But they are going to destroy that entire multi-million dollar temple."
The Fortune Queen pointed a delicate finger at him. "Plant King, you will be paying the destruction fees for this mess."
The Plant King just took a sip of his herbal tea, completely unbothered. "Okay. Send me the bill. As long as my daughters are safe, I do not care if they burn the place to ash."
Scene Shift: The Underground Laboratory
Back in the smoke and ice of the underground factory, footsteps echoed loudly.
Karma, still kneeling on the floor in chains, looked up. Kanha, Daizy, and Sambhab stared in absolute, jaw-dropping shock from the catwalk.
Stepping out of the thick smoke were two men.
One wore a sharp, formal suit, his hands tucked casually into his pockets, while pure, freezing snow swirled around his body. This was Professor Him (Snow).
Beside him stood a man with wild hair, a loose tie, and a fiercely burning red aura that melted the ground he walked on. He cracked his knuckles, a terrifying, cocky grin on his face. This was Professor Agni.
"P-Professor Agni?!" Kanha yelled, his eyes wide enough to fall out of his head. "Professor Him?! You guys are the Destruction Duo?!"
Professor Agni blew a puff of smoke from his mouth and looked at his chained student. He sighed dramatically.
"Honestly, Karma," Professor Agni smirked, stepping forward. "You kids skip one day of homework, and you end up chained in a secret evil cult factory. Now stand back. We are about to teach this fake priest a lesson in real destruction."
The heavy iron chains clinked around Karma's wrists. He was kneeling on the cold metal floor, but his eyes were fixed on his teachers. Professor Agni and Professor Him had just crashed through the solid rock ceiling, bringing a storm of fire and ice into the dark laboratory.
Up on the catwalk, Kanha was practically jumping with joy. "Yes! The cavalry is here! Kick his fake holy butt, Sir!"
The High Priest gritted his teeth, his perfect, calm face finally twisting into panic. "Guards! Kill them! Don't let them ruin the broadcast!"
Professor Him, looking perfectly calm in his tailored suit, slowly adjusted his tie. The temperature in the room dropped even further. "Your broadcast is exactly what I am here to fix."
Professor Him walked casually toward the main computer servers of the laboratory. Two Holy Guards charged at him with spears. Him didn't even look at them. He simply tapped the ground with his expensive leather shoe. A massive wall of thick, unbreakable blue ice instantly erupted from the floor, freezing the guards perfectly in place like museum statues.
Him placed his bare, freezing hand onto the main thick black cables connecting the cameras to the temple above.
"Ice Hack: Absolute Rewire," Professor Him whispered.
Pure, glowing frost traveled up the wires at the speed of light, bypassing all the temple's security firewalls.
Scene Shift: The Temple Courtyard
Above ground, the fifty thousand devotees were still clapping, looking at the giant screens showing the golden, holy illusion of Lord Indra blessing little Swati.
Suddenly, the massive screens violently flickered with static. The golden, beautiful illusion shattered like broken glass.
The crowd gasped. The audio changed. Instead of sweet holy hymns, they heard the terrifying, bubbling sounds of the toxic Red Pill vats and the harsh, cruel orders of the temple priests.
The video feed cleared, showing the raw, unfiltered truth of the underground cavern.
The massive crowd stared in absolute, silent horror. They saw the giant glass tanks filled with dark chemicals. They saw the sick, pale children trapped in the medical tubes. And right in the center, they saw the terrifying, spiky mechanical chair that Swati had just been freed from.
They saw Karma, the boy they had just thrown stones at, chained to the floor, bleeding, but putting himself between the guards and his little sister to protect her.
In the front row, Karma's mother, Aarti, stopped breathing. The fake holy veil was ripped from her eyes. She saw the deadly machines. She saw her beautiful little girl sitting on the broken ice, crying. And she saw her son, covered in bruises and chains, ready to sacrifice his life for his family.
"Karma..." Aarti whispered, her voice breaking. Tears began to stream down her face. Not tears of fear, but tears of overwhelming guilt and absolute, fierce pride. Her son wasn't a demon. Her son was a hero who had walked into hell to save his sister.
"My son!" Aarti cried out loudly, falling to her knees and reaching out toward the screen. "He is innocent! The Baba is a monster!"
The realization hit the crowd like a massive shockwave. The holy sanctuary was a factory of death. The "miracles" were built on the blood of children.
A deafening roar of pure, unadulterated anger erupted from fifty thousand people.
"THEY ARE KILLING KIDS!"
"THE High priest IS A FRAUD!"
"TEAR THIS TEMPLE DOWN!"
The devotees completely lost their minds. They charged at the barricades, tearing down the golden statues, breaking the temple doors, and attacking the outer Holy Guards. The entire Indra-Sabha empire began to crumble in seconds.
Scene Shift: The Underground Laboratory
Down in the lab, Karma looked at a small monitor on the wall that showed the courtyard feed. He saw his mother crying, shouting his name with love and pride.
Karma felt a massive weight lift off his chest. His heart, which had been completely shattered, instantly healed. His mother believed in him. That was all he needed.
The High Priest saw the monitors and realized his entire world was over. His reputation, his wealth, his empire—all gone in a flash.
"NO!" the High Priest screamed, his eyes turning bloodshot. "Kill them all! Leave no witnesses!"
Dozens of Holy Guards charged toward Karma and Swati.
Professor Agni stepped forward, letting out a loud, bored sigh. He pulled a small cigarette lighter from his pocket and flicked it open. A tiny orange flame danced on the metal.
"You guys are really annoying," Professor Agni muttered.
Agni pointed a single finger at the charging army of guards. He didn't shout a technique. He just released his blocked Pran.
FWOOSH!
A concentrated, terrifying beam of pure, white-hot fire shot from his fingertip. It didn't burn the guards to ashes—Agni was too skilled for that—but the sheer kinetic shockwave and heat melted their weapons instantly and blasted all fifty guards backward, smashing them into the concrete walls. They were knocked out instantly.
Agni walked over to Karma. The intense heat radiating from the professor's body made the heavy iron chains around Karma's wrists glow red, then melt like soft butter, freeing him.
"Professor..." Karma said, standing up and rubbing his wrists.
"We will handle the garbage down here, kid," Professor Agni smiled, his wild hair blowing in the hot wind. He pointed a thumb at the High Priest, who was currently sneaking toward a secret emergency elevator in the back of the lab. "You go take care of the main trash. Finish what you started."
Karma nodded. His teal eyes glowed with brilliant, intense blue light.
Karma raised his right hand, opening his palm toward the other side of the room.
On the metal floor, ten yards away, the forgotten Lightning Sword suddenly twitched. A massive spark of blue electricity erupted from the blade.
ZAAAAP! Like a magnet, the heavy sword flew across the room, leaving a trail of blue light in the air, and slammed perfectly into Karma's waiting grip.
Karma gripped the hilt tightly. He looked at the secret elevator doors closing behind the escaping High Priest.
In a flash of blinding blue lightning, Karma vanished from the spot.
Scene Shift: The Temple Roof
The High Priest burst out of the secret elevator onto the highest roof of the temple. Below him, the courtyard was a warzone. The angry mob was destroying everything.
He was panting heavily, clutching a bag of stolen Pran crystals. "I can rebuild," he muttered to himself, running toward the edge of the roof to escape into the city. "I just need to hide..."
But suddenly, the bright, sunny morning sky vanished.
In a matter of seconds, the sky turned pitch black. Thick, dark, unnatural storm clouds rolled directly over the temple. The wind howled violently.
Down in the courtyard, the fighting suddenly stopped. The angry mob, the guards, everyone looked up at the terrifying, pitch-black sky in absolute confusion and awe.
"What is happening to the sky?" someone whispered.
The High Priest stopped running. He looked up at the black clouds, feeling an overwhelming, suffocating pressure pressing down on his chest.
KA-BOOOOOOM!
A deafening thunderclap shook the entire city. A massive, blinding pillar of pure blue lightning crashed from the black clouds, striking the roof directly in front of the High Priest, shattering the marble floor.
The High Priest screamed, falling backward onto the ground.
As the smoke and dust cleared, a figure slowly stepped out of the crackling electricity.
It was Karma.
His eyes were glowing like twin blue stars. Blue lightning violently danced around his entire body, completely destroying the limits of his 3rd Chakra. He held the Lightning Sword straight out, the sharp, sparking tip resting exactly one inch from the High Priest's throat.
"It's over," Karma said. His voice wasn't a shout. It was cold, calm, and absolute.
The High Priest trembled, but his massive ego refused to accept defeat. He gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing with desperate, dark energy.
"I am a God!" the High Priest screamed wildly. "I am the voice of the heavens! You cannot kill me!"
The Baba pushed all of his remaining Pran energy into his absolute strongest illusion. A massive, towering, golden image of Lord Indra appeared behind the Baba, holding a glowing thunderbolt, ready to strike Karma down.
"BOW BEFORE THE KING OF GODS!" the Baba roared.
But Karma didn't blink. He didn't step back. He simply unleashed the true, suppressed power of his father's sword.
A massive surge of wild, untamed blue lightning exploded from Karma.
The High Priest looked directly into the center of Karma's lightning. And what he saw broke his mind completely.
The Baba didn't see a sixteen-year-old boy. Inside the roaring, destructive blue storm, the High Priest's terrified, illusion-casting mind perceived the ultimate truth of pure, absolute destruction.
Formed entirely of crackling, violent blue lightning, the massive, terrifying silhouette of Lord Shiva—the ultimate Destroyer—towered behind Karma. The figure had wild, flowing hair made of electricity and a third eye that seemed to burn with the fury of a dying star.
It wasn't a real god descending from the sky; it was the absolute, raw manifestation of Karma's will to destroy the temple's evil.
The High Priest's golden illusion of Indra looked at the terrifying blue silhouette of the Destroyer. In a fraction of a second, the fake Indra illusion shattered into a million pieces of dust, completely overpowered by the sheer presence of the storm.
The High Priest began to weep in pure, absolute terror. "N-No... please..."
"This is for my sister," Karma whispered.
Karma swung the sword.
He didn't cut the man's head off. Instead, the flat of the glowing blade slammed directly into the High Priest's chest with the force of a thunderbolt.
CRACK!
The massive strike instantly shattered the High Priest's Pran Core—the center of his power. The dark energy inside the Baba evaporated completely.
The High Priest flew across the roof, crashing into a golden pillar, and fell to the ground, completely unconscious and stripped of all his powers forever.
The dark storm clouds immediately parted. The bright, warm morning sunlight washed over the temple roof again.
Down in the courtyard, the massive crowd of fifty thousand people erupted into the loudest, most deafening cheer the city had ever heard. They weren't cheering for a fake god anymore. They were cheering for the boy on the roof. They were cheering for the Lightning Lord's son.
Karma lowered his sword. He looked down at the courtyard and finally saw his mother holding Swati tightly, smiling up at him with tears of absolute joy.
Karma smiled back, the blue sparks fading from his hands. The Destruction Duo had handled the lab, his family was safe, and the false god had fallen.
The Temple Arc was finally over.