A heavy silence stretched between them, broken only by the crackling of the girl's fading wind aura. Rudra leaned against his Firangi, observing her quietly. Her long black hair was tangled with forest debris, and her traveling clothes were torn from the struggle, yet her dark eyes remained sharp and alert.
She caught him looking. "Why are you staring at me?" she asked, her voice defensive.
Rudra quickly turned his head, his face warming. "It's nothing."
She let out a soft sigh and straightened her tunic. "I suppose I haven't introduced myself yet. I am Ananya."
Rudra didn't respond immediately. His gaze had wandered to the cavern ceiling. Small, glowing organisms—Jyoti-Kitas—were clinging to the stalactites, emitting a soft, pulsating bioluminescence. It was the first time he had ever seen them. The light danced in his eyes, making him forget the blood on his hands for a moment.
Ananya pouted, her hands on her hips. "Hey! Don't ignore me!"
Rudra looked back at her, a small, genuine smile tugging at his lips. "Sorry. I've just... never seen those before."
Ananya's expression softened, but only for a second. She looked him up and down, her eyes narrowing as she sensed the energy radiating from his body. "You still don't know how to control your heat, do you? Looking at that messy display earlier... it seems your Prana is only at the second stage of the Pratham (First) Level."
Rudra frowned. "Levels? My father never spoke of them in that way."
The Path of Prana
"Then listen closely," Ananya said, sitting cross-legged on the stone floor. "Prana isn't just a gas you breathe; it's a ladder. There are nine stages to every Level.
Level 1-3 (The Awakening): You learn to feel the heat in your Nadis.
Level 4-6 (The Manifestation): You can project your energy outside the body, like my Wind Blades.
Level 7-9 (The Refinement): You begin to shape the energy into complex forms and weapons."
"The higher you go," she continued, "the more your Chakras open. Once you pass the 9th stage, you break through to a new Level entirely, becoming something more than human."
Rudra looked at his trembling hands. "You seem to know a lot. If I'm only a Level 2... what is your level, Ananya?"
She tilted her chin up, a proud, triumphant smile spreading across her face. "I am at the 6th Stage. If you stay with me, I might just help you grow strong enough to survive this forest."
Rudra's face clouded with confusion. He looked at the dead wolves scattered across the cave floor. "If you are a Level 6... why did you struggle so much against those wolves? You should have been able to wipe them out with a single wave of your hand."
Ananya's smile vanished instantly. She released a long, weary breath, her shoulders slumping. "It's a long story, Rudra. And I don't have the energy to tell it right now."
She looked toward the mouth of the cave, where the moon was at its peak. "It's still deep into the night. We should rest. We don't know what kind of monsters—or we'll have to fight tomorrow."
Rudra looked around the vast, glowing chamber. "This cave feels... wrong," he whispered. "No matter how far I walk, it only goes deeper. And these glowing creatures... I've never seen anything like them in the sect archives. It's strange, isn't it?"
Ananya stared at him, her face frozen in a look of pure confusion. The silence stretched until it became uncomfortable. Then, suddenly, she burst into a loud, ringing laugh.
"HAHAAHA!"
Rudra flinched, his face reddening. "Why are you laughing? Did I say something funny?"
Ananya wiped a tear from her eye, her laughter dying down into a smirk. "No, no. It's just... you actually entered this place without knowing what it is? You really are a lost lamb, aren't you?"
She gestured to the shimmering walls. "This isn't just a cave, Rudra. It's a Dhougen."
"A... Dhougen?" Rudra repeated the unfamiliar word.
"Yes. They began appearing across the world only a few years ago. This one is said to have a hundred floors, and right now, we are only on the second. People come here to train, to hunt, or to complete Missions for the Guilds."
"Missions? For money?" Rudra asked, his brow furrowed.
"More than just money," Ananya explained. "When these Dhougens appeared, monsters started pouring out of them, attacking villages and destroying sects. To fight back, the Great Sects formed an organization called the Vira-Guild. They rank the Dhougens by difficulty and send warriors to clear them. If you clear a floor, you gain 'Essence'—it's like a shortcut to increasing your Prana."
Rudra looked deeper into the dark tunnel. "So, Ananya... did you come here on a Mission?"
Her smile faltered, replaced by a look of grim determination. "No. I came here to get strong. I have to prove to my Master that I am capable of leading my own unit—my own Vahini."
"A Vahini?"
"A group of elite warriors," she clarified quickly, waving her hand as if to dismiss the thought. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. My goal was to clear the 60th floor, but..." She looked around the damp cave walls with a worried sigh. "I've been stuck on this 2nd floor for days."
Rudra leaned back against the stone wall. "Has anyone ever reached the end? The 100th floor?"
Ananya shook her head. "No. The record is held by the son of the Jala Peetham (Water Sect) leader. He cleared the 90th floor three years ago. But after he emerged, he was changed. He never entered a Dhougen again, and shortly after, he vanished from the public eye."
Rudra wanted to ask more, but the weight of the day's tragedies and the exhaustion of his first Prana-burst finally caught up to him. As Ananya kept talking about the politics of the Guilds and the riches found on the higher floors, Rudra's head began to nod.
His eyes drifted shut, his breathing slowing into a rhythmic hum. Ananya stopped talking when she heard a soft snore. She looked at the boy—the son of a "traitor" who didn't even know what a Dhougen was—and shook her head with a soft, tired smile.
"Rest well, Rudra," she whispered, pulling her cloak tighter around her. "The third floor won't be as kind as this one."
She closed her eyes, and the two of them slept in the heart of the earth, protected only by the cold steel of the Firangi.