Arjun's heart pounded against his ribcage like war drums calling men to battle.
The alien sky above him—burning red with wisps of green lightning—was both beautiful and terrifying. He turned in place, scanning the broken land around him. Blackened mountains. Towering ruins. The scent of steel, smoke, and blood in the air. But no sign of civilization. No buildings that resembled Delhi, no sign of military tech, nothing familiar.
He knelt, trying to calm his breathing, brushing his fingers against the earth. The ground was warm. Too warm.
A sudden gust of wind blew past him. Not a natural wind—something... controlled. Commanded.
And then came a voice. Not loud. Not harsh. But cutting.
"You are not supposed to be here," it said in Hindi, accented but fluent.
Arjun's muscles tensed. He rose slowly, turning.
Liu Xue stood five paces away, her hair loose in the wind, her face unreadable. She still held the glowing scroll-turned-blade in one hand. But it was no longer just parchment—it was a long, curved dagger with script carved into its flat. Ancient. Deadly.
"I could say the same about you," Arjun said, standing tall. "But let's not start with accusations."
She looked him up and down. "You're military."
"And you're holding a blade of fire. So we're both unusual, I suppose."
She didn't smile. But she didn't attack either. For a moment, neither moved. Only the sky above cracked again with silent lightning.
Then they both heard it: the distant sound of marching.
Steel against stone. Not a few. Hundreds. Maybe thousands.
Liu Xue stepped beside him instinctively. "This isn't Earth," she whispered.
Arjun nodded. "Or at least... not the Earth we knew."
Meanwhile — The Capital of the Scorched Banner Clan
Lord Ghazrak peered into the scrying basin as his priests chanted around him.
"The Stargate has opened," hissed the high priest, his eyes rolling back into his skull. "The Bearer of the Phoenix Blade and the Keeper of Echoes have arrived."
Ghazrak's massive hand clenched the armrest of his obsidian throne. He was half-human, half-beast—a relic of a world that had fused sorcery with science. His armies numbered in the hundreds of thousands. And yet... he feared the old prophecy.
"When the Phoenix and the Echo reunite, the Old Empires shall rise."
"No," he growled. "I burned those empires. I shattered their legacies. I won't let them return."
He turned to his generals. "Dispatch the Shadow Riders. I want them brought here. Alive. The trials must begin."
Back in the Wilderness
The marching grew louder. Arjun glanced down a crumbling cliffside and saw them—rows of armored men, but not with modern weapons. They wielded jagged blades, halberds, and archaic-looking rifles powered by glowing crystals. Their armor was stitched together from bone and steel. Their banner—a scorched black flag with a blood-red sun.
"Friendly?" Arjun asked dryly.
"No," Liu Xue replied. "Definitely not."
The two backed away, but the terrain was jagged and steep. There were few escape routes.
"We need to find higher ground," Liu said. "Now."
"I can fight," Arjun replied. "But not against an army."
Liu raised the glowing blade. "Then we don't fight. We wake the gate."
Arjun blinked. "The what?"
But Liu was already moving, whispering something in an ancient tongue. The scroll in her hand shimmered again, and markings rose from the earth like heat mirages. Arjun stumbled back as the ground beneath them trembled.
A circle of stone lifted, revealing a ring of symbols—each pulsing with light.
From beneath the stone rose a pedestal. And from that pedestal—two handles. Swords? No. Keys.
Liu stepped forward, but the circle burned her skin.
"It's keyed to you," she winced. "You're the Phoenix. You have to turn it."
"What are you talking about?" Arjun asked. "What Phoenix?"
She met his eyes. "The seal you found. It's not just a relic. It's a fragment of your bloodline. You've been chosen by something ancient. Like me."
Arjun hesitated. But something inside him—some instinct deeper than logic—pulled him forward. He gripped the handles. They felt warm, familiar.
He turned them.
The Earth roared.
The Hidden Kingdom Awakens
Across the land, buried beneath time and war, a city stirred.
Gears turned in mountains. Giant stone lions awoke with glowing eyes. Hidden temples cracked open, and towers buried in sand unfurled like flowers at dawn.
The Kingdom Without a Name—once a beacon of peace, then lost in the Spiral Wars—had chosen its new heirs.
Arjun Dev, the Phoenix Blade.Liu Xue, the Keeper of Echoes.
Their names would not be remembered in this world yet—but their presence had awakened a legacy long forgotten.
As the soldiers from the Scorched Banner Clan reached the cliff, they stopped. Not out of fear—but confusion.
Before them now stood not two lost travelers—but a throne of light emerging from stone. Around it, six pillars erupted, each inscribed in a language none of them understood.
Arjun turned, his body outlined in golden flame. Liu Xue stood behind him, her scroll-sword humming with energy.
"Who… are you?" the enemy commander asked, lowering his blade.
Arjun didn't speak.
The ground answered for him.
From beneath the throne rose an armored figure—ten feet tall, ghostly white, with burning blue eyes and ancient script across its chest. A construct. A Sentinel.
It turned toward Arjun.
"Sovereign identified. Kingdom activation confirmed."
And then it knelt.
Somewhere Else — In a Temple of Time
An old woman stirred from her meditation. Her white robes fluttered around her as she stepped barefoot across the marble.
"The heirs have arrived," she whispered.
Another voice—a man, cloaked in shadow—replied, "Then the War of Wills begins anew."
She sighed. "So much has changed. But the Spiral always turns."
The man nodded. "Send the whispers. To India. To China. To the West. Let the old bloodlines prepare. The flames of empire shall rise again."
Hours Later — Inside the Throne Room
It was hard to describe what the Kingdom Without a Name really was. It wasn't just a city. It was a machine. A library. A fortress. A home.
And now it was awake.
Arjun walked its cracked halls beside Liu, both in stunned silence. Automated defenses ignored them. Guardians bowed. Magic and machinery hummed around them.
"Did we… do this?" Arjun asked.
Liu nodded slowly. "I think we reactivated something ancient. A place built before time was even measured the way we know it."
"Why us?"
She didn't answer immediately. Then: "Because we carry the blood of those who died building it."
Arjun swallowed. "So… what now?"
A console lit up ahead. A map of the world—but not the one they knew. Shifting borders, kingdoms that never existed in their history books. Symbols in Sanskrit, Mandarin, Latin, and other languages long extinct.
Liu whispered, "Now we reclaim it."