Chapter 8 – The Temple Without Walls
🌄 Morning – Eastern Edge of the Seol Province
The trees parted for a broken trail.
No maps showed this road. No stories mentioned it anymore.
But Ved walked it. As if he knew.
He didn't.
Yet something inside him did.
Atop a distant ridge, a stone arch stood without a temple. Weather-worn, vine-wrapped—like time forgot it.
But Ved didn't.
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🏚️ The Temple Ruins
Only foundations remained.
A few shattered pillars stood like forgotten warriors.
As Ved stepped through the arch, a pulse echoed through his body.
Not qi.
Not chakra.
Something else. Older.
From a cracked slab, he brushed away dirt and found a symbol:
> A winged circle, pierced by a blade.
> "This symbol again…"
He had seen it—in a dream. Not his.
An ancestor's.
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🔥 Vision (Brief)
A warrior stood in front of the same ruins—500 years ago.
But it wasn't ruins then.
It was alive.
Monks chanted. Warriors sparred. Scrolls passed between hands.
> "This is no ordinary Murim temple," the vision whispered.
Then came a black sky. Screams. The warrior fell. His sword broken. But as he lay dying, he whispered…
> "Garud… awaken…"
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🕊️ Back to Present
Ved gasped and clutched his head.
That name.
Garud?
What was that?
Not his memory… but it lingered in his bones.
> "Why do I know a name I never learned?"
> "Why does my hand move before I decide?"
The wind shifted. Leaves swirled behind him.
Someone else had arrived.
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🤺 A New Challenger
A man stepped from the trees.
Face veiled. Long staff in hand.
"State your sect," the stranger said.
Ved didn't answer.
"I'm no one."
"Then you shouldn't be here."
"I didn't come for you."
The stranger's stance changed.
> "Everything that walks here… comes for something."
He lunged.
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⚔️ Fight — Memory vs Form
Ved dodged—not by reaction, but by instinct.
His feet moved with a rhythm older than his breath.
The stranger noticed.
> "That style… it doesn't belong to this age."
Ved's blade slid out, silent.
One stroke.
It did not cut flesh—but tore the stranger's staff in half.
The man stumbled back.
Eyes wide.
He bowed.
> "You are not of Murim… and yet… something within you is."
And without another word, he disappeared.
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🌌 Sunset – Alone Again
Ved sat beneath the arch as the stars appeared.
> "Krishna… if you're guiding me…"
> "न कर्तव्यम् कर्म, किंतु धर्मम्।"
(Do not seek the task. Seek the Dharma.)
> "Then show me. Before this power devours me."
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⚖️ Somewhere Else – Murim Council Hall
An elder lit a candle.
Another report arrived.
Ved's name again.
And something worse.
> "The symbol of Garud has reappeared."
The room fell silent.
Then one said:
> "If Aryavart returns… our world will burn again."
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