Agnidwar – Central Floor
The air was thick with smoke, dust, and fury.
Rudra stood bloodied but firm, blade in hand, chest rising with heavy breaths. Across from him, Raaka cracked his neck, spat blood, and grinned like a beast savoring the taste of war.
Their blades clashed again.
Steel on steel. Muscle against muscle.
Every strike echoed with a decade of betrayal.
Rudra was calm. Measured. He fought with the quiet rage of a man who had endured injustice and swallowed it whole for years.
Raaka, however, was unraveling.
He growled, twisted, lunged with reckless power—desperate to dominate, to silence the shadow of Rudra that refused to break.
"Still holding back, soldier boy?" Raaka snarled. "You never learned how to finish the fight."
Rudra responded with a low kick to his knee, then slashed his shoulder open.
Raaka howled—and snapped.
Something inside him broke.
---
His muscles surged. Veins bulged. His pupils dilated into pinpricks.
Raaka roared.
Not like a man.
Like an animal.
He charged with inhuman speed, crashing into Rudra like a sledgehammer. The impact threw Rudra into a wall with enough force to crack stone.
Rudra grunted, coughing blood, blade slipping from his hand.
Raaka didn't wait.
He leapt.
Fists rained down like anvils. Wild. Heavy. Relentless.
Rudra blocked one. Took three.
But he couldn't stop them all.
Bones groaned. The floor splintered beneath them.
Raaka was no longer fighting to win.
He was fighting to obliterate.
To erase the last man who knew what he really was.
---
Vijay heard the roar from the hall.
He turned, covered in blood, panting from the last wave of Serpents he'd torn through.
Then he ran.
He found Rudra half-buried under rubble.
And Raaka—a monster now, not a man—snarling like a demon who'd lost his leash.
"RAAKA!" Vijay shouted, voice trembling with hatred.
The beast turned.
"You," Raaka growled. "The brother. The brat."
Vijay's jaw tightened.
He stepped forward, drawing a second crowbar from his back holster.
"You killed her."
Raaka tilted his head.
"And I'd do it again."
Vijay charged.
---
Steel met steel.
Blood met stone.
And two men fought a monster.
Rudra rose, bruised and battered, rejoining the battle without a word. Side by side, he and Vijay struck Raaka again and again.
But Raaka kept coming.
He moved like pain didn't exist.
Cracked ribs? Useless arm? Didn't matter.
He fought with rage. With history. With hate.
Rudra swept his leg—Raaka didn't fall.
Vijay jabbed him through the gut—Raaka pulled it out and laughed.
Then he grabbed Vijay by the throat, lifting him off the ground.
"I took your sister. Now I'll take you."
That was it.
Rudra snapped.
With a roar unlike anything he had ever released, he rushed forward, tackling Raaka with the full weight of his fury.
They slammed into the ground.
Fists flew.
Knives flashed.
And finally—
Vijay recovered, picked up both crowbars—and drove them simultaneously through Raaka's sides.
Raaka gasped.
Rudra grabbed the beast's head.
"This is for Kutch."
SNAP.
The neck broke clean.
Raaka fell.
Still.
Forever.
---
Silence.
Just the sound of their breathing.
Blood soaking the floor.
Rudra sat back, blinking at the ceiling. For the first time in years, he felt light.
Like a chain had finally shattered.
He wasn't just a soldier thrown away.
He was a man who chose his war.
And won.
Vijay stared at Raaka's corpse.
"Diya," he whispered.
His voice broke.
"You can rest now."
His sister's smile—the memory of it—flashed behind his eyes.
No more nightmares.
No more guilt.
Just peace.
---
AGNIDWAR SUBLEVEL
They limped through a corridor slick with blood and ash.
A door sealed in biometric glass blinked red.
Rudra placed a Serpent hand against the lock.
The door opened.
Inside?
Rows of bunk beds.
Training mats.
Electroshock units.
Chains.
Files labeled with alphanumeric codes.
B-17. B-21. B-09.
Children's names replaced with numbers.
Vijay picked up a photograph from a desk.
Six kids.
Eyes hollow.
Smiles forced.
Branded with Serpent tattoos like livestock.
Rudra looked around.
His fists clenched.
"They weren't training soldiers," he muttered. "They were building monsters."
Vijay said nothing.
He just reached out—
And turned off the main power.
The room went dark.
And silent.
---
TO BE CONTINUED