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Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: Beneath the Skin of Silence

The night sky bled quietly into black.

Rudra sat upright in bed, motionless, as the fan spun above him with a faint metallic whirr. His bedsheet clung to his sweat-slicked skin, and the world outside his window was still — as if holding its breath.

His heart pounded.

Not with fear.

With pressure.

With heat.

With something he could not name — a weight pressing inward from every direction, like the universe itself was folding around his bones.

The Zix Core was awake.

Not fully. Not yet.

But enough.

> [Zix Core: Summoner-Prime Variant – 2.1% Stabilized]

[Synchronization Level: Initialized]

[Core Traits: Locked]

[Avatar Realms: 0/12 Opened]

[Summoning Access: Restricted]

The glowing words hovered behind his eyes like a dream he couldn't forget. He could feel them inside him, more real than his breath, more intimate than his heartbeat.

A phantom warmth still pulsed in the center of his palm — where Avni's black shard had vanished beneath his skin. He lifted his hand. No wound. No scar. No mark.

Just the strange silence of something coiled beneath the flesh, whispering in an ancient language he didn't understand — yet somehow, he knew it belonged to him.

---

Down the hallway, the clock ticked softly in the living room.

His mother's light snoring filtered through the thin bedroom wall. His father wasn't home yet — probably off handling another "internal emergency" that no one ever talked about. Rudra had long learned not to ask.

But even when his father was home, they barely spoke.

The man carried power like a second skin. It moved behind his eyes like lightning trapped in glass. Rudra had once caught a glimpse of it when he was twelve — the night someone tried to mug them in an alley. His father hadn't lifted a finger. He had only stared.

And the mugger had collapsed.

Eyes wide.

Mouth foaming.

Dead before hitting the ground.

Later, his father told him it was "just a heart attack."

Rudra never believed it.

Because something inside him had responded that night too.

Not fear.

Recognition.

---

The room was too quiet now.

Too aware.

And then he felt it — again.

That impossible sensation.

Something watching him.

He turned.

No movement.

No window open.

But the air rippled, and the corner of the room blurred. The shadows gathered there like ink swirling in water, and out of them stepped Avni.

Barefoot. Calm. Not even trying to pretend anymore.

This time, she didn't wear her school uniform. Instead, a long black dress clung to her body like liquid shadow, revealing the curves beneath with graceful, deliberate temptation. Her eyes no longer glowed — but they didn't need to. The pressure she brought with her was enough to make Rudra's breath shallow.

"You're stabilizing fast," she said.

"You're dead," Rudra replied.

She smirked.

"I was. For a moment. But you awakened part of your core when you attacked me. I'm not here in flesh."

"Then what are you?"

"An echo," she said. "A memory the Zix Core has preserved. You killed me, yes. But that was only the beginning. You needed to taste death… before you could inherit it."

Rudra's fingers twitched slightly, the air around them warping with subtle heat.

She raised an eyebrow.

"You're instinctively trying to summon already. Impressive. Most take days before the core even responds."

"I didn't ask for any of this."

"You were born for it," she said, stepping closer.

He could smell her now — something like scorched roses and ash.

Her eyes narrowed.

"You're afraid."

"I'm not."

"Not of me. Of yourself."

She reached forward, fingers hovering over his chest — just above where the Zix Core pulsed faintly beneath his skin.

"Everything you thought was life is just the cage they built around you," she said. "But now the bars are melting. And the realm is calling."

"Realm?"

> [Realm Lock Detected: Tier-1 — Demon World]

[Requirement Met: Blood Initiation Complete]

[Avatar 1 Awakening – Kaalkrit Initiated (0.4%)]

The system's whisper came again, accompanied by a subtle vibration under his feet. The air felt… thinner.

And suddenly — his mind snapped.

---

He saw it.

He saw another world.

A land of blood and fire. A red sky split by floating stone continents, lightning bursting between mountain peaks. Demons walked below, clad in armor forged from bone and molten ore. Spires floated above lava rivers, and cries of war echoed across valleys drowned in ash.

And at the center — on a throne of black horns and silver skulls — sat a figure.

Massive.

Bare-chested.

Glowing with runes etched into muscle and sin.

His eyes were blazing gold.

And they opened.

> [Kaalkrit — Avatar Link Established]

Rudra gasped, his chest arching as if electricity had struck him.

The vision faded.

His skin steamed slightly. The wall behind him cracked.

And Avni… was gone.

---

He collapsed back onto the bed, chest rising and falling like he'd just fought a war.

His body was drenched in sweat.

But something inside him now stretched — like a beast awakening from centuries of sleep.

The Zix Core was no longer dormant.

The Demon World had opened its gates.

And in the first unlocked realm… the sovereign was stirring.

Kaalkrit was no mindless beast.

He was power incarnate.

And he belonged to Rudra.

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