Inside the mansion, the air was thick with dread. Mohini's laughter echoed like jagged glass against the walls.
"Your precious family," she sneered, her voice sharp as a dagger, "will perish tonight. Sarvansh has chosen his path, and nothing will stop the doom that is coming!"
Gauri's chest heaved, her breaths shallow. Tears streaked her face, hot and angry. "No… I can't… I can't let him…!" she cried, her voice breaking. Her eyes darted toward the door, toward the way out—but Mohini was faster.
A long braid shot out like a whip, coiling around Gauri with unerring precision. The force yanked her backward through the air. She slammed onto the polished table with a sickening crack, pain radiating across her ribs. She coughed violently, blood trickling from her lips.
"Gauri!" Charvi's voice rang out, filled with panic, as she rushed forward. Adrija's hands hovered, ready to strike—but the daayan magic around Mohini held them at bay.
Gauri gritted her teeth, trying to push herself upright. "Charvi… Adrija… go… save them," she gasped, her fingers brushing against the Pratham Jaal on the table, her last link to hope.
Meanwhile, outside, the clearing around the pedestal had grown darker, the red sky now a blazing inferno. The family's screams and the crackle of the Agni Talwar reverberated across the field.
Yug stood frozen, chest heaving, tears streaming down his face. His hands shook as he faced Vihaan, his elder cousin, the boy who had once shielded him from bullies, who had fought alongside him in school and in college, who had always been the brother he had idolized.
"Vihaan… please!" Yug's voice cracked. "Please… don't do this! You've always protected me… even after everything… even after you became ACP! Don't… don't let this darkness take you!"
Sharda's voice rose above the chaos, thick with tears and pleading: "Vihaan… my son… my nephew… please! Don't let her win! Don't let Mohini control you!"
Veena's face was a mask of agony, staring at the Agni Talwar in her son's hands. "My Vihaan… my boy… come back to me… please…"
For a fleeting heartbeat, Sarvansh—the fire and water, the Sarvansh Raj inside Vihaan—flickered. His golden-red eyes wavered, just for a moment, the voices of his family piercing the seal on his heart.
But Mohini's cruel magic held fast. The seal she had placed was a chain around his very soul, binding him to obedience, stripping Sarvansh of all emotion. No love, no memory, no bond could reach him.
The silence was suffocating. Then, with a slow, deliberate motion, Vihaan raised the Agni Talwar. Flames licked the hilt as he approached Veena, his mother, his first tether to the world he had once loved.
"No…!" everyone screamed in unison.
The creeper binding Veena quivered. Her hands strained, and she met her son's eyes with a desperate plea. "Vihaan… my boy… please… come back… don't do this…"
But Sarvansh's resolve was unyielding. "It is the only way," he said, his voice eerily calm, void of warmth, "to restart Pralay. One by one… you will fall. And the first to go…"
The Agni Talwar sliced through the air, the tip touching the glowing vine around Veena's wrist. A flash of golden fire erupted as the creeper cut through her flesh, and the scream that followed shattered every heart.
Veena fell, her body limp, her life extinguished in an instant. The echoes of her death rang through the clearing like a death knell.
Sharda's wail split the air, Shyom's hands trembled on the shotgun, Yug's knees buckled. Urvashi screamed, her arms flailing against the vines. The family's cries meshed into a haunting chorus of grief and terror.
"NOOOOO!"
Every tear, every sob, every plea hung suspended in the fiery air as Vihaan's golden-red eyes scanned the family, unblinking, unstoppable. Each soul that screamed only fueled the power of Sarvansh, the ritual nearing completion.
And from inside the mansion, Gauri's heart broke. She pressed her hands to her chest, her tears dripping onto the Pratham Jaal. Her sobs were muffled by the walls, but she whispered fiercely to herself:
"I will not… I cannot… let this be the end…"
Mohini's laughter rose over the cries, sharp and triumphant. "See, Gauri… this is Sarvansh Raj. Your family… helpless. Their screams… music to my ears. And there's nothing you can do."
Adrija and Charvi lunged forward together, their attacks aimed straight at Mohini. Adrija's hands shimmered with daayan magic, while Charvi's butterfly wings created gusts of wind, propelling divine energy toward their enemy.
But Mohini didn't flinch. The attacks seemed to hit an invisible barrier. Her lips curved into a cruel, knowing smile.
"You think this will harm me?" she hissed, her eyes gleaming with malice. "I am no longer just Mohini… I am Pralay Daayan, Manmohini!"
Before the sisters could react further, she struck. Shadows whipped through the hall like living snakes, cutting across Adrija and Charvi. Both staggered, wounded, groaning as pain spread through their bodies. Charvi clutched her side, her wings trembling, while Adrija's hand pressed against a glowing wound on her shoulder.
From the floor, Gauri's voice rang out, hoarse but fierce. She lay wounded, blood streaking her clothes, but her eyes burned as she called out:
"Adrija! Charvi! Don't stop! Fight!"
The hall shook with the tension of the moment. The three of them, though injured and pushed back, refused to give up. But Mohini's presence loomed, unstoppable, a living embodiment of the apocalypse.
The air thickened, the red light of doom flickering across the walls.
To be continued…