The first creature lunged.
A distorted blur of limbs, glass-like shards peeling from its body, each slice humming with unstable energy. The air warped around it—color bending, sound stretching.
Kashyap grabbed Mandakini and dove behind a half-collapsed transport truck just as the creature smashed into the ground where they'd stood.
The truck snapped in half.
Mandakini coughed. "We can't stay here!"
Kashyap pushed her behind him, eyes locked on the enemy.
"I know."
The younger Mandakini—feral, injured, and furious—skidded beside them, firing a blast of crystalline energy at the anomaly. The blast hit, then phased straight through the creature, as though reality couldn't decide if it was solid or smoke.
"They're getting stronger," the younger version hissed.
Kashyap clenched his fists.
"So am I."
She glared at him—pure hatred mixed with fear.
"You're the reason this world is dying.Don't act like a hero."
Mandakini stepped forward.
"Enough."
Her voice sliced through the chaos.
"We need answers.Now."
Before the younger girl could retort, the ground erupted again—
more anomalies emerging,twisting like broken reflections trying to walk.
Kashyap looked at them carefully.
They weren't attacking anyone else.
They were hunting him.
The younger Mandakini saw his expression.
"You finally get it."
She raised her weapon again.
"They're drawn to your signature.Your fragment."
Kashyap frowned. "My what?"
She tapped her chest—
right where Kashyap's heart was pounding.
"A piece of the Pulse is inside you.
You're a carrier.
A living universe-key."
Mandakini froze.
Kashyap felt the world tilt.
"What do you mean inside me?" he asked.
"You don't remember," the girl whispered.
"You're earlier than before.Simpler. Untainted."
Her eyes softened—pain, nostalgia, resentment blending into one expression.
"In this world, you were the one who touched the Pulse and survived. It changed you. Gave you access to the Gates."
She stepped closer.
"And that made you the most dangerous person alive."
Mandakini grabbed Kashyap's wrist, her heart racing.
"What did he do?What happened to him in this world?"
The girl looked away.
"You opened a Gate to save someone."
Her voice cracked.
"Me."
Mandakini's breath stopped.
But the girl continued.
"You didn't know the Pulse reacts to emotional anchors. You tried to stabilize this dying world. But instead…"
She pointed at the sky scar—the monstrous rip bleeding red across the heavens.
"You tore the multiverse open.
And the anomalies were born from the pieces you broke."
Kashyap felt like the ground had vanished beneath him.
Mandakini shook her head fiercely.
"No.Kashyap would never—"
"He already did," the younger girl snapped.
A deafening roar interrupted them—
one of the anomalies rose taller,its shape fracturing, splitting into angles no human mind should see.
The girl's eyes widened.
"It's evolving! We're out of time!"
Kashyap stepped forward.
His heart thundered.
The world flickered like an old hologram.
"What happened to the other Kashyap?" he asked quietly.
She looked at him with hollow eyes, whispering:
"He became something the multiverse feared.
Something it couldn't contain."
Mandakini shivered.
"What did he become…?"
The girl swallowed hard.
"He became the Void-Seeker."
Kashyap felt his pulse stop.
The anomalies screeched as if reacting to the name itself.
The girl shoved them toward a broken tunnel entrance.
"If they merge with you now, this world collapses for good!"
Mandakini grabbed Kashyap's hand.
"Let's go!"
But Kashyap didn't move.
Mandakini turned, panic in her eyes.
"Kashyap—!"
He stared at the creatures advancing…
at the sky wound…
and the younger Mandakini trembling before him.
He whispered:
"If another version of me caused this…
then I need to know why."
Mandakini squeezed his hand.
"We'll find the truth, together. Not here. Not now."
The anomalies shrieked—
a reality-ripping sound like universes cracking.
The girl screamed:
"RUN!"
Kashyap pulled Mandakini close, and they leapt into the tunnel just as the creatures crashed behind them—
fracturing the world—
erasing the street—
collapsing the surface above.
Darkness swallowed them.
And the last thing Kashyap heard was the younger Mandakini's trembling voice echoing through the dust:
"You're running from yourself…
but he's already looking for you."