Kamal said softly. "See?" he said to Neelam. "I told you—it's a puppet, but it looks exactly like a human. Now you believe me? You're just as shocked as I was."
Neelam nodded, then decided to test it for herself. "Gyu, go and lift that chair for me," she ordered, pointing at the heavy beach chair in the corner.
She only wanted to see whether the puppet could actually work.
Gyu obeyed without hesitation. She walked over, gripped the chair, and lifted it with one hand as if it weighed nothing.
All three—Neelam, Kamal, and Sanya—stared. Even with their strengthened bodies, they still had to put in some effort to move that chair, yet this "girl" had treated it like a feather.
Sanya was more than shocked; her mind started racing.
First: Gyu was a puppet. A very human‑like puppet. And she had been arguing with her earlier.
Second: this puppet was strong—stronger than her, stronger than Dad, stronger than Mom.
Third: this terrifyingly strong puppet was going to be Rudra's caretaker.
She hurriedly smoothed her expression and focused on Rudra again, determined not to let anyone realise she had been bickering with a puppet a few minutes ago.
Neelam and Kamal also pulled themselves together. "You can put the chair down and continue your duties, Gyu," Neelam said.
Gyu set the chair back in its place, then returned to her quiet post beside the bed, ready to respond the moment Rudra needed anything.
Only then did Neelam glance at Sanya. "What were you saying earlier, Sanya? Something about her being fifteen minutes old and getting scared—who were you talking about?"
Sanya immediately looked away. "Nothing," she said shortly, refusing to explain.
Kamal and Neelam exchanged a small smile but didn't press her. With Gyu standing guard, they finally felt they could relax about Rudra's safety, and they left the room together, hearts a little lighter.
Ten days slipped by in quiet routine.
During that time, Sacral Clone was anything but idle. Between shifts of helping with training and fortress chores, he poured his focus into two things: crafting more puppets to handle daily tasks and chasing the elusive feel of space and time.
No matter how many times he reached out, those two elements still slid past his grasp like smoke, refusing to give him even a single crack to wedge his will into.
The elements he could command, however, were already numerous and terrifyingly solid beneath his control:
- Fire
- Water
- Earth
- Wind
- Lightning
- Ice
- Metal
- Wood
- Rock
- Sand
- Magma
- Light
- Darkness
- Sound
- Storm
- Mist
- Poison
Seventeen forces, each obeying him completely, woven into techniques, Vyuhas and more. And still, he knew this was only a fraction of what truly existed.
Somewhere beyond his current reach, more laws waited—space, time, gravity, and others he could not yet even name—but for now, they remained shut behind an invisible door he couldn't pry open.
In those ten days, he also finished six new puppets. Like Gyu, each one had a different face, different build, different "role" in his plans for the fortress—some meant for cleaning, some for maintenance, some for support during training—but all of them were beautiful on the surface and precise machines beneath the skin.
On this particular day, he had just completed the latest model and was sealing the core when a familiar mental call brushed his mind—Solar Clone asking him to come at once.
Sacral Clone set his tools aside, left the newly finished puppet in standby mode, and with a single step vanished from the workshop.
A heartbeat later, he appeared at the location Solar Clone had indicated, ready to hear what his other half had discovered.
When he arrived, he saw Solar Clone standing with Neelam, Kamal, and Sanya. Gyu cradled Rudra in his arms, while a lone cow grazed lazily on the essence flow‑touched grass.
He walked over. "What did you call me here for?"
Solar Clone did not answer directly. Instead, he let his gaze sweep over the group and asked, "Have any of you ever seen a cow speak?"
The question stunned them. Neelam, Kamal, and Sanya traded confused looks, minds racing to guess what he meant.
Only Rudra and Gyu stayed calm, not because they understood more, but because they can't understand the question.
Sacral Clone frowned. "What are you talking about? That's clearly imposs—"
He stopped mid‑sentence as a memory surfaced: the voice he had heard at the very beginning after time‑traveling—All things are possible. And they now had EssenceFlow, a miraculous energy that twisted the rules of reality on a daily basis.
He exhaled and corrected himself. "I have never seen a cow speaking."