Chapter 4 — Thunder Without Clouds
Athens, Greece.
02:11 AM (Local Time)
The sky was clear.
No clouds. No storm systems.
Yet lightning struck the Parthenon.
Not once.
Seven times.
Each strike landed at mathematically equidistant points along the ancient structure.
Cameras captured it.
The seventh strike did not fade.
It lingered.
A pillar of white-gold plasma.
Within it—
A silhouette.
Humanoid.
Armoured in light.
In Sriharikota, Arvind's private terminal triggered an alert.
▣ Devaloka Resonance Spike
Region: Southern Europe
Classification Probability: 82% Celestial-Class
He activated Karmic Vision.
The world desaturated.
Golden threads radiated outward from Athens, connecting to:
Vatican City.
Berlin.
Washington D.C.
Istanbul.
So it begins.
He initiated projection.
If Greece declares divine manifestation publicly?
→ EU religious unrest
→ NATO emergency summit
→ Weaponised celestial contract attempt
→ 72-hour instability spike
Projection ends.
If event classified as atmospheric anomaly?
→ Online conspiracy surge
→ Independent occult researchers gather
→ Slower escalation
Projection ends.
He selected neither.
Instead—
He contacted a quiet member of his growing network.
Dr. Meera Iyer.
Astrophysicist. Linguistics specialist.
Believed she was analysing "cross-cultural myth resonance."
She did not know who funded her research.
"Pull electromagnetic density readings from Athens," he typed through anonymised channel.
She replied within minutes.
"Impossible energy retention. Plasma behaving… structured."
Structured.
Same as Vedic waveform.
Arvind opened comparison overlay.
Greek inscriptions describing Zeus.
Indra hymns from Rigveda.
Electromagnetic pattern alignment: 63%.
Not identical.
But homologous.
Regional belief shaping Devaloka manifestation.
His interface updated.
▣ GLOBAL RESONANCE MAP
Bhuloka Stability: 87%
Preta-Layer: Stabilised
Devaloka: Activating
In Athens, the light-form stepped forward.
Wind moved outward in a circular wave.
People below fell to their knees.
Not forced.
Instinctual.
The silhouette raised one hand.
The pillar collapsed.
The sky returned to normal.
But sensors worldwide had recorded it.
Within 20 minutes—
The Vatican sealed its archives.
The Pentagon activated myth-response division.
In Norway, ancient runic sites registered seismic tremors.
Arvind watched quietly.
His projections were still at 1 remaining.
He hesitated before using it.
Careful.
Always careful.
He focused on a specific variable.
If global governments begin Devaloka weapon contracts?
Golden threads multiplied violently.
Projected outcome:
Mythological Cold War within 3 months.
Asura-Loka retaliation spike.
Naraka probability increases.
Projection ended abruptly.
The system flickered.
▣ Interference Detected
External Observer Probability: 71%
Varanasi.
Textile mill district.
Acharya Vritra Sen stood on a rooftop.
He watched the global news feed of Athens.
He smiled faintly.
"So the heavens respond."
He closed his eyes briefly.
He felt it.
A disturbance in probability threads.
Someone else had interfered in Varanasi.
Someone calculating outcomes.
He murmured softly:
"You are careful."
Back in Sriharikota—
Arvind felt something strange.
For 0.2 seconds—
One golden thread did not behave according to projection.
It resisted.
Counter-calculation.
His expression shifted slightly.
So.
The opponent had predictive capacity too.
Not identical.
But reactive.
Interesting.
He closed the interface.
For now.
Outside, satellites detected subtle gravitational shifts over:
Greece.
Varanasi.
Kyoto.
Three myth-centres activating simultaneously.
Seven harmonic bands pulsed faintly across orbital sensors.
The Lokas were aligning.
Not chaotically.
Systematically.
And two minds were mapping the alignment.
Neither revealing identity.
Neither striking directly.
Thunder had fallen without clouds.
But the true storm was intellectual.
Arvind Rao returned to his desk.
He began writing a new file.
Project: Pantheon Convergence Model
Because if Devaloka had awakened—
Asura would respond.
And when Asura responds—
Entropy follows.
He would be ready.
Before anyone realised the board had expanded.