Author's note:  Alright guys, intense gore alert. You have been warned. For those who cannot handle too many gory details, if you are eating anything right now, or just had something delicious, I sincerely request you to stop reading this chapter for now and come back later.

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"Gain the power! Gain the Respect!"

Pruthvi immediately averted his eyes away, refraining himself to read the label for the thousandth time. He hated that his guts were daring him to not to look at his predecessor one more time. And so he did look up-the handicapped bent posture, the scary single eyed face with saggy wrinkles, none of the factors was really making him feel proud.

Leena took his hand and nodded her head. They both turned around to face the entrance gate of the Temple. Deva and rest of his men were still completely caged, begging for their release. Both of them were now mentally and emotionally involved in the finding their friend inside their temple, and they completely forgot that these Shashi's minions were supposed to be taken care of before they could escape.

"Are you sure about this?" Leena asked, her voice cracking.

"Yes, of course," said Pruthvi and looked at her sideways, "Aren't you?"

"Pruthvi, we totally forgot. This is a public property. If we break in now, we and King Agasthya will have to face many problems with Panchayat."

"I know," he said, "That is why we are going back only after we find Tyrell, aka Rahu Kerenza, no matter how many days it is going to take. That is all Panchayat cares about right now."

There was a sign of desperation and bewilderment in her expression as she kept staring at the door. A light gust of wind stirred the trees making a few yellow flowers roll down to the ground He took up the opportunity and looked back at her. For a moment, just for a split second, he forgot that they were in the middle of the mission to bring his friend back. He was transported to those days when he had first asked her to be his girlfriend, the glow on her face when she had accepted. And now, he was eagerly waiting to see the glow once again when he was going to ask her to be his...

"Let's do this," she said, pulling him out of his thought. "No more interruptions."

"Right," he said and took a deep breath before they walked upfront hand in hand.

"Please, let us go!" Deva kept shouting, but Pruthvi and Leena just didn't care.

Together they pulled off 'Do not cross' barricade tape out of their way and easily walked ahead to stand in front the entrance door. The door- it was a solid stoned, carved with intricate designs, shut tight, affixed such that nothing could possibly enter in, not even the air. There was an arch over it, with a small design, a sculpture. The outline looking like that of a woman. There was a brass lock attached to the safety chain dangling at the top of the door, right below the carved woman. It looked dull and probably frosted with years of drenching in the snow.

"It's just locked," said Leena, "So we don't have to really break it, right?"

Pruthvi nodded, completely understanding what she meant.

"Plain Elevator Formation!" he commanded, having his palm pointed at the side of his legs. A small portion of the ground below his feet, protruded up, lifting him with it till he reached the knob. He noticed that a woman was carved intelligently inside a symbol, an asterisk. Still looking at it, he held the lock and twisted it slightly. As guessed the locked splintered into numerous pieces.

"Did you even use your stone to break it?" Leena asked as soon as he jumped down beside her.

"Take a wild guess," he said as he pushed the door.

It swung open at ease, like a normal bedroom door. It was a direct proof that the door was being locked and unlocked on a daily basis. Before the door could stay still, a sudden blast of dust bothered both of them. It was swirling brown and extremely thick that created a layer on their bare skin. They involuntarily coughed and waved their hands in front of their faces to have a better sight.

"It's so dark," whispered Leena, as both of them tried to look deep inside the temple.

"And I miss Hayden," Pruthvi said, remembering their time they had first stepped into the Rawat's palace.

"We forgot to bring a torchlight," Leena said, disappointingly, rummaging in her bag.

Pruthvi eyes instinctively fell on to the ground and he spotted the things that might just help them out.

"Wait a second. I have an idea."

Generally, it takes more than half an hour to do it, but for someone physically strong as Pruthvi it took only a few seconds and he felt proud of being capable to do it. He gathered a few sticks and a large fallen branch of the tree, not caring even if it belonged to Vrindahina. He heard a few screeching sound from the cages lingering a few distance away. It seemed they were trying to escape, but he just ignored them. He concentrated on what he was intending to do. He rubbed and spun the stick on the rod, maintaining pressure and being persistent only for few minutes, he successfully generated fire out of the sticks.

"Oh my God!" Leena exclaimed, looking her boyfriend wide-eyed, "And you called me a superwoman?"

"Of course, I do," he said, blowing to the fire to make the flame bigger, "I can't call myself a superwoman, can I?"

They clasped their hands, pulling their bags up to comfortably hang down from their shoulders. Pruthvi held his other hand holding the log with flaming fire high as both of them stepped into the temple. The darkness was pushed away only to a little extent and that explained how enormous the place was. Immediately, there were few stony stairs to walk down followed by a small narrow sidewalk. The sound of their footsteps reverberated that surprisingly didn't cringe them at all. They were too immersed in watching the new place they had heard before but never cared too much about until Shourya had mentioned.

The whole place was completely untidy with dust and spider webs at all corners of the temple. Walking a few more steps inside, they came across the water in the form of a small pond with scum all over it.

"Yuk, I won't use this water even for my formation," commented Leena, rubbing her nose with the backside of her palm.

Pruthvi ignored her comment. He had to. He was keen in scrutinizing this place which his predecessor had constructed aeons ago. He simply couldn't blame the darkness but he wasn't sure if there was anything to look around in this supposedly holy place. The giant shrine of Lady Chandrika that Dhanunjay had mentioned was nowhere to be found. He and Leena, stayed close to each other, turning their heads to look at all corners.

"What do we do now?" Leena asked, getting bored and tired, "It's so dark. And Tyrell is not here. Can we wait until it's morning?"

"Do you want to sleep in this place?" Pruthvi asked, even though he knew what her answer was exactly going to be.

"I would rather die!" she said, pointedly looking aside at this horrible looking place.

Pruthvi scoffed. "Unfortunately you can't. Come on, let's see what else we can find out."

He pulled her with him and walked a little inside along with the walls of the temple. He held the log closer to the stone walls where he found many illustrative designs carved on them. He tried to study them applying all his techie brain. There were people, men and women engraved in different shapes and sizes seemingly performing some tasks. He moved the log closer only to find out if the engravings were weaving a story.

"Is it a..." Leena asked but quickly faltered unable to find the right word.

"Petroglyph," he said quickly, "Yeah it is."

"Did first Emerald user engrave?" she asked, "Because I don't think Tyrell can, and never heard Shashi is as talented."

"Don't be silly, it cannot be Tyrell or Shashi."

Letting Leena's hand go, Pruthvi dusted the wall with his bare hands and removed most of the unwanted particles out of the carvings to have a closer look. His eyes lingered on the one, seated down and hitting on the stone using hammer and chisel. It definitely looked like he was the Emerald user, with the number of legs the person was having. He looked aside and his eyes shrunk immediately in keenness. The same man seemed to be in action, again seated down on his single leg, and facing another person, with lightning bolts surrounding him.

He gasped slightly.

"What?" Leena asked.

"Nothing," he said, immediately, "Let's check the other side."

"I think there are steps we need to take again," she said, pointing to her left.

Pruthvi tried his best to keep his mind off the engravings he had just seen. Instead, he focussed on Leena's fingers pointing down towards the stairs.

"Let's go," he said and tried to pull her again but Leena resisted.

"Slow down. Why are you in a hurry?" she said, forcing him to look back at her. "Tell me, what is going on?"

He batted his eyes frantically and when she asked him again he tried to explain it to her. "Leena, these carvings are telling a story and..I am just scared to even look at them anymore."

"What? Why? You were fine a second ago." She then gawked at him and demanded, "What do these carvings say? Did you understand anything?"

He licked his upper lip and said, "I think this is about the war that happened between the first emerald user and the opal user."

Her mouth dropped. "What?"

She moved aside and observed the carvings when Pruthvi continued, "Doctor chose me to bring Tyrell back because...I don't know..when Hayden talked to Ashwant, he came to know that there have been wars among the previous generation Samagraha themselves. He specifically mentioned that Emerald user never liked his stone being compared with Shaatrumani..."

"So do you," she interjected, "I have noticed it. You act as if we've committed a crime comparing your stone with it. Pruthvi, both the stones do look alike."

Pruthvi gritted his teeth. He felt a vein in temple throbbing. "Stop saying that."

"Alright," she said not wanting to make her boyfriend angrier, "So why do you think Doctor chose you for this job?"

"Because we have a history," he said, "The emerald user and the opal have a history together."

Leena gaped at him, but her piercing stare wasn't bothering him. It was his stone inside pocket, that suddenly began to burn.

"Pruthvi, listen to me," she said holding his hand and moving closer, "History cannot repeat."

He looked down at her when she firmly gave away the statement.

"Yes," she continued, "Everything that happened in first two generation, we cannot repeat it. Don't forget, we are already in so much trouble because of them. Tyrell is suffering, Hayden is in some other universe and god knows if he is coming back or not. It is all because of them. I don't know about their relationships, but we are friends, a family. We cannot fight among ourselves. Hayden did that mistake once earlier and we lost Tyrell. You don't repeat the same mistake. Do you understand me? Promise me, you won't."

Pruthvi just continued staring into her eyes unbelievably. How can she even say that? He thought. She wanted him back, but without a fight? After everything that had happened on the day of the Fest, Tyrell being the only person to perform dark magic even in the holy month, how can she expect there wouldn't be a fight?

Wasn't he planning for a fight already?

"Doctor chose you because your Geokinesis always has an advantage over his Fulgurkinesis. That's all. Please don't think about what happened in the past. Please." She stressed on her words, and it was as if she was peeking into his mind, reading his every nerve.

Still keeping his mouth shut, he nodded giving her an assuring smile. He just couldn't promise what she wanted.

"Let's go down," she whispered. "And if we don't find Tyrell or anything related to him, let's just get out of here, alright? I hate being here already."

Pruthvi nodded again, staying silent.

There were too many stoned threads within closed walls on either side. Pulling their bags up, they slowly stepped down very carefully. Even though they were slow enough, it took a while and it felt as if they were stepping down towards the centre of the earth. The stairs were leading to nowhere. Gradually they increased their speed,  wanting it to end already and when they finally approached the end of the stairs, a wall in front of them came to sight blocking their way.

"Man!" Leena exclaimed, irritated, "Now what?"

Pruthvi sighed softly knowing exactly what to do. Taking a long breath, he touched the wall with his palm and commanded his stone.

"Stone Explosive Formation!"

Creating a loud thundering sound, the wall immediately exploded. Pruthvi and Leena instinctively stepped a few threads up to escape from scattering tiny stones.

"Oh!" Pruthvi croaked, letting Leena's hand go. He covered his nose when a certain kind of an odour, he had sensed it before, hit him like a jolt. It was heavy and festering, reminding him of...

"Tyrell," he said aloud, his heart drumming, "He is here!"

"Wha.." Leena gasped, "Are you sure?"

"Come with me."

Both of them carefully jumped through the exploded wall. Pruthvi made sure the fire log in his hand was up and helpful.

"Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!"

They both came to a full stop, startled of hearing a strange human voice, uttering gibberish.

"Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!"

The voice was having an annoying eerie edge-cold and distant. The more they went inside, the colder it sounded.

"What the hell!" she exclaimed, her voice quivering, "Is that Tyrell?"

"Stay close!" Pruthvi said, and wishing it to be him and not to be him at the same time.

The smell of the blood was getting thicker with every step they took. Even Leena twisted her face, closing her nose and mouth as the stench watered her eyes. Surprisingly there were large lanterns lit in this circular underground area with thousands of pillars with goopy scarlet liquid dripping down the carved pillars, each of them having a story on it.

"Pruthvi, look!" Leena whispered excitedly pointing at the front, "There it is!"

Following her sight, Pruthvi lifted his head up, and both of them had to take a couple of steps behind to have a better view.

It was the magnificent shrine of Lady Chandrika.

What they needed was better lighting in this area, for Pruthvi and Leena both felt a powerful desire to look at this gigantic shrine of the woman much closely. This woman was the sole reason for them to be chosen as the saviours of the country. It certainly looked spectacular, its minute details that they were able to see proved it so. The shrine of Lady Chandrika was adorned with gold and silver jewellery and a perfect carved red saree over her sculptured twine-thin outline. The face of this great woman, was totally hidden in the darkness, but they were sure it was exotic. Looking at this wonder, Pruthvi heart filled with a feeling of deep admiration towards the one who had built it. Now, this was more than enough for him to be proud of. Looks, after all, doesn't matter, does it?

Slurp! Slurp!

And then they were distracted by a deep sucking noise. Pruthvi and Leena exchanged a glance making sure if both of them had heard it right.

Slurp! Slurp! Slurp!

The sound repeated. Leena stiffened, and so did Pruthvi, his heart lurching. But this time he realized it was coming from right behind the shrine.

"I...I am scared," Leena said, holding Pruthvi by his arm and almost digging her nail into his skin as always did, "It cannot be Tyrell. Perhaps it is Shourya as a hound or something?

Pruthvi gaped down at her, slightly twisting the corner of his lips. "Do I make sounds like that?"

"No, of course not."

"Then it isn't him," he said, firmly.

Together they resumed walking towards the shrine, their slow stroll synchronized. It took them several minutes to get past the spherical alabaster stone over which the shrine stood firm. The complete stone was shining, and when Pruthvi breathed the smell of iron, he realized it was smeared with thick blood, drops of it dripping down to the floor in streaks.

"Who...who is there?" Leena asked before Pruthvi could, "Sh...show yourself!"

"Come here, little lady!" An appealing voice, as if singing a lullaby boomed, creating goosebumps all over Pruthvi's body, "Don't be scared. Come on!" Slurp! Slurp!

"Concentrate-on-your-stone!" Pruthvi said, his voice a high pitched whisper.

They peeked slowly bending over at the other side of the stone, Pruthvi doing his best to keep his focus off the smell. He wished to tie the handkerchief again, but he perished the thought, getting immersed in watching everything that was happening behind the stone.

His eyes firstly fell on bare thin womanly legs, then on the cotton saree drenched with crimson liquid pulled up to the knees, hands fallen aside, a pool of blood all over and around the thin weak body.

"Oh my!" Leena cried, with her strained voice, "Pruthvi, wha...is she dead?"

A chill ran down Pruthvi's spine watching that amount of blood, his heart began to hammer as if it wanted to literally drop down his knees.

Slurp! Slurp! Slurp!

They took a couple of more steps, finally turned their focus completely to the opposite side of the shrine and they discovered what it in this holy world was going on. The scene made both of them retch aloud, bending low holding their own stomachs. Whatever they were looking at was next to inhumane.

A man, covered with a hood over his head and a black robes covering his body, was sucking the blood out of woman's hand.

There was a pile beside him, a pile of human parts torn apart from their bodies with organs clearly visible.

Leena screamed hiding her face between her palms, but somehow she couldn't take away her eyes off the awfulness. Pruthvi immediately grabbed her and wrapping her in his arms in an attempt to close her eyes from watching any of this grisly view. The man, a monster per se, at once stopped sucking. He tilted his head, although not revealing his face completely. He slowly lifted his hands, joined his finger and began taping them like a mentally imbalanced person, uttering, "Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" Pruthvi cried out, his eyes beginning to burn and voice filled with utmost disgrace. "SHOW YOUR FACE!

"RIGHT ON!"

The appealing voice turned into a blood-curling guttural one. He removed his hood out of his face. Leena's screamed in a heightened piercing tone, watching his brimming blood-shot eyes. He opened his mouth and laughed, a glass shattering sound, blood smeared all of his chins and cheeks and pouring out of his mouth like water.

He lifted his hand up-his nails long and pointy- and waved one of his fingers. Pruthvi was tossed into the air and flung a few feet away, hitting straight at one of the pillars and apparently dropping down onto the floor with a sharp thud. He moaned in pain, but Leena's abrupt stoppage of scream was what worried him the most. She was falling down and gradually fainted lying flat on the floor.

The man stood up on his feet, his height as same as either Hayden's or Tyrell's. He limped, trying to walk swiftly towards Leena who was still frozen.

"Freshshhh blooddd!" he uttered greedily, rolling his tongue.

"Earthly Bind!" Pruthvi shouted, watching the woman who slightly jerked. The whole cave was made of rocks and stones, and all Pruthvi wanted was required amount of concentration and balance. A tiny cage emerged from beneath the ground. The man was indeed caged. He grunted looking sharply at Pruthvi. As soon as he lifted his hand again, Pruthvi was tossed away grudgingly with much intensity. His head directly smashed into the wall hard. He gasped, feeling the cells on his forehead rupturing and his skin tearing apart.

"Leena, get up!" He shouted, his warm dark blood making its way down his forehead, which he couldn't care for now.

Leena just stirred but couldn't wake up completely out of weakness. The cage suddenly blasted, and the man barged out of it easily. He began limping, and Pruthvi's heart double flipped watching him approaching the love of his life.

Pruthvi gritted his teeth watching him lean down at her, sneering at her. A drop of blood landed his lashes, making his eyes burn more. He felt himself changing, his muscles enlarging. That man was so close to her, that Pruthvi thought even running towards him would be time taking.

"Earthquake Formation!" Pruthvi punched the ground that immediately came to life, vibrations occurring and a crack raced towards the man. He stumbled towards the other side of the wall, squealing like an innocent child.

"Stone Explosive formation!" Pruthvi shouted, his sleeves completely tearing. He felt his muscles and veins bursting out of his skin for applying that amount of incredible pressure on his stone. The wall behind the man blasted like a dynamite bomb. Gritting his teeth, he levitated all the fallen stones up in the air and released his energy. Rocks rushed towards the man and smashed him crushing his body as if that of a cockroach.

An uncomfortable silence fell inside the giant underground area. Pruthvi felt his breath sharp and steep. He waited for few seconds to see if the man was getting himself free of the piled up rocks, beside the other pile he dared to look at. And when he was positive that there wasn't going to be any movement, he jerked and ran towards his girlfriend.

"Leena, wake up!" He said, pulling her up and hitting her cheeks. Hot tears ran down burning his eyes. Thankfully, Leena opened her at once, colours returning to face and finally coming to awareness, she hugged him thoroughly.

"Leena, we have to get out," he said, "It's just crazy down here."

"Who...who was that man?" she asked, her voice quivering, "What happened to him? Oh my god, you are bleeding and your eyes..."

"Don't worry about me. But we need to hurry up. I think this woman is alive. She needs help," he said looking aside at the poor woman, struggling for breath, "Let's take Hardik's help, alright?"

When Leena finally brought herself together, Pruthvi crawled towards his bag fallen beside the stone and pulled Hardik out. He watched Leena. Even though weak and shivering, she managed to go ahead and organize the women's saree in a proper way. When she was done, Pruthvi unhesitatingly lifted the bleeding woman and gently laid her gently on the carpet and asked Leena to sit beside the woman. She slid aside to give Pruthvi some space. Holding his bag up, he was about to sit on the carpet, but the sudden sound of approaching footsteps stopped him doing so.

"Someone else is here," Leena gasped.

Pruthvi looked around, listening to the sounds of the footsteps carefully. The footsteps and a sound of a clomping stick-the sound reminded him of that of Doctor's but the pace with which it was incoming indicated otherwise. He had not observed it before, but there was an arch-like doorway, leading to a darker room, and it was exactly the area from where the footsteps were eerily echoing.

"You go!" said Pruthvi, taking a quick decision and fighting his urge to not to step away from the carpet, "Save the woman. Drop her off someplace safe and come back for me. Alright?"

"No! I can't leave you here."

"Leena, listen to me. I have to find out who else is here and what in the world is happening in this place when Shaytan Rup isn't actually living here. I want to know if Tyrell is any way involved in this. You go. And don't look at me like that! Hardik, take them away."

"But..." Before Leena could protest, Hardik flew out of sight within seconds.

The footsteps almost came close. Pruthvi was completely breathing through his mouth, unable to bear the smell of the blood anymore. He lifted his head up to see the person walking out of the shadows and coming into light.

The one who came out of the dorm was the most stubborn and headstrong old hag named Zarina Khan.

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