The laugh did not sound like anything Aryaan had heard before.
It was not loud, nor was it particularly frightening in the conventional sense; there was no monstrous growl, no theatrical echo, no obvious attempt to intimidate them.
It was simply a sound that seemed to arrive from several directions at once, as though the chamber itself had learned how to laugh and had decided that the eight of them were worth the effort.
Aryaan’s first instinct was to move.
His second was to stop himself.
Something had changed in the darkness.
He could feel it.
The resonance that had filled the chamber moments earlier had not disappeared.
It had merely altered its character, and that distinction was important.
The relay still hummed beneath their feet, the ancient mechanisms still carried energy through the crystalline lattice beneath the platform, and the distant connection to Gaia remained faintly present in his consciousness.
But something else had entered the system.
Something that did not belong.
“Stay together,” Anahita said.
Her voice was calm, although Aryaan noticed that she had drawn the weapon from her belt.
Ishaan did the same.
The children did not need another instruction.
Lane moved beside Aryaan, while Ron and Riyansh shifted to the other side.
Potter moved closer to Mitchell and Bonita, with Saiyuki taking the rear position almost instinctively.
It was not the formation they had been taught.
It was simply the formation they had developed after enough training exercises to know where the others were most useful.
Aryaan could feel Ron’s heat building around him.
Lane had already begun manipulating the space immediately around his body, although the distortion was so subtle that an untrained observer would probably have mistaken it for an optical illusion.
Riyansh’s muscles had tightened.
Saiyuki had disappeared from Aryaan’s peripheral vision.
Potter was looking at the ceiling.
Aryaan glanced at him.
“What?”
Potter didn’t answer.
“What?”
“I’m trying to figure out where the thing is.”
Aryaan looked around.
“It’s dark.”
“Excellent observation.”
“You’re looking at the ceiling.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if something enormous laughs from everywhere at once, statistically speaking, it is probably above us.”
Mitchell stared at him.
“That is not how statistics work.”
Potter looked offended.
“It’s how my statistics work.”
“Everyone shut up,” Bonita whispered.
Potter nodded.
“See? That’s leadership.”
Bonita looked as though she was seriously considering throwing him off the platform.
Under ordinary circumstances, Aryaan would have laughed.
Instead, he concentrated on the sensation in his mind.
The presence was still there.
It wasn’t coming from the chamber.
It wasn’t even coming from the direction of the relay.
It was somewhere between places.
Aryaan closed his eyes.
The darkness behind his eyelids changed.
For a fraction of a second, he saw the relay as it truly existed.
Not as a machine.
Not as a room.
It appeared as a network of luminous threads extending in every direction, some reaching into the Solar System, others disappearing beyond the Milky Way, while several plunged vertically through layers of reality that his mind instinctively identified as the Lokas.
Most of the threads were stable.
A few were damaged.
One was bright enough to hurt.
That was Gaia.
Then he noticed something else.
A black thread had wrapped itself around the relay.
Aryaan opened his eyes.
“It’s attached to the network.”
Anahita looked at him.
“What is?”
“The thing that came through.”
Ishaan’s expression hardened.
“Can you see it?”
“Not properly.”
“Then don’t try.”
Aryaan ignored him.
His ability had never been particularly obedient, but this time he did not force it.
He simply observed.
The black thread moved.
Not through the chamber.
Through time.
Aryaan’s breathing stopped.
He had seen temporal distortions before, but this was different.
The thing wasn’t travelling backward or forward along a normal sequence.
It appeared to be occupying several points in the sequence simultaneously, as if its existence had never agreed to obey the ordinary relationship between cause and effect.
That frightened him more than the creature itself could have.
Because it meant his temporal perception had no obvious advantage.
He could not simply look ahead and determine what would happen.
The thing was already in several versions of the future.
“Aryaan?”
Lane’s voice brought him back.
Aryaan looked at him.
“It’s not just here.”
Lane’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s in the network.”
A faint tremor passed through the platform.
Everyone felt it.
The crystalline lotus at the centre of the chamber began to rotate.
Anahita immediately stepped forward.
“Everyone back.”
The lotus opened.
Light flooded the chamber.
For a moment, Aryaan could see the entire structure around them, and the sight was so immense that his brain struggled to understand what he was seeing.
The chamber was not underground.
At least, not entirely.
Its physical structure was buried beneath Mokshabhumi, but the relay had folded part of its interior into another spatial state.
The platform on which they stood existed simultaneously inside the asteroid and within a resonance field extending across astronomical distances.
The chamber was effectively a doorway that did not need a physical destination.
The ancient Huaxian architects had not built a machine for travelling from one point to another.
They had built something far more ambitious.
They had built a mechanism for making two points of reality acknowledge one another.
Aryaan stared.
“That’s what my parents found.”
Anahita looked at him.
“Yes.”
“For how long have you known?”
“Long enough.”
Aryaan’s irritation returned.
“That’s becoming your favourite answer.”
“I know.”
The lotus continued opening.
A circular aperture formed above it.
Inside was not darkness.
There was a landscape.
A forest beneath a violet sky.
A river glowing faintly beneath unfamiliar stars.
Aryaan recognised it immediately.
“Gaia.”
Anahita nodded.
Nobody spoke.
The sight was beautiful.
That was the first thing Aryaan noticed.
The second was that it was wrong.
There were no cities.
No visible spacecraft.
No artificial satellites.
No orbital infrastructure.
The forest stretched endlessly beneath a sky filled with stars that did not belong to the Milky Way.
And somewhere beyond the trees, a red glow illuminated the horizon.
Then something moved.
Ron leaned forward.
“Is that—”
“Don’t,” Anahita said.
Ron stopped.
A figure appeared between the trees.
A girl.
No.
A young woman.
She was running.
Aryaan’s chest tightened.
“Sia.”
This time, everyone heard him.
Ron turned.
“Who?”
Aryaan didn’t answer.
Sia stumbled.
She caught herself against a tree, looked behind her, and then lifted her head.
Her eyes appeared to focus directly on Aryaan.
The distance between them was millions of light-years.
It shouldn’t have been possible.
Yet Aryaan knew she could see him.
Sia raised one hand.
The mark beneath her skin began to glow.
The relay reacted.
The chamber shook.
Anahita shouted something, but Aryaan couldn’t hear her.
His awareness had already begun slipping.
His body remained on Mokshabhumi.
His consciousness moved.
He had not intended to astral travel.
He had not even meditated.
Yet the relay had apparently decided that intention was optional.
Aryaan felt his physical body disappear beneath him.
The chamber dissolved.
And he was standing in the forest.
The first thing he noticed was the smell.
Wet earth.
Leaves.
Something sweet and floral that reminded him of old gardens he had seen in archived photographs of Earth.
The second thing he noticed was that his body was translucent.
He looked down.
His hands were there, but light passed through them.
Astral form.
He had experienced something similar during meditation, although never with this degree of clarity.
The Academy’s senior practitioners described astral travel as the controlled separation of consciousness from the physical body, but Aryaan had always thought that explanation sounded too simple.
This was not merely leaving the body.
It was entering a place where different rules applied.
He looked around.
“Sia?”
No answer.
Aryaan moved.
His feet didn’t touch the ground.
He simply drifted forward.
That should have been reassuring.
It wasn’t.
The forest was silent.
He could hear no insects, no animals, no wind.
Then he saw her.
Sia was standing beside the river.
She looked younger than he had expected.
Not a child, but perhaps close to his age.
Her clothing was unfamiliar, although there were recognisable similarities to ancient Huaxian garments, especially in the loose arrangement of the fabric and the symbolic markings around her wrists.
She stared at Aryaan.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Sia said:
“You’re late.”
Aryaan blinked.
“Excuse me?”
Sia looked genuinely annoyed.
“You’re late.”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to be somewhere.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Aryaan stared.
This was not how he had imagined first contact with another galaxy would go.
He looked behind her.
“Where are we?”
“Bhur.”
Aryaan frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Why?”
“Because Gaia isn’t in our Bhur.”
Sia smiled faintly.
“Your teachers have made the Lokas unnecessarily confusing.”
Aryaan narrowed his eyes.
“That’s the first thing we agree on.”
“Good.”
Sia looked towards the sky.
Then her expression changed.
“Your time is shorter than I expected.”
Aryaan’s humour disappeared.
“What does that mean?”
Sia looked back at him.
“The Orions have found the relay.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Her expression became serious.
“You don’t.”
Aryaan stepped closer.
“You were being chased.”
“Yes.”
“By them?”
“Yes.”
“Then what are they doing here?”
Sia hesitated.
“They’re not here yet.”
Aryaan frowned.
“But you said—”
“The thing you felt wasn’t an Orion.”
Aryaan’s blood seemed to cool.
“Then what was it?”
Sia looked towards the forest.
“I don’t know.”
Aryaan stared.
“You don’t know?”
“Not completely.”
“That’s comforting.”
Sia almost smiled.
“You joke when you’re nervous.”
Aryaan looked at her.
“You’ve known me for approximately thirty seconds.”
“Not exactly.”
The words made him pause.
“What does that mean?”
Sia looked at him.
“I’ve seen you before.”
Aryaan felt a familiar pressure behind his eyes.
His temporal perception was responding.
He tried to suppress it.
Sia noticed.
“Don’t.”
Aryaan stopped.
“Why?”
“You’ll hurt yourself.”
Aryaan’s expression tightened.
“How do you know?”
Sia’s eyes lowered.
“Because I know what happens when someone tries to look through a resonance channel that is larger than their body can withstand.”
Aryaan looked at her.
“You know about my ability.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Sia didn’t answer.
Aryaan’s patience weakened.
“My parents.”
That did it.
Sia’s expression changed.
Aryaan stepped closer.
“You know something about my parents.”
“I know they came here.”
Aryaan stopped breathing.
“They came to Gaia?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“A little over eleven years ago.”
Aryaan’s mind raced.
His parents had disappeared when he was younger.
Eleven years.
The number matched.
“Are they alive?”
Sia didn’t answer.
Aryaan’s voice became harder.
“Are they alive?”
Sia looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
The disappointment was immediate and physical.
Aryaan stepped back.
Sia continued quickly.
“But I know they weren’t killed on Gaia.”
Aryaan looked at her again.
“What happened?”
“They came looking for something.”
“What?”
“The same thing you’re looking for.”
“My parents?”
“No.”
Sia shook her head.
“The reason your parents disappeared.”
Aryaan’s mind went completely still.
That distinction mattered.
His parents weren’t merely looking for information.
They were investigating the reason they had been forced into hiding.
“Tell me.”
“I can’t.”
Aryaan’s frustration exploded.
“You can’t keep doing that.”
Sia stared.
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know you know something.”
“And you think knowing everything immediately will help you?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Aryaan’s jaw tightened.
“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
Sia studied him.
“Your parents were right about you.”
Aryaan froze.
“What did they say?”
“That you would be impatient.”
“That sounds like them.”
Sia smiled.
For a moment, the tension disappeared.
Then a distant rumble moved through the forest.
Sia’s smile vanished.
Aryaan turned.
The trees were shaking.
“What is that?”
Sia grabbed his arm.
“Go back.”
“To where?”
“Your body.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You’ve done it before.”
Aryaan stared.
“When?”
Sia looked directly into his eyes.
“Every time you’ve dreamed of a place you weren’t supposed to remember.”
Aryaan’s stomach dropped.
His childhood dreams.
The strange places he had seen.
The stars that didn’t belong to Earth.
The river.
A woman calling his name.
He had always assumed they were dreams.
They weren’t.
“You’re saying I’ve been here?”
“Not here.”
Sia looked towards the sky.
“Somewhere connected to here.”
The rumbling became louder.
Something moved between the trees.
Aryaan’s instinct sharpened.
“That’s them.”
“No.”
Sia’s hand tightened around his arm.
“That’s worse.”
Back in the chamber, Aryaan’s physical body convulsed.
Lane caught him before he fell.
“What’s happening?”
Anahita rushed towards them.
“Don’t pull him out.”
Lane looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because his consciousness is travelling through an active resonance channel.”
“Then how do we bring him back?”
“We wait.”
Ron stared.
“That’s the plan?”
“Yes.”
“Just wait?”
“Unless you’d like to travel across several million light-years without knowing where you’re going.”
Ron paused.
“Actually, when you phrase it like that, waiting sounds pretty fire.”
Potter looked at him.
“You’re not helping.”
“I’m keeping morale up.”
“Your morale is the problem.”
Mitchell looked at Aryaan.
His body was trembling.
“What happens if he doesn’t return?”
Anahita’s expression hardened.
“He could lose the connection between his astral and physical bodies.”
Riyansh frowned.
“Meaning?”
“His consciousness could remain trapped.”
Nobody joked after that.
Lane’s grip tightened around Aryaan’s shoulder.
“Then get him back.”
Anahita looked at him.
“Lane—”
“Get him back.”
His voice was not loud.
Anahita understood.
She looked towards Ishaan.
“We have to enter.”
Ishaan nodded.
“Together.”
Saiyuki immediately stepped forward.
“I’ll go.”
“No.”
Saiyuki’s eyes narrowed.
“I can control my astral projection.”
“You can maintain it for eleven minutes.”
“Fourteen.”
“Under meditation.”
Saiyuki looked irritated.
“Still better than most.”
“Not enough.”
Bonita raised her hand.
“Then who can?”
Anahita looked towards the lotus.
“Me and Ishaan.”
Potter’s expression changed.
“That’s dangerous.”
Anahita looked at him.
“So is leaving Aryaan there.”
Potter didn’t respond.
For perhaps the first time, he looked genuinely frightened.
Mitchell moved beside him.
Her hand briefly touched his.
He looked at her.
Neither said anything.
The gesture lasted barely a second.
Then both turned towards the relay.
In the forest, Aryaan understood why Sia had been frightened.
The thing approaching them wasn’t an Orion.
At least, not in the way Aryaan understood the word.
The trees bent.
The ground trembled.
A shadow moved between the trunks.
Sia pulled Aryaan backwards.
“Listen carefully.”
“I’m listening.”
“You are not physically here.”
“I noticed.”
“Your astral form is connected to your body through the resonance channel.”
“Okay.”
“If the connection breaks, you may not return.”
Aryaan looked at her.
“Great.”
“Stop joking.”
“I joke when I’m nervous.”
“I know.”
Aryaan frowned.
“Still weird that you know that.”
Sia ignored him.
“You must not fight.”
Aryaan looked towards the approaching shadow.
“That’s your plan?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who you’re talking to?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should know that I’m going to fight.”
Sia stared at him.
“You are stronger than most beginners.”
Aryaan’s pride flickered.
“Thank you.”
“You’re still a beginner.”
His pride died.
“Wow.”
Sia almost laughed.
“You’ve developed basic resonance control, rudimentary temporal perception, limited astral projection, and a small degree of energy manipulation.”
Aryaan stared.
“How do you know all that?”
“You’re loud.”
“I am not.”
“Your resonance is.”
Aryaan frowned.
Sia continued.
“Your ability is strong because you’ve awakened early, but you don’t have enough control to use it safely.”
Aryaan remembered the blood.
The headaches.
The visions.
The exhaustion.
He hated that she was right.
“What about you?”
Sia’s expression became distant.
“I am not stronger.”
“Then why are they after you?”
“Because I carry something they want.”
“The planetary resonance technique?”
“No.”
She looked down at the glowing mark beneath her skin.
“The memory of how they learned it.”
Aryaan’s expression changed.
“And you can use it?”
“Sometimes.”
“Can you teach others?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know how.”
Aryaan stared.
Sia looked almost embarrassed.
“The knowledge isn’t something I possess intellectually. It is embedded in my resonance.”
Aryaan finally understood.
She wasn’t a library.
She was a living record.
A human—or Gaian—archive of the First Mistake.
“That makes you a target.”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re coming with us.”
Sia stared.
“Where?”
“Mokshabhumi.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your world isn’t safe.”
Aryaan looked towards the approaching shadow.
“Neither is yours.”
Sia stared at him.
Aryaan shrugged.
“Seems like we’re both having a bad day.”
The shadow emerged.
Aryaan’s humour disappeared.
He finally understood why Sia had told him not to fight.
The thing was enormous.
Not because of its physical size.
Because of what it did to reality around itself.
The trees closest to it appeared younger.
Then older.
Then dead.
Then young again.
The river reversed direction.
The sky changed colour.
Aryaan saw the same place simultaneously in several states.
The creature moved forward.
The world moved backward.
Then forward.
Then sideways.
Aryaan’s temporal perception screamed.
He fell to one knee.
Sia caught him.
“Don’t look.”
“I can’t stop.”
“Then close your eyes.”
Aryaan did.
The creature’s presence became even stronger.
He could sense it without seeing it.
It was not simply moving through time.
It was feeding on inconsistencies.
Every possible version of reality around it was becoming weaker.
Aryaan suddenly understood.
It wasn’t a creature.
It was a phenomenon.
Or perhaps something had become a creature because reality had no better way of describing it.
“Sia.”
“Yes?”
“What is it?”
She whispered:
“A fracture.”
Aryaan opened his eyes.
“What?”
“A living fracture in the temporal structure.”
He remembered Devdutt’s investigation.
The Orions had broken their temporal loop.
The resulting collapse had merged parallel realities.
But this thing—
This was something born from that break.
Something that had survived the collapse.
Something that could move through the cracks.
Aryaan looked at Sia.
“Did the Orions create it?”
Sia shook her head.
“No.”
“Then what did?”
Sia looked terrified.
“The same thing that created the Orions.”
Aryaan’s blood ran cold.
“Desperation?”
“No.”
She looked towards him.
“Choice.”
The platform in Mokshabhumi shook violently.
Anahita stepped towards the lotus.
“Ishaan.”
“I know.”
They sat opposite one another.
Both entered meditation.
Their breathing slowed.
Their physical bodies became still.
Their astral forms began to rise.
Aryaan’s friends watched.
Potter crossed his arms.
“Why does everyone else’s astral projection look graceful?”
Ron looked at him.
“What does yours look like?”
“Like a man having an existential crisis.”
“Accurate.”
Potter frowned.
“Thank you.”
The two senior practitioners disappeared from physical perception.
Their astral forms entered the relay.
The chamber changed.
Aryaan’s friends could no longer see the forest through the portal.
Instead, they saw a vast network of threads.
Anahita and Ishaan travelled along one.
They were heading towards Aryaan.
Lane stared.
“Can we help?”
Saiyuki answered before anyone else.
“If we enter, we risk getting trapped.”
Lane looked at Aryaan.
His body was still trembling.
“I don’t care.”
Bonita stepped beside him.
“That isn’t the same thing as being useful.”
Lane looked at her.
She held his gaze.
“If you go without knowing what you’re doing, you’ll create another person they have to rescue.”
Lane’s jaw tightened.
Bonita continued.
“We get him back by thinking.”
Lane looked towards the relay.
He hated the answer.
But he knew she was right.
Potter suddenly snapped his fingers.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned.
He was looking at the console.
“What?”
Potter pointed.
“The relay is still transmitting.”
Mitchell moved closer.
“So?”
“So if Aryaan’s astral form is connected through the relay, and the relay is receiving information from Gaia…”
He looked at the others.
“We might be able to track the signal.”
Bonita stared.
“Can you?”
Potter’s grin appeared.
“Probably.”
Mitchell sighed.
“That’s not confidence-inspiring.”
“I said probably.”
“Do it.”
Potter sat at the ancient console.
He began connecting modern equipment to the old system.
Riyansh stared.
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Yes.”
“Could it damage the relay?”
“Yes.”
“Could it kill us?”
Potter looked over his shoulder.
“Yes.”
Riyansh nodded.
“Okay.”
Potter stared at him.
“That’s it?”
“What else do you want me to say?”
“Something supportive.”
Riyansh considered.
“Don’t die.”
Potter smiled.
“Perfect.”
Aryaan felt something approaching.
At first he thought it was the creature.
Then he realised it was Anahita.
Her astral form appeared beside him.
Ishaan followed.
Aryaan felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
“You came.”
Anahita looked furious.
“You are going to hear about this later.”
Aryaan blinked.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“I’m in another galaxy.”
“That will not protect you from consequences.”
Ishaan looked towards the forest.
“Where is Sia?”
Aryaan turned.
She was gone.
“Sia?”
No answer.
Aryaan looked around.
“Where did she go?”
Anahita grabbed his shoulder.
“We have to leave.”
“She’s here.”
“Who?”
“Sia.”
Ishaan’s expression changed.
“You met her?”
“Yes.”
“What did she tell you?”
Aryaan hesitated.
“She knows my parents.”
Anahita froze.
Ishaan looked towards her.
Aryaan continued.
“She said they came to Gaia eleven years ago.”
Anahita’s expression changed.
She knew.
Aryaan saw it immediately.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“Don’t.”
“I knew they had travelled beyond the Milky Way.”
Aryaan stared.
“You knew.”
“I knew they had investigated Gaia. I didn’t know they reached it.”
Aryaan’s anger rose.
“And you never thought to tell me?”
“Because we didn’t know whether Gaia was safe.”
“She just told me they weren’t killed there.”
Anahita’s face changed.
“Then they may still be alive.”
The words struck Aryaan with a force he hadn’t expected.
May.
Still.
Alive.
His parents were no longer merely a possibility.
For the first time in years, he had a piece of information from someone who had actually seen them.
He could find them.
He knew it.
Anahita saw the determination in his eyes.
“No.”
Aryaan looked at her.
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“I know exactly what you’re going to say.”
“I can find them.”
“No.”
“I have a route.”
“No.”
“Gaia is reachable.”
“Not by you.”
Aryaan stepped forward.
“I don’t need to go physically.”
Anahita stared.
Aryaan realised what he was saying.
Astral travel.
The relay.
Resonance.
The Lokas.
If the network could connect consciousness across millions of light-years, then perhaps—
Anahita interrupted.
“Do not even consider it.”
Aryaan’s expression hardened.
“You can’t stop me forever.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“But I can stop you from dying stupidly.”
Ishaan glanced towards the forest.
“Enough.”
They all turned.
The fracture had stopped.
The creature was no longer moving.
Instead, it was staring at them.
Aryaan couldn’t see eyes.
Yet he knew it was looking.
Then the fracture moved.
Not towards them.
Towards the relay.
Anahita’s expression changed.
“It’s trying to cross.”
Ishaan raised his hand.
A wave of energy spread through the astral environment.
The creature recoiled.
Aryaan stared.
He had never seen Ishaan use that much power.
The difference between them was staggering.
Ishaan wasn’t merely stronger.
He belonged to another tier entirely.
His control was precise, his resonance stable, and his astral form remained perfectly coherent even under pressure that had nearly overwhelmed Aryaan.
Anahita joined him.
Their combined resonance created a barrier.
The fracture slammed into it.
The forest shook.
Aryaan staggered.
Sia appeared again.
She was standing behind the fracture.
Aryaan stared.
“Sia!”
She raised her hand.
“Listen to me.”
Aryaan moved forward.
Anahita caught him.
“Don’t.”
Sia shouted:
“Your parents are alive!”
Aryaan froze.
The words echoed through the forest.
His entire world seemed to stop.
Sia continued.
“They are not on Gaia.”
Aryaan stared.
“Where?”
Sia’s expression became desperate.
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know they’re alive?”
“Because they sent something.”
“What?”
“A message.”
Aryaan’s heart began pounding.
“What message?”
Sia looked towards him.
“Not to you.”
Aryaan felt his stomach drop.
“To whom?”
Sia looked at Anahita.
Then Ishaan.
Then Aryaan.
Back in the physical chamber, Devdutt stood before the lotus.
The relay had stopped responding to his commands.
He knew why.
It had established a stronger connection.
The children were inside.
And something else had entered.
Devdutt stared at the crystal.
He had spent years preparing for this moment.
Years studying fragments of ancient Huaxian records, analysing the Orions, investigating Gaia, tracing the temporal fractures created when the Orion universe collapsed, and following the trail left by Aryaan’s parents.
He had told himself that he was protecting the children.
That had been true.
But it wasn’t the entire truth.
He had another reason.
One he had never told Anahita.
One he had never told Ishaan.
Not even Aryaan’s parents had known the whole story.
Devdutt reached inside his coat.
He removed an old metal pendant.
It looked insignificant.
A simple disc with a lotus engraved on one side.
He turned it over.
On the other side was the symbol of the Orions.
Devdutt stared at it.
Then he whispered:
“I finally found you.”
The chamber responded.
The black crystal began glowing.
A voice entered his mind.
YOU WERE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR US.
Devdutt closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
WHY?
He looked towards the relay.
Images appeared.
His sister.
His brother-in-law.
Potter laughing in the Academy.
Aryaan.
Lane.
Ron.
The other five.
The children he had watched grow.
The children he had deliberately kept away from the truth.
Devdutt’s expression hardened.
“Because I need to know what happened to my teacher.”
Silence.
Then the voice answered.
HE WAS NOT YOUR TEACHER.
Devdutt’s eyes opened.
“What?”
HE WAS OURS.
The crystal flashed.
Devdutt stepped back.
For the first time in decades, genuine fear entered his eyes.
“No.”
The voice continued.
YOU HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THE WRONG PERSON.
Devdutt stared at the lotus.
“Who are you?”
The answer came from everywhere.
ASK THE CHILDREN.
The relay exploded with light.
Devdutt threw himself backwards.
A wave of energy tore through the chamber.
The lotus cracked.
The resonance channel destabilised.
And far away, inside the astral forest, Aryaan felt something seize his consciousness.
Anahita shouted his name.
Aryaan couldn’t answer.
The forest vanished.
Gaia disappeared.
Sia disappeared.
The fracture disappeared.
Aryaan fell through darkness.
He saw thousands of stars.
Then millions.
Then galaxies.
Then the Lokas.
He fell past Bhur.
Bhuvar.
Svar.
Mahar.
Jana.
Tapa.
Satya.
Then down.
Atala.
Vitala.
Sutala.
Talatala.
Mahatala.
Rasatala.
Patala.
The layers passed him like enormous worlds stacked beyond comprehension.
He didn’t understand where he was going.
Then he heard a voice.
Not Sia.
Not his parents.
Not Devdutt.
Something older.
Something that seemed to speak from the space between the Lokas.
YOU HAVE THEIR BLOOD.
Aryaan tried to move.
He couldn’t.
YOU HAVE THEIR MEMORY.
The darkness became brighter.
BUT YOU DO NOT YET HAVE THEIR CHOICE.
Aryaan’s body began burning.
His Kundalini surged.
Pain exploded through his spine.
He screamed.
The voice continued.
WHEN YOU DO, THE DOOR WILL OPEN.
Aryaan saw something ahead.
A city.
Not Mokshabhumi.
Not Gaia.
Not any place he recognised.
It was enormous, stretching across the horizon beneath a black sun.
At its centre stood a tower.
And on top of that tower was a symbol he had seen only once before.
The Orion mark.
Aryaan’s temporal perception activated.
He saw the city in the past.
Alive.
He saw it in the present.
Dead.
He saw it in the future.
Burning.
Then he saw someone standing on top of the tower.
A man.
Human-looking.
He turned.
Aryaan could not see his face.
But he knew the voice.
The same voice that had spoken through the relay.
The man raised one hand.
And the entire dead city began to move.
Not physically.
Through time.
The buildings became whole.
The skies cleared.
People returned to the streets.
Children ran through markets.
Ships flew overhead.
A civilisation came back to life.
Aryaan stared in horror.
The man was not destroying the past.
He was rebuilding it.
Then the vision changed.
The city was gone.
Only one thing remained.
A planetary core.
The man stood beside it.
He placed his hand against its surface.
The core began to glow.
Aryaan suddenly understood.
The Orions did not merely consume planetary cores.
They had learned to manipulate the temporal resonance of worlds.
They could restore what had been destroyed.
They could create the appearance of resurrection.
And if that was true—
Then the dead universe of the Orions might not be dead at all.
Aryaan’s eyes widened.
The vision broke.
He was falling again.
This time towards Mokshabhumi.
He could hear voices.
Ron.
Lane.
Potter.
Anahita.
Sia.
His parents.
All of them calling him.
He reached towards them.
His astral form collided with his physical body.
Pain tore through him.
Aryaan woke.
He gasped.
The chamber came rushing back.
He was lying on the platform.
Ron was kneeling beside him.
Lane was holding his shoulder.
Potter was standing behind them, covered in dust.
Mitchell was arguing with Anahita.
Riyansh was trying to repair something.
Bonita was shouting instructions.
Saiyuki was watching the entrance.
Everything was happening at once.
Aryaan tried to sit up.
Ron pushed him down.
“Nope.”
Aryaan frowned.
“Move.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Ron.”
“You’ve been unconscious for almost two minutes.”
Aryaan blinked.
“That’s not long.”
“Bro, you astral-travelled across galaxies, fell through fourteen Lokas, nearly fried your nervous system, and came back looking like someone microwaved your soul.”
Aryaan stared.
“That’s not medically accurate.”
Ron pointed at him.
“You’re alive, aren’t you?”
Aryaan couldn’t argue with that.
Lane looked down at him.
“What did you see?”
Aryaan hesitated.
His body hurt.
His head hurt.
His spine felt as though someone had poured molten metal through it.
But beneath the pain, something else had changed.
His perception felt sharper.
Not stronger.
Sharper.
He could sense the resonance around him.
The room seemed to have depth beyond its physical shape.
He could feel the network.
He could feel Mokshabhumi.
He could feel the Solar System.
For a brief moment, he could even sense something beyond it.
Then the sensation disappeared.
Aryaan breathed out.
“I saw the Orions.”
Everyone became silent.
He looked towards Anahita.
“Their universe may not be dead.”
Anahita’s face changed.
Aryaan continued.
“They may have learned to manipulate temporal resonance.”
Ishaan stared.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
Aryaan shook his head.
“They did something worse.”
“What?”
“They can restore things.”
Anahita frowned.
“Restore?”
“Worlds. Cities. Maybe entire ecosystems.”
Aryaan’s voice lowered.
“They can make the past happen again.”
Nobody spoke.
Potter slowly lowered the device in his hand.
“That’s…”
“Terrifying?” Ron suggested.
“Very.”
Aryaan pushed himself upright.
His body protested immediately.
He winced.
Lane caught him.
Aryaan looked at him.
“I’m fine.”
Lane gave him a look.
Aryaan sighed.
“Okay. I’m mostly fine.”
Ron nodded.
“Progress.”
Aryaan looked around.
“Where’s Devdutt?”
The room went quiet again.
Aryaan immediately noticed.
“What happened?”
Anahita’s expression changed.
“Devdutt opened the relay.”
Aryaan’s stomach tightened.
“He did what?”
“He activated the system.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
Aryaan stared at her.
That answer no longer satisfied him.
“Where is he?”
Anahita looked towards the damaged corridor.
“Gone.”
Aryaan’s eyes narrowed.
“Gone where?”
Nobody answered.
Then Potter spoke.
“We found something.”
He held up the object.
It was a small metal disc.
An ancient symbol was engraved on one side.
Aryaan recognised the other.
The Orion symbol.
He stared.
“Where did you get that?”
Potter looked towards the corridor.
“It was in Devdutt’s chamber.”
Aryaan reached for it.
The moment his fingers touched the disc, his temporal perception activated.
He saw Devdutt.
Not today.
Not yesterday.
Years ago.
Devdutt stood in a room Aryaan didn’t recognise.
Across from him stood a man.
The man’s face was hidden.
But Aryaan could hear their conversation.
Devdutt said:
“I will find them.”
The man answered:
“You will find the children first.”
Aryaan’s breath caught.
The vision changed.
Another room.
Devdutt older.
His sister Anahita stood opposite him.
They were arguing.
“You promised me you would never involve them.”
Devdutt answered:
“I promised to protect them.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“It is when the alternative is worse.”
Another shift.
Devdutt stood before Aryaan’s parents.
His father was angry.
His mother looked frightened.
Devdutt said:
“If you go through that door, you may never return.”
Aryaan’s father answered:
“That’s why we’re going.”
Then—
A final image.
Devdutt alone.
Holding the same disc.
And saying:
“I need to know whether the Orion story is true.”
Aryaan’s vision broke.
He dropped the disc.
Everyone stared.
Ron spoke first.
“Okay.”
Potter looked at him.
“Okay, what?”
Ron shook his head.
“I’ve officially decided that our post-Academy life is going to be incredibly normal.”
Mitchell looked at him.
“Your definition of normal is broken.”
“I’m aware.”
Aryaan barely heard them.
He stared at the Orion symbol.
Devdutt had been investigating them.
His parents had been investigating them.
Gaia was fighting them.
Sia carried the memory of the mistake that had given them their power.
And somewhere beyond the known galaxy, something had recognised him.
His parents had not simply disappeared.
They had walked through the same door.
And Devdutt had known the door existed.
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Then Ron.
Then the others.
“We’re finding Devdutt.”
Lane nodded.
Ron sighed.
“Obviously.”
Potter lifted the metal disc.
“And after that?”
Aryaan looked at the damaged relay.
The ancient lotus had stopped moving.
But one petal remained open.
Beyond it, the stars were visible.
Millions of light-years away, Gaia continued to exist.
And somewhere beyond Gaia, beyond the Milky Way, beyond the ordinary understanding of distance and perhaps even beyond the conventional boundaries of the Lokas, something was waiting.
Aryaan looked towards the opening.
“We find my parents.”
The words sounded different this time.
Not like a desperate promise.
Not like a child’s stubborn determination.
They sounded like a mission.
A purpose.
A decision.
And deep within his body, beneath the pain left by his first uncontrolled passage through the Lokas, something had changed.
His Kundalini had risen.
Only slightly.
Barely enough to matter.
But it had risen.
And Aryaan understood something now that no instructor had managed to explain properly.
Power did not simply arrive.
It demanded something in return.
His first real step beyond the beginner level had cost him pain, temporary instability in his astral connection, and a frightening glimpse into a reality his mind was not prepared to comprehend.
He had gained something, too.
He could now sense resonance across layers of reality that had previously been invisible to him.
But the gain was not free.
And somewhere in the future, he suspected, he would discover that the price he had paid today was only the first instalment.
Current Power & Skill Status
The incident beneath Mokshabhumi marked the first significant transition in the group’s development since the Academy arc.
Aryaan
Kundalini: Early awakened stage; slightly beyond beginner level.
Temporal Perception: Strong innate potential, but still unstable and dangerous.
Astral Travel: Previously accidental/limited; has now demonstrated long-range astral travel through an active resonance network.
New Skill — Resonance Perception: Aryaan can now briefly sense resonance patterns across physical and Loka boundaries.
Payback: Severe neurological and Kundalini strain; astral disconnection risk; physical pain and temporary instability after forced return.
Lane
Spatial Perception: Developing and considerably more controlled than the others’ advanced abilities.
Combat: Slightly above beginner level, particularly in precision and reaction.
New Development: His ability to recognise and respond to disturbances in spatial resonance is beginning to emerge.
Payback: Not yet triggered at this level, but prolonged spatial manipulation will eventually place significant strain on his nervous system and perception.
Ron
Energy/Heat Manipulation: Early-stage control with considerable raw output.
Combat: Physically capable but still inefficient with energy expenditure.
New Development: Improved awareness of energy movement through the resonance network.
Payback: Excessive output risks internal heat accumulation and damage to his energy channels.
The Group
They remain above ordinary beginners but far below experienced cultivators.
Their greatest current advantage is not raw power but their ability to complement one another.
Their exposure to the relay has introduced them to inter-Loka resonance, controlled astral travel, planetary codes and the true scale of the Orion threat.
Most importantly, they have begun to understand that their abilities will not grow without consequences.
The Academy had taught them how to fight.
The relay had just shown them how small their battlefield really was.