The next morning was the kind that tried too hard to pretend everything was normal.
Rudra walked through the school gate like he always did. Same uniform. Same shoes. Same shuffled silence.
The sun hung overhead like an indifferent god. Boys wrestled with backpacks. Girls laughed in tight-knit circles. Somewhere, a teacher scolded someone for forgetting their ID card.
But Rudra's eyes didn't track any of it.
He moved through the crowd with practiced invisibility, but his body was no longer what it had been. The Zix Core pulsed softly under his ribs like a second heart, and the world around him—though unchanged—now felt smaller.
More distant.
Less real.
As if the veil between this life and his true one was growing thinner by the hour.
---
In the back row of class, Rudra stared out the window while the teacher explained something about electromagnetic induction. Outside, clouds swirled unnaturally fast above the school building.
Rudra narrowed his eyes.
He could feel it.
Another ripple across the veil.
A brush of heat, thick with blood and fire.
> [Zix Core Interface: Active]
[Realm: Demon World – Sync 0.8%]
[Avatar: Kaalkrit – Stable]
[Mental Channel Available – Connect?]
He hesitated.
Connecting would mean diving into Kaalkrit's world. Into the madness of the demon plane. The further he synced, the more permanent it would become.
But the pull was getting stronger.
He didn't want to be just a watcher anymore.
He wanted to know.
He let the connection open—just a sliver.
And suddenly—
---
—he was Kaalkrit.
Towering. Barefoot. Standing atop a cliff that overlooked a field of fire and stone.
Below him, thousands of demons knelt in unison.
Their skin was red, blue, black, gray. Their eyes burned like torches. They clutched crude weapons and wore armor crafted from bone, lava, or stitched flesh. Some had wings. Some had tails. Some had horns that pulsed like volcanic veins.
All of them bowed to him.
All of them trembled at his silence.
Behind Kaalkrit stood the Succubus Queen—naked, eternal, unashamed. Ratri. She leaned close to his back, pressing her warm body against the cold authority of his muscles.
Her voice was a breath, soaked in lust and amusement.
"Will you tell them?" she whispered, lips grazing the curve of his horn. "That you're no longer theirs? That your soul is bonded now—to someone far away?"
Kaalkrit didn't respond.
He didn't need to.
His golden eyes looked up—not at the sky, but through it.
Into the threads that stitched him to his sovereign.
Rudra.
His voice rolled out like thunder.
"I am the will of my master."
A collective shudder passed through the demon ranks.
Ratri's smile widened. Her fingers traced across Kaalkrit's chest, slowly dragging across the glowing runes carved there.
"You were mine once," she murmured. "I used to make you tremble. Now you don't even look at me."
"You were never mine," Kaalkrit said. "And I was never yours."
He turned slowly.
She didn't flinch. Instead, she tilted her chin up proudly.
"What does he have that I don't?" she asked.
Kaalkrit leaned forward.
And for the first time in millennia… he smiled.
"Ownership."
---
Back on Earth, Rudra's eyes fluttered open. The classroom was the same. The teacher droned on. But the sync had increased.
> [Kaalkrit Sync: 1.6%]
[Avatar Authority: Partial Command Unlocked]
[Summoning Access: Projection Type – Locked]
He took a deep breath.
And for a moment, the smell of sulfur and blood clung to his nostrils.
A girl sitting two seats away looked at him and frowned. "Did something just… burn?"
He didn't reply.
His fingers twitched under the desk.
He could feel Kaalkrit inside his mind now—not fully summoned, not yet—but waiting. Ready to obey. Ready to destroy.
And beneath all of that, Ratri stirred too.
Her connection wasn't fully formed.
But he could feel her now.
Not just as Kaalkrit's temptation.
But as something far more personal.
> [Avatar #4: Ratri – Inherited Loyalty Detected]
[Transfer Bond: Locked to Rudra Only]
[Fertility Synchronization: Dormant]
His chest tightened.
He hadn't chosen her.
But she had already chosen him.
---
That night, Rudra sat on the roof of his house, knees pulled to his chest, staring at the stars.
He thought of Kaalkrit's throne.
Of thousands bowing.
Of a naked goddess whispering promises she could never fulfill.
Of realms that now pulsed under his skin.
He didn't smile.
He didn't speak.
But in that silence, power bloomed.
Quiet. Absolute. Inevitable.