The forest of Pratham Brisk swayed under unnatural wind. The sacred tree pulsed with an eerie crimson light, and around it danced ten shadowed figures — all identical, all wearing Sarvansh's face.
"Can you tell which one is me, Jalpanchi?" Sarvansh's voice echoed from every direction, surrounding Gauri like a cruel symphony. "You can't save Vihaan when you can't even trust your eyes."
Gauri's chest rose and fell rapidly, her vision blurring between reality and deception. Each shadow spoke in Vihaan's tone, whispered his name, mimicked his pain. She pressed her palms to her ears, crying out,
"Stop! Please… stop!"
Her knees hit the earth. The memories came unbidden — Vihaan's laughter, his voice calling her Gauri, his silent struggles against the curse that bled through his veins.
Her tears shimmered like droplets of light on her skin. "Vihaan…" she whispered, trembling. "If you can hear me… just hold on."
Then, like the flicker of divine insight, realization dawned — her heartbeat stilled, her breath steadied. Even Ram could not slay Ravan until he found the real one among ten faces.
And she, too, would find her truth among Sarvansh's ten shadows.
Scene – The Well of the Black Flower
Far from the forest, Kesar stood beside an ancient well, the cursed flower trembling between her fingers.
"Once I offer this," she murmured, "Sarvansh and I will be bound forever."
"Stop!" shouted a voice — Yug, racing toward her, out of breath. He grabbed her wrist just before the flower touched the water.
Kesar recoiled. "What are you doing?! It's part of our ritual!"
"It's not a ritual — it's a trap!" Yug gasped. "That flower will kill someone… someone you don't even know!"
Kesar blinked, confusion clouding her eyes. "Kill? What do you mean?"
Yug's voice trembled. "It's draining my brother's life force! Please, don't throw it!"
"Your brother?" she asked sharply. "Who is your brother?"
Yug hesitated. "Vihaan Kothari."
The name meant nothing to her. "I don't know any Vihaan. I only know Sarvansh."
Her voice softened, torn between doubt and devotion. "He saved me… when the world turned against me. He wouldn't lie to me."
But something in Yug's desperate eyes wavered her certainty — just for a heartbeat.
Back at the sacred tree, Gauri rose, her expression resolute. The mark on her arm — a luminous swirl of turquoise — blazed like fire meeting the ocean. Water flowed from her palms, spiraling into her tidal chakram.
Sarvansh laughed as his ten shadows closed in, their movements perfectly synchronized. "Even if you strike me down, I'll return. You can't touch the untouchable!"
Gauri raised her tidal chakram, its water spinning faster, sharper, deadlier.
"You're right," she said quietly. "This time I won't aim at you."
Sarvansh froze. "What?"
Her voice rang like thunder. "Because your body isn't your strength—this cursed tree is!"
She hurled the Tidal Chakram with all her might. The weapon tore through the air, slicing through illusion and shadow, striking the Pratham Brisk Tree dead center. The bark exploded into shards of water and ash.
Sarvansh screamed, clutching his chest as dark blood poured from his mouth. His power broke, the shadows vanished, and the air filled with the smell of burning wood and rain.
Both Gauri and Sarvansh collapsed to the ground — weak, battered, their eyes locking in that suspended heartbeat between war and longing.
"You should have killed me," he rasped, his tone strangely human now.
"I tried," she whispered back, a tear falling on his fading form. "But maybe… not all of you deserved death."
He looked at her one last time — something almost like regret flickering in his gaze — before his body dissolved into smoke.
In the Kothari Mansion, Adrija's screams shattered every windowpane. Her braid lashed like a serpent, and her reversed feet clung to the ceiling as her face twisted with fury.
"Give me Vihaan!" she shrieked. "Or I'll end you all!"
Sharda hurled Gangajal toward her, and the holy water hissed, burning Adrija's skin — but the wounds sealed almost instantly.
Gayatri trembled, her voice cracking, "Adrija, please! You're my daughter!"
Adrija's laughter echoed through the hall, cold and hollow. "I was your daughter, Maa! But now I belong to Pralay Daayan Manmohini — my true mother!"
Vihaan stumbled forward, weak yet unyielding. "If you want to kill someone, kill me — but don't touch them!"
With a banshee's shriek, Adrija lunged. Thinking fast, Vihaan grabbed a magnifying glass from the nearby table and angled it toward the sunlight streaming through the broken window. The focused beam hit Adrija's face — she screamed, her form igniting in a flare of smoke and shadow before vanishing into thin air.
Her voice lingered in the air like poison:
"Enjoy your victory, Kotharis… for Manmohini's curse has only begun…"
At the ancient well, Gauri stumbled toward Yug, who knelt beside an unconscious Kesar.
"You did it, bhabhi," Yug said softly. "Vihaan bhaiya's free… he's breathing again."
Gauri knelt beside the girl. Kesar's palm still clutched the wilted black flower, faint traces of red energy pulsing through its stem feeling an unspoken bond with her.
"She's tied to this," Gauri murmured, brushing Kesar's forehead. "Whatever Sarvansh began… it's now flowing through her."
Yug nodded grimly. "Then we'll protect her — before that darkness wakes again."
Evening light slanted through the mansion's broken windows as Gauri returned, her steps slow but steady.
Vihaan stood at the center of the hall — pale, bandaged, but alive. Their eyes met, heavy with all they couldn't say.
Without a word, Gauri rushed into his arms. The storm that had haunted the mansion seemed to quiet, as though even the shadows bowed to her strength.
Veena whispered, her voice trembling, "She brought our Vihaan back from death itself."
Sharda smiled faintly, eyes glistening. "Because she isn't just his wife — she's his shield. The Jalpanchi."
Outside, the last rays of sunlight faded over the horizon.
But in the far-off woods, where the black flower still grew, a faint heartbeat of red pulsed — a reminder that Manmohini's curse wasn't over.