As soon as Shiv touched the strange red stone, his vision blurred. Suddenly, flickering images appeared before his eyes — a giant demon, nearly fifty feet tall, tearing through everything in its path. In the distance, a warrior wielding a massive sword battled the monster amid fire and smoke.
The scene grew hazy, fading like a dream. A sharp pain shot through Shiv's body, and everything went black as he collapsed onto the ground.
Moments later, Ranjit and Riya came running through the old temple ruins, searching frantically.
"There he is!" Riya cried.
But before they could reach him, the stone in Shiv's hand began to glow — melting into a stream of liquid gold that rose into the sky and vanished.
Startled, they rushed to him.
"Shiv! Hey, wake up! What happened?!" Ranjit shouted, shaking him.
Then, before their eyes, a faint flame-shaped mark on Shiv's wrist began to shimmer. His body grew unnaturally hot, like burning metal.
"Ah!" Ranjit yelped, pulling his hands back."What happened? Why did you drop him?" Riya asked.
"Just look at him," Ranjit said, pointing.
Riya knelt beside Shiv and touched his arm. A sudden wave of heat seared her palm."It's like touching fire!" she gasped, jerking her hand back. "Why is he so hot?"
"Forget that, get the water bottle from the car," Ranjit ordered.
Riya ran to the jeep, grabbed the bottle, and returned. Ranjit quickly poured water over Shiv's face.
As the water trickled down, Shiv's eyelids fluttered open. He tried to sit up but couldn't move. Ranjit reached out to help.
"Come on, man, get up!" Ranjit urged.The glowing mark on Shiv's wrist dimmed, and slowly, his body temperature returned to normal.
With Ranjit's support, he finally sat upright, dazed."What… happened to me?" Shiv murmured.
Riya folded her arms. "That's what we want to know. What were you even doing there?"
"I just came to take some pictures," Shiv said, scanning the ground.
"What are you looking for?" Ranjit asked.
"The stone," Shiv replied. "It was a red one, right next to Lord Shiva's statue."
He searched around, but the stone had completely disappeared."Forget it," Ranjit said. "Maybe it rolled away. Let's just go."
"No," Shiv said firmly. "It's here somewhere. I can feel it."
But after a few more minutes, realizing it was gone, he sighed. "Fine. Let's go."
As they walked back, Riya whispered to Ranjit, "His body temperature—it was abnormally high, right?"
"Yeah," Ranjit replied. "But now it's completely normal. That's the weird part."
"How can that just change in seconds?" she asked.
"I don't know," Ranjit said. "Let him rest. We'll figure it out later."
They got back to the car and drove toward their hotel in silence. Shiv sat in the back seat with his eyes closed, lost in thought.
Later, at the hotel, they checked in — Ranjit and Shiv shared a room, while Riya stayed next door. After a short rest, Riya called.
"Did Shiv wake up?" she asked.
"Yeah," Ranjit said. "He just went out for a bit… oh wait, he's coming back now."
As Shiv walked in, he asked, "Who was that?""Riya," Ranjit said. "We need to talk."
Riya joined them soon, and all three sat down.
"Alright, Shiv," she began. "Tell us everything. Why did you go there? What really happened?"
Shiv recounted the entire incident — the red stone, the strange vision, and how he fainted.
When he finished, Ranjit leaned forward. "Do you have any idea how hot your body got when you were unconscious?"
"Was I running a fever?" Shiv asked.
"This wasn't fever," Ranjit said seriously. "You looked like… a man made of fire."
Just then, Ranjit's phone buzzed. He picked it up, listened for a few seconds, and his face turned pale.
"What?! Who the hell are you—?" he shouted into the phone. Then he cut the call and turned to Shiv.
"They tried hacking into our data servers. Nearly two percent of the files got leaked before our team stopped it!"
Shiv clenched his fists, rage burning in his eyes. He slammed the plastic chair beside him so hard that its legs instantly turned charred black.
Ranjit and Riya froze.
"Shiv! Calm down!" Ranjit said, stepping back."Shiv, look at the chair," Riya whispered.
Shiv glanced down — the chair was smoking, half-melted at the spot where he'd struck it."What the hell… happened to this?" he muttered.
"I told you," Ranjit said quietly. "Your body heat—when you're angry—it's like fire."
Shiv touched the chair again. It was cool now, completely normal.He looked up, confused.
Ranjit continued, "When you're angry, you change — it's like your whole body ignites. When you calm down, everything goes back to normal."
Riya laughed nervously. "So basically, our hero turns into a firestorm when he's mad. Move over, movie heroes — Shiv's the real deal."
Shiv rolled his eyes while Ranjit shook his head.
But then Riya asked, "By the way, what happened with the company meeting?"
"Oh, right," Ranjit said, brightening a bit. "We won the government tender we applied for."
"That's great news!" Riya said. "Then why do you both look worried?"
"Because," Ranjit said grimly, "our main competitor — RK Solutions — came second. And they didn't take it well. They threatened us before leaving."
"RK Solutions?" Riya repeated. "Who are they? And why target us?"