As expected, the entity stopped looking for Raki and shifted its focus to Dev.
Dev was back to doing what he did best, running around the graveyard like his life depended on it, here and there, nonstop, while Kuro kept attacking the entity from behind.
Then suddenly—
stab.
The entity jerked forward.
Oh boy.
A knife was buried deep in its back.
And yeah, it was none other than our captain boy, Dhruv. He was back.
He stabbed the entity again. And again. Multiple times. Fast. Precise. Ruthless.
Then he jumped back and started running toward Dev as the entity followed him, completely pissed.
"Guys," Dhruv shouted, "I can explain where the hell I was later. First, hold the line."
No time to argue. Everyone instantly synced up.
Dhruv glanced at his knife.
39% charged.
Dev started annoying the entity again, doing hit-and-run attacks just to distract it. He chained the entity once more, and this time Kuro ripped its upper half into another dimension.
That dimension was where Raki was.
She didn't waste a second.
Raki started attacking the upper half like crazy, while Dhruv took the opening and went all in on the lower half, stabbing again and again, charging his knife more and more.
The entity was fucked.
Attacked from above and below.
Two dimensions. No escape.
It couldn't decide whether to target Dev or Raki.
After a few more brutal stabs—
100%.
The knife was fully charged.
Dhruv didn't hesitate.
With a final slash, he cut the entity clean.
The demonic body shattered, turning into soil, leaving behind a single crystal.
It was over.
Everyone collapsed on the ground, exhausted.
After some time, Alya got up and started walking toward the gate.
Raki tried to stop her, but Dev stepped in.
"Don't," he said. "Now's not a good time. You've got a long apology to make. And Dhruv… I don't know, man. You better have a damn good reason. She doesn't look like she's fucking around this time."
After that, Dev and Ricky left too.
Only Raki and Dhruv remained in the graveyard.
Raki looked at him and finally spoke.
"So… what's your excuse this time? 'I was out of monster energy, so I went to grab one'?"
Dhruv just nodded.
She smirked. "Bro, you're more cooked than me. Best of luck."
She walked away.
"I think I fucked up big this time," Dhruv muttered. "Ohhh man…"
He pulled out his phone and checked the time.
5:00 AM.
With a sigh, he decided to visit Kali. There were things he needed to discuss.
He texted him.
Dhruv:Are you at home? I wanna talk.
Kali:Yup. Free today. You can come now if you want.
Dhruv:Okay. I'd love to. Don't think I have any other place to go right now.
Kali:Ohhh. Don't tell me Alya's angry again. WTF did you do this time?
Dhruv:Ahh… I'll tell you later. I'm coming anyway.
Dhruv put his phone away and headed to Kali's place.
He rang the doorbell.
The door opened.
Kali was completely naked.
"WTF man?" Dhruv shouted. "Why are you naked? Just wear some pants!"
"Why are you being so shy?" Kali said casually. "I was doing a ritual. You have to be completely naked for it."
"WTF? I've never heard anything like that. What's the ritual called, 'dihh sutra'?"
"Ha ha, very funny," Kali replied. "Come inside. The ritual's already done."
Dhruv walked in and immediately collapsed onto the bed.
"Oh boy," Kali said. "You look way too exhausted."
Dhruv mumbled something and passed out.
He woke up at 1:00 PM.
After getting up, he knocked on Kali's personal room. Once he got permission, he entered. Kali was reading books.
"Oh, you're finally up," Kali said. "Let's go eat something. You look starving."
"Before that, I need to discuss something with you, master," Dhruv said.
"Bro, I'm hungry," Kali replied. "We'll talk while eating."
He grabbed Dhruv and dragged him outside.
They drove to a local restaurant, picked a corner table, and ordered food.
"So," Kali said, "what do you want to discuss?"
"You already know," Dhruv began. "Next month we're going to Bali for our next task. It's the most important one for all temples and churches. I know Rangda isn't a normal entity, but the amount of effort the church is putting into this feels… too much. They've wanted this for almost eight years, and now suddenly they're acting impatient."
Kali sighed. "Dhruv, why are you a certified dumbass? Rangda is the queen of demons. She's way too powerful for us. I warned you a hundred times not to accept this task, but it's too late now. Still, if everything goes according to the superiors, you won't have to worry much. You'll burn the body that acts as her container."
"Body?" Dhruv frowned. "I thought she was an entity trapped in infinity."
"You're partially correct," Kali said. "When the demi-god Barong defeated her, killing her fully wasn't possible. So they trapped her instead. But during the sealing, she split herself into two: body and soul. The soul possessed a medium present there, while the body was sealed in infinity. Barong later defeated the possessed medium too, but the soul survived."
Dhruv listened carefully.
"Without her original body," Kali continued, "the soul went into a deep sleep, almost like a coma. The only option left was to bury the body with heavy seals. Now, when you burn that body, the soul will be released. You'll capture it in an energy cube, and that's it. The most powerful energy generator ever."
"But when we burn the body," Dhruv asked, "won't the soul wake up from the coma?"
"It's possible," Kali admitted. "That's probably why they assigned this task to you. Without her body, the soul shouldn't be at full strength. Still, there are no real references about how strong Rangda's soul alone actually is."
"So if everything goes smoothly, it's a normal task," Dhruv said. "Then why didn't they do this earlier?"
"I don't know," Kali replied. "All I know is the chief superior of Bali never allowed it. But he died last month. The new chief approved it immediately."
Dhruv leaned back.
"I've got a bad feeling about this. But there's nothing I can do. Orders are orders. And they're paying us well, so I can't complain too much."