Light consumed him.
Not warm.Not gentle.
Cold. Absolute. Unforgiving.
Karna felt reality tear.
The battlefield—the oceans choked with corpses, the broken heavens, Indra's shattered body—were ripped away as if they had never existed. Space folded inward. Time screamed. His soul was dragged through layers of existence, each more alien than the last.
Stars stretched into lines.Worlds passed like dying sparks.Dimensions peeled apart like fragile paper.
Yet his rage did not fade.
It followed him.
It burned with him.
"You can send me away," Karna's voice echoed through the void, not spoken, but imposed."But you cannot erase what I am."
The supreme beings watched silently as his form dissolved into pure soul. Their expressions—sorrow, regret, fear.
"He will not forget," one whispered.
"No," another replied. "He will endure."
And then—
Everything collapsed into darkness.
Karna fell.
Not physically—existentially.
He felt small again.
Weaker.
Bound.
A fragile body formed around his soul, unfamiliar, limited, painfully mortal. His memories remained, but his power—sealed, compressed, locked behind laws far stricter than before.
Air rushed into his lungs.
Pain.
Noise.
Screams.
He opened his eyes.
A city.
Modern. Steel and glass. Sirens wailing. The ground shook violently beneath him. Buildings cracked. The sky burned orange as something colossal rose from the ocean.
A monster.
Gigantic. Armored in abyssal scales. Dozens of eyes glowing with malice. Its roar shattered windows miles away.
S-RANK MONSTER EMERGENCE DETECTED.
Red alerts blared across the city.
Karna was no longer a god.
He was a boy.
Small hands. Weak legs. A fragile chest rising and falling far too fast.
"Move! MOVE!"
People ran past him in terror. Panic swallowed order. Heroes streaked through the sky toward the coast, magic and weapons blazing.
Karna felt it—
The monster's intent.
Destruction.
And then—
A hand slipped from his grasp.
"No—!"
A familiar voice shouted his name.
But the crowd surged.
He tripped.
The world tilted.
Feet crushed down.
Bodies slammed into him.
Pain exploded—and then vanished.
The boy's heart stopped.
Silence.
Something awakened.
Not rage.
Not grief.
Recognition.
Karna's soul surged into the empty vessel like a storm reclaiming the sea. Bones realigned. Flesh restored. Breath returned with violent force.
The monster roared again—
And died.
Karna raised one hand.
Just a casual slice through the air.
The ocean split.The monster was cleaved cleanly in two, its corpse crashing lifelessly into the waves.
Every screen updated instantly.
EMERGENCY ALERT — SSS-RANK ENTITY DETECTEDTARGET: UNKNOWNLOCATION: CITY CENTER
Heroes froze mid-flight.
Guilds stopped breathing.
No one had ever seen that rank.
All sensors pointed not to the ocean—
But to him.
Karna stood among rubble, eyes burning—not with madness, but with memory.
Indra's face burned in his mind.
Then—
Weapons turned toward him.
Swords. Guns. Staves. Trembling hands.
Fear thickened the air.
Karna glanced at them.
And they broke.
Weapons fell. Knees hit the ground. Some screamed. Some cried. Some could not even look at him.
Then arms wrapped around him.
"T-thank god… thank god you're safe…"
His aunt.
Tears soaked into his clothes as she hugged him tightly, trembling.
In that instant—
The fire inside Karna dimmed.
Not extinguished.
Contained.
He felt it again.
That same warmth.
The same love.
The same reason the universe once answered his birth.
He hugged her back.
Just once.
The alert systems flickered.
THREAT LEVEL: UNSTABLE — CALMING
High above, unseen, the supreme beings watched through fractured dimensions.
"This world will not survive him forever," one said.
"No," another replied softly."But for now… he is still human enough."
Karna lifted his eyes to the sky.
Different world.
Same fate.
And somewhere far beyond—
The heavens remembered his name.