The wind was thick with the scent of iron, smoke, and burning ki. Battle screams echoed across the fractured ridges of the mountain range, where warriors clashed like tidal waves colliding against stone.

  Swords flashed like falling stars, blood misted through the air like red snow. Amid this chaos, Eklavya stood in the air, surrounded by enemies, his breathing was steady, his gaze icy and razor-like focused.

  He was just cutting down Master warriors of the Light River Sect like they were nothing in front of him, his blade still humming with residual ki, when the air behind him warped. A sharp whistle sliced through the battlefield — the unmistakable sound of a ki-compressed projectile.

  Without looking, Eklavya whipped backward, body arching through the sky like a flexed bow. A blinding arrow shot past where his heart had been a second ago, tearing through the air and exploding in the distance like a miniature sun.

  He turned and narrowed his eyes.

  Floating before him was Pranav — the Young Master of the Light River Sect, cloaked in flowing azure robes, hair unbound and dancing in the wind. He hovered effortlessly in mid-air, as though the sky itself bent to hold him up. His expression was calm, but arrogance simmered beneath it like a buried flame.

  Pranav's voice carried clearly through the storm-ridden air. “I never expected a mere practitioner warrior to fly.” No mockery — just a cold surprise. As if Eklavya’s existence was something outside the laws of cultivation itself.

  Eklavya only smirked, letting faint amusement touch his eyes. “Oh?”

  His gaze swept across the battlefield — lightning, steel. His brother Ashish was fighting two young masters from the Marwah and Taraj clans, each exchange powerful enough to shake the air around them.

  Eklavya felt a surge of responsibility, the weight of a clan resting between each heartbeat. He turned back toward Pranav. “Looks like I have to—”

  A voice resonated inside his mind before he could finish. Deep and calm. ‘No.’ Magha’s tone carried the weight of a mountain—it was unshakeable. ‘Fight him without using your Soul Power.’

  Eklavya’s brow creased. ‘He is a six-star Master Warrior and strong enough to defeat even an eight-star. You expect me to fight that bare?’

  Magha’s quiet chuckle was almost cruel. ‘Your Supreme Body is not just a title. You might not win but you will be able to endure it.’

  Eklavya grit his teeth. ‘So you want me to take blows like children take candy?’

  A sigh drifted through his consciousness — patient yet firm. ‘If you want to break through into the Chakra-Rune Merging Realm soon, you need battle, pain, pressure. Breakthrough doesn’t come by hiding behind power. You must taste defeat, bleed under real strength, and still rise. Only through experience can understanding be born. And understanding is what forges realms.’

  Eklavya exhaled sharply, frustration flaring. He already knew this — He had studied it before. His voice escaped before his mind caught it.

  “Yes, yes — I know!” His tone snapped aloud, echoing through the battlefield. “To break through: first gather enough ki, second comprehend the next realm’s essence, and third — strengthen the soul and body until they can endure it.”

  The words tore through the battlefield like a misplaced lecture, and for a moment even Pranav looked confused, eyes blinking. “What are you mumbling on a battlefield for?”

  His sword raised, ki surged like a rising tsunami. “Prepare to die.” Before Eklavya could respond, Pranav vanished.

  He didn’t step, he simply arrived.

  A flash of silver. A trail of blue ki. A blade already swinging toward Eklavya’s neck with lethal precision. Eklavya twisted, pulling his sword from his storage ring in the same breath. Steel met steel mid-air, the impact booming like thunder shattering stone. Sparks scattered like fireflies chased by the wind.

  Pranav was faster and stronger.

  He pressed forward with fluid grace, every strike like a river crashing downward from a mountain peak. His sword art was refined, majestic, and merciless — the kind only a clan heir raised on divinity-level resources could wield.

  Eklavya blocked, parried, deflected — but each collision sent tremors through his arm. Even with Ki reinforcing his muscles, Pranav’s superior cultivation crushed him like an ocean pressing against a lone swimmer.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  His hand shook. first exchange, then again second and like that total of ten exchanges as they fly like a streak of light between mountains.

  Finally, a heavy blow landed by Pranav — Pranav’s blade slammed into Eklavya’s guard and sent him spiraling backward like a meteor. Air distorted around him, lightning flickered as he skidded through clouds, leaving behind rippling shockwaves.

  Pranav did not give him time to breathe. With both his hands — fast, deliberate. Dozens of hand seals flowed like water.

  A formation circle manifested in the sky, glowing with bright runic symbols, rotating like a celestial halo. From the formation’s center, a colossal beam of concentrated ki descended as Pranav said, “Blazing Light Technique.”

  Eklavya lifted his arm and activated the Ten Chakra Shield — five layers of translucent golden barriers spiraled around him like rotating celestial discs. The beam collided, the world turned white and sound imploded.

  The shield broke but the force launched him like a cannonball into the mountain.

  He crashed into a mountainside, stone exploding outward, sending boulders rolling into the abyss, dust rained. Trees snapped like twigs. The ground fissured like a cracked bone.

  Above them, the clouds tore open.

  From the violent clash between Ishant and Laksh. Darkness billowed across the sky, swallowing sunlight and clouds spiraled, blackening like ink spilled across parchment. Then after sometime two colossal of figures formed — Primordial Spirits shaped like ancient deities towering hundreds of feet tall. One was Ishant — Eklavya’s father, wrapped in stormlight like a war god born from thunder. The other was Laksh — Pranav’s father, cloaked in searing radiance of green.

  Two beams erupted from the cross-legged sitting spirit — one was green, the other like blazing dawn. They met at the center of the battlefield.

  Mountains quivered, stone ruptured, and entire hills far away which were in between the wide open valley collapsed in roaring landslides. Shockwaves blasted outward, hurling Master Warriors back like leaves in a storm. Practitioner Warriors lost balance entirely — tumbling like dolls down the steep cliffs toward the deep valley below.

  Eklavya’s chest tightened. If they fell — his clan, his people — they would die.

  He reached, desperate, powerless to save so many at once. But something unseen intervened. As Rudra clan members plummeted, like invisible hands lifted them, stopping their descent inches above death. They floated, suspended like feathers caught in gentle wind.

  Eklavya exhaled, relief flooding through him.

  The Primordial illusions faded, the sky stitched itself closed with new clouds rolling in. Darkness returned — but the battlefield below had not calmed. Instead, silence preceded a distant quake — a shockwave so vast it rattled bones, threatened balance, even for Master Warriors in mid-air. Eklavya recognized that aura instantly. His lips curved upward faintly as he dispelled his shield.

  ‘Anshvi’

  A streak of light shot across the battlefield like a comet — elegant, terrifying like divine. In a blink, she appeared beside Pranav, her presence suffocating like the pressure of deep ocean trenches.

  Pranav smiled and opened his mouth to greet her — but the scene turned unexpectedly comedic and brutal.

  SLAP!

  Her palm struck Pranav’s face with such force that air ruptured. He didn't fall — he flew. Like a rock shot from a catapult, his body crashed into the mountain opposite to the Eklavya, carving through stone like soft bread, disappearing somewhere deep within a crater of rubble.

  Eklavya blinked seeing the scene. Magha's voice hummed, almost amused. ‘You have a reliable woman, boy.’

  Eklavya let a small, helpless smile form. ‘We are just friends.’ His voice was soft — but no one believed that, not even the wind.

  Eklavya rose from the crater slowly, dust rolling off his shoulders like shedding old skin. Blood streaked down his jaw, his robes torn and soaked crimson. Across from him, Pranav emerged as well, breathing ragged, his once-elegant garments ripped apart, cuts drawing dark lines across his flesh. They stood facing one another again — two broken blades refusing to fall.

  A breeze swept through the battlefield, thick with iron and death, and then Anshvi flickered beside Eklavya like a phantom stepping out of moonlight.

  “Sorry,” she whispered, her voice soft yet steady, “I was late.”

  Eklavya smirked faintly, even as his abdomen burned with pain. “It was never your responsibility to begin with. Besides—” he met her eyes briefly, “you should return. This place isn’t safe for you.”

  She didn’t look away. Instead, she stepped a little closer, gaze fierce and unwavering. “I can’t leave someone I love, not when he’s standing one breath away from death.”

  Eklavya exhaled, part frustration, part surrender. “Huh… say whatever you want. I already told you—”

  “I know,” she interrupted gently. “And you don’t need to repeat it. Worry not. I broke through… I’m now a First-Star Spirit Warrior.”

  For a moment, Eklavya simply stared. “A day ago, you were only a five-star Grandmaster.”

  Anshvi gave a small smile, stepping forward, lowering her voice. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain when we walk away alive.”

  Before Eklavya could respond, Pranav’s confused voice cut between them. “Do you… remember me?”

  Anshvi blinked once. Her expression was now flat. “Who are you, and why should I?”

  “I sent you a proposal letter,” Pranav replied weakly, almost hopeful.

  She smiled — not sweet, but sharp. “I receive many such letters. I reject them all. Why would I remember an ant?”

  She vanished and appeared before him in the same instant.

  SLAP!

  Pranav’s body flew like a discarded spear, crashing again into the mountain with even harder force.

  I am phoenixfly_steller,

  The story will then fully resume on Monday of the second week of January, when regular updates return.

  Volume 1 contains TWO FULL ARCS, and what comes next will raise the stakes, the danger, and the hype ????

  Since today is Christmas, I’m releasing TWO CHAPTERS TODAY as a Christmas gift. No wrapping paper—just plot, power, and chaos ????

  The FIRST CHAPTER OF THE SECOND ARC will be released on JANUARY 1ST ??

  The SECOND CHAPTER OF THE NEW ARC will be released in the second week of January, along with the return to regular updates

  May your holidays be peaceful, your snacks endless, and your reading time uninterrupted.

  I’ve rewritten the entire first arc and updated more than half of its chapters, but the comment section is quieter than an ancient tomb. Sometimes I honestly wonder, “Is it good… or am I just talking to myself?” ??