August 15, 1930. The air in Delhi crackled with an electricity that transcended the humid monsoon heat. A sea of people, millions strong, gathered at the historic Red Fort, their faces a mixture of exhilaration, disbelief, and profound hope. Above them, the Union Jack, symbol of two centuries of colonial rule, fluttered under a grey sky.
As the clock struck midnight, the bugle sounded. Slowly, majestically, the Union Jack was lowered for the very last time, folding into the arms of British officers with a quiet solemnity. For a breathless moment, the flagpole stood bare. Then, to a deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the ancient fort, the tricolor flag of independent India, a banner of saffron, white, and green with the Ashoka Chakra at its center, began its ascent. As it unfurled against the dawn sky, the crowd erupted in shouts of "Jai Hind!" and "Bharat Mata Ki Jai!" – Victory to India! Hail Mother India!
Subhas Chandra Bose, India's first Prime Minister, stood on the ramparts of the Red Fort. His voice, amplified by loudspeakers (a technology secretly perfected by Bharat Broadcasting Corporation), resonated across the vast crowd. He spoke not just of freedom, but of an era of unprecedented prosperity and power. He invoked India's ancient glory and its future as a technological and industrial giant, a nation that would lead Asia. His speech, a masterpiece of rhetoric honed under Adav's subtle guidance, promised a new era of discipline, innovation, and global influence.
Adav, now a lean, watchful thirty-one-year-old, stood amongst the anonymous millions in the crowd, his face impassive, a seemingly unremarkable figure lost in the sea of jubilant faces. No cameras focused on him, no cheers were directed his way. Yet, he felt the profound tremor of history beneath his feet. The nation he had meticulously built, from the ground up, with steel, and strategy, and silence, was finally free.
In his mind's eye, the Codex flickered, displaying the culmination of his first grand phase:
[PHASE ONE COMPLETE. NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE: ACHIEVED. NEXT OBJECTIVE: GLOBAL HEGEMONY. PROBABILITY: INCREASING].
The world was indeed on the cusp of another great war, a conflict that Adav had known was coming for decades. And his India, the Bharat he had forged in the shadows, was ready. The game had just begun.